My parents have the Dish network, and I absolutely hate it when I am there.
1. The house wiring is bizarre. For every two TV's you have one box, with the second television wired in series. The servicemen also did a crappy job of laying the wire thru the cellar, and I had to call them back to clean it up. I still haven't figured out how to connect a DVD player or VCR. I'm afraid to touch anything.
2. The remote is the most confusing & least intuitive I've ever seen. There are so many useless buttons, and it is extremely easy to press one that puts the tv in a state from which it is a major pain to recover. Forget about using it in the dark, or if you have large fingers. If someone ever designs an uber-simple Dish network remote, with large-numbered backlit buttons, without all of the other superfluous crap, they'd probably make a million dollars.
3. For some reason, the television has to be tuned to channel 73 for it all to work. Now
that's intuitive - not!
4. Channels change themselves, often at the most inopportune times (like the last two minutes of a show or sports event!). It seems that a mild breeze on the dish is all it takes
.
There are other minor quibbles, but you get the idea. In short, you couldn't offer me a cheap enough deal to get the Dish network for myself. Heck, you couldn't
pay me.
I've always had cable for tv & broadband, and it has never let me down, nor required me to read any manual to setup or operate, by itself or with any of my gear.
