Direct TV

[Wishmaster]

Anyone have it? I am curious about a couple things.

A couple weeks ago I upgraded from my cable to Direct TV. I ended up going with the Genie and 3 Minis for the bedrooms.
What pushed me to the edge was a letter from my cable company saying they were increasing the price starting in May.
The cable we had charged extra for HD channels, and we only got a handful of them. (A bad thing considering we have HD TVS in 4 rooms total)
And secondly, 2 of those rooms don't get many channels at all. They were just the basic standard channels.

So, I switched, but kept the High Speed Internet I had with them as its not bad and the best around here.

Ive had D-TV about 3 weeks now but really like it so far.
Get all channels in all 4 rooms, almost all of them are in HD with DVR and all the Premium Channels.. HBO, MAX, Show etc. Didn't have any of that before.
And its cheaper for the first year and after a year will cost about the same. Even with the Protection Plan.
So in a sense, its cheaper. Paying the same after a year, but a lot more bang for the buck.

Which leads me to one of my questions.

The Protection Plan costs $7.99 a month. Supposed to cover costs of service,repairs, replacements (even accidental) and new equipment every 2 years.
1st month free so I need to make a decision soon.
Is it even worth it or just a bogus charge?




Secondly just curious over the long term how many have issue during storms? I hear horror stories all the time, but so far so good here.

We've had some snow and rain here since we got it, and it never had a single issue. But they were not really that bad either.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I've used Dish network for the most part and thought they had much better offerings,
Storm wise I'm sure they're similar,
Usually at the beginning it may interrupt signal but it usually clears up within a few minutes/ satellites have come a long way,
After two years equipment is usually changed if better technology exists/ you basically rent the equipment anyway so they are attempting to get you both ways,
Upon renewal I would request a newer model if available they usually want a happy camper,
I never paid extra for insuring the equipment but damage is damage how many trees are around,
Kind of a judgment call there

Keep in mind renewal time your the boss
All companies want your business and dish network is always a viable option to the other guys,
Cheers.

 

[Indianatone]

As someone who had Direct TV for almost 10 years and bought, repaired and installed my own equipment the picture was all ways miles ahead of Dish and cable. Dish use too much compression and so do the cable companies. If you suffer greatly in your area from thunderstorms I would get the protection. If you get zapped it will cost the earth to repair. Usually 1 call out of the guy is a years worth plan monies. If something goes wrong they will fix it for you. As I worked for Thomson I just got myself another box. I even went up on the ladder a few times to move it back after the wind moved it. Heck there are still 3 of the old HD boxed in my loft / attic. I still use a DTC 100 for watching local channels off air. The reason I no longer subscribe is I am disabled and just have fiber internet and phone service and watch a ton of stuff on-line. (Netflix, Amazon, BBC etc.). Also if you are in the middle of a storm and the signal goes out that is your take cover momnet. You may need to reboot all the boxes and TV's after a storm so they work correctly, too many little power brownouts corrupt the DVR which is basically a Linux based computer recording and decoding the MPEG4 video for you to watch. If I were to have Sat it would be Direct TV here over the 3 local cable providers as they carry a far greater range of channels. Yes the town I live in has Comcast, AT&T UVerse and Metronet Fiber TV. Metronet has fibre internet and is fast.

 

[Joan Archer]

Well I'm the other side of the pond to you lot but I have dish, before that it was just through a roof top aerial but only the basic 4 channels. The problem with that was the reception, the picture tended to be a bit grainy. When the network went digital the aerials no longer worked and it would have meant having to buy new ones and have them fitted and with the televisions we had we would still only get 4 channels.

We decided to have Sky fitted and as it's a bungalow they didn't even have to go on the roof to fit the dish and even with the same old television we now have perfect pictures and loads of channels.

It is possible to get Freeview over here but we don't have a capable TV, ours is still an old CRT, not one of the fancy LCD models. It can be expensive but at present we don't have the movie channels or the sport ones, they're extra, just the starter pack which has more channels than we'd ever need. Our TV or Sky box isn't HD anyway and we can't do the Internet on it but if I want to I can do all that on my Notebook, I only watch a TV program once a week though as I miss it on a Friday so use BBC iPlayer, but I have an app that I could use to watch live TV if I wanted to.

No fibre here where I live and not much chance of it coming here so we have to relay on the copper phone lines, or I could get broadband through Sky but it would still be through the phone lines.

