Biweekly satellite TV for dummies buying guide thread

Had the eye of Hurricane Wilma pass over my house and never lost reception . . . until a few minutes after the backside of the eyewall tore the dish off its mountings.

 

I'd just like to second the fact that DirecTV's DVR blows. The interface is awful and the fast-forward and rewind are not at all precise. If you can find a DirecTV TiVo (Philips made one), don't think twice.

 

I've had DISH Network for 4 years now and swear by it. I have MLB Extra Innings and the ESPN college football/hoops PPV packages. Can't get Sunday Ticket, but I'd rather watch all the games at once at a sports bar anyway instead of one at a time.
DISH customer service has always been great - had 2 boxes die on me and got a new one sent quickly and free, no questions asked.
It's $5.99 for all the Fox regional cable networks (plus a couple Comcast and Sports New York, but no YES Network). And as was said, pro games are blacked out and can be tricky (i'm halfway between Charlotte and Atlanta, and I have Hurricanes NHL games and Thrashers NHL, but Hawks NBA games are blacked out... maybe that's a good thing).
We just got a DVR through DISH that's $10.99 total a month, and we love it. It's not as interactive as TIVO but it's great. We got the single-input, which means you can only record/watch one thing at a time, but you can watch recorded stuff while you record something else. It didn't require any burying of cables or a phone line, but you might need one for a dual-input DVR. You'd have to ask about that.
I'd highly recommend DISH...

 

They're giving one away with new installs through the end of the year. I can put up with a fair amount of aggravation at that price point.

 

TigerVols mentioned something about a media discount a couple of years ago. You might wanna reach out to him to see what the 411 was on that...

 

Technically I don't qualify right now, although that may (hopefully) change this week.

 

I called them about that a year or so ago.

They gave me the name of some woman to talk to.

I called her a half-dozen times. Was never at her desk. Never returned my calls.

 

Just got the DTV HD DVR 3 weeks ago.
It freezes up once in a while but it's nice being able to record programs in HD.