Direct TV vs Cable TV

[Tuckervill]

We have cable (Cox) and there are now interactive games and On-Demand where you can watch certain tv shows at any time.

There's a lot of anti-television bias out there, but if you look at it as if it were a library, television makes a whole lot of sense. Don't check out what you're not interested in. Not having a TV or cable, to me, is like living as if libraries didn't exist. Now that broadband and digital and Hi-def is here, television is getting more like a library every day. AND, to be competitive, the programming is just going to have to get better, and it is.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

Hmmmm - maybe we are grandfathered in, but we still have real Tivo. We've had it for quite some time - we still have an integrated DTV - Tivo reciever. We haven't been having any trouble with the recording, nor have we seen it reset itself unless the power goes out.

Yes, that's right. You can keep your TiVo box as long as it lasts (or until you want to upgrade to HD), and keep your DirecTV feed. Ours died, in a normal electronics-death sort of way that I don't blame DTV for, so we had to get a new one with DTV+.

[Crankin]

We had Direct TV about 5-6 years ago. It was awful; every time it rained or got windy, we lost the signal. We originally got it to watch the Tour-- we don't watch that much TV and had just a regular antenna. We switched to cable so we could get high speed internet and we have had no problems with that.

[Pedal Wench]

I've also had DirecTV since it's inception -- yup, the first night I brought home the dish, I stood out on my back deck, holding the dish up to the sky trying to get a signal until I could permanently install the dish on my roof the next day...

Great customer service, good signal, good channel selection, but as mentioned, I lose the signal but only when it's VERY bad rain. You need a clear view of the southern sky -- trees and mountains become more of a problem the further north you go.

I watch A&E, Bravo, The Travel Channel, WE, Oxygen, OLN, TLC, Discovery, Discovery Health -- I agree with the 'library' concept -- good, informative programming is available if you look for it!

[xeney]

We've had DirecTV for a couple of years and we love it. Great customer service, especially in comparison to Comcast, which is possibly my least favorite company in the world.

We were able to directly compare the picture quality with cable for a while because my husband needed cable for a class he took -- the classes were broadcast on public access cable, which DirecTV did not carry, and he had to get a basic cable subscription to access it. The DirecTV picture is so much clearer, it is unbelievable. And the stupid very basic cable subscription cost almost as much as our 500-channel DirecTV plan.

We hardly ever watch TV, ironically, but I have no plans to cancel the satellite service.

[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!

[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?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Stop bragging!
I wish I could live without tv. I find things are much more pleasant when the tv is not on.

I hate the sound of tv- everyone constantly yelling rather than talking, commercials blaring, and short snippets of frantic "music"- an aggressive assault on the brain and serenity. TV was actually one of the issues that led to the demise of my former marriage (of course deeper issues were at work, but tv was a big symptom of the underlying problems).
For every good thing on tv you have to search through 100 pieces of pure crap.

Like many of you, I do like good nature and science programs and documentaries. We can get all we want of that from Netflix. We love to watch films- documentaries, foreign, classic, favorite old tv series, cult movies, musicals, new movies, ....all kinds. Netflix gives us all our own choices of films, documentaries, nature and history stuff, all we want when we want, free shipping....all for $8.99/month on the one-at-a-time plan we chose. We watch about 3 movies a week. Sometimes I also watch nature docu's or 1940's chick flix on my computer instantly via Netflix- that's another freebie they throw in.
TV can go jump in the lake as far as I'm concerned.

As for news- I get news online every day from all different sources, from all around the world. U.S. tv "news" is all selected, pre-processed, and screened by the big corporations and political groups that control the major networks. It's outrageously biased and whitewashed. I like to get news from multiple non-affiliated sources instead, and then make up my own mind. There's a lot going on that most Americans are not told about.

Yes, I know I'm a big mouth. Sorry, but just wanted to add my own view to the mix here.

[Pedal Wench]

I hate the sound of tv- everyone constantly yelling rather than talking, commercials blaring, and short snippets of frantic "music"- an aggressive assault on the brain and serenity. TV was actually one of the issues that led to the demise of my former marriage (of course deeper issues were at work, but tv was a big symptom of the underlying problems).
For every good thing on tv you have to search through 100 pieces of pure crap.


Yes, I know I'm a big mouth. Sorry, but just wanted to add my own view to the mix here.

And I'm a recording engineer, mixing the sound for those TV commercials, picking and editing those short snippets of frantic music, and making sure the sound effects I choose are an aggressive assault on the brain. It's my job.

[sandra]

Lisa, although we have cable and pay dearly for it every month, I love your big mouth view. I agree totally. I also hate channel flicking from channel to channel searching for something to watch. I am not the TV watcher. Many nights we never turn it on. I think giving it up feels sort of like giving up my landline phone which I had had for 50 years. We need to take the plunge or at least get the smallest basic package.

We too are Netflix one-at-the time members and love it. We like documentaries and foreign too. (I have several foreign recommendations. We should join the "Netflix friends" section.)

[Tuckervill]

We have Netflix x 3/month, Gamefly, digital and hi-def cable, cable modem, wireless network with wireless printer, a laptop for every person, a TV in every bedroom plus the kitchen, living room and studio, a game system hooked up to each of those, handheld game systems in case we are away from home, we read our news online, watch movies on Netflix.com, Comedycentral.com and youtube, have XM radio in both cars, AND we have a landline and three cell phones.

We're connected and love it this way. Each and every one of those things have off buttons.

Karen

[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.