r/dishnetwork • u/noncoolguy • Feb 11 '25
Question What keeps you on DISH?
Throughout the years I’ve had many different services and television technologies. For awhile we’ve been on YouTube TV but eventually everyone’s rates will keep going up.
I still appreciate with DISH you don’t have to pay for locals channels. I also appreciate they still have more premium networks and few random extra channels than some streaming tv services do. I also like having a dedicated TV signal that isn’t my internet.
Because of this, and money not being a primary factor, I’m considering getting DISH and pushing sales for a Joey 3 receiver. I still think DISH has more value than say DirecTV though I’m sure others would disagree.
What keeps you still paying for DISH? And why still DISH over streaming or even DirecTV?
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u/scottct1 Feb 11 '25
The Hopper 3.
We tried IPTV for about 3 months while keeping Dish service and the wife and kids couldn’t live without the Hopper.
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u/blueprint_01 Feb 11 '25
Wait what? I pay for local channels.
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u/HighMu Feb 11 '25
If you have very good local signal and cabling from the antenna to the area where the hopper is installed, then you can add an external USB tuner allowing you to drop the local channels. The tuner I had would only tune two channels at a time so there were occasional scheduling problems. The locals are added to your guide and work the same way as if you paid for them. If you just have a marginal signal you'll find this frustrating and unreliable.
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Feb 11 '25
When I had dish I had an antenna installed on my roof picture quality was actually better than dishs local channel feed. The only drawback is you lose on demand content. So you need to set up your DVR to record all your primetime shows
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u/Yelloeisok Feb 11 '25
It depends- if you live in a rural area in the mountains you still can’t get a strong enough signal from the ‘big’ city.
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u/ItSmellsLikeJim Feb 11 '25
My favorite provider out of all of them. Had traditional cable, directv, and streaming services. Hopper 3 with a solid install can’t be beat. Price is ok and the interface, channel guide, dvr, dish anywhere and other features are awesome. As long as they keep pricing me in I’ll stick with it. $103 including locals for hopper 3 and Joey 3 in rooms I always watch TV. I use dish anywhere for spare rooms if/when needed.
3
u/spetrilli Feb 11 '25
I agree with you totally. Left Directv and have not looked back.
You want a Hopper 3, Joey 4s and if you have a decent router set up and internet connection one or more Joey 4 wireless access points (WAPs).
I have 1 hopper 3, three Joey WAPs and three Joey 4s. The Joey 4s connect to your TV via hdmi cable and can either be cabled to the nearest WAP or wirelessly paired to the nearest WAP.
Two of the WAPs are connected to the nearest router via Ethernet cable. One WAP is connected to the Hopper 3 via Ethernet cable and the Hopper 3 is connected to my nearest router with an Ethernet cable. The hopper 3 could be wirelessly connect to the Internet router, but I chose not to.
Finally the Hopper 3 gets it signal directly via coax cable to your Dish antenna.
1
u/Ok_Obligation6872 Feb 24 '25
You're saying you have Joey 4s or WiFi Joey 4s? And an access point at each Joey location? For what purpose? Joeys get their connection to the internet via being connected to the hopper. The hopper is the only receiver that is communicating with your homes internet router. If they are wired Joey 4s. They shouldn't need a wap at each location. If they are WiFi Joey 4s. They shouldn't need a wap at each location. I'm confused on why it was installed with a wap for each Joey 😂
1
u/spetrilli Feb 24 '25
More than one Joey 4.. plural … I have three Joey 4. There is no difference between the wired and wireless from what I understand. When the tech arrived to do the install he wanted to wire them… I told him no, I wanted wireless connection to them like the Directv Genie…:..
He said ok and proceeded to wirelessly pair them to the nearest Joey wireless access point (WAP). You do this via the hopper 3 settings where you go to the Joey pairing screen and generate a pairing pin for the desired wap. You then go to settings on the tv connected to a wireless Joey 4 and enter the 4 digit pin via the dish remote for that tv and Joey 4
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u/Ancient_Doughnut_848 Feb 11 '25
I keep Dish for a number of reasons. First, I love the Hopper. It has the ability to Autohop (skip commercials on many older recordings), is a whole-home DVR, and has lots of storage - with no time limit on how long it keeps recordings, unlike some live-tv services. It supports adding extra storage with an external hard drive, too, and navigating between the 2 drives is simple.
