I know a good number of posters here have DirectTV⌠Currently I have TWC non-digital (so no C-SET, darn!), but am seriously considering a switch â especially since TWC raises their rates about as often as NormanNiner posts pics of scantily clad women on the âGolddustersâ thread⌠not that there is anything wrong with those posts.
Can those of you who have DirectTV throw out some of your pros and cons? I have a long enough list of cons for TWC (and a fairly short list of pros), so any âsellingâ you guys can do about DirectTV would be helpful.
Any thoughts about Dish Network? (My wife saw that as advertised being $10 cheaper than DirectTV, so naturally, she says we should go with that⌠but I am a firm believer in âyou get what you pay forâ.)
Directv=NFL Sunday Ticket. Enough said. The contract was just extended so if you want the NFL itâs a no brainer.
TWC likes to talk about loss of satelight signal but I have never experienced it. In 5 years I think I have lost my signal once for about 10 seconds. Cable comes from a satelite also and I think I lost cable more than once due to weather.
I just moved and signed up with Dish Network after being with DirecTv for 5+ years. We are getting the exact same programming as DirecTv for much less. 1 receiver with DirecTv $82 mo., 3 receivers Dish Network $63.00 mo. with no long term contract.
Pi is right about Sunday Ticket, but I had to give that up to battle my Fantasy Football addiction/obsession a few years back.
JD Iâve had DirecTV for about 3 years. I like it but I hate that C-SET is carrying games that I canât see. But if you like programming variety, you canât beat it. Now that you have a little tyke in the house, youâre gonna need some good kid channels. DirecTV has PBS Kids which is ESSENTIAL to a childâs happiness. 24 hours a day kid stuff. There are a bunch of others too. I pay $75 a month for my package and I have the HBO package, 2 normal receivers and one receiver/TiVo DVR. About the commitments, I didnât care about commiting because how often are you gonna change TV signal providers? Itâs not like switching long distance phone service. Youâll be happy enough with DirecTV to hang on through your commitment.
I also highly recommend you get TiVo if you donât already have it. If you get DirecTV, go ahead and get their TiVo DVR. Itâs $5 a month extra and you get an integrated tuner-DVR. They have great customer service too. I called them up because I missed a call from them at home and I didnât know what it was about. Usually a call means somethingâs up with the bill but I knew I was current. They werenât sure why they called, maybe it was a promotional thing, but for my toubles they decided, over the phone, to give me free HBO for 6 months. :blink: I thought that was pretty cool. The whole thing with satellite going out during thunderstorms is blown out of proportion too. It might go out for a few minutes tops during the height of a very bad storm, and how often does that happen anyway? There were many times when cable service would go out for DAYS with no explanation (but of course that was crappy Adelphia). DirecTV outages were never more than a few minutes, and if they are longer, they are a phone call away and they can send signals to your dish right then.
NinerAl must have a kickbutt package with all premium channels.
Iâve been with DirecTV since around 1997 and have never looked back. I get every channel DirecTV offers with the exception of the premiums (HBO, Skinemax, Showtime, Starz) and my monthly bill is $42.14. I used to have the premium channels but in my opinion, they show garbage these days and arenât worth the additonal pricing. So for under $45, you can have the Total Choice package which will more than suit your viewing needs.
And like 49erpi said, the NFL Sunday Ticket is enough reason alone to get DirecTV because itâs exclusive to them. Itâs almost overwhelming on Sundays.
And by the way, you donât need to have a phone line connected to satellite TV contrary to what the companies tell you. I havenât had a phone line connected since about 1999 and have had no problems. I even still receive my mail from them on the screen without it. The only reason you need it is if you want to order pay events/movies directly through the remote but you can do that online now so itâs pointless.
Timewarner is the biggest ripoff around. Crappy service, the WORST customer support of any business Iâve ever had experience with and the costs for what you get are ridiculous. Why anyone is still using local cable companies is beyond me when satellite TV is so affordable, simplistic to use and feature extensive.
JDM, i wonât re-hash what everybody else said, but I thought I would list my pro and cons since Iâve had DirecTV for a little over a year.
Cons
each additional receiver after your first one (count your TVâs) costs $5 a month. Iâm single and I have 3 TVs in my house, so that extra $10 just to watch what Iâm already paying for didnât make much sense to me. With cable, thereâs no additional charge.
The receiver is like a cable box. You canât record programs with your VCR and watch something else on TV at the same time like you can with cable. I didnât realize this either before I switched. For a single person, itâs not a huge deal except when there are two programs I want to record that are on at the same time. I can usually go watch a different TV in the house. If youâre married and/or have kids, it might be a different story.
Pros
-As several pointed out, Sunday Ticket is incredible. Iâm a big Falcons fan, so getting to watch them every Sunday now is really a treat. They offered me an intro package for 6 months where I paid for Sunday Ticket, and then got EVERYTHING else they offer free for those 6 months. If you love college basketball like I do, ESPN FullCourt is great as well.
Programming - I get about 40-50 more channels than I did with cable ( I had extended tier, not digital). I can almost always find something on to watch. My bill is about $75 per month, which includes the $10 for the extra two receivers, the $5 protection plan, and the $12 sports package.
Kid programming - I donât have kids, but there are at least 7 or 8 kid channels. 3 Nickelodeon, 2 cartoon channels, the PBS kids that was mentioned, and the Disney and family channels.
