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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: DirecTV vs Dish Network
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-21-2008 09:25 AM
quote: Jason Burroughs
In the past couple of weeks Dish has added:
CNN HD
USA HD
SciFi HD
Actually, those channels became available on Dish just a few days ago. CNN HD lit up last Wednesday. Then USA HD and SciFi HD lit up on Friday, just in time for those angry Dish Network customers who are fans of Battlestar Galactica.
What's really strange is that USA HD and SciFi HD were "uplinked" to Dish's satellites since this past December. The best speculation is that "contract talks" are what held up those channels becoming available.
Dish Network CEO Charles Ergan (the "Charlie Chat" guy) allegedly holds out for lengthy amounts of time to try to get the lowest possible contract price from any given network. With Dish Network falling so far behind DirecTV in terms of national HD channels offered, and with certain programs like the HD version of Battlestar Galactica becoming a key point of focus with customers, that strategy may have bit Charles in the butt. Dish network has been losing lots of customers to DirecTV lately.
I probably would have switched to DirecTV long ago as well, but DirecTV doesn't have local channels available in my market -not even in standard definition.
Dish Network has had the Wichita Falls/Lawton locals available in SD for a couple of years. Now they have the HD versions of those local channels "uplinked" to their satellite at 61.5° (uplinked April 2). I don't know when those channels will actually be available, but odds are they'll light up within the next few weeks. Dish is turning on local markets in HD faster than they are adding national HD channels.
DirecTV also has no HD-only package to compete directly against the DishHD package. I could get the DishHD package, my local channels (possibly in HD), the HBO package and all the DVR service fees included for less than $60 a month. To have all the same HD channels, HBO and the DVR -but still be doing without the local channels- I'd be out $90 or more per month with DirecTV.
The only bad thing about any HD-only channels package is certain key channels not available in HD yet would be lost -like Comedy Central. The upside is certain shows on that network can be seen via the Internet. South Park Studios has every episode available to watch anytime.
quote: Mark Strube
I can easily say that their receivers are overall of higher quality... both operationally and in build quality.
Dish Network's ViP series of HD capable receivers have earned much better reviews than the H20/H21 receivers from DirecTV. Many who participate at forums like the ones at The Satellite Guys website and dbstalk.com concede the receivers from Dish are better -even if the variety of programming you can currently get on them is not.
quote: Mark Strube
I can also say that both their standard definition and high definition channels have a bit better picture quality than Dish's.
That's a point that can be argued.
Some Dish Network customers are receiving HD via older MPEG-2 only receivers. The newest ViP series of receivers decode both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Many of the newest added channels, as well has many "spot-beamed" locals in HD, require a MPEG-4 receiver.
DirecTV has been guilty of sending out "HD Lite" -1080i HD passed off in 1280 X 1080 pixel form instead of 1920 X 1080. I don't know if they're still doing that, but they've gotten into trouble over it before.
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Mark Strube
Master Film Handler
Posts: 322
From: Milwaukee, WI, United States
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 04-21-2008 02:58 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
Dish Network's ViP series of HD capable receivers have earned much better reviews than the H20/H21 receivers from DirecTV. Many who participate at forums like the ones at The Satellite Guys website and dbstalk.com concede the receivers from Dish are better -even if the variety of programming you can currently get on them is not.
Well, this is my personal review since I've used both.
quote: Bobby Henderson
Some Dish Network customers are receiving HD via older MPEG-2 only receivers. The newest ViP series of receivers decode both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Many of the newest added channels, as well has many "spot-beamed" locals in HD, require a MPEG-4 receiver.
DirecTV has been guilty of sending out "HD Lite" -1080i HD passed off in 1280 X 1080 pixel form instead of 1920 X 1080. I don't know if they're still doing that, but they've gotten into trouble over it before.
I had the ViP722, and I watched Dish's version of MPEG4. Not horrible, but it is clear to me on my 1080p SXRD television that DirecTV does a better job at encoding these channels. The difference was actually a bit surprising to me, considering how much bickering goes on between the E* and D* camps... DirecTV's quality is notably better.
Also, DISH has had plenty of downrezzed channels themselves. All of their VOOM channels were at one point running at 1280x1080... I believe since they went MPEG4 they've brought them up to 1440x1080 but don't quote me on that. DISH used to be the place to go for untouched HD... that stopped about a year ago when they started hacking up HDNet (bringing it down to 1440x1080), and starving the bitrate of HBO and Showtime.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 05-17-2008 05:56 PM
I finally upgraded my satellite receiver this past Wednesday. Decided to stay with Dish Network for a number of reasons.
