Paul from Bethlehem, PA writes:

In the past, I believe it was DishNetwork that required a phone-line hook-up for it’s equipment. Is that still a requirement for either of these companies now? If no phone line in house, what are other options: internet hook-up?

Thank you! I found your site very informative.

I can’t speak for Dish Network because I currently have DIRECTV. They don’t require a phone line or internet connection. Everything comes through the dish as far as I can tell, and i have whole home DVR. I even have an iPhone app that I can use to view upcoming shows and tell my DVR to record it.

So for Dish Network, you’ll have to call and verify, but my feeling would be no, they don’t require one anymore.

Hope this helps.

Dustin

Did you know you can watch YouTube videos on your DIRECTV HD DVR? Neither did I, until today. DIRECTV’s Answer Center tells us how:

Can I watch YouTube videos on my TV?

Yes. If you have an HD DVR receiver or a model R22 DVR receiver and it’s connected to your home broadband Internet network, you can access and watch YouTube videos right on your TV. Here’s how it works:

1. Press MENU on your remote and select Smart Search
2. Type a title or other keyword(s) to search for videos
3. YouTube videos matching your search words will appear as the last items in your search results. They will be marked “YouTube” in the right column
4. To view, highlight the YouTube video using your arrow buttons and press SELECT, and then select Play.

Debbyc from Minneapolis writes:

Do you have to have a HD TV to get Dish?
I’ve had friends that complain they lose TV with the slightest wind or rain, is that still a frequent problem with Dish?

Debbyc,

No, you don’t have to have an HDTV. Their receivers work with older models of TVs.

As far as loss of signal with satellite TV, your mileage may vary. In one home I had DISH Network for 3 years and I don’t remember it EVER going out. I live in Utah so we also deal with a lot of snow. Once we moved we got DISH again and it was great for about 2 years, then it started going out frequently with minor overcast. I suspect that it got moved a bit. Rather than paying for a technition to come look at it and adjust it, I just switched to DIRECTV. I didn’t have issues with DIRECTV after that (we had DIRECTV for over 2 years).

Then we moved once again to a new area and I got Comcast. Oddly enough, even though there was no satellite we kept having issues during bad storms. It made no sense to me. We are now back with Directv. It has gone out a couple times with bad snow storms. It seems to me that the best reception we had was with our first house where we had it mounted on the side of our house rather than the roof.

I hope this helps.

Dustin
http://www.direct-vs-dish.com

This is a tip I saw on DIRECTV’s blog:

Programs that are broadcast live, such as sporting events, may run over their scheduled timeframe. To ensure you don’t miss an exciting finish, at the time of booking, we’ll ask if you’d like to extend the recording time for any program that’s broadcast live.

Here’s how it works:

• Schedule a live broadcast recording
• View on-screen message asking if you’d like to extend the recording time
• The default setting extends recording by 30 minutes
• Modify the extension to be 1 minute up to 3 hours

This feature is currently available on the DIRECTV Plus® HD DVR (models HR20 and up) and the DIRECTV Plus® DVR (model R22) receivers.

I noticed on my guide recently that G4 is no longer available. I have to admit, I never watched that channel. I was excited to get it, but once I had learned it is all about video games and no longer had TechTV, I had no interest.

EW.com writes:

DirecTV will not carry G4 anymore after negotiations between the satellite provider and G4′s parent company, Comcast, ended Sunday. “At this time we are no longer negotiating and we have no plans to put G4 back up,” a DirecTV rep said in an e-mail. “We are constantly evaluating our lineup in a new world where programming costs continue to rise at significant rates. Since G4 is among the lowest rated networks based on the latest Nielsen data, we decided that it made sense to focus on preserving programming that is more relevant to our larger customer base.”

According to a statement from G4, “We have been trying to engage DirecTV in fair and reasonable discussions to continue to carry G4. G4 offered DirecTV the same basic deal we have had for the past three years. However they still plan to drop the network and deny G4 fans the only network that focuses on the popular gaming lifestyle.”

G4 is best known for Attack of the Show, its popular gamer-oriented series which launched Olivia Munn‘s career. It also airs Web Soup and Ninja Warrior.

Watch as Mike White, chairman, president & CEO of DIRECTV goes undercover in his company to work with employees on the front lines and discovers how hard their jobs are, and sees ways that things can be improved for the good of employees and customers.

As you know, I recently had DIRECTV installed. The installer that came was from a 3rd party company. He had on a shirt with both the DIRECTV and DISH Network logo.

I asked him if he had a preference. His short reply was, “I have DIRECTV in my house.”

The more we talked, the more I learned why he prefers DIRECTV. Some of his answers made me laugh.

• He said DISH Network uses a lot of refurbished equipment to save costs
• DISH Network’s most popular DVR that controls two TVs often overheats and he has to replace them.
• DIRECTV’s satellites install much more securely on roofs. You know they won’t move around in the wind.
• “People with money always get DIRECTV. You will only see DIRECTV on the roofs in Park City.”

Still, having a been a DISH Network customer also, I know it has its advantages – the price point is the biggest. Take the above comments for what they’re worth.

