FOX is at it again

[navychop]

Yes, you can have 4 Hoppers.

 

[3HaloODST]

Hopper might be a little more costly with 4 Hoppers now (I have 4,) but the Hopper technology outshines DirecTV's receivers in almost every way, so I'll be sticking with what I've got.

Plus I've got $20 in credits each month for the next six months, and $10 for a year after that.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using Forum Runner

 

[lparsons21]

OK, let's compare a bit.

Get 4 Hoppers plus 1 Joey to match locations and have one less full time tuner available.

4 Hoppers @14 each = $56
1 Joey @7 = $7

Equipment fees $63
AEP @119.99

Total : $182.99

Direct's setup for you
4 HR24 @$6 = $24
Adv Rcvr @$25=$25

Equipment Fees : $49
Premier : $124.99

Total : $173.99

So about a $10/month difference at retail not counting any possible discounts. A fairly small difference imo, especially considering the superiority of the Hopper over the Genie.

 

[whatchel1]

What's live TV?

 

[GaryPen]

What's live TV?

It starts 15 minutes after the start time listed in the guide. That's why you're not familiar with it.

 

[GaryPen]

You are right about that! If you are a customer with multiple receivers such as myself, and have the higher tier pacakge, Dish is now a LOT more each month than DirecTV.

But, how is that possible when so many people here keep repeating that Dish is the low-cost leader? Next, you're probably going to tell me that Apple devices aren't actually leading edge.

 

[Tyralak]

Well, at least with the increasing fee's Dish can pay the lawyers to keep a feature active I dont use...

I'll tell you this, them fighting all the time with companies like Disney, CBS and Fox, all while saying they are trying to save us money, and then raising rcvr fees and trying to buy Sprint, is a BS story thats getting long in the tooth.

Sprint will be a good buy, if they can win over the shareholders. It opens up a lot of new possibilities.

 

[bobvick]

OK, let's compare a bit.

Get 4 Hoppers plus 1 Joey to match locations and have one less full time tuner available.

4 Hoppers @14 each = $56
1 Joey @7 = $7

Equipment fees $63
AEP @119.99

Total : $182.99

Direct's setup for you
4 HR24 @$6 = $24
Adv Rcvr @$25=$25

Equipment Fees : $49
Premier : $124.99

Total : $173.99

So about a $10/month difference at retail not counting any possible discounts. A fairly small difference imo, especially considering the superiority of the Hopper over the Genie.

In my case it works out like this:

DIRECTV

Premier Package $124.99
Advanced Receiver Fee $25.00
Protection Plan $7.99
HR34 1st receiver free
HR24 (4) $24.00
CenturyLink Credit ($5.00)
Free HD w/ AutoPay ($10.00)

Total: $166.98

DISH

AEP $119.99
DVR Fee $14.00 (I read it is going up to this)
Hopper 1 1st receiver free
Hopper (3) $42.00
Joey $7.00
Protection Plan $7.00

Total: $189.99

Now, if you dont have the bundle savings ($5) and the free HD ($10) with DirecTV, Dish is only about $9 higher, which is negligable, but if you have DirecTV and you have a fairly high end system (more tuners/receivers than average, and the higher tier pacakge) and you can get bundling with a local telco (CenturyLink, AT&T, Verizon, Windstream) then Dish's fees make a difference.

I like the Dish interface on the Hopper, I have never used one but it looks similar to the 922. I would also like to have Epix and the Plex channels, but that would be another $10 per month to get the BB@Home package.
On DirecTV, I like the OnDemand better than I did with Dish (it could have got a lot better?) and the extra HD channels of Cinemax and Showtime, and DirecTV seems (at least to me) to have a lot better customer service, (lots of the CSR's that I dealt with at Dish had a very bad attitude, at least that was my experience.)

 

[dare2be]

So basically, for 1-3 TV households, Dish comes out slightly cheaper, and for 4 or more TVs, Direct comes out cheaper. Basically what I've seen all along with the two providers.

 

[lparsons21]

I didn't take into account any discounts since they are not given to everyone. Even the HD discount is only 24 months and an unknown number of D* subs don't get it.

Also with Dish there is no reason to keep paying the protection plan all the time as you can activate it and call to get service under it the same day. then cancel after 4 months(?) to make the net cost less. D*'s doesn't work that way and I thought their Protection Plan fee was going up??

Other than that, the comparisons show that the price differential is very small which makes the programming and equipment more relevant. For me either service is just fine so switching when it is in my financial best interest is not a big deal. For others that might not be.

And of course we are all free to twiddle with just exactly how we want to do comparisons. For instance, if I were to switch to D*, I wouldn't get Premier. Most likely Choice Xtra + premiums because of the channel lineup differences.

The VOD on D* is still better than E* imo, and certainly easier to navigate than E*'s.

Customer service between the two services is zero in my experience. I generally don't have problems with CSRs or getting what I'm after when I call/chat.

 

[lparsons21]

So basically, for 1-3 TV households, Dish comes out slightly cheaper, and for 4 or more TVs, Direct comes out cheaper. Basically what I've seen all along with the two providers.

In general that's always been the case as you note. The difference these days is narrower though.

 

[Scherrman]

It's hard to beat Dish's dual tuner technology. Two TVs with separate programming for no extra monthly fee for the second TV. Then if you have a third or fourth TV that rarely get watched you can just mirror TVs to them and still have no extra monthly fee. This is what our average customer is like. I'll bet 90% of our customers are like that and the rest are crazies like us on here that have 5 HDTVs with whole home DVR and sling and.......

For the majority of customers right now Dish is still the cheaper option even if their rates have gone up. Eventually this is going to change as more and more people are adding third and fourth HDTVs and want to view HD content on them. For the customers like us it's a pretty darn close comparison depending on what our specific needs are. Dish and Direct are similar and in the long run are both expensive.

 

[bobvick]

D*'s doesn't work that way and I thought their Protection Plan fee was going up??

It is going up $2 to $7.99, I had that figured in my price comparison.