Our local provider is no longer going to provide TV service, so we have to change.

Do you prefer Dish or Direct TV? We don't need HBO and such but DO watch the local channels, History channel, old Westerns, etc ….

I have Dish.

No HBO.

Local channels.

From previously having both Dish and Direct, I prefer Dish.

High speed internet and a device such as a FireStick.
Then you can pick, or not, additional services from,
YouTube
Sling
Hulu
Etc.

The list is ginormous. And much cheaper thar your satellite provider.

We have DirecTv, we love it.

They are the same.

Once one pisses you off bad enough just switch to the other one.

Go back and forth for a while until you cant take it anymore and then schit can the whole works.

Thats what I did, finally went with 'streaming'...a ton cheaper and there's so much stuff to watch I'll never get close to seeing it all...plus, no commercials!

Have never had Dish, but have been a DirecTV customer for several decades. Would not switch. Their customer service to us has been great, but it is expensive.

Do be aware that the days of geosynchronous satellite TV of all kinds is going the way of the white buffalo. DirecTV has one more replacement satellite to launch, and then no more, ever. The future is probably some kind of low orbit space internet like what SpaceX is building. That will not use focused dish antennas but will function more like GPS or over-the-air TV.

We have DirecTV and come October I'm cancelling my subscription. I am going to go with HULU Live or whatever it is. I've had them both and can't tell the difference. In AK though, DirecTV offers one satellite dish where Dish I had to have multiple dishes for more than two TV's in the house.

Started out with a 10 foot dish years ago. Before every thing was scrambled. Have had uverse, Dish and Direct.
They tell me Direct has the best picture quality. Have Direct now. Wife likes to negotiate for the best price. Does this every couple of years. Hasbeen

Direct TV took a turn for the worse in 2014 when purchased by AT&T. Direct TV has TERRIBLE customer service. Good luck speaking to a person that you can understand. Direct TV will send you terribly outdated equipment. Direct TV is more expensive. They will lure you in then raise rates, and see my first complaint, good luck talking with a customer service rep.

I recently switched to Dish after 15 years on Direct TV. I couldn't be more happy. Less expensive, better equipment, and much faster processing, Direct TV was SLOW.

Also, and this is HUGE, Dish will contract with local contractors for all service work. I did everything through a small local installer who has a lady in the office that is top notch. I called the local guy, his team helped me with the packages, the local guy came out for the install, when help is needed I call the local guy. Direct TV will not do this. Discover your equipment is bad outdated, call a person in India that cant speak English, they schedule a service call with a guy who has a 400 square mile territory, they don't give out his number, he shows up 2 weeks later and doesn't have what he needs, wait another two weeks.

Is it obvious I HATE Direct TV?

As for Dish not offering HBO, get HBO Now, which is less expensive than the cost to have it on Direct TV.

Yes, they do.

Had an installer dumbassedly step through the ceiling during installation. 2 sections of sheet rock broken, blown insulation all over the house... Specialty wall paint messed up.

The customer service for Direct was a nightmare. They never, ever ended up paying for the damage done by their tech. About a $1000 repair bill I had to eat.

Cancelled their service, and they then threatened to to sue me for the remainder of the contract...

Nice.

I have Dish and they will lie to you just as soon as they tell you the truth.

I made the switch from Direct TV to Dish about a year ago. Dish offered a two year fixed price that wan ONE HALF of what I was paying with Direct TV. I went from $144 a month to $77 for comparable service and couldn't be happier!!! In addition, I now have better equipment.

They all will. But AT&T has not seen a match for lyin'.

This!

I have Dish, one of their low end packages. I can get locals on over the air. Screw Direct tv.

I just don't know how people who live fairly remote can get unlimited high speed internet. If you're lucky and can get Comcast, or Cox, then you have TV with it and why stream? But internet? The only option, aside from satellite we have is a wifi modem which is not the fastest, but we have usage caps. I would eat a month's usage watching two shows.

By using either of those providers you are funding the enemy. CNN would not exist without the bundle money......

we have had both liked the direct system better. plan on going the cell phone firestick route.

Ed

AT&T has LOTS of lawyers but when I worked for them from 1961-1991 they would settle if anybody filed suit against them to prevent bad publicity. They're not like that anymore.

Bottom line - They both suck; Dish just sucks a little less.

Love-hate relationship with Direct TV. Expensive, hit or miss customer service, but superb picture quality and lots channel options for sports which is why I have them. Never had Dish, but Direct TV blows the doors off all the local cable TV providers, no contest. If I wasn't a sports fan I would probably look towards a streaming service.

I have DirectTV NOW. It's different than Direct TV. I use it for streaming with a Roku stick. There is a ton of channel selection. Has all the channels I need including locals. They add more channels all the time. $45/mo includes 2 devices. More are $5. HBO is $5. Can stream anywhere there's wifi. I cut nearly $200 off the cable bill. We have internet anyway, so I don't include that in the price. From my research, it's the best deal out there.

We've had both. Dish first for several years and now Direct also for several years.

Not a nickle's worth of difference between them as far as service and reception in our experience.

You can expect regular rate increases about every year or two with both too.

