AT&T Uverse, Direct TV, Dish Network????

[surgtech1956]

We have Charter Communications(cable) and thinking about switching to something else, AT&T Uverse, Direct TV or Dish Network. The Charter prices keep going up and its a pain to have to call every few months to get a different promotion, and every time you call you get different prices. I appreciate any input on any of these.

[OakLeaf]

I've had DirecTV almost since they began - 1994. No complaints.

[tulip]

I've had NO TV since June...no complaints .

[NbyNW]

I had DirecTV the last few years, until I moved (can't get it in Canada).

Good service, really easy to get someone on the phone on the rare occasion that I had a problem or wanted to change my subscription. The only time the signal was inconsistent was if we had a lot of snow and the dish had trouble seeing the satellite.

Plus, we got NFL network, so we could see those Thursday night games. If that means something to you.

[Crankin]

We had Direct TV in 2001-2003. It sucked. Every time the wind blew or it rained we lost the signal. As soon as Comcast came into our area, we got it.
When we moved a couple of years after that, we bundled everything up and have Comcast phone, TV, and internet. It's expensive, but fast and we rarely have a problem with any of it. Tried Vonage for awhile after we moved, too, but our phone never worked!

[Bike Chick]

We've had DISH since 2001 and no complaints. Be sure to check the program listing. The last I heard Direct did not carry Versus which is the station that covers most of the bike races.

[OakLeaf]

Every time the wind blew or it rained we lost the signal.

It's definitely worth checking the azimuth and elevation of the satellites for each company, and scouting potential dish mounting points, before you sign up. Each company has its own satellites in slightly different orbits. Signal loss can be a problem if there are trees near you, even if they don't block the signal on a sunny day. Where there's no tree cover, the weather has to be very extreme before we lose signal (as in, so extreme that the electricity usually goes down within ten minutes and signal becomes irrelevant). Obviously, cable doesn't have these problems, but availability is much more limited, and depending on your cable system, the channel lineup may be a lot more limited too. It's been so long since I had cable that I can't say anything about picture quality, but it used to be much better on satellite.

The last I heard Direct did not carry Versus which is the station that covers most of the bike races.

Versus doesn't have exclusivity. Universal Sports - which is carried on DirecTV - aired the Vuelta this year after the ComCast/DirecTV breakup, and is expected to carry the other major races.



PS to the OP, AT&T U-verse is through Dish Network. They're cagey about it, but that's whose satellites they use. So there might be a price advantage to bundling, but if you're wondering about service, look at what you see about Dish Network.