Any opinions on DirecTV?

AsSiMiLaTeD

Any of you guys have any experience with DirecTV? I"m switching over (still have a few days to back out if I want before they install), and would like to get any feedback you guys have. I'm fine with my current Time Warner TV service, but ultimately NFL Sunday Ticket won me over.

I got their Whole House DVR box with 5 tuners or whatever and a couple of their HD receiver boxes. I do have a question on those HD Receiver boxes, I know those aren't DVR boxes so I assume that there is no pausing or rewinding programs on those boxes, but I have a couple friends who swear they have those boxes and that they can pause and rewind, can anyone clarify that for me?

Any advice or info is much appreciated.

tommyt21

I just switched to direct from comcast a few weeks ago. In my case I got a better picture then comcast and they use something similar to the hopper for recording shows. Two fo our HD boxs are DVR's you record on them then pull the list from anywhere else in the house.

exalted512

You cannot pause live tv without a dvr. You can watch the DVR'ed shows from the regular HD boxes, which might be what your friends are thinking of.

If no one has plugged you for it yet, I can give you my DTV acct# and you and I both get $10 off for 10 months.

Overall, I'm happy. It seems you can almost always give them to get you a discount if you call...haha. The only thing I really dislike is the pricing scheme where it's more in the 2nd year. I wish they would allow you to pay the same every month and just average it out.
-Cody

AsSiMiLaTeD

I may have to go for a second HD DVR then, as I'll need the ability to pause and such in the bedroom

thsmith

Been a customer since 2002. To get around the pause function simply record whatever you are watching and then you can pause and so forth. If ever unhappy ask for customer retention. BTW, being a new customer you should have gotten NFL Ticket for free.

I just did a move and got it even though I was already a customer.

jon1redleg

I have had direct tv for a little over a year now, I have the whole house dvr system. The one thing i do not like
is the fact that in bedrooms that have the smaller rec/dvr units you can not pause live tv ( must record it first)

Another problem I found is that I must reset the recievers once a month, have problems with slow searching with guide and can not watch recorded movies. Beside title of recordings is a red X until I do reset ( must reset all 4
at same time or it screws things up.)

Just some issues I found

lanchile

Well, as you and everyone knows about satellite providers with heavy rain and heavy snow= NO TV.
With Time Warner you will not suffer that. I like dish but the only problem is the one above too.

AsSiMiLaTeD

The weather thing is always a possibility, but most people I've talked to said it rarely happens.

exalted512

jon1redleg wrote: »

Another problem I found is that I must reset the recievers once a month, have problems with slow searching with guide and can not watch recorded movies. Beside title of recordings is a red X until I do reset ( must reset all 4
at same time or it screws things up.)

I haven't had these issues.
-Cody

thsmith

Me either ^^^^^.

I lived in an apartment for 2 months while looking for a house recently and HAD to use TWC. The most god awful service I have ever seen. I gave them back their cable modem and HDTV receiver today, I absolutely enjoyed giving it back to them.

3 hours after they installed their crap it quit working. No matter who and how many times I escalated I was forced to wait 6 days before someone would come and fix the issue.

I have been with DTV for 10 years for a reason.

[Deleted User]

I have been a customer since 2000. I am very pleased with the service and the customer support. As mentioned the only issues are with heavy weather but I find that my cable used to go out far more than with the weather interruptions. I absolutely did not like dealing with Comcast. Hope this helps. :cool:

mantis

The 3 big service providers are Comcast , Verizon Fios and Direct TV. I have had all 3 in my house , and at one time to really experience them to pick the best one for me and my family.
Comcast has the best ON DEMAND service out of the 3. They provide a easy to read guide and very good service. There Internet speeds are coming close to Verizon but Picture Quality is lacking behind compared to Verizon. Direct TV's picture quality has improved and is on par with Comcast but not as clean as Verizon.
For Internet speeds , Verizon is still king in every way. Yeah you can get 35mps with Comcast down but then your upload speeds fall around 8 max that I have seen. When I had it it was 2 to 3 up which I thought was fine until I got Verizon and got 24 up. Direct TV doesn't have it's own Internet service.
Phone service is optional and I could care less about house phones. But if one wanted some Info , both Verizon and Comcast offer attractive packages.

