I currently have Comcast and I'm tired of dealing with them and I'm thinking about switching providers. Comcast, Direct, and Dish are the only options available to me. What are everyone's experience with each? I'm also toying with the idea of dropping cable completely and going with streaming. Any input is appreciated.
Streaming as a lone option just doesn't work. I'm comcast and it's good enough with Roku and Xbox live for sports.
Had direct tv and loved it. When we moved the jackasses said they couldn't set up for the trees in the yard. So we settled with Comcast but I despise their service. So we are going to go with Dish and see what happens.
I'm a longtime DirectTv guy but after seeing a friend's Dish, it'd be hard for me not to endorse them.
Just switched from direct tv to dish because of the PAC 12 network and it was $50 a month cheaper. Downside to dish compared to direct tv: no Sunday ticket, dish dvr isn't as good (close, but direct tv is better), more sports channels on basic tier, better customer service. Ways dish is better: cheaper (after promos run out it's still $20 a month cheaper than direct tv was for me), better multi room recording, sling box built in (can watch any channel and dvred show on my phone and iPad anywhere). I've found the signals and hd to be interchangeable.
Have DirecTV and love it. Despite any claims of others, the only times I have ever lost signal during storms is when I was considering shelter in a closet. Other than unforeseen sky-rocketing prices, the only thing that will make me switch is if they don't carry the SEC Network next August.
Had DirectTV and hated it - lost signal once per week, minimum. Just like AT&T was with the iPhone, there's a reason DirectTV has to corner market with Sunday Ticket, IMO. Have had Dish for 5 yrs, love it. As for streaming, I'd say less than 10% of my TV viewing outside of sports is "live" shows. 90% ATV2, and DVR.
Got DirectTV a month ago after ditching cable about 18 months ago. Damn cable kept going up and up every month for no reason. Two words for DirectTV: Sunday. Ticket. that is all.
Direct and Dish are comparable in picture quality, both are significantly better than Comcast. There are only two reasons to pick Direct over Dish. 1) NFL Sunday Ticket and 2) ESPNU in HD. Dish has better hardware and a better DVR and is significantly cheaper than Direct. Dish has better customer service too. Only advantage to comcast is it is the simplest option to get up and running and they probably have the best on-demand setup.
Furthermore I would add that Direct seems to be the only one of the three that has fanboys so keep that in mind when people tell you how much better it is but don't tell you why
Simple is an enormous advantage to me. How much picture quality difference can there actually be? I stream to 2 different 50" televisions from different sources and use comcast. I simply can't see the difference. Pricing might be somehow better, but I don't care about nfl. I want all of the college football and basketball I can get and get plenty with comcast and 2 streaming sources.
My in laws have time warner and the difference in hd quality between that and dish or direct tv is staggering.
