The Move to Dish Network

It took me getting completely fed up with Comcast due to their weak set top box technology and ridiculous prices to decide to move to Dish Network. I always knew that satellite providers had better prices and technology but I wasn't ready to completely change my infrastructure. Comcast again raised their prices so I decided now was the time. So I choose Dish Network. I didn't necessary choose Dish because of their price or large HD programming but because of their DVR.

I have two young children who like to watch a lot of Dora the Explorer and The Backyardigans. So I season pass the shows for them so they always have them to watch.
Now in my previous posts I mentioned I use the Belkin Pure AV remote TV. The only downfall to using that product to move my single set top box content to another room is that both rooms have to watch the same thing. So a typical scenario would be my kids would want to watch Dora in my bedroom and we would want to watch TV in the living room. With Comcast this is not possible. Dish offers a DVR that from a single set top box can drive two TV’s with separate experiences in each room, one HD and one SD. So the scenario that has now been enabled is all our DVR content can sit on one box and be accessed independently from two rooms. Now our kids can watch Dora in the bedroom and we can watch either live TV or DVR shows in the living room. This scenario is literally how I sold my wife on the switch that and the price.

Another attractive feature, which I have not yet had a chance to use, is that Dish did a deal with Archos so that you can transfer your DVR shows to the portable media player to take on the road.

Dish has made some great strides and innovations to really offer services that appeal to families. The next steps I would like to see is the DVR support 2 high definition TV’s, and enable remote access like a Sling Box offering from the DVR content as well. I would also like to see like the Archos deal another deal with a storage server so I can backup or store my DVR shows for archiving purposes.

All being said the switch to Dish was smooth and my experience has been great.

Comments

[Jay Andersen]

Hi Ben,
I made the same move this week and am slowly adjusting to the new interface. The Archos partnership looks interesting and the timing is good as I'm about to replace my MP3 player. I'm part of the anything-but-Apple crowd. Have you heard heard anything about the Archos player since your post?

[Anna Dish Addict]

Dish Network is way better than cable, for the price, satellite tv has much more to offer.