Direct TV vs Cable TV

[snapdragen]

We just switched about two weeks ago, I had Comcast cable.

The picture quality is really good - even on our antique televisions. The number of channels is overwhelming. We went with the Plus DVR package - which has at least a million channels. OK - 250 channels.

One thing I've discovered is on some channels (A&E, SciFi) shows I would normally watch at 9:00 are on three hours earlier. It's not like this on all channels, just some.

So far we're very happy with Directv - ask me again in a year!

[crazycanuck]

What's direct TV???

C

[Eden]

It's mini-dish satellite service. We have it and love it - though we never had cable so I don't have any comparison

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm a "no tv" person myself.

[Trek420]

I'm a "no tv" person myself.

That's the best TV

I've never had cable so can't compare. I bit the bullet and got Dishnetwork when West Wing went to a station I could only get on Dish or cable ....then discovered I also get to watch Le Tour . I'm somewhat hooked lately on HG tv and DIY network because of remodel plans.

Only drawback, no Logo on Dish Network so I could not even see myself when they ran the made for tv movie about AIDS Lifecycle ride it's ok, I'd ended up on the cutting room floor.

[bike4ever]

We've had DirecTV through three moves - from Northern VA to Pittsburgh and now in St. Louis. We've had no issues with them. The picture is great. The company is easy to work with when your receiver finally craps out - they will die eventually.

[Eden]

That reminds me. They have the, bar none, absolutely best customer service I've ever dealt with. It's probably the only company that I ever called the help line and was really and truely happy and pleased when I hung up.
We were having a problem with our reciever periodically resetting all of the channels (you have to go in and tell it what channels you get and which ones you want to see in your menus). When I called and the person didn't know what was going on she transferred me to an actual real live engineer who worked on the product. I've never had a company be responsive like that. Not only that - the problem did not happen again.

[short cut sally]

We've had Directv for years now..we live too far out to receive cable access. The only thing I hate is that just about every night, between 7-9pm the whole thing shuts off, then reboots to some odd channel then we have to search for whatever channel we had it on before. I don't know if the whole program resets or what but that's the real major annoyance I have with Directv. Obviously if its really rainy or a bad ice storm, there is no reception. There are nights that there just isn't anything on, or 3 channels have something I really want to watch all at the same time. I am sure regular tv and cable have that going for them also. We have no reception where we live so basic tv is out of the question also.

[OakLeaf]

That reminds me. They have the, bar none, absolutely best customer service I've ever dealt with. It's probably the only company that I ever called the help line and was really and truely happy and pleased when I hung up.
We were having a problem with our reciever periodically resetting all of the channels (you have to go in and tell it what channels you get and which ones you want to see in your menus). When I called and the person didn't know what was going on she transferred me to an actual real live engineer who worked on the product. I've never had a company be responsive like that. Not only that - the problem did not happen again.

Eek Eden, I'm glad you had a good experience with DirecTV's customer service, but we have had TERRIBLE experiences. There have been times when they've been so evasive, patronizing and unhelpful that both DH and I were simultaneously ready to go through the phone line and tear that !@#$% a new one.

[northstar]

We had Direct TV before going cable free. DH and his roomies had it hooked up before we were married and took over the house.

What I didn't like about it was that if there was a bad storm, our service went out. Blue screen.

We like our life post-cable.

[solobiker]

I'm a "no tv" person myself.

What's TV??

[xeney]

I meant to add this: Tivo and DirecTV have apparently renewed their contract so you can have real Tivo and DirecTV again. We are still using our old one but this means we can finally upgrade!

[laughlaugh18]

I meant to add this: Tivo and DirecTV have apparently renewed their contract so you can have real Tivo and DirecTV again. We are still using our old one but this means we can finally upgrade!

And if your DirecTV/Tivo box dies before then, check out weaknees.com. My beloved but old DirecTV/Tivo box was making horrible noises and I was worried I'd be forced into a plain wrap DirecTV DVR. Weaknees is an authorized Tivo dealer - they replaced and upgraded my hard drive (30 hours to 120 hours) and even transferred all of my season passes, etc to the new hard drive. Great service and worth every penny.

[Brandi]

I'm a "no tv" person myself.

Stop bragging!
I wish I could live without tv. I find things are much more pleasant when the tv is not on.
I have a really old dish network dish. We want a new tv so when that happens we will have to get a new one.

[bmccasland]

I was a long time Dish customer, and when I had equipment problems, their customer service wasn't much help at all towards the end, until I wanted to cancel my service because of a specific problem that they didn't want to slove - then they were all over themselves. Too late!

So I changed to DirectTV - their customer service has been great.

Either - when the clouds are REALLY thick (bad thunder storms) the signal goes away. Also had problems with snow accumulation causing the same problem back when I lived in high country. Used to pull on boots and sweep the dish in the winter. Apparently there are "dish warmers" for snow now. Oh, the elk sort of tweaked my dish the wrong way one year too. (it was on a post on the fence line)

If you happen to want certain language programs, then you may run into a contract problem. French programming (TV5) contracts with Dish, so I can't get it with Direct TV. If this is important to you - check on who has what languages available before you sign on the dotted line. Or maybe it has something with the position of the satellites and which one can catch the beam off the other?