Why a review of cable provides on a sport landscape site, well, even though we are outside most of the time, we still love to watch sports…… So onward.
Charter or now Spectrum, ATT Uverse / Direct TV, Dish we are discussing her, there may be Comcast or Turner, but not today. This is a quick review of the highs and lows for someone that has cable only to watch sports. No need to go over channel lineups, these days channels are fairly consistent. What is not the same is the capabilities relative to where you can watch live TV and more importantly, where you can watch DVR’d TV and the requirements for watching DRV’d shows on your phone, laptop, tablet, or other mobile device.
Dish
Hopper
Dish upgraded their software and the new software runs terrible on the old systems, upgrade to the Hopper3 is highly recommend.
Dish Hopper3
The remotes with Dish Hopper3 are no longer universal in the classical sense, they are 1:1 to the TV, we mirror our downstairs Hopper to two or three TV’s, use to have a remote for each TV, that no longer works with the new remote. The 54.0 remote is the one you want, lights up when you move it, 52.0 is OK, also, get all of the same kind of remote for all TV’s, the buttons are different and in different places from 54.0 to 52.0. Otherwise all is the same for a GUI user experience perspective. The software that’s clunky and slow on the old Hopper runs great on the Hopper3. Dish is whole house, Hopper3 in one spot, add on unit (called a Joey) is for other home locations, one DVR that all can watch. You can record 16 shows at the same time with a 2 terabyte hard drive. Impressive.
Dish App
The android dish app is nothing short of excellent, you can watch programs from you DVR on your device without downloading them. And it works, real well, hop forward past commercials, rewind, pause. Picture quality degrades based upon bandwidth rather than stopping and starting. Us wifi or cellular network. The other options are all there as with other apps, record, delete, watch live TV. Dish is way ahead in app technology, way.
Direct TV / ATT Uverse
ATT (using this for both Direct TV and ATT Uverse) has one of the best universal remotes going. It works with Yamaha, Samsung, and Sony, mixture of TV, Surround System, DVD player, it’s excellent. Their DRV is whole house so only one is needed and you can watch same DVR in another room with the add on unit. ATT Uverse is limited based upon your distance from their service hub in your neighborhood, your picture quality and service degrade the further you are, they will not provide you with service if you are too far. Thus the addition of Direct TV.
ATT app
You have to download shows from your DVR to your device and being ATT, they limit when you can do this using their network. As such, you have to plan on watching something and then take the time to download it with Wifi. That’s asking quite a bit in comparison to Dish. Basically ATT created an app that puts no pressure on their cellular data network, Dish could care less.
Charter / Spectrum
First and foremost, Charter (using this for both Charter / Spectrum) is annoying to work with due to their web site and numbers, it’s impossible to figure out who you are supposed to call. Charter’s DVR is not whole house, way behind tech of the day, the DVR can only be watched in one room, if you want to watch shows recorded in your bedroom that are on the DVR in your family room, you can’t. You have to pay for another DVR for your bedroom and keep track of two DRV’s and two sets of recordings. That’s so silly that there is no reason to discuss anything further.