[12fretter]

It is baffling trying to wade through all the features and channel lineups. So hopefully, someone here has already done it and can recommend one over the other.

I have Comcast cable now, and once again, they raised their prices, now to the point where I don't want them anymore. So I'll be keeping their high speed internet only. I have been looking at Direct TV and Dish. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The channel lineup aside, I would like to hear about the viewing experience between the two. In other words, is Dish's The Hopper better than Direct TV's The Genie? I'm leaning more toward Direct TV but there is one channel on Dish I would really like to have. Dish seems cheaper, both short and long term. But the Hopper is confusing me.

From what I have read, you can watch three different programs on three different TV's with each Hopper plus two Joeys. But there is ambiguity in a lot of comments about that. The Genie says 4 live or recorded on 4 different tv's, no ambiguity. The charges per extra TV are comparable, so that's not an issue.

I'll stop here to see if anyone comments. Thanks to all.

[shootah45]

Originally Posted by 12fretter

It is baffling trying to wade through all the features and channel lineups. So hopefully, someone here has already done it and can recommend one over the other.

I have Comcast cable now, and once again, they raised their prices, now to the point where I don't want them anymore. So I'll be keeping their high speed internet only. I have been looking at Direct TV and Dish. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The channel lineup aside, I would like to hear about the viewing experience between the two. In other words, is Dish's The Hopper better than Direct TV's The Genie? I'm leaning more toward Direct TV but there is one channel on Dish I would really like to have. Dish seems cheaper, both short and long term. But the Hopper is confusing me.

From what I have read, you can watch three different programs on three different TV's with each Hopper plus two Joeys. But there is ambiguity in a lot of comments about that. The Genie says 4 live or recorded on 4 different tv's, no ambiguity. The charges per extra TV are comparable, so that's not an issue.

I'll stop here to see if anyone comments. Thanks to all.

What about Verizon's Fios it depends where you live ? I'm in same boat as you Comcast I'm paying 180.00mnth trip play

[12fretter]

I very briefly looked into Fios but it doesn't look as if you can do a lot with it. It's all about streaming but I didn't see anything about local programming, network channels or live TV. It seems more along the lines of Roku and Google TV than a replacement for Comcast. I'm not willing to give up local and network programming, so Direct and Dish are my only options. I'm in East TN, and like you, my triple play has gotten way out of hand. My first step is to buy a domain name and get my family's email addresses changed over to the domain. Once we get all our contacts switched over to our domain, then it won't matter who our internet provider is, we just point the email alias to our current address and no one needs to know. That will allow us to free up from Comcast internet eventually. But for now, I want to dump the landline (VoIP) and cable and get a dish plus MagicJack.

[Therunner]

I switched from Direct TV to Dish due to the price increase with Direct. Both seem to be just as reliable as far as signal strength, plus they gave me a free DVR upgrade for switching.

[sputnik1988]

Well, iirc dish doesn't have AMC, but the do have The Blaze, so...

[dragunovsks]

Originally Posted by sputnik1988

Well, iirc dish doesn't have AMC, but the do have The Blaze, so...

They do now, they brought it back because of customer complaints. I have directv but my mom and dad have dish and they, well my dad, is now addicted to The Walking Dead.

Personally I prefer directv as of now, i like the programming.

[12fretter]

Its so hard to keep track of the must-have channels...I'm glad you brought up AMC because I, too, am addicted to Walking Dead. Dish certainly is cheaper. After the three month promotions that both have, if you opt out of them all, the remaining first year prices are $57.99 for Dish (two tv's total), and $67.99 for Direct. Second year pricing is $87.99 for Dish and $90.95 for Direct. Dish looks like it levels off there, but after the second year of Direct, it goes up another $20 to $110.95.

And I just got my MagicJack going again so I can officially order Dish and dump Comcast cable and phone. They hit me hard on the internet only pricing, but as I mentioned, it won't take long to switch over all email addresses to a new personal domain, set the aliases up for some as yet unknown internet provider, then tell Comcast to stick that too.

[rhyno13]

I just switched from Dish Network to Direct TV. I like the fact that most of the channels on Direct are in HD. Plus it is about $7 cheaper a month for the exact same programming.

[partdeux]

OTA with a TIVO.

For those can't miss shows, you can purchase them directly from Amazon for a nominal fee and have them show up on the TIVO.

[Zombiegirl]

We switched from Dish to Directv because they lied and said you could get HD on two TV's with one box which wasn't true among other things. I'm very persuasive so whenever my promotional rate is up I call and they keep it low. Our bill is $65 per month.