On Monday, Dish Network added another 22 national HD channels, which closed much of the gap DirecTV had over Dish Network. D* still has a few more national HD channels than E*. The HD versions of Fox's FX channel, Speed HD and possibly some others may be held up because of a lawsuit going on between Echostar and News Corp.
Coincidentally, Dish Network dropped all 15 Voom channels from their system. 10 were dropped early in the week. Then the remaining 5 were deleted on Wednesday. This is due to Rainbow Networks hardly providing any new content at all on their Voom channels. They've been replaying the same old shit endlessly -and that ended up violating their contract with Echostar. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't what freed up bandwidth for the 22 HD channels Dish activated.
The extra channels helped, but availability of local channels is what sealed the deal.
DirecTV has never carried the local channels from the Wichita Falls/Lawton market. Dish is the only service offering locals in this area via satellite. And now Dish has the locals in this market uplinked in HD and will soon make them available. DirecTV has no word at all on when they'll do anything for this market either in SD or HD.
I ordered a ViP 622 receiver, but wound up with a ViP 722 because the installers just didn't have any 622 models anymore. Overall, it's a pretty nice receiver. Despite Mark's comments, the general consensus among electronics reviewers (as well as customers) judges Dish's ViP series of DVR/receivers to be better than what DirecTV is currently offering.
I also managed to get the DVR/receiver connected to the Internet using a new "game adapter," a Linksys WGA600N dual band adapter (supports a, b, g and n standards). It works well -now that it's set up.
The WGA600N is one of the better game adapters you can buy (which is why I bought it), but I'll offer some advice on how to get it working right so anyone else buying it doesn't have the same headaches.
When setting up the WGA600N don't use the install wizard on the CD it doesn't work worth a damn. Use the web-based utility instead. I had to hard wire connect my notebook to my router and hard wire connect the WGA600N to the router in order to log into the device and get it set up properly. Get the latest firmware for the device from Linksys. Update the firmware first, then apply your Wi-Fi network settings. The interface isn't easy to figure out. Hit the "basic" button and the select the "wireless" button from that to apply Wi-Fi security settings, your Wi-Fi network name, etc. Once all that is done the WGA600N will work properly. You can use it to connect all sorts of Ethernet equipped devices, like game consoles or satellite receivers.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 08-01-2008 02:47 PM
Today Dish Network added a few more channels to its HDTV offerings and restructured its HDTV programming packages into various "TurboHD" categories. They also claim they will carry 150 HD channels by the end of the year (by virtue of some creative channel counting practiced by both satellite providers). A new E* satellite was successfully launched a couple weeks ago to add some of that extra capacity.
E* added 17 channels, most of them being premium channels.
ActionMax HD (DISH Network Ch. 313)
CBS College Sports HD (Ch. 152)
Lifetime HD (Ch. 108)
Lifetime Movie Network HD (Ch. 109)
Planet Green HD (Ch. 194)
Encore HD (Ch. 340)
HBO 2 HD (Ch. 301)
HBO Comedy HD (Ch. 307)
HBO Family HD (Ch. 305)
HBO Latino HD (Ch. 309)
HBO Signature HD (Ch. 302)
HBO West HD (Ch. 303)
HBO Zone HD (Ch. 308)
Starz Comedy HD (Ch. 354)
Starz Edge HD (Ch. 352)
Starz Kids & Family HD (Ch. 356)
Starz West HD (Ch. 351)
Dish Network now carries all 7 of HBO's channels in HD. E* previously only carried HBO East in HD. DirecTV currently offers two HBO HD channels, but will probably add the entire suite too in mid August when they do a significant programming upgrade.
E* added some temporary HD channels for Olympics coverage.
Dish Network is still missing some key national HD channels, such as FX HD, Fox News HD, Spike HD, Speed HD and more because of ongoing wrangling with companies like Viacom, News Corp. and Rainbow Group. Those issues will have to get resolved in order for E* to hit that 150 HD channels mark.
One of the things stirring up the most controversy is the announcement from E* that its MPEG-4 HD receivers can now play 1080p-based video on demand content.
E* is offering a $2.99 rental of I Am Legend in 1080p format "same as Blu-ray Disc quality". That comment from their press release is what fired up the flames. Compression ratios are surely very different from the video bit rate used on the Blu-ray version. There's no Dolby TrueHD audio either.
Dish Network has made it mandatory for customers with MPEG-2 based HD-capable receivers to exchange them for newer MPEG-4 based units. As of August, 1 E* is no longer sending any HD signals in MPEG-2.
All of those developments are pretty good (especially since I'm already paying for HBO). Still waiting on the Lawton-Wichita Falls HD locals to be made available. They've been uplinked on the 61.5° satellite since April 2.
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