 

[Indianatone]

Well I'm the other side of the pond to you lot but I have dish, before that it was just through a roof top aerial but only the basic 4 channels. The problem with that was the reception, the picture tended to be a bit grainy. When the network went digital the aerials no longer worked and it would have meant having to buy new ones and have them fitted and with the televisions we had we would still only get 4 channels.

We decided to have Sky fitted and as it's a bungalow they didn't even have to go on the roof to fit the dish and even with the same old television we now have perfect pictures and loads of channels.

It is possible to get Freeview over here but we don't have a capable TV, ours is still an old CRT, not one of the fancy LCD models. It can be expensive but at present we don't have the movie channels or the sport ones, they're extra, just the starter pack which has more channels than we'd ever need. Our TV or Sky box isn't HD anyway and we can't do the Internet on it but if I want to I can do all that on my Notebook, I only watch a TV program once a week though as I miss it on a Friday so use BBC iPlayer, but I have an app that I could use to watch live TV if I wanted to.

No fibre here where I live and not much chance of it coming here so we have to relay on the copper phone lines, or I could get broadband through Sky but it would still be through the phone lines.

Joan you don't need all that TV, you have the beautiful scenery of Pembrokeshire and Wales. Here in Indiana it is flat as a pancake.
My brother has Freesat from a dish and picks up HD channels and all the freeview stuff from sat as well as over the air as he lives 5 miles from Sandy Heath transmitter. He has had the Sat for many years though and the dish is steerable so he gets stuff from all over Europe. As Bruce Springsteen sang.....57 channels and nothing on.

 

[Wishmaster]

Thanks all.

Yea, trees aren't much of an issue for me. But lightning strikes/power surges are a good point. Never know when and where it will happen. And we do get quite a few thunderstorms here throughout the year. Although I do have Surge Protectors for everything anything is possible.
Perhaps I'd be better off keep it on there. At least I know I'll be OK in a worst case scenario.

I can't compare to Dish, but DTV is leaps and bound better than my old cable image wise. Even the standard Def stations look clearer and sharper.

 

[Joan Archer]

Well I'm the other side of the pond to you lot but I have dish, before that it was just through a roof top aerial but only the basic 4 channels. The problem with that was the reception, the picture tended to be a bit grainy. When the network went digital the aerials no longer worked and it would have meant having to buy new ones and have them fitted and with the televisions we had we would still only get 4 channels.

We decided to have Sky fitted and as it's a bungalow they didn't even have to go on the roof to fit the dish and even with the same old television we now have perfect pictures and loads of channels.

It is possible to get Freeview over here but we don't have a capable TV, ours is still an old CRT, not one of the fancy LCD models. It can be expensive but at present we don't have the movie channels or the sport ones, they're extra, just the starter pack which has more channels than we'd ever need. Our TV or Sky box isn't HD anyway and we can't do the Internet on it but if I want to I can do all that on my Notebook, I only watch a TV program once a week though as I miss it on a Friday so use BBC iPlayer, but I have an app that I could use to watch live TV if I wanted to.

No fibre here where I live and not much chance of it coming here so we have to relay on the copper phone lines, or I could get broadband through Sky but it would still be through the phone lines.

Joan you don't need all that TV, you have the beautiful scenery of Pembrokeshire and Wales. Here in Indiana it is flat as a pancake.
My brother has Freesat from a dish and picks up HD channels and all the freeview stuff from sat as well as over the air as he lives 5 miles from Sandy Heath transmitter. He has had the Sat for many years though and the dish is steerable so he gets stuff from all over Europe. As Bruce Springsteen sang.....57 channels and nothing on.

Oh I know we have the beautiful scenery here, you have to be able to get out to see it though.

 

[ThrashZone]

Some times it's best to be safe than sorry,
I had dish for like 6 years without any lighting strikes and 3 renewals with upgraded equipment on each renewal by their suggestion not mine because they said the newer equipment was recommended,
I still have the dish mounted they did not want it back just the household equipment

I believe the biggest difference I've seen or read is company reviews and personal experience dealing with dish network,
They do bend over backwards or they did for me and billing was always constant no difference between the first bill and the last via 24 months later and if there was it was only a couple buck,
Hopefully you'll have a equal experience with Direct TV,
Cheers.