Thoughts on Satellite TV

[csu87]

Originally Posted by 1and1

When properly installed & aligned DTV signal is remarkably stable- we pull strong signal in the 98-100 range. We very very rarely lose signal, and when it does get that bad we typically start unplugging things due to lightning.





Might want to try it again- we get a $30 credit on our bill just cause we call and asked. We call every year when the credit expires.





That's for three receivers, each with it's own DVR, one is a genie DVR, so we can record up to 9 different things at once if needed- main room, college student son's bedroom and master bedroom.

shit i need to call in again i guess. I pay $46 for just the equipment. $75 for main service $30 in movie channels and about to have to pay the $250 or whatever for sunday ticket.

[EL Jeffe 5]

Go with Dish its cheaper then Directv

[Alfisti]

I am out soon, had enough, and I mean of everything. Paying $80 month for absolute shite reality tv and spotty sports. Going Netflix, free to air and will stream a few sports directly. I can do it because I don't watch North American sport, if I did then yeah, you're fucked.

[catcher22]

The Directv picture is great. But the signal goes out during bad weather, which sucks because that's when you want to watch it most. I remember not having tv almost 24 hours during a NOT bad tropical storm, that thing swung back around and that sucked bad. i also really dislike directv, their business practices, and non stop marketing

fios is the only way to go. constant non shared fast connection and hasnt gone down once in 5 years

[Maestro]

I have been with DirecTV since 97. I will also share back in the 90's I worked for the company who developed the compression/decompress equipment for Hughes who own DTV at the time. I also worked for the company who made most of the equipment the cable operators use today. DTV has been broadcasting all digital content since 95, when they first launched their product. The cable industry was still digitalizing analog signals until later 2007. Only in the last 5 yrs is the Cable content can be considered pure digital.

The fact I am still with DVT should tell you something. DVT video and audio quality is the best and it has been that way for a long time. Reason being their system does not rely on equipment which is different depending on install location. DVT has uses the same Digitizing and Compress Equipment in Colorado which it beamed up to a group of satellites then back down to earth to your house. In the cable world the headend equipment for each community they serve could be different, the cables to your house could be a year old or 20 yrs old. The equipment in your house could be from various generations of technology dating back more than 10 yrs. There are way too many variable in the Cable operations to guarantee a good signal and good picture and audio quality.

I know people have complained about DVT does not work when the weather is bad. This is true, however, most complaint about this are from 10 or more years ago. DVT had upgraded the dish in the last 7 yrs and the new one is far better than the older ones. I know, I have been through 3 of their dish designs and the one I have now works great even during thunder storms. My old ones would drop out at the mere threat of a storm and if tree branch with leaves on it waved in front of the dish it would see break ups. Today my dish actually point up through trees, I do not have a clear view of the southern sky. I still get a 90+ on the satellite signal strength even going through trees. The only time I loose signal is when you get one of those storms where the sky is completely black and you have lots of lightening. I can always tell when one of those storms are coming from the southwest, the DTV will drop out about 10 minutes before the storm hits, but once the storm is over head DVT comes back online. Snow is another issue with the disk and if you get freezing rain or lots of snow you will need to clean off the dish. My disk is on the ground and at least one time a year I have clean it from a winter storm, most times it is just fine. If I had a roof mount dish I would put a cover or heater on the dish to deal with the snow.

The other feature which is nice is DVT has bigger HDD in their DVR so you can record more content and DVT also allows you to hook up an external HDD to record content. I have a 4TB drive on my DVR and I have never run out of space. Most of the Cable guys are still using a 500GB or maybe a 1TB.

Going back to the bad weather. I can tell you this, if you live in an area which has bad weather and your power and cable lines are on poles which get knock down with falling trees, it take the Cable guys a long time to get their lines back up. I been through a few storms where the cable was knock out for a week, but I was able to watch DVT as long as I had power. My neighbors who have Comcast and Verizon went without TV for almost two weeks, the cable guys would not credit their bills. I have cable for internet and we were out and we call asked for a credit and they said they are not responsible for acts of god and we were out of luck. Luckily we had power and could watch DTV.

I can also say, I never had a bad experience with DVT, one time when upgrading equipment they came out with older equipment but newer than I had and I should have refuse to allow them to install but I was having a party at the house and it was during football season and I could not go without having the newer equipment, after the party I called to complain and they kind of said too bad. I escalated the issue and week later they replace everything with their latest equipment and through in a few freebies for a year.

[TXSTYLE]

Well.... Looks like DirecTV FTW!

[bosstones]

Been with DirectTV for several years now. In stormy conditions, it is annoying if the picture cuts out but it does not happen very often. For reference, I'm in Chicago so we do get some good rain and snow storms.

Pricing was better than what we were getting from Comcast. Comcast went further down the hole after their channel lineup/package change several years back. I had HD, then they took that away after the change-up.....and claimed my box was not HD capable as being the reason I no longer had HD channels...