I recently made the switch to DIRECTV. I was on Comcast. First of all, let me explain why I was on Comcast:

1. It all started when BYU and University of Utah moved to the MTN. The only way you could watch their games was to get Comcast.
2. I have Comcast high-speed internet. I get a small discount by also getting my TV service through them.
3. I built my own DVR with Windows Media Center. I still think Media Center is awesome (Comcast, not so much)

Comcast recently turned off their analog signals and started scrambling their digital signals. So my TV tuner card would only pick local channels through Comcast. Here were my new options:

1. Stop using Windows Media Center (WMC) and just use the set top box Comcast provides. There are a few problems with this. First, their set top box they gave me absolutely sucks. I have two wide screen TVs and the set top box doesn’t support white screen. I was told by their support that it was a TV setting I had to adjust. Um no. Also, using only the set top box I lose my DVR. I was not about to pay their outlandish prices for DVR service.
2. Connect my set top box to WMC. I’ve only heard this works. You can use an IR blaster to change channels. To me it seems there would be a lag and the though of doing things this way was just not appealing.
3. Buy a tuner card that supports CableCard. The problem with this is that they don’t exist. Well, they didn’t exist. The only one I could find was this Ceton model. It actually looked really cool. It has four tuners while only needing one CableCard. The problem was twofold: 1) Everything was pre-order. They were struggling to get them released. 2) They were $400! Why pay $400 for something that used to just work?
4. Switch to DISH Network or DIRECTV. This way I could vote with my wallet and drop Comcast like a bad habit. There were plenty of upsides, but the one downside I could think of was that I would lose the cool features of using my WMC media pc.

I decided to make the switch to DIRECTV. Here are the reasons why I chose it over my Comcast plan:

1. It works!
2. I get so much more for the same price. I was paying $50/mo for basic cable. Only my local channels were digital and in HD on my media center PC. On the set top box that I had on our other TV, everything was digital, but no HD – not even locals
3. On our TV where we had the digital box, it was so glitchy and annoying. This is something we used to experience years ago with DISH Network during REALLY bad snow storms. You just don’t expect such poor reception every night when you have cable running right into your home.
4. It seems I always had to play games with Comcast. I could call in and get a discount that would last for 6 months. That was nice. By why make me keep calling in begging for discounts every six months. Just make your prices more reasonable.

Being the tight-wad that I am, my inclination is was to choose DISH Network over DIRECTV, but I chose DIRECTV instead. Here’s why:

1. I really wanted to check out the whole-home DVR system. We have two TVs, one downstairs in our family room and one in our bedroom. The thought of controlling the DVR remotely and watching recorded shows from our room was appealing. DISH Network has a DVR that you can control from two different rooms, but you can only get HD on one TV while the other one will be standard def. When it comes to technology, computers & gadgets, I become a kid and price is less of an issue for me.
2. Going back to the begging of this article, I wanted the MTN so I could watch BYU football games this fall. The MTN is only available on DIRECTV.
3. My wife wanted DIRECTV – probably because her mom and sister have DIRECTV. They often get on the phone and say “check out Food Network/HGTV/TLC…” It bother her that shows played at different times on Comcast that they did on DIRECTV. Also, I think she would like to have the same channels so they can just say “turn to channel ###”

So that is why I ordered DIRECTV.

My sister-in-law just moved to a new house. I was helping out on Saturday. The DIRECTV installer was also there moving her service. He installed a new satellite dish and set up her equipment.

As he was mounting the dish on the roof her garage, he asked if I would come “watch his back”. He had just sprayed a large nest of yellow jackets that had taken up home in a light fixture right below where he was working. It soon became apparent that he had some kind of phobia of these stinging type insects. My job was to squirt hornet spray at them if one flew near home.

It turns out that this installer would also make a great salesman. Despite the fact that I maintain this comparison guide, I learned a few things that day:

1. I was interested in the new whole-home HD DVR service that basically lets you control your DVR from any room. I learned that if you order CHOICE XTRA or higher, your equipment is free for two rooms.
2. We currently have our house up for sale and plan to move when we find the right home for us. I asked about moving. He said if you move within 6 months then there is a $50 charge, otherwise it is free. (I wonder though… I tend to think if you made a stink about it you could get moved for free if you moved four months later for example
3. DIRECTV can be connected to your home network if you have one and make use of your internet access to rather than use a land line to dial out for pay-per-view for example. It can also take advantage of other features if you have a home network. This got me excited

I must say, I was very impressed with his service. He was very helpful to my sister in law. I was amazed at how well he organized the mess of cables hanging from the ceiling in the basement. He took the time to answer all my questions and even offered to drive to my home when he was finished to take a look at my current configuration and where an ideal place to mount a satellite dish would be.

To make a long story short, I ordered DIRECTV this morning.

Susan from Tempe Arizona writes:

I am considering switching but there is one comparison I don’t really understand. With DISH we share a DVR box. That allows me to record on both of my TV’s and watch recordings from either tv on either one. But with Direct the boxes are separate. Does that mean I can only view what was recorded on that specific TV? That seems like a disadvantage. Can you give me your opinion about which is preferable?
Thanks!

This is a nice feature, and this comes up on a number of occasions. For example, say you start watching a recorded show in the family room, then put the kids to bed and want to finish watching the show in your bedroom. Or, maybe you have a series scheduled to record. You have to watch all the shows on the TV that you scheduled to record them.

Dish Network was the first to offer this capability, but DIRECTV has also entered the game in a big way. With Dish Network’s DuoDVR VIP 722k, you can watch on two different computers. There is a 500 MB hard drive to store all your shows. One drawback is that only one of the TV’s can have High Definition, the other will be standard. This may not be a big deal. Their newest DVR – the VIP 922 SlingLoaded DVR allows you to watch TV on your computer and mobile devices. It has double the memory with a 1 terabyte hard drive. But from what I understand you still can’t watch on more than one TV.

DIRECTV offers multi-room viewing with a single DVR. You would need the DIRECTV Plus HD DVR Receiver, and a DIRECTV Plus HD Receiver for each additional TV you want to connect. This will require a home network, which DIRECTV can professionally install. There are also other fees involved – $3/month for the Whole-Home DVR service, $10/month for HD access (currently FREE for life for new customers), and $7/month for DVR service. Also, each receiver beyond your first will be $5 per month. So to put in two HD TVs and share the same DVR, with the free HD promotion, you are looking at $15/month on top of your base package price.