Direct Tv

Convo · Feb 21, 2013

Anyone have it? All I have in my area is Comcast and Direct TV. Comcast are brutal with the bill hikes and I think it might be easier to go some place else for a few years. I've heard mixed things with Direct TV so I'm not sure what to do. I called Comcast earlier and pretty much told them I was leaving for Direct TV and the dude called my Bluff and let me cancel lol

opiate82 · Feb 21, 2013

I have it and have been happy. My bill has been exactly what they have said it would be (unlike Comcast that just seemed to change it at will and hoped I didn't notice). Their customer service has always been top notch. I wanted to get a channel for a college football game and they prorated the channel cost for just that day, rather than charging me a whole month for it. Finally, they have NFL Sunday ticket so I can actually watch the 49ers games.

Some people claim they have issues with service cutting out when it rains, but I am up here in the Pacific Northwest where it rains like 300 days a year and the amount of time my dish has cut out due to weather can literally be counted in seconds (over a two year period).

Gravel · Feb 21, 2013

I've had it for around 6 or 7 years, and I've been consistently happy with it. It's easy to change just about anything on your account, and their customer service is awesome.

As far as the rain thing, it was only when it was like torrential downpours that it'd cut out. Basically a thunder storm so bad that you probably wouldn't want your TV on.

opiate82 · Feb 21, 2013

I also read somewhere that buffing your dish with RainX once a year can really help if you have weather related service issues.

Convo · Feb 21, 2013

I guess they have a new dish that eliminates a lot of the old problems with service? Anyway, fuck Comcast. I signed up with them. I'm more worried about my Internet thru Verizon. They don't have fios where I'm at so I'm not sure if its better than Comcast. Sounds like it will be.

Zodiac · Feb 21, 2013

Wait, you went from cable to verizon for internet that'snotfios?

joz123 · Feb 21, 2013

Mines been ok so far but the one thing I really miss from cable is the on-demand service. Directv you have to download shows/movies when cable you could watch them instantly.

Zodiac · Feb 21, 2013

My parents have directv and they have on-demand movies/tv that stream the same as my cable at home. I'm pretty sure they have way more on-demand content than I do.

Convo · Feb 21, 2013

Zodiac_sl said:
Wait, you went from cable to verizon for internet that'snotfios?

I thought the guy said they had ondemand? ALso the Genie box sounds awesome!

They offer a DSL. I'm still trying to figure it out. Comcast was testing at about 2 MB/s and Verizon is saying they going to be giving me 3 MB/s and the lowest it will go would be 1.5 mb/s

Besides speed(they are pretty similar) is there any difference between a phone line and a cable line? I have the option of using Comcast for just internet too but I want to avoid that. I mainly just want a good connection if I ever get back to playing a MMO.

Kedwyn · Feb 21, 2013

Directv has some of the best DVRs and gear you can get. Service is solid. I don't have any issues with them what so ever. We have a bulk cable account for our HOA here and I still pay Directv. Says something I guess. Now that comcast here has stepped up their game (HD) and given most of the service fee for comcast is included in our HOA dues we might go back to them as it would be a good bit cheaper than D*. If we did we'd dust off our old Tivo premiere though because the cable company dvrs suck.

Convo · Feb 21, 2013

Hmm.. so Comcast offered me a new deal for a year that would give me my current package plus their Blast internet for about $15 more than what I would get if I switched to Direct TV and Verizon. I can't do Verizon... They need phone jacks!? lol I don't have them in good areas so I'm stuck with comcast internet. The Direct TV is really appealing to me but I'm not sure it's worth it at this point...

I also noticed I'm supposed to be getting 15MB/s internet speed but when I run the test it's more like 2mb/s? Anyone know wtf that is about? My comp is connected wireless but should it drop off that much?

Convo · Feb 21, 2013

Hmm.. so Comcast offered me a new deal for a year that would give me my current package plus their Blast internet for about $15 more than what I would get if I switched to Direct TV and Verizon. I can't do Verizon... They need phone jacks!? lol I don't have them in good areas plus I'm worried DSL just isn't that good so I'm stuck with comcast internet. The Direct TV is really appealing to me but I'm not sure it's worth it at this point...

I also noticed I'm supposed to be getting 15MB/s internet speed but when I run the test it's more like 2mb/s? Anyone know wtf that is about? My comp is connected wireless but should it drop off that much?