Both Comcast and Verizon use Motorola cable boxes. Verizon's whole house DVR is the best in the business as you can share multiple hard drives on the network. This is a huge benefit for those who start watching a show in one room and finish in the bedroom before going to bed as I do. Not only can you share a DVR but you can now have DVR's in all rooms and share ALL recorded shows everywhere. So if you have lets say 4 DVR's , that gives you the ability to record 8 shows at once and watch them anywhere in your home with cable service.

Apps for Iphone and Droid as nice with all services.

Direct TV offers NFL package and I heard they are giving it away now so for a Football fan , Direct TV is very attractive.
Dish placement can be annoying and terrible to look at depending on where it has to go. There is little flexibility with placement so when the Dish guy comes over and say it has to go here , it goes there IF you want the best possible service especially in weather conditions or tree growth.

Direct TV does not have the best service out of the 3 I listed . If I had to go in order I'd rate them like this.
1) By far Verizon overall is the best service out there.
2) Comcast while costing more then all 3 still offer a nice package with the most experience in giving customers what they want. Customer serivce however suffers and price is higher along with slower Internet serice knocks them off the top spot. If they fixed those isues , they could easily become number 1. Another small but annoying fact is they offer less HD programming then the other 2 by a small amount but in key areas for me that make me love FIOS that much more.
3) Direct TV for a few reason , 1) You have to have this ugly dish on your property and IF you have a lot of trees , this could become a problem. Weather can knock out the signal for a short time or until the weather passes IF you don't have the best signal strength. It's a none issues if you have excellent signal strength. Picture quality is the worse out of the 3 but not by much. It's a bit more fuzzy at times and you get digital blocking from time to time but less now then years ago. One thing about Direct Tv that I like is the price. They do offer a lot bang for buck. Excellent amount of HD channels and they get better all the time.

I don't think any of these services are bad , I think it's more of a personal choice on what you wanna watch and if you can handle a dish on your roof. I think everyone should at least give them all a test drive in home to learn what works for you. I don't think any of them are a bad choice.

helipilotdoug

I too have been a happy Direct TV customer for many years. Customer service is very good, and they have a lot of HD channels. My only real complaint is the music channels. For background music, it's OK, but for sitting and listening to music it's just nowhere near as good as a CD. The music channels use to be much better, but they changed them a couple of years back, and not as good sounding now. However, the audio on movie channels, and the networks is great IMHO. There is a lot of surround sound audio. We have DVR in the living room, and my wife absolutely loves it. she can stop live TV to leave the room, and then restart the program when ready. It also makes it handy to find out the answer to the question; what did he say??? Anyway, long story short, Direct TV will serve you well.

steveinaz

I had DTV for about 7 years and love it.

polkatese

I switched from DTV to FIOS recently, been with DTV since 2000 (12 years). Other than minor annoyances dealing with CS, I'd say it is a very good service and quality.

I went to FIOS because of its broadband pipe and so far, it's good.

Glowrdr

Not that Dish has NFL Sunday Ticket, but the new Hopper does have the smaller "auxillary" boxes, but you still retain the ability to ff/rr live TV without having to record everything.

There are a couple of downsides to Dish as well, but every company is going to have their downside - you just have to pick the lesser of the evils. I had looked into DTV, but decided to go with Dish due to the cost (it seems all the packages on Dish are roughly $10 a month cheaper), and instead of getting Sunday Ticket, I get NFL Redzone instead. So instead of paying $200/$300 for ST, I just pay the $6 a month for the sports pack (included RZ)

Probably not going to change your mind - but just wanted to throw that info out there.

Oh, and to comment on the rain issue that someone mentioned above - yeah, it does suck at times. The only time I ever get signal loss is when it's storming like mad outside, and I want to turn on the local news to find out why the sirens are going off. No TV. Other than that, it's really only a handful of times a year I lose service, and it's only for a few minutes at a time. I lost service more when I had Comcast.

