Cable or satellite?

#1
Voldaddy

Voldaddy

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#1
I have Comcast, and I detest them. I'm looking at maybe getting Direct TV. I have cable, internet, and phone through Comcast now.

Just interested in other thoughts and opinions on this. If you have Direct, do you also have your internet with them?

I would have to go back to AT&T with my phone to get Direct to plug a phone line into my box.

The convenience of Comcast is the only reason I've kept them this long.
 
#2
#2
Im in the same boat man, I have Crapcast tv and net. The tv. sucks, but the net is ok I guess.
 
#3
#3
I'll just agree Comcast cable is horrible. Had Comcast for the past 5 months due a temporary living change. Before that I had DirecTV for 4 years. I hate Comcast. No NFL Network and a lot of other things missing.
 
#4
#4
I have Direct TV. It is better than the service I got from Dish Network. The signal holds better during storms. At least mine does. I have my internet through AT&T.....it could be better.
 
#5
#5
I hate DirecTV/AT&T. It goes out when it just rains in a hard manner. I hate not knowing what the hell is going on when some big-ass storm is on top of my house, because my sattelite can't get past the clouds.. I hate not having an actual local on the 8's on DirecTV, and no, the craptastic thing that they have on the Weather Channel is not an acceptable substitution. I hate not having VOD, to be able to watch programs whenever the hell I want. AT&T's internet is garbage, and is nowhere near as fast as Comcast. I hate not being able to watch high school football games on CSS. Bottom line, I dislike DirecTV.
 
#6
#6
That's crazy that you even asked that because I was about to ask the same exact thing. I have been researching Direct TV myself and thinking about switching.

We have Embarq for phone and internet and have a pretty good deal with them. Our Comcast subscription though has got me a little upset lately. For some reason we have had about 6 outages in the past several months. Sometimes it will be down an hour or two and other times it will be upwards of a day.

I pay $145/month for Comcast cable - no net or phone service. We have 3 receivers - one of them is a DVR but the other two are just regular receivers. I have the package that has all the digital channels I guess its called. Like Speed TV, Noggin, Discovery ID, MTV 12 or whatever they have now, etc. Plus we have HBO and Encore. So we have most all the channels but not all of them as we don't have the Showtime/Movie Channel package or Cinemax. The one thing I really like about the Comcast package I have is the fact we have the On Demand service. Lots of stuff on there when there is nothing else to watch.

Direct TV "does" have something similar to On Demand but it requires their highest box they have. That's no big deal because right now you can get one receiver free of any kind they have. The kicker is that it is an HD receiver as well and it requires you to pay the extra $10/month HD service fee. That would be ok if I had an HDTV or planned on getting one soon. I don't forsee that happening real soon without a full time job for me and a baby on the way later in the summer. So I asked the rep if I could get the HD box just for the On Demand service and not get the HD package with it. Of course I can't so that's the only real problem I have with the Direct TV package.

I would need 6 receivers for my house with the 6 TV's scattered out. My parents are living with us right now and I have nieces over quite a bit too as my sister needs someone to watch them most weekends. Anyway, I "have" to have 6 boxes and luckily Direct TV has switched it up to where they can get you 6 receivers. They will give you 5 without paying for them and I would have to pay the $99 for the 6th one. I am going to be a good son and get my mom and dad a DVR receiver as they have never had one so I'll spend the extra $30 to upgrade to that since I have to pay for one anyway. Their "premier" package has at least 20 more regular channels that I have counted than I have now. Plus it also has a bunch of Showtime and Cinemax channels that I currently don't get. Dexter is one of my favorite shows so I would like to have Showtime for sure.

Anyway, their deal right now is $84.99/month for a year for the premier package then it goes up to $107.99/month. For the first 3 months however its only $49.99/month.

Well, with the extra boxes I would have to get and the lease fees for all of those boxes it would come up for me to $74.99/month for 3 months, $109.99 for 9 months, and $132.99 after a year. That is STILL cheaper than what I pay right now for Comcast and it would have every single channel known to man available except for the PPV stuff and the other extras like NFL Ticket or whatever.

I am about to pull the trigger and do this but was wanting anyone with Direct TV to maybe chime in and give me their impressions first. Plus, with me only having 3 receivers right now with Comcast that means only 3 of my TV's have all the channels. The other 3 just have the lower channels. With Direct TV all 6 TV's would have all the channels available.
 
#7
#7
I've got whatever my neighbor has. he just doesn't know it yet
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#8
#8
I've had both. Currently I have net/phone/cable with Comcast. The net is fast, the cable always works and a home phone is unnecessary.

I had a problem with Comcast, but once I found a VP's email addy on the web and emailed him, my problem disappeared instantly.
 
#10
#10
I've got directv. During bad storms its knocks most stations out except maybe your locals. If the storm is really bad it knocks even the locals out. My brother in law has comcast hd. In my opinion directv's picture quality is better. You get the signal straight out of the air, rather than through your cable line, makes a difference.

As far as directv versus dish network. Well picture quality is about the same, but you don't get near as many sports packages and you can't get nfl ticket on anything other than directv. I'm not sure you can even get college gameplan on dish network. I'm not sure about that though.
 
#11
#11
i have directv and have had it for about 5 years. i switched from comcast, because i was just tired of all their bs. i have my internet thru comcast and it is ok, but could be better.

directv is worlds better than comcast imo. in the last year, they have given me 3 free months of showtime, hbo and tmc just for being a loyal customer. i have no complaints at all.
 
#12
#12
directv>>>>comcast

had directv when I lived in MI, moved here into a townhome and had to live with comcast for 2 1/2 years. had directv hooked up as soon as we bought our house.
 
#13
#13
I've had Verizon Fios for 2 years and there is no way I would ever change. Not sure I would change even if satellite was half the price. I had Cox before Verizon and the difference is just amazing.
 