Wrt pricing...yeah, they've gone up. Annoying... However, I only get HBO for GoT and Silicon Valley and.....I haven't paid for it for a few years. I've managed to get onto a 3mo free incentive each time and just cancel it afterwards.

I still have Comcast for internet, though. It cuts our randomly here and there. Very annoying but I don't currently have a better alternative specifically where I am. I think it is related to spikes/noise on the line.

[E92 M Sport]

Had Dtv since 06. Yes, it gets pricey after a while for sure. Make sure you get a good alignment of the dish into the 90's and you should rarely lose signal. PQ is good and so is Sunday ticket, my primary reason for dumping cable yrs ago.

[larryn]

Dish Network subscriber for about 20 years. Original "America's Everything Package" subscriber and grandfathered in for that still. I basically get everything on 5 TVs, house wide DVR and integrated Slingbox. It's $120/mo, but in combination with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, I have waaay too many choices. I rarely lose reception, because it really doesn't snow in Seattle.

The only thing I do not like about Dish is that they get in pissing matches with content providers every damn year, or even multiple a year. For instance, we've been without Fox for weeks. Come fooball training, if it's not back, I'm switching to Direct TV.

Use Crapcast for internet, which is fast here >100Mbps, which gets me straming from all TV simultaneously if I wanted to. Granted there are only two of us in this house, so 5 TVs is kind of stupid...

[IndotagSwizz]

Originally Posted by Maestro

I have been with DirecTV since 97. I will also share back in the 90's I worked for the company who developed the compression/decompress equipment for Hughes who own DTV at the time. I also worked for the company who made most of the equipment the cable operators use today. DTV has been broadcasting all digital content since 95, when they first launched their product. The cable industry was still digitalizing analog signals until later 2007. Only in the last 5 yrs is the Cable content can be considered pure digital.

The fact I am still with DVT should tell you something. DVT video and audio quality is the best and it has been that way for a long time. Reason being their system does not rely on equipment which is different depending on install location. DVT has uses the same Digitizing and Compress Equipment in Colorado which it beamed up to a group of satellites then back down to earth to your house. In the cable world the headend equipment for each community they serve could be different, the cables to your house could be a year old or 20 yrs old. The equipment in your house could be from various generations of technology dating back more than 10 yrs. There are way too many variable in the Cable operations to guarantee a good signal and good picture and audio quality.

I know people have complained about DVT does not work when the weather is bad. This is true, however, most complaint about this are from 10 or more years ago. DVT had upgraded the dish in the last 7 yrs and the new one is far better than the older ones. I know, I have been through 3 of their dish designs and the one I have now works great even during thunder storms. My old ones would drop out at the mere threat of a storm and if tree branch with leaves on it waved in front of the dish it would see break ups. Today my dish actually point up through trees, I do not have a clear view of the southern sky. I still get a 90+ on the satellite signal strength even going through trees. The only time I loose signal is when you get one of those storms where the sky is completely black and you have lots of lightening. I can always tell when one of those storms are coming from the southwest, the DTV will drop out about 10 minutes before the storm hits, but once the storm is over head DVT comes back online. Snow is another issue with the disk and if you get freezing rain or lots of snow you will need to clean off the dish. My disk is on the ground and at least one time a year I have clean it from a winter storm, most times it is just fine. If I had a roof mount dish I would put a cover or heater on the dish to deal with the snow.

The other feature which is nice is DVT has bigger HDD in their DVR so you can record more content and DVT also allows you to hook up an external HDD to record content. I have a 4TB drive on my DVR and I have never run out of space. Most of the Cable guys are still using a 500GB or maybe a 1TB.

Going back to the bad weather. I can tell you this, if you live in an area which has bad weather and your power and cable lines are on poles which get knock down with falling trees, it take the Cable guys a long time to get their lines back up. I been through a few storms where the cable was knock out for a week, but I was able to watch DVT as long as I had power. My neighbors who have Comcast and Verizon went without TV for almost two weeks, the cable guys would not credit their bills. I have cable for internet and we were out and we call asked for a credit and they said they are not responsible for acts of god and we were out of luck. Luckily we had power and could watch DTV.

I can also say, I never had a bad experience with DVT, one time when upgrading equipment they came out with older equipment but newer than I had and I should have refuse to allow them to install but I was having a party at the house and it was during football season and I could not go without having the newer equipment, after the party I called to complain and they kind of said too bad. I escalated the issue and week later they replace everything with their latest equipment and through in a few freebies for a year.

cable getting knocked down by trees?? cable in my neighborhood comes all underground that's why is so reliable, is impossible to get knocked out by mother nature only way it can go out is by a technical issue, in Miami we have thunderstorms that come out of nowhere all the time and trees get easily knocked down often and for that reason everything runs underground including power

[sygazelle]

Directv is great. Way better picture quality in my experience than cable. I love the remote. It was actually designed by people who thought about how a user would want to use it. Novel concept.

I live in the Bay Area and never have issues with storm-related interference.