JimKellyfan

I have had Direct Tv on and off and have been off for the last 4 months. I, too, had it mostly for Sunday ticket. However, the rest of the line up, without a DVR really was weak. If you get it, get the DVR, or rather keep the DVR. For us, we were looking to cut costs, as we watched mainly the local networks or movies. So, instead of paying them 60 - 80 per month, we shut them off. We went with Amazon prime for 79 for the year, Netflix for 8.55 per month, and have over the air antenna set up, I got set up the last time we went off with Direct TV. I bought my antenna, pre amp, etc and so on from Summit Source, all for around 200 4 years ago and all works fine still. For football, so far so good with NFL Preseason Live, that was 20 bucks and watchable from a PC (or TV hooked to pc, wink) I can watch any preseason game live or after the fact with DVR control. HD clarity too. (The other night I was watching the game in HD, while the wife streamed Netflix and no hiccups. For the regular season, I can watch games after the fact. So, I will watch network broadcast games on Sunday, then I will get " Tuesday Nite Football" for watching my Bills flounder (based on current and last years play) again. Yep, happy at about 15/month plus 60 for the year in NFL. That extra money I am keeping from paying Direct TV ? I am getting a mac daddy Smart TV from Samsung 55 inch (6100 series, semi mac daddy), plus a gas convection oven and dishwasher from sears, all for 63/week for 48 weeks then done. For Direct TV I say good luck and good riddance.

brgman

nap wrote: »

I have been a customer since 2000. I am very pleased with the service and the customer support. As mentioned the only issues are with heavy weather but I find that my cable used to go out far more than with the weather interruptions. I absolutely did not like dealing with Comcast. Hope this helps. :cool:

Same here.some minor issues but Comcast sucked around here
I may lose Directv for 30 minutes or an hour when a storm passes thru but Comcast would go out for hours

treitz3

I have been a DirecTV user for the most part of two decades. Whenever I have had to switch back to something else, I dread it. On average, I might lose the signal 3 to 5 times a year and every time it happens a major storm will hit the house within usually around 10 minutes. I use that as a very good and extremely accurate indicator to go ahead and unplug the gear as we are in a lightning prone area. Most all of the transponders are hitting at between 97 to 99.

With two DVR's in the house, the ability to watch a plethora of recorded programming anywhere in the house is very convenient, to say the least. Record something on any of the two DVR's and watch wherever, whenever. That's a perfect scenario for those with kid's. No complaints on the HD whatsoever and very rarely, if ever, do we get the digital "snow" that we constantly got with the cable companies regardless of the weather.

Overall, we are very satisfied with DTV and dread the day we have to go to something else again. Even if it is a temporary thing. Been a customer way too long to not know what DirecTV has to offer and I can say that since I first got DirecTV, the benefits have improved and not gotten worse. About once ever two years or so, I will give them a call and the bill will be reduced and/or more programming will be provided at no additional cost. This has always been the case after the initial DTV offer [used to be one year, now it is two].

Tom

rtart

Sounds like I may be a lone voice here, but I kicked DTV to the curb about a year ago. This is a long post, but I would want to know before jumping in bed with DTV today. So, FWIW....

I was a customer for 13 years - since the time when you had to mount and align your own dish. For years they were the best HD game in town and their DVR technology (tivo then their own) was the best around.

I had lots of issues with them over the years. Most painful were the requirements to buy DVRs and/or HD tuners and have them obsoleted in a fairly short time. I bought three Sony Tivo machines for over $400 each, all including lifetime licenses. They obsoleted the Tivo interface and began charging me a DVR fee. If I called I could usually get it deleted, but I was calling every few months because it seemed to 'mistakenly' show up again and again - for years!

I paid $550 for the first HDTV tuner available, an RCA DTC-100. Later I bought four (4) HR10-250 HD DVRs at $1,299 each. (Yes, you read that right!) Within two years DTV refused to send signal to them. (Their decoding scheme changed and made my $5,200 investment a collection of boat anchors.) I had a major fight to get them to provide similar equipment that was supported, at a discount. They wanted to charge me $199 a piece to LEASE the gear, then a monthly fee. Oh, and they wanted an awful two-year agreement to do that.