#14
#14
I just moved and tried to get directtv, guy came out on Sunday and said there were too many trees blocking the direction for the dish, so I have to stick with comporium cable here. :cray:
 
#15
#15
i've been debating getting direct tv. saw their deal a few wks ago. my concern is like whoever said that their's goes out when it rains or if a storm is there. living in bama where tornadoes come a lot, i'm not a fan of not having my tv go out. however i bet i cld stream it online
 
#16
#16
we have tremendously high winds quite often here in the foothills and my signal hasn't been affected at all. plus, we get a bit of snow too.
 
#17
#17
Vol Mania 21 said:
i've been debating getting direct tv. saw their deal a few wks ago. my concern is like whoever said that their's goes out when it rains or if a storm is there. living in bama where tornadoes come a lot, i'm not a fan of not having my tv go out. however i bet i cld stream it online
Click to expand...

Most TV stations have a live stream on the internet when severe weather happens. However, you won't have to worry about the signal going out until the storm is right on top of you.
 
#21
#21
Ok, someone on a racing forum I visit suggested Dish Network as a possibility. He said since I already have Embarq maybe they'd have a deal with Dish. In fact they do as I've had them send me stuff about that before. However, I have 6 TV's and was under the impression that the most rooms Dish could accommodate is 4.

The guy was trying to tell me something about dual room receivers that Dish has now. He said I would only need 3 Dish receivers. From what he said I am under the impression that I would be able to hook a Dish receiver up in my bedroom and have a cable ran out of the Dish box to a TV in my, say den. I would be able to then watch Speed TV, ESPN, whatever in my den while my wife watches Lifetime in the bedroom off of the same receiver? Does anyone here know anything at all about this? This does intrigue me as I would have no problem with having Dish since I already have Embarq if they offered me a good bundle deal. With the 6 TV's I could put a receiver in my room and have a cable running to my den, a receiver in my nieces den with a cable running to their playroom/bedroom, and a receiver in the living room with the cable running to my mom and dad's bedroom.

This would work if it works like I just outlined. Does anyone have any idea about this or have a setup similar to this? I know on the Dish website it has a place where you click your TV's and once you get to 4 it says "Over 4 TV's call the 800 number but I don't want to fool with them on the phone and them trying to sell me the crap today." Any help MUCH APPRECIATED......
 
#22
#22
Comcast is garbage. I had it in my apartment and the people they have working for them when you call act as if you are bothering them if you have a problem.
 
#23
#23
I called Dish Network this afternoon to ask a couple of questions. I made sure that I can have 6 TV's hooked up through 3 DVR dual tuner boxes. I had a live chat with someone from there that told me that I could only have 4 TV's hooked up. I argued with them for a minute before we got "disconnected." So I decided to call and verify.

The information I gathered was that yes that is possible and the online rep didn't know what they were talking about. They said they have to pre approve me to have the boxes though or I have to pay for them at startup. I said how much is that and the girl said $1,000. I said no flipping way so I better qualify. Of course she was eager to make sure I did but I wouldn't let her set anything up despite her best efforts. I don't have the greatest credit known to man and am overextended like most Americans but my score this past month was hovering around 635. I figure that "should' be enough to pre qualify but you never know. Of course the girl just kept trying to get me to do it so she could see for me. It won't kill me to wait a day or two as I never want to make any rash decisions.

I was able to have a couple of more questions answered. I asked how much are the lease fees for these DVR dual tuner boxes per month. I thought they could possibly be higher since they are different types of receivers. I was happy to hear its $5 per box. So, with 3 boxes since you get the first one at no extra charge that's only $10 extra per month instead of the $25/month extra for the DirecTV service. There will be $99 total for me due at startup if I qualify - and that was going to be the same for DirecTV startup cost so that was a wash and fine with me. She said if I qualify for this then the installation would be free as well. She kept bugging me about signing up and finally I said if you get commission off of this I would be glad to take your rep # or whatever and try to speak with you when I set it up. She said they do not get any commissions - I really don't believe that with the way they all push so hard. Then right after telling me that she proceeds to give me the direct number to her desk when I get ready to order lol.

I finally found a website that compared the channels of DirecTV and Dish side by side. Dish actually has more of what I want and they have more premium channels too it appeared to me.

The only thing I didn't ask the girl was about a phone line. I know that you don't have to have a landline hooked into them to make them work but I know that you used to have to have every receiver hooked into a phone line. That's difficult when you have one main phone jack in the house and the TVs are all over the place. I know the reason they want you to have that - so you can order Pay Per Views with the remote without having to call the 800 number. I don't order PPV's anyway so that's no big deal to me and I don't want to have to fool with the phone line thing.

Just thought I'd give an update on my progress today.....

Oh, and the price breakdown between DirecTV and Dish for what I would be getting:

DirecTV - 6 receivers but only 1 would be a DVR. After all the promos end it would cost me $130/month which is still cheaper than the Comcast I have now. And by switching from Comcast I will be adding like 15 premium channels and 15-20 other channels I don't currently have as well.

Dish - 3 dual tuner DVR receivers for my 6 TVs and that makes all 6 TVs DVR capable. After the promos end I would be paying $110/month and I am taking into account the $5/month they charge for locals. That's $20 cheaper than DirecTV. They would basically be the same if I didn't need to rent 3 more DirecTV receivers. I think I'm going to go with Dish. I am very glad I asked that question in here today because I didn't even consider that as an option! I thought all you could have was 4 TVs hooked up. 6 TV's all DVR capable with more channels than I have with cable by a longshot - yeah I think this is the way for me to go.
 
#24
#24
I've got Directv. Their customer service stinks. Nine times out of ten, I get someone who has no understanding of the English language.
 
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