Free stuff - as Norman said, they give you free programming from time to time. I got 3 months of free Showtime in September âjust for being a valued customerâ. Iâve only been a customer for a little over a year.
Customer Service - I emailed DirecTV last year about getting GAC on their channel lineup, since this was the new home for the Grand Ole Opry. They called me back and asked me several questions about what else I would like to see them add. GAC was added 2 months later. ESPN U is fixing to debut, and I need C-SET as well. I will be calling them again.
Pay-per-view movies - There are a ton of them. Iâve never gotten one, but they run continuously so you can watch one whenever you want. As JCL said, all you have to do is go to your computer and order it.
Music channels - There are about 30. I love running these through my stereos at the house. No commercials, and there are songs on these channels that you would never hear otherwise.
As the others stated, the loss of signal is TWâs biggest scare tactic. Iâve lost service 3-4 times since Iâve had DirectTV and for a total of about 30 minutes. It was during torrential rains each time it happened. I lost cable at least twice per summer during a T-storm, and it usually didnât come back on until an hour or more later.
[b]I just moved and signed up with Dish Network after being with DirecTv for 5+ years. We are getting the exact same programming as DirecTv for much less. 1 receiver with DirecTv $82 mo., 3 receivers Dish Network $63.00 mo. with no long term contract.[/b]
NinerAl, can you still get Sunday Ticket and the other sports subscriptions with Dish Network? Did you have to get all new equipment or were you able to use your old receivers and dish?
You can get all sports subscriptions except the NFL with Dish. As stated earlier, DirecTV has an exclusive contract with the NFL. It is worth it to get DirecTV. What are you waiting for?
[b]NinerAl, can you still get Sunday Ticket and the other sports subscriptions with Dish Network? Did you have to get all new equipment or were you able to use your old receivers and dish?[/b]
Sunday Ticket is exclusive to DirecTV. Canât get it on Dish Network. Iâm pretty sure though that you can get the other packages like Full Court on Dish Network though.
[b]- The receiver is like a cable box. You can't record programs with your VCR and watch something else on TV at the same time like you can with cable.[/b]
Thatâs why you just get DirecTVâs Tivo receiver and then you have all your programming plus a hard drive to record anything you want anytime you want. Yes, it comes at at cost but itâs worth it if you ask me. VCRâs are already a thing of the past.
[b]As the others stated, the loss of signal is TW's biggest scare tactic. [/b]
You couldnât be more correct and I get so sick of Timewarner using this garbage as a means of steering people away from satellite. I have been using DirecTV for 8 years and I can honestly say that Iâve lost a signal maybe 5 times. 3 of those times, the signal was out for maybe a few minutes if that due to incredible bad storms. The other two times, the only reason my signal went out was because it was snowing heavily and snow built up on my receiver dish, preventing the signal from bouncing. I took a broom, brushed off the snow and the signal was back on. Considering we live in the sunny South, this isnât a problem youâll experience often. Please donât buy into any of TWâs scare tactics because most are based strictly out of fear of losing even more customers than they already have.
Somewhat related note: Sirius will be releasing satellite television for automobiles sometime next year. Not sure if thatâs a smart idea (safety-wise) but with that said, Iâll be the first in line the day they go retail with it.
[i]Originally posted by jcl49er[/i]@Jan 7 2005, 09:18 AM
[b] Somewhat related note: Sirius will be releasing satellite television for automobiles sometime next year. Not sure if that's a smart idea (safety-wise) but with that said, I'll be the first in line the day they go retail with it. :D [/b]
I still have Time Warner⌠I almost switched to one of the Satellite companies last year because TW didnât have ESPN-HD, but they finally added it at the start of football season. Their rates are high and the customer service SUCKS, but there are some advantages to TW⌠mainly you can rent all of their equipment where as some of the sat. companies make you buy it. I couldnât live without my HD-DVR box that I get from Time Warner for $7/month. I believe that if you wanted one of these with DirectTv you would have to buy it for about $700. With a continuously working hard drive, these things are pretty fragile⌠my first one broke after less than a month so I like being able to get a new one for free if I need to. TW also passes on uncompressed signals for their HD channels where as DirectTV compresses the signals a good bit to save bandwidth⌠so TW has the better HD picture quality.
I guess all of the good points of Time Weenie relate to HD⌠if you donât have a HDTV, DirectTV would probably be the way to go.
[i]Originally posted by jcl49er[/i]@Jan 7 2005, 09:18 AM
[b] Somewhat related note: Sirius will be releasing satellite television for automobiles sometime next year. Not sure if that's a smart idea (safety-wise) but with that said, I'll be the first in line the day they go retail with it. :D [/b]
I heard that too and it kind of scares me as a Sirius subscriber... their bandwidth is maxed out right now, so they'll have to either drop a bunch of channels or siriously cut back on the sound quality/bit rates. :unsure:
I almost made the jump to DirectTV this summer, for the oft-mentioned NFL Ticket, but one thing made me keep TW, C-SET. 49ers on TV is a godsend when you have an infant and canât make every home game. Along with the 49ers, I (donât tell anyone) also enjoy watching a majority of the Bobcatâs games too.
[i]Originally posted by LutzFan[/i]@Jan 7 2005, 03:33 PM
[b] I believe that if you wanted one of these with DirectTv you would have to buy it for about $700. [/b]
$700?????
Itâs only $99 up front and thatâs up to 3 rooms. Then $4.99 a month. The $4.99 is waived if you have the Total Choice Premier package.
