Direct TV vs. Cable?

RBS · July-17th-2009, 04:22 PM

Hi everyone,

Does anyone use Direct TV? How are the prices compared to cable? Our cable bill (for tv alone!) has gone up to over $100 per month, including HBO and usage of the DVR box.

Are the prices and quality comparable or better? Any information would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

clinthopson · July-17th-2009, 04:38 PM

We have Direct with one HD PVR box and two of the other kind. We get HBO and Showtime.

It's about $100 a month, but since it's our primary source of entertainment, we think it's worth it.

We had cable years ago and were so unhappy with the poor service, outages and program choices we switched to Dish.

We experienced very poor service with Dish when we had a problem so we switched to Direct about 5-6 years ago.

We have been pleased with Direct - excellent signal, no outages, rapid service response when we had a problem and very courteous phone operators who are right here, not in Swaziland.

RBS · July-17th-2009, 04:40 PM

Thanks, Clint! You are the man.

Monte Smith · July-17th-2009, 04:45 PM

DirecTV is the only bill I get in a month that I don't grumble about. I love DirecTV. I've had all sorts of cable, but I'll never go back.

My usual bill is around $114 a month but that is with a Sports Package and Setanta sports premium channel (both about $14). I cancel those in the soccer off-season. That cost also includes an HD receiver and DVR. And a piddling little HD extra channel packet that I have no business purchasing.

One time a few months ago, I came home and the Liverpool-Chelsea game wasn't DVR'ed like it was supposed to be. All I got was 90 minutes of blank screen. I called to complain and the lady was all apologetic and told me what channel it would be rebroadcast on and when and gave me $5 off a month for three months. When I had another issue, forget what it was, I was given $5 off for six months.

Not that you have that much trouble with DirecTV. During a storm or a heavy rain, you will lose signal. That's guaranteed. But it doesn't happen often or for a sustained period and I can honestly say the weather has never caused me to miss anything I regretted missing.

Picture quality? Spectacular.

Now I tell you what. DirecTV has a referal program. If you sign up with them, give them my account number (or the account number of any friend who is an existing DirecTV customer). That will save your friend $100 and it will also save you $100.

stonemonkts · July-17th-2009, 06:15 PM

DirecTV by a mile. Go with the HD setup and DVR, choose the channels package that suits your needs, and you're all set.

Pete C · July-17th-2009, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RBS

Hi everyone,

Does anyone use Direct TV? How are the prices compared to cable? Our cable bill (for tv alone!) has gone up to over $100 per month, including HBO and usage of the DVR box.

Are the prices and quality comparable or better? Any information would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Can you live without New York One?

Chris D · July-17th-2009, 06:41 PM

DirectTV has the monopoly on NFL Sunday Ticket, if that means anything to you.

RBS · July-17th-2009, 06:57 PM

Thanks, guys. I already don't get New York One because I have RCN, and I'm not a big football fan. I'm wondering how the price is comparable to RCN.

GoodSpeak · July-17th-2009, 08:27 PM

Cable.

Direct TV has so many limitations relative to sports in this state it is amazing.

For example, somebody needs to buy a map for the schmucks who make the decisions at corporate. The Dish only allows for an LA feed in my area. [Same with the yutzes from Fox, but that's another story; I mean, what can you expect form a station which employs Joe Buck and Tim McCarver?]

We are 225 miles North of LA and smack dab in the middle of Niner Country, Raider Nation and San Francisco Giants Land. The SF triple-A team is only 30 minutes away in Fresno. Yet the Dish force feeds us Dodgers, Lakers, USC/UCLA, etc. Now why I can get Big Ten games, NY Yankees/Mets, Chicago, Arizona, Denver...you get the picture, but I can't get a game being played 250 miles away in SF just borders on insanity.

The cable guys know their viewing audience and the location in which they reside. We get a Bay Area feed via Comcast. Although, ATT needed a little "coaxing" [from moi] to help them understand that when we switched providers. The Giants play in their friggin' park, fer crissakes. Sheesh.

When the Dish figures out where LA is relative to Central California and provides the TV feed to match it, then I'll consider it.

Maybe I'll send corporate a compass.

me wag · July-17th-2009, 11:40 PM

DirectTV/Dish Network:

Good:

is cheaper than cabletv especially if you are a newbie.

You get more channels and, in my opinion, better channels.

The DVR is a LOT better.

Bad:

Unless it's changed recently, you have to sign a contract for a year.

Having to deal with the damn satellite dish especially if you live in an apartment where they have restrictions and aren't too keen about you attaching it to the roof. Not to mention your apartment has to be facing a certain way in the first place.

Will go out during a bad rainstorm and sometimes during a not so bad rainstorm.

Doesn't have On Demand features.

Gordon B · July-17th-2009, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris D

DirectTV has the monopoly on NFL Sunday Ticket, if that means anything to you.

It means everything to me.

Gordon B · July-17th-2009, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by me wag

Will go out during a bad rainstorm and sometimes during a not so bad rainstorm.

Doesn't have On Demand features.

The first is the biggest negative. I bought a cover for the dish, which keeps the snow and ice off it but doesn't help during rainstorms.

It does have On Demand now.

Chazro · July-18th-2009, 04:11 AM

Interesting, I heard something about a settlement (millions) paid out yesterday, to be distributed to disgruntled direct-tv customers, nationwide, based on unscrupulous sales practices. Has nothing to do with picture or service quality apparently. I use cable.

RBS · July-18th-2009, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by me wag

DirectTV/Dish Network:

Good:

is cheaper than cabletv especially if you are a newbie.

You get more channels and, in my opinion, better channels.

The DVR is a LOT better.

Bad:

Unless it's changed recently, you have to sign a contract for a year.

Having to deal with the damn satellite dish especially if you live in an apartment where they have restrictions and aren't too keen about you attaching it to the roof. Not to mention your apartment has to be facing a certain way in the first place.

Will go out during a bad rainstorm and sometimes during a not so bad rainstorm.

Doesn't have On Demand features.

I didn't know about that. I do live in an apartment where they do have restrictions.

Gordon B · July-18th-2009, 09:00 AM

My wife would like to change to cable because of the satellite outages during storms. I've resisted because my son and I would lose NFL Sunday Ticket. We've all agreed that if and when Verizon FIOS comes to our street, we'll switch to that (only in January).

Brian Olewnick · July-18th-2009, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordon B

My wife would like to change to cable because of the satellite outages during storms. I've resisted because my son and I would lose NFL Sunday Ticket. We've all agreed that if and when Verizon FIOS comes to our street, we'll switch to that (only in January).

We had FIOS installed this past week (Net/TV/Phone). Lotta channels, don't notice an especially better HD picture than with cable but the Net works great.

Monte Smith · July-18th-2009, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordon B

My wife would like to change to cable because of the satellite outages during storms. I've resisted because my son and I would lose NFL Sunday Ticket. We've all agreed that if and when Verizon FIOS comes to our street, we'll switch to that (only in January).

I have FIOS for my internet, but I did not get it for TV. At the time, that was because FIOS didn't carry Setanta, an important soccer channel. Now I understand that FIOS does carry it and anyway Setanta is on the way to bankruptcy. But I'm still not going to get FIOS. I hate Verizon and grudge them every dime I give them (home phone, internet, and--until tomorrow when I get an iPhone--cell). Plus I love DirecTV. I like how my sister in Miami and I can watch the same sporting event on the same channel and talk or text about it. Satellite. The storm outages don't really bother me. How frequently is cable out? Just about as frequently.

The one serious objection is, yeah, hard to get a dish in an apartment. Though they do have smaller dishes these days. It has to be pointed at the southern sky.

Brian Olewnick · July-18th-2009, 09:22 AM

Forgot to mention that, in our case, the FIOS package is $50 a month cheaper than our combo before. I'm not fond of Verizon either, but...

me wag · July-18th-2009, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RBS

I didn't know about that. I do live in an apartment where they do have restrictions.

They do have tri-pods you can use on your balcony. The problem is that when it's not bolted down, the wind can blow the satellite off target and you've got to get it just right and other annoying things like that. To be honest, though, I do like satellite better all in all. Dish Network was my personal favorite.

stonemonkts · July-18th-2009, 10:10 AM

I didn't think about location, which is important when considering satellite. I live on a mountain with a clear shot to the sky from my roof, so my signal is as strong as it could possibly be...but in NYC I would imagine cable could be the more reliable option?

Uli · July-18th-2009, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

I didn't think about location, which is important when considering satellite. I live on a mountain with a clear shot to the sky from my roof, so my signal is as strong as it could possibly be...but in NYC I would imagine cable could be the more reliable option?

We had the dish guys at our house once. They sed we don't have a clear enough shot. i don't really believe them and think that they were just too lazy to do their job. I do however believe that the weather here ain't ideal for dishes. Heavy wind, rainstorms and snow storms and freezing. I have heard that apparently att believes the same as they are heavily updating their cable network here. I can't wait until they hit our region as per now comcast has a monopoly for cables here and they milk it to the tilt.

clinthopson · July-20th-2009, 12:21 PM

I've never experienced an outage on Direct when we have our rare rain storms but we do get Santa Ana winds of up to 40 mph which seem to have no effect on the reception.

For out of control sports fans, Direct has subscription channels for every team in every sport from baseball, football, basketball, hockey to soccer and cricket.

When we had cable, which has to be over ten years ago, we experienced outages all the time.

One foolish thing that people do is to use their cable provider at their email source. What the cable companies don't tell the public is that if the person moves and there's another cable provider or if they switch to satellite they lose their email address and all the filed emails.

Pete C · July-20th-2009, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clinthopson

One foolish thing that people do is to use their cable provider at their email source. What the cable companies don't tell the public is that if the person moves and there's another cable provider or if they switch to satellite they lose their email address and all the filed emails.

Same with any ISP. That's why people should use gmail or yahoo.

MRS · July-20th-2009, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by me wag

Unless it's changed recently, you have to sign a contract for a year.

In my experience this didn't hold much water. I ordered Dish, had it installed, signed the contract, two weeks later Dish severs their ties with GolTV, an absolute dealbreaker. Per the contract, I stood to incur a $320 fee should I terminate the contract. One brief phone call to customer service "GolTV is one of the primary reasons I ordered your product" and the guy waived any and all fees and terminated my contract, I ordered Direct the next day.

As said, if you don't own, you're going to need written permission before the provider installs.

Also, I'd generally discount the foul weather claims, I've had both Dish (then) Direct for a number of years now, maybe once or twice it cut out but that's it.

jesus marion joseph · July-20th-2009, 02:07 PM

I have Comcast. and I'm pretty happy with it. Although I could get a good look southwest from my roof, I live on a dirt road that is not maintained, and have some occasional severe weather. The only time I've lost my cable signal was when the electricity was out. I have my gripes about the menu interface, but I've seen quibbles with everyone's menu.

Gordon B · July-20th-2009, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete C

Same with any ISP. That's why people should use gmail or yahoo.

I agree and switched my preferred personal email from comcast to gmail a year ago. I set up company email through yahoo business email.