You can expect temporary loss of signal during heavy rain, thunderstorms and heavy snow / ice storms

I'd advise to watch your monthly bills closely too as both have been known to make "mistakes".

If you get any 'new customer' freebies like X months of premium channels (HBO. CineMax, etc.) or sports channels that you don't intend on keeping or you decide you don't really want you must contact which ever service provider you signed up with and cancel yourself before the free period expires or else they will be automatically added to your bill.

I was with Dish for 20 years, recently in order to bundle internet and SAT-TV I jumped to Direct TV.

Without any hesitation I can say the DIRECT TV equipment is miles behind Dish, if not for the bundle savings I would be back with DISH, but at this time Dish Does not offer Internet in my area. But my opinion is that the hardware and software format of Dish is much better that DT.

And customer service for DT is In India, however if you ask for “on-shore help they will transfer you to somebody in the states.

Neither - IMO TV generally sucks no matter the provider. In our house, the wife and I gave up on the 'idiot box' decades ago, and we probably don't watch more than a couple of hours per month. Books and magazines work just fine. But what in the heck do I know, I don't even own a dumb 'smart' phone...LOL!

An antennae on top of the house to catch 50 plus channels of free broadcast TV, and Netflix for $5.99/mo.

Had dish for a few years, till their antenna quit working. They wanted me to pay for a new antenna and installation. Screw that.

Switched to Direct for two or three years, then got tired of paying for schitt. NBC, ABC, CBS is mostly still schitt. But at least they are not debiting my checking account for $100 or $150 per mo anymore.

If you have the internet speed to stream I have Direct TV Now and am very pleased. I have the AT&T fiber optic unlimited for $50 a month.

Have had Direct TV for about 8 years now, have to tell them I can not afford it every couple of years due to cost and they lower it for 6 months.

That said I am looking to change to sling tv and a local basic provider to lower it even more.

This. Just switched to dish after directv pissed me off. Equipment went bad and they said two weeks with no t.v. til they could get here. Called dish, said they could come next day. So similar it's not funny.
Started Netflix and Hulu and only need it for live sports, news and a few other things now. Nothing but DVD/Blu-ray at the cabin and doesn't bother me at all. Get my news on xmradio.

I have both. DirecTV for my home and ranch house and the Dish Tailgater for my RV. If I had to choose only one, it would be DirecTV and the race isn’t close.

I will never go back to any bundled tv service. If you have HS internet, just stream. Pay for what you want, watch when you want. Not a dime goes to CNN, Disney, ESPN, or any of those other sh*tbirds.

Amazon Prime, which I'd pay for anyway, and a $25 Firestick makes it easy-peasy, but most tvs have apps built in for streaming already.
We watched GOT for free by waiting for the last season to air, then signed up for a free week of HBO. Youtube has tons of HD shows now too.

Direct TV is what we have

Thanks for taking the time to give me your help. Still thinking about it but you gave me more to think about.

We have had Direct for about 20 yrs,not alot of problems
just upgraded to hd equipment,kids say the picture is alot better for sports,idk
Right now Direct-ABC are in a pissin match,so if you watch any programming on ABC/Cw and such,keep that in mind cause it doesn't sound like they can get along.

p/s we have never had anything but Direct,so can't say if there are better options.
Ron

If you live in an urban area that has good broad ban service you can take advantage of the various options like roku, etc. Otherwise it's Dish or Direct. We have mostly had Dish so storm and strife like it because she knows where the channels are that she likes to watch. We got Direct for a short time in a package when we were able to get phone company broad ban instead of the satellite mess. We had a hell of a fight getting rid of it. The Direct remote was cheezy and hard to navigate. We've had pretty much all of it.

I don't watch sports and detest ESPN. They both bundle the crap you don't want to watch with the stuff you do want. As for movies, they pretty much roll the same flicks over and over week after week forever. If I ever win the lotto I'll sue DISH for subjecting me to a waterboarding of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" for the time I've had DISH. I don't watch it but wish they'd at least offer something else. For the most part they both subject you to cruel and unusual punishment with their programing.

Direct has One America News. Dish does not. Honest news.

Spot on. If you want the latest and greatest equipment, you have to switch. Direct pissed me off so bad when they kept raising the rates and then when I would have them out to service our outdated equipment, I would tell them to just give me the new stuff they are yakking about on TV. The response I would get from the tech would always be "sorry, but we are told we can only install that for "new customers."

They treat long time customers like schidt. The very second our contract was up, I cancelled DTV.

Our phone company ran fiber optic to our house so I went with their cable service for awhile. Same deal. Raised rates. Broken promises etc.

DISH sent us an offer for 2 years at $49.99/mo. and a $200 pre-paid credit card to use for whatever we wanted so we went with them. I'm happy but I'm sure I'll be switching to something else once this contract is up.

TFF

Also, even with the most current iteration of High Definition television, and even though a network broadcasts programs in HD quality, you still won't be able to watch them in HD quality with either Dish or DirectTV unless you upgrade and subscribe to their HD service at additional cost.

That is the ugly truth that most want to avoid. Don't mess with the idiot box. It irritates.