Well, I had the install of Dish Network installed yesterday. I've never had such a good picture on my 51" Sony HD television. The installer did such a good job. Before he left he made sure I was happy with everything and had me inspect every thing he did. He was at my house for four hours. And the DVR is outragious. I love being able to pause live TV and then come back and watch it without missing anything. So far I could not be happier. And I'd say it better than cable. And cheaper.

 

Glad you like it, Rusty. It takes a while to get used to watching TV via the PVR. Old habits are hard to break. The main thing is to remember that you should never watch live TV. For instance, I let an hour show start to record for the first 20 minutes, before I begin to watch it. Then you can zip thru the commercials and you catch up to real time near the end of the hour recording. Need to take the dog out?....put it on pause and pick up where you left off when you come back in. Miss a piece of dialog?....back it up and listen again. You're gonna love it, man!

 

I did catch myself a couple of times last night, thinking "why didn't I just pause that when I walked out to the grill to turn the hamburgers?" Give me a week and I'll catch on.

 

don't forget the added benefit of taking the dish along on the road trips.

 

I've had cable, DirecTV and now have Dish. Not really much difference between DirecTV and Dish. Dish just recently installed their "Superdish" at no cost to me. The superdish can see more satellites & get local programming. Satellite TV gives more choices but I don't begin to use it all.

I plan to switch back to cable soon because they will begin to offer broadband service. High speed internet is worth more to me than hundreds of channels I never watch anyway.

 

Yeah, but Dish Network doesn't have TiVo. Love my TiVo!

 

I've got DirecTv and am satisfied except that I have to take it up the wazzoo to get two more recievers. But if you are a new subscriber, you can get three recievers for the price of one with either provider...sattellite is definately better than cable in my area of the woods...

 

I just checked this out on TiVo's website, because I thought they had sent me some information about it working with Dish.

"A TiVo® box is compatible with Dish Network receivers that support IR control (all recent Dish Network receivers so). However, if you have a Dish Network receiver that does not support IR control, such as the EchoStar 4000 or JVC 4500, the TiVo box will not be able to change the channel on your satellite receiver unless you upgrade to a newer receiver. " TiVo Site

I think what you are refering to is TiVo makes an all-in-one box for DirectTV

 

Right! DId I mention how much I love my TiVo!

 

I have DirecTV and like it alot.

The only time the picture ever suffers from interference is when there's a thunder/lighting storm with heavy, very low clouds in the sky, and even then those types of clouds have to be directly over your house.

Other than that it's as clear as a bell (HDTV signals too) even during heavy snow storms.

Also, you can put an regular antenna on your roof and get your local stations at no extra cost (aside from the roof antenna, assuming you don't already have one). The back of the tuner/signal converter has two inputs, one for the signal from the dish, and another one for a roof antenna that picks up your local stations the same way it would for a regular TV setup. If you do this you can still watch your local stations during those rare times when your dish signal has that low storm cloud interference.

Cheaper too, last time I checked HD over Comcast (with roughly equivilent channel service) was around ~$55.00 and DirectTV with 125 channels cost me 37.99 per month.

With me, cable cost kept going up and up, really started to get under my skin so I switched.

I've had DirecTV now for going on 4 years with no price increases.

But the setup will cost you more so you have to plan on keeping satellite for long enough to make it worth your while.

Just my 0.02.

 

when I first checked into the Direct/ tivo combo they said you had to have a phone connection. is this still true?

Dish didn't need a phone line. We don't have land lines anymore since everyone in the house has a cell phone and I (finally) was able to get a cable modem

I was leaning towards the dish network anyway and that just clinched it for me.

 

The signal converter (looks somewhat like a cable box) has a phone jack in the back.

Late night when it's not in use it will call DirecTV and download new versions of software.

That's what the converter box uses it for, I don't know if TiVo uses a phone line.

 

So what is the ideal RV setup? And is there a service that has internet link on it? Currently it costs me $50 a month for only internet, then $82 for cell phone. I use the home phone only for internet.

 

Yeah....don't do it. I was never happy with my dish.

 

I just realized this is a really old thread.