If you sign up, you will get things for free but start costing later if you don't cancel. Be sure cancel the freebees before they expire or your bill will grow.

All in all, I could not be happier going from cable to Directv.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by IndotagSwizz

cable getting knocked down by trees?? cable in my neighborhood comes all underground that's why is so reliable, is impossible to get knocked out by mother nature only way it can go out is by a technical issue, in Miami we have thunderstorms that come out of nowhere all the time and trees get easily knocked down often and for that reason everything runs underground including power

The problem in South Florida has always been Comcast's infrastructure and inability to properly maintain and service it. Historically, there have been many weak links, which have resulted in poor transmission or outages where I live. Calling for service never seemed to resolve the root problem. It may solve one out of twenty problems in the chain along the way to temporarily resolve an outage but they never seemed to be able to provide consistent quality of video delivery and always provided terrible service.

To their credit, (knock on wood) I have had minimal problems with their internet service since I went back to them for that but I don't think I would ever trust their reliability to go back to them for tv or phone. Additionally if interent service goes down temporarily nowadays I can use my iPhone as a hotspot so it isn't as painful unless out for an extended period.

[IndotagSwizz]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

The problem in South Florida has always been Comcast's infrastructure and inability to properly maintain and service it. Historically, there have been many weak links, which have resulted in poor transmission or outages where I live. Calling for service never seemed to resolve the root problem. It may solve one out of twenty problems in the chain along the way to temporarily resolve an outage but they never seemed to be able to provide consistent quality of video delivery and always provided terrible service.

To their credit, (knock on wood) I have had minimal problems with their internet service since I went back to them for that but I don't think I would ever trust their reliability to go back to them for tv or phone. Additionally if interent service goes down temporarily nowadays I can use my iPhone as a hotspot so it isn't as painful unless out for an extended period.

Depends on the area, I have Comcast in Hialeah at my business which is a very old infrastructure and it's awful, I also have Comcast at home in Pines Broward and its flawless my friends and I always watch all the games at my house. Best thing to do is to research your area before subscribing and see who's got the newest and most reliable infrastructure and go with that whether cable or dish

[UglyBuzzard]

Thanks all.
Any feedback from Cox customers or Direct TV in SoCal?

[RABAUKE]

Up here in the great white north we can get Fibre Optic (Fibe TV), never any interuptions because of snow or heavy rain, fantastic picture quality, you can pause a tv show, or restart it from the beginning. You can go back 30 hours and watch stuff you missed etc. But I suspect like everything else we pay way effin' more than you folks in the land of the free.

[csu87]

Just some rain and hail...

[WoohooSoCal]

Internet connection, smart tv, roku box, everything I want a la carte. I cut the cord 6 years ago, and couldn't be happier.

[eluded]

Don't be like the settlers

[zx10guy]

I've been with DirecTV since about 2002 or 2003. I've had many offers to switch to a full package with cable. I do have Comcast for cable since I need high speed due to work. Have to laugh at Verizon when I called to terminate service. "Sir, we do offer high speed DSL." Umm....is your upload speed still fixed at 768Kbps? "Yes". That's my problem. Silence....

Anyways, DirecTV has been pretty good to me over the years. They provide credits when there's a goof on their end. Offer up free HBO, Cinemax, Starz, etc periodically for the weekend. Seems like they constantly push technology with their equipment. But for those that say they have problems with snow on their dish, I haven't tried this but I was told spraying Pam on the dish helps to keep snow off of it. While I don't worry about this too much since my dish is on ground level on the side of my house on the garage wall, I may try this.

Also with the comment about cable being more reliable because the lines are underground, my development is pretty newish. The development was started around 2000. So all lines are underground. Yet during Sandy when power got knocked for us for 3 days, Comcast was out that entire time too. I had a UPS to power the cable modem and the modem couldn't establish a link back to the Comcast cable hub. As much as I slam DSL, the phone lines were still up and running which makes me wonder if DSL would have been up and running too.

[Templar]

Originally Posted by 1and1

When properly installed & aligned DTV signal is remarkably stable- we pull strong signal in the 98-100 range. We very very rarely lose signal, and when it does get that bad we typically start unplugging things due to lightning.





Might want to try it again- we get a $30 credit on our bill just cause we call and asked. We call every year when the credit expires.





That's for three receivers, each with it's own DVR, one is a genie DVR, so we can record up to 9 different things at once if needed- main room, college student son's bedroom and master bedroom.

That's the thing... That is your total credit, but what is each for? You may be eligible for things I'm not simply due to equipment differences. I only have three boxes, two are small regular ones and one is the genie and I have the whole home DVR.

I mean I called two weeks ago and begged for something to lower my bill because it is too high for what little we have (no premiums, Choice package, just three boxes and whole home DVR) and the best they would do is $5 off per month. Now they did tell me to give it a month or two and call back and there may be something better, but I won't hold my breath.

The bottom line is to go with the best quality for the best price, and as a new customer Directv will be it for sure. But later on, you may reