DirecTv vs Cable

[HuskerOmaha]

Guys,

Do I switch to DirecTv from Cox Cable?

DirecTv currently is offering NFL Sunday Ticket

free

for 2 YEARS if you sign up for 2. You also get (1) HD/DVR box and (1) HD box free. I might do it.

Thoughts on each? Who has had the annoying weather outage happen?

[sbdman]

I had more outages when I had cable, than when I had DirecTV. The times the satellite would have trouble were when the sky got quite dark, with very heavy rain coming or falling. Usually it would just loose signal for 5 to 10 minutes. Cable could go out for hours, without reason. Also, DirecTV has the best in NFL coverage.

I now have Fios - never goes out, more HD and less compression (great picture.)

[Dr_jitsu]

I rarely have an outage w/ Direct TV and the selection of programs is excellent.

[HuskerOmaha]

I had more outages when I had cable, than when I had DirecTV. The times the satellite would have trouble were when the sky got quite dark, with very heavy rain coming or falling. Usually it would just loose signal for 5 to 10 minutes. Cable could go out for hours, without reason. Also, DirecTV has the best in NFL coverage.

I now have Fios - never goes out, more HD and less compression (great picture.)

I rarely have an outage w/ Direct TV and the selection of programs is excellent.

Couple more Qs

Are there hidden fees in these deals? 2 years of NFL ticket is very, very tempting, since football is 24/7 for me in the fall.

What have you guys found to be the best packages? Have two kids young so won't get tons of extras.

Is FIOS available in Omaha? Where do I look?

Doesn't DirecTv have less compression issues? They have larger (unlimited to an extent?) bandwidth, right? Cable always waits a while since they can only send each person like 10 HD channels at once...

[sbdman]

For FiOS availability, check verizon.com/FiOS and type in your zip. Verizon has slowly installed fiber optic cable in major cities, and is adding many more.

Good thing about packages (and bundling - I've got the quad bundle, tv, internet 25/25, home phone and cell), is they start off very affordable. Bad news is at the end of the 1-2 year plan, prices go up. I've heard with any of these companies, if you complain at the end of the plan, often they will extend the deals. Took me two years of considering before I jumped the fence.

As for DirecTV - I never went to the larger HD/ 3 LMB dish, so I never tried the high definition. You'll have to investigate Cox as to compression in your area. DSLReports.com has a good forum for that. I was getting HD over the air and recording on my HTPC. The great thing about doing that for all local channels, is you can get a program that monitors what's been recorded, and automatically jumps the commercials! Now it drives me nuts to watch a show and play channel surf during the commercial.

[fitzwaddle]

I used to have DirecTV for TV and Time Warner Cable (RoadRunner) for internet; I switched to FIOS for both. I find the picture quality about the same - although the DirecTV DVR / UI is way better than the one from FIOS.

The reason I switched: was paying too much for the two separate services; and the expensive (business class account) TWC internet service was horribly flaky - dropped all the time.

If I could have gotten a package deal of DirecTV + FIOS internet, I probably would have done that - but I didn't know such a package existed until I had already installed FIOS and called DirecTV to cancel. They don't advertise it at all as far as I can tell, but they claimed they have such a package. Of course when I called to cancel, they offer to knock off $30 a month. Too late dumb****s, how about trying to do a better job of retaining customers BEFORE they dump you.

Edit: started getting the FIOS "green screen" problem last week in the living room - so I need to figure what the cause and fix is for that. Searched, and found a lot of other people with the same problem, some say hard reset the box, others say cable, others say its the box, etc.

[tesseract]

I have a buddy that lives for football. He has DirectTV. He HATES (I hear about it all the time) the weather interruptions and wants to switch, but they don't make it easy for him. Probably a fee to dump them, I dunno.

[Michael Perry]

The best opinions on weather problems will be from folks who live where you do. NFL Sunday Ticket is football chronic, I'm pissed that I can't get a couple of free years out of them for being such a loyal customer.

[bmf795]

I live in FL and rarely experience weather outages anymore since receiving the larger Directv dish(5 lnb). If it happens, it seems to only affect one tuner and only certain channels.

Have been with Dtv for over 10 yrs. I have dropped Sunday Ticket the last couple of years but they still call me up and offer me every channel if I buy Sunday Ticket. It comes out to about the same as I currently pay and I get all the games plus all the premium channels for 5 or 6 months.

If I ever have an issue with a receiver, they come out and fixit, for FREE. I don't pay for extra protection. About two months ago I had an issue with two of my boxes and they came out, verified the issue, and left me with two new HR24's. That is the newest boxes and they are brand new. I even have a spare box hddvr that they sent me a while back that has never been activated. I just hang on to it in case I have an issue.

I pay for the hd package, with two extra receivers and the extra hd channels. I don't have premium channels. My bill runs just under $100. I wish it was cheaper but I can't find anybody who does as much for less.

[tesseract]

A lot of companies do it, I think it is BS to charge people extra for HD content. Any thing they can do to gouge people.

[Dr_jitsu]

There are always hidden fees. However I called up Direct TV and told them I was thinking about switching to Dish network (they were offering a deal at the time ) and was given $20 off my bill for 6 months. YMMV, but give it a try.

[Kevin_Wadsworth]

I've had DirecTV for 3.5 years and have bene quite happy. (FYI - They recently waived the HD access fee.)

I was concerned about rain fade, but have probalby only seen it happen once a year or so. In general, the reception and signal quality have been far higher than when we were with cable.

I have also had good service - I just had a DVR fail last week and had a new one FedExed to me at no charge the next day.

My only annoyance is the great deal they give to new subscribers vs. exiting customers. Your deal is $20 per month cheaper than what I can get and has free ST to boot! I haven't been able to justify the cost of ST to myself yet.

If you do sign up, make sure to talk to an existing subscriber first - if you go through the referral channel both you and the referrer get $10 per month off for 10 months. (I'd be happy to refer you!)

[HuskerOmaha]

I've had DirecTV for 3.5 years and have bene quite happy. (FYI - They recently waived the HD access fee.)

I was concerned about rain fade, but have probalby only seen it happen once a year or so. In general, the reception and signal quality have been far higher than when we were with cable.

I have also had good service - I just had a DVR fail last week and had a new one FedExed to me at no charge the next day.

My only annoyance is the great deal they give to new subscribers vs. exiting customers. Your deal is $20 per month cheaper than what I can get and has free ST to boot! I haven't been able to justify the cost of ST to myself yet.

If you do sign up, make sure to talk to an existing subscriber first - if you go through the referral channel both you and the referrer get $10 per month off for 10 months. (I'd be happy to refer you!)

Nice. Since you brought it up, I'll PM you if I do sign up for dTV. I have a neighbor contemplating it too, if he doesn't have a referral person I'll see if I can get someone else the 10 off.

[Loophead]

Beyond the savings of using a friends acct number for the referral discount (which saves both of you $10 per month for 10 months), AAA has an offer right now which can be stacked for an additional $10 of per month for 20 months.

http://www.aaa.com/scripts/WebObject...1&page=DIRECTV

Unfortunately it's only for new DirecTv subscribers.

I've had a DirecTv for about a year now and have very few issues. Love the Whole Home DVR setup. We have 2 HR24 boxes which allows us to records 4 programs at once. Also the iPad app is awesome.

Should anyone need a referral discount please PM me.

Sean

P.S. Hope all is well with everyone haven't posted in awhile, life gets busy sometimes.

[Maximum kahuna]

Count me in as another satisfied DirecTV customer. Been there for ten years with only a few temporary weather outages. Originally went to DTV for the Sunday Ticket but with Thursday and Sunday night games there are more games available without the ST. I hate playing the game every year...I call and threaten to cancel, they say there's no deal, I tell them to cancel my ST, the supervisor comes on and "looks" at my record and gives me a deal. Almost everyone gets the deal; why all the BS? Recently got a notice saying that if there was a football lockout, they would not charge me for the ST until fooball resumed....THANKS A LOT! Still I'll probably renew once football starts again. You can't beat watching all the pro games in HD on Sunday. 8 games on one screen is still very cool.