Nostrovia_sl · Feb 22, 2013

Direct TV is notorious for hiking up prices while at the same time taking away channels. I was paying $108 for the package just above the basic channels. I didn't even get Starz, Showtime or HBO..none of those. Also they have terrible costumer service, so I canceled Direct TV and went Satellite instead and I'm glad I did. I get a shitton more HD channels, but I also have HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Starz and only pay $70. Honestly fuck Direct TV, they're not worth it.

Comcast.. I have comcast business interenet and they're great.. can't stand the residential side of comcast though.

Joeboo · Feb 22, 2013

Nostrovia_sl said:
so I canceled Direct TV and went Satellite instead...

Uh, what?

Anyways, back on topic...

I switched to DirecTV about 6 months ago after being with various cable carriers for the past 15 years(Time Warner and Comcast mainly) and I'm beyond happy. My DirecTV is EXACTLY what they said it would be, down to the penny. The quality of their on-demand service is wholly dependent upon your internet connection. If you have fast service(I had 30mpbs service) you can pretty much stream instantly just like you would on cable. If you have slower internet then you're going to have to buffer for a while or even completely download the show first before watching it.

I live in the midwest so we get some rain, some thunderstorms, high winds, snow(we just got a foot of snow in ~6 hours yesterday) and my service has yet to be interrupted for even a second.

The only thing I can think of that is even remotely negative is that their on-screen channel guide is pretty slow. hit the button, wait a couple seconds for the guide to appear, and scrolling can be a bit slow. You can't really instantly flip channels back and forth real quick if you are switching between 2 ball games or something, the channels take a good 2-5 seconds to appear and start working when you change a channel.

BrutulTM · Feb 22, 2013

I switched from Dish to DirecTV about a year and a half ago for free NFL Sunday Ticket. It's better than Dish for sure. I have no complaints even though I don't have the sexy new DVR. NFL Sunday Ticket is godly if you are a football fan and don't live in your team's city. I actually paid for it last year but since my contract will be up by this fall I think I will try to convince them I should get another free year in exchange for signing a new contract.

BTW, both Dish Network and DirecTV will give you a great rate for a year if you sign up for two years but you will pay more the second year. A lot of times you can get that rate reinstated after your contract is up by threatening to cancel.

Gravel · Feb 22, 2013

joeboo_sl said:
The only thing I can think of that is even remotely negative is that their on-screen channel guide is pretty slow. hit the button, wait a couple seconds for the guide to appear, and scrolling can be a bit slow. You can't really instantly flip channels back and forth real quick if you are switching between 2 ball games or something, the channels take a good 2-5 seconds to appear and start working when you change a channel.

That's something that only started in the last year or so. They updated the GUI, or whatever you wanna call it, and it's been doing that ever since.

joz123 · Feb 23, 2013

The on-screen guide is only slow on the DVR I have noticed. On my other HD receivers the speed is fine. Also on the DVR you can't do auto-tune like you can on the other boxes. I'm just annoyed that I can't upgrade to the genie till my contract is up or they want me to pay 300 for it. Fuckers.

Crazily · Feb 23, 2013

Just cancelled my Direct TV service. It was top notch but also cost a lot. I was paying 88 bucks a month.

Since I don't watch that much TV I replaced it with a roku box. I can stream from netflix/amazon/hulu and several other sites...pretty much any show/movie I want. In the end I did the math and I am paying half of what I was with Direct TV and able to watch/start/stop/resume shows as I want. The only downside is I have to wait a day or two for the premium shows (spartacus, game of thrones etc) to show up on Amazon.

Tarrant · Feb 23, 2013

The new pricing with them is somewhat deceptive, the second year is now a larger increase if you go with their new DVR, it used to just be a $20 second year increase, now it can be upwards of $35.

Still the best TV service and best priced TV service out there.

Arative · Feb 23, 2013

I love my directv, had it for 5 years now. Only thing I don't like is the HD fee, which I currently get a credit for, just a pain calling up and asking for it. I dig the whole home DVR. I also have cable but I have that for phone for my alarm and internet, it was cheaper to get a tripleplay but I get locals only and I'm using a media center PC with tuners for the cable.

I'm considering when my wife and I move to our new place dropping DirecTV just because between DirecTV and cable I'm paying $270 a month and I can get a cable card tuners and my existing media center and ceton echo extenders and pay less.

Direct Tv

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