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

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

Rebecca from Jackson County (?) writes:

I have comcast triple play now, looking into switching need/want to have all 3 in 1…does dish offer phone and internet services? I know Direct TV does, but its not mentioned here. Thank you for this site. I found it to be very helpful.

Hi Rebecca,

Neither DIRECTV or DISH Network have phone & internet service. DIRECTV does partner with other companies to provide bundles savings & billing. I don’t know of any such bundles with DISH.

I personally have DIRECTV for satellite TV and Comcast for high-speed internet. I use Ooma (I used to have Vonage) for telephone which basically allows you buy their hardware and get free local & long distance phone service. I actually pay for Ooma premier which is about $100/year. Ooma runs over your high-speed internet so you do need internet service to use it.

Hope this helps.

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

Ron from Connecticut writes:

I am looking to change to DirecTV HD. I currently have Dishnetwork SD. With that, I can watch 2 diffrent shows on 2 different TVs with 1 receiver. If recording 2 different shows, I can watch 2 different pre-recorded shows at the same time on 2 different TVs. Is this also possible with HD?

I have 4 TVs. Without getting any more equipment than base packages require, how many shows can I watch simultaneously on the 4 TVs with DirecTV? How many ban I record simultaneously while watching different shows?

Thanks

Ron

Hi Ron,

I have never worked for DIRECTV so I don’t know if I’m 100% accurate on this, but DIRECTV has a new service that allows you to get one HD DVR and connect up to 16 HD receivers to it. You would pay a premium for this though. The HD DVR is $99 at checkout and each HD receiver beyond that is an additional $99 at checkout. DIRECTV doesn’t have any models that control two TVs from one receiver.

Hope this helps. If you more info you might want to call a DIRECTV rep (1-888-438-9651)

Dustin

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

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.