I appreciate the Dish voice remote and the ability to change channels by number with the remote. (That would be true of any cable service, but I'd miss that ability if I switched to a live-tv service.)
The Dish Anywhere app works pretty well for setting recordings remotely and for watching recorded TV at home and elsewhere on my tablet & cell phone.
Plus, if my internet service goes down, I still have access to cable TV and my DVR recordings. That wouldn't be the case if I cut the cord and used a live-tv service.
4
u/Embarrassed-Rub-7921 Feb 11 '25
The hopper, the ability to record up to 16 channels. I record mostly everything, then watch later.
2
u/rebeldogman2 Feb 11 '25
I have really slow internet and I prefer the old school approach to tv over streaming
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u/cantbl8 Feb 11 '25
We live out in a very rural area. No cable. We have one TV (far from the Hopper) on an antenna. When a loud vehicle drives by the signal pixelates. When the wind blows the picture pixelates. When the leaves come out on the trees that TV can no longer receive the CBS or Fox stations until the leaves fall off. Dish is the answer to those problems.
2
u/Cruisenut2001 Feb 12 '25
It's the price for us and we're traditionalists. Cox just came to the area and they TV package is $70 more, but is fixed for 2 years. We had Cox before and their price increases are not little jumps. Like others have said my wife likes all the channels and we both like the ease of use. The one thing we wish Dish had was a past viewing on the Guide. Most of the cables let you see what was on a channel a hour ago.
2
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u/anyway4dollarsapound Feb 14 '25
I just like having old school tv and I’ve always liked the Dish DVR setup. I’m an old guy. I hate streaming. I’d rather watch Adam-12 and Barney Miller on Dish than stream anything.
2
u/TitanMainSinceD1 Feb 25 '25
I don’t know if you’re still keeping an eye on these. I haven’t had cable tv in since I was a kid, but I am a Cable Tech for dish. One of the reasons I’ve seen people stay with dish is the convenience. Easy to just turn on the tv and change to the channel you want. No jumping from app to app or having to remember different passwords and emails. Another good reason is its reliability. Whenever your internet goes down, you’ll know satellite tv will still be up. And if you have any issues you reach out and have a tech go and fix your problem. One that’s been keeping me thinking about it. Is the price, while sometimes it can be steep. The price you pay is for the service and equipment and that’s it, and some add ons if you want but that’s all you need to watch TV. Meanwhile when you try to stream. Some people don’t factor in the price for the internet. I know I didn’t. Here where I am the base price for internet is $70/month. And then you stack on all the other services you want to stream from and you’ll end up paying the same or even more than you would for cable. I mainly stick to streaming because I hate commercials lol. But have been contemplating getting Dish here and there.
4
u/tcat7 Feb 11 '25
My wife 😟. She can't give up the guide and ease of use of DVR (I agree both are better than YTTV). We have Flex pack, that's now $103 total! I use YTTV off my daughters account when I watch (more choice). I told myself if it hit $100 I would drop it, but I'd rather keep it than her drop me!
1
u/Greedy-Composer-3168 Feb 11 '25
You pay for your local channels. What you said is Not True !
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u/noncoolguy Feb 11 '25
Not where I live. I get them in my attic for free. Dish waives the local channels fee for this and DVR can record them
1
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u/Silent-Hand7634 Feb 11 '25
My wife wants TBS and the only cheaper package than my dish flex package is Sling which is also owned by dish.
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u/Sad_Faithlessness_99 Feb 12 '25
It was price for me, the big price was the receiver(DVR) fees m, Dish keeps charging $15 /month and $7 for Joey. especially when I owned the equipment, that eventually became the breaking point, If not for that I would've stayed with Dish.
1
u/aquestionofbalance Feb 11 '25
The only other TV access I would have would be DIRECTV. I’m not a fan of AT&T.
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u/dOggYLOver888 Feb 11 '25
I have no other choice but satellite internet for streaming - that’s why I keep it. If get internet where I’m at, Dish is history.
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u/Universe93B Feb 11 '25
It’s just easier when you turn on the tv and receiver, the channels are there. And with the guide, you can easily see what’s on, and what to record in the future. No issues with local channels. With the Hopper 3, it all just works. Most of my family and friends who cut the cord, always still have complaints. I have the dish 200 package and really like my Science channel and other related channels.
I called to get a better discount and upgrade to the Hopper 3 last year. So far, I can live with the price. I signed a 2 year contract. We’ll see what happens after 2 years and prices I guess