As you may have guessed, I had customer retention on the phone every few months over the years and was usually able to negotiate a deal that I could live with. After a while, though, I had the feeling that DTV was much more interested in draining my bank account than providing a good service at a fair price. The monthly price steadily crept up, the service got worse, and their insistance on a two-year contract with awful penalties prompted me to go shopping.

DTV's unholy alliance with AT&T made the decision a little easier.

I negotiated a deal with Comcast Xfinity (in Atlanta) that cut my combined monthly TV, Net and phone bills by almost half and got paid to do it. I got basically every TV channel, internet at 35Mbps (vs AT&T 1.5), phone, free installation, 2 HD DVRs, a $250 gift card, no contract, and a guaranteed price for 12 months with a $10 rise for month 13 thru 24. It took a bit of negotiation to do it, but it was one of the smartest things I've done lately.

Don't get me wrong, Comcast's customer service sucks. I had to do a lot of shopping and negotiating, but it paid off. Their service has never hiccuped, and works great.

To help reinforce the quality of my decision, I had a recent experience with DTV at my in-law's house. They had a secondary DTV receiver with RF remote capability that allowed them to use one box to feed 4 TV's through a composite video distribution amp. The RF remote allowed them to change channels throughout the house. The receiver died. They called DTV and got talked into a bunch of new receivers to replace the one - all with 2 year contracts. The contract terms included a $20 per month early termination fee for every receiver in his home- including the ones he has had for years! Total termination fee - up to $2,400!

BTW, he owned the receiver that failed, but DTV has been charging him a lease fee for at least 4 years.

I got involved when meeting the tech for the install at his house and read the work order. Should have been a simple no-fee, no commitment replacement of a defective box, but they seemed to be sticking it to a couple of 85 year olds.

Anyway, after hours on the phone, DTV finally admits they simply need to replace his broken receiver with one that will work. No contract commitment. So, they mailed him one, with an RF capable remote, but the receiver is not RF capable!

More hours on the phone, and a tech is scheduled to bring the correct receiver to the house on Tuesday. Only 34 days after the first call!

I've tried very hard to save my in-laws the inconvenience of re-learning the user interface in going to Comcast from DTV, but I think we are there.

In any case, your experience may be better. I sure hope it is. But you are stuck with DTV for 24 months, unless you want to pay them $20 per month for every receiver in your home for up to 24 months. At least read the terms of the agreement first so you know your exposure.

scottyboy76

My 2c, after 6 years with direct, 2 with dish, and years with cable when that was pretty much the only choice other than the big dishes, we really think direct is the best, if imperfect choice.

We have had a lot of sneaky billing, whenever the seldom needed service call is asked for, they try to demand we pay the monthly fee to cover receivers we lease.

I always say i refuse to pay a lease fee as well as a monthly service fee on equipment we will never own.

The longer you have been with them, the easier it is to get them to comply.

As far as the weather outages, it does happen relatively frequently, but usually only for a few seconds or minutes.

If it looks like its going to be longer, switching from hd to sd channels usually allows you to watch through the rain, then switch back.

All in all not a biggie.

As far as comparing to cable, picture quality would be my main concern, from what i hear, satellite hd signals are compressed doubly, cable triple compressed.

Some may notice, some may not, never had the opportunity to compare side by side, but our neighbors cable looks pretty bad compared to our direct.

good luck

AsSiMiLaTeD

OK, I have a couple quick questions:

First, on the whole house DVR thing, does that all work through the coax in the house or do they use a ethernet or wireless solution?

Second, are there any 'catches' with Sunday Ticket, like certain games you don't get or anything like that?

pitdogg2

all I can add is I have been a Dish customer for 10yrs. The new Hopper/Joey is the Shiite and when I do lose signal maybe 2x a year trust me its a bad storm and 99% of the time i turn my gear off before i lose signal anyway. Never had any problems with any billing and CS is a peach to deal with. I do have a big antenna i also use for over the air HD at times and yes theres a big different between compressed and native signals....native wins all day everyday

Glowrdr

I do know that the whole house DVR does use existing coax to make a network. As for Sunday ticket, I'm not positive how the blackout rules apply. I know the blackout rules "technically" can't be bypassed - but I believe what happens is that you end up watching the game from the other market (not your own) - so unless it was blacked out on both sides, you can still watch any game

Someone might want to chime in on that though, but I believe that is the way it works.

rtart

Update on Post #21, FWIW. DTV did not show last night for install appointment. Rescheduled for Friday, a mere 37 days after they first were informed of their box's failure.

Do you really want to sign an agreement that commits you to pay $20 a month per receiver for up to 24 months regardless of why service is terminated (by you OR them!)?

AsSiMiLaTeD

Would I sign up with them if I thought that your experience with them was the typical experience? Hell no, not a chance in hell.

rooftop59

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

First, on the whole house DVR thing, does that all work through the coax in the house or do they use a ethernet or wireless solution?

I don't have the new media center dvr, but my "shole hom edvr" is two dvrs connected via ethernet. But one DOES have to be connected to the internet if you want to be able to download any movies or on-demand content. So each dvr has two ethernet ports, one on each is taken up to connect them together. Then you have an extra one on each. I have one hard-wired to my internet, and then they share that internet connection. The nice thing is that the other dvr with an open ethernet port can share internet with any device. Saved me having to run two seperate 75 foot ethernet cables through my attic.

As for DTV in general, we have been happy for about 4 years I guess. The price sucks, but good customer service in my experience, and while the picture and sound certainly doesn't rival blu-ray, I think that it is solid overall.

As for whether or not you will want a second dvr, I am sure that you realize that you have 5 tuners and a TB hard drive on that dvr, which would certainly be plenty for my family. But no you will not be able to record, pause, rewind in the second room. But since you are only charged one dvr fee, and the same lease fee per each receiver no matter what kind you have, the only cost different will be what they charge you for that second dvr.

rebuy

I've had DTV, Comcast, and now Suddenlink Cable. I've never had a cable service with as good a picture as DTV.
My Comcast service was terrible and Suddenlink is OK but I've never gotten a HDTV signal from my cable company.
If I wasn't paying for a "bundle" I would go back to DTV.

disneyjoe7

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Would I sign up with them if I thought that your experience with them was the typical experience? Hell no, not a chance in hell.

What I seen AT&T doing with there UVerse since they can use the coax in the house they convert copper 2 wire to coax in dmark box. Everything else is wired by this coax in the house.

evhudsons

Directv is fine for me. I use comcast (xfinity) for internet, but directv for video. I have directv mainly for the nfl package. Comcast does pretty good for the channels you want to watch, but some channels have weaker signals and break up a bit. But they are usually the crappier channels anyway. HD is about the same, but I give the edge to directv, or probably any major satellite service.

If you go directv, get the name and cellphone number of the guy scheduled to come to your house. They often will give it to you. It makes it easier for them, as well as you. The service guys are mostly subcontractors who want your future business and are paid by directv. They will do a lot for you, especially if you communicate well and give them some ice tea or water while they are there. My experience with comcast is about the same with the service workers. The scheduling is done at corporate level, and it sucks, so to have a local contact is the key to having a good service experience for either cable or satellite service.

If your signal goes out in anything less than a monster blackout downpour, call and have your dish checked. Mine is really bolted it well, but as the house settled it changed. Even minute amounts make a difference. Of course tree branches have an effect too.

I have no complaints regarding directv, and just a few with cable.

rtart

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Would I sign up with them if I thought that your experience with them was the typical experience? Hell no, not a chance in hell.

I was a customer for over ten years, and left due to CS and price. My father-in-laws experience is mimicing mine, and I think he'll be gone, too. Sad. Used to be at least decent with customer service if you could get to the right person.

I went to Xfinity (Comcast) and have no issues with picture quality on 58" & 50" plasmas and on four 37" LCD's. I can tell a little difference on my 120" CRT projector system, but not a lot.