Cable or satellite?

#26
#26
DirecTV here. Switched from our cable (Brighthouse) because my receiver boxes were constantly failing -- real PITA to head to the office once a month to get a new (refurb) one that was going to crap out.

DTV +'s

-more HD channels
-more programming
-Sunday Ticket and other sports options
-same $ or a bit cheaper
-more competent than local cable morons
-online programming changes - I can change my programming whenever I want and work my DVR online.

DTV -'s

-signal compression - HD picture isn't as good as my cable was, SD picture noticably worse
-storm problem (if storm is right over the house) In reality though, cable went out as much as DTV does.
-weather channel locals (not a big deal though).

Overall, I'm mildly satisfied with DTV
 
#31
#31
Well I called to set up the Dish Network tonight and talked to another guy. He informed me that the girl I talked to yesterday was wrong. I cannot in fact get 3 DVR dual tuner boxes. I talked to 3 different people there and a supervisor and none of them could tell me why exactly. All they could tell me is that I could get 2 dual tuner boxes and then have the other two TV's mirrored off of the two dual boxes. That just wouldn't work like I was hoping for. None of them could give me a clear reason why I could not get 3 dual DVR boxes. Even with the "mirroring" of the other two TV's they would charge me extra installation for that. It was going to be $59/TV to do that plus $100 up front for the equipment - and this was after I had pre qualified. I finally just said I'm tired of fooling with this and I know that I can get enough boxes through DirecTV.

So I call them and get everything setup and maybe it was for the best because they were much easier to deal with. I am only going with 5 receivers from them in order to save the extra $99 charge for the 6th box and the extra $5/month lease fee. I figure since that 5th and 6th box would be for my nieces anyway that I can run a cable after the installer leaves from one TV to another and allow them to share a box. They watch the same things anyway and only watch that one TV pretty much when they are staying all night with me. I probably wore the poor guy out on the phone over giving me better deals and came away with the standard deal of:

$23 off for 12 months on my bill and $35 off my bill for the first 3 months - that's their base deal right now. Since I signed up for auto bill pay he gave me a $20 credit. I said c'mon you can do better than that since I am thinking of switching to you all. I don't really have to switch its not killing me having cable. Then I started talking about the advantages I currently have with my cable service and loving my On Demand service and he broke in and decided to give me a $75 total credit for Pay Per Views and said he hoped that would be good enough for me. I said well that's great but that's, what, 20 movies all year when On Demand I have thousands a month. He said ok well how about I cut out your DVR fee of $5/month as well and he said that was all he could do. I pretty much believed him at that point and let him process it on through. The installer is coming next Thursday to set this all up for a grand total of $0. I will get my first months bill about a week after the installation and have 3 weeks to pay it from there. I don't think I came out all that bad myself. Maybe I could have done a little better but I'm not one of these bartering pros so I feel pretty good with the package deal I got.
 
#33
#33
Pretty good deal you got there DND. I called Direct last night to get some info.

I was told I can get the HD-DVR package for $49.99 a month for 12 months, 3 months free HBO, Showtime, & Encore. I asked a couple of othe questions, and was offered a free 5th receiver and Showtime for a year. These guys appear to be highly competitive.

I can get all of the above, plus basic home phone service and DSL through AT&T for about $87 per month, + tax.

I was on a retention Comcast deal for about $130. Now my Comcast bill is going to be almost $200. They told me for the services I have that's the best they can do. I'm paying these rat bastards $32 a month for the priviledge of using their HD-DVR boxes.

I think I'l call Dish just to see what they have, and to also price shop.

My buddy knows a supervisor at the Direct call center in Chattanooga. He said tell them I have Dish now, even though I don't, and I will have to pay an early termination fee to switch.

For $81.99 with Direct, I can get every channel known to man for 12 months.

My main objection is the HD boxes. I need 3 of them, and the CSR told me I could only get 1, unless I paid $99for them. He said I could call back in a couple of months and try to get a free upgrade. I don't like going on what-if's though. I think I could press them and get more than 1.

Decisions, decisions...
 
#34
#34
Press them - remember they are trying to gain you as a customer. I would have went with Dish if I could have got 3 DVR dual tuner boxes but it wasn't possible and they wouldn't or couldn't make it work so I told them to forget it. How many TV's do you need to hook up to? If its 4 or less I think Dish Network has HDTV Dual Tuner boxes as well. You could get two of them (for 4 TV's). That may be an alternative if DirecTV won't just give you the 3rd HDTV box you want. They are really so similar its not a big difference but I would have went with the Dish if they would have been able to get me that 3rd dual tuner DVR box. I'm still happy with what I'm getting though.
 
#35
#35
Direct TV is money for me, the options you have are second to none. I have been through 3 hurricanes and it hasnt gone out on me ,i know im selling it like Billy Maze right now but its much better then cable.
 
#38
#38
Trust me if you had Charter you would love to switch to Comcast. You dont know how bad an ISP and cable provider can be until you have them. We tried to switch our phones to chater and they disconnected our old phone line and then two weeks later we still had no phone service and they were already charging us for it so we ended up going back to TDS. They are terrible.
 
#39
#39
the only advantage of cable over direct tv is the discounted internet. i've never had my direct tv go out during a storm. and i disagree the hd signal is worse. i have the new dish and the signal is far better than my gf's comcast signal. no comparison.
 
#40
#40
I have Dish Network at my home in Texas and at my cabin near Crossville....LOVE EM. It started after I got a new HD TV last Christmas...I went in to Suddenlink and told em I needed a DVR Tuner for my new tv...after they told me it would be 3 weeks...I called DishNetwork, they came out in 3 days and hooked my whole house up. I'm fixing to put another tv on my patio and they said no prob, just let us know when to bring the receiver. The only diff I could tell between DirectTV and DishNetwork is that DirectTV couldn't (wouldn't) give me local channels, so I went w/ DishNetwork which gives me local channels although they aren't HD yet...I'll never pay another dime to a cable co.
 
#41
#41
think i'm goin to call them next wk. i'm off work on the 16th so maybe they can come hook it up that day
 
#42
#42
Well the DirecTV guy came to my house today for the install. Heck of a nice guy that served a couple of tours in the Air Force. He really was appreciative of my dad and I trying to help him out as much as possible. Just common courtesy IMO - stuff like offering him the bathroom, drinks, helping him open boxes, setting the remotes up ourselves, etc. He worked hard and with 5 rooms to hookup was out here from 9:30 this morning until about 3:15 this afternoon. Just a super nice installer and was very pleased - much nicer than when the last cable guy was out here.

Anyway, the picture quality of my DirecTV boxes are much better than the cable we had. I forgot where we live the cable signals are pretty low but we have 100 or 99 signal to each of the boxes - I couldn't believe the difference. I only have standard def TV's so can't comment about the High Def stuff but I can honestly say that the picture quality of the DirecTV box is much better than my Comcast cable box ever was.

And the best part of the entire deal - the guy upgraded, accidentally I suppose, all of my receivers. I had ordered 1 DVR box for my room and 4 standard boxes. I swear I really didn't notice until he was gone but I wound up with the HD DVR Plus box in my room that even allows for the On Demand features - I tested it by disconnecting my Slingbox that I have hooked up in my bedroom now and ran that cable to the DirecTV box and viola I have On Demand. The other 4 boxes that were supposed to be standard are actually HD Receivers. Now if I just had some HDTV's to go with all these new receivers I'd be all set. But hey I can't complain - I got all kinds of extras I definitely wasn't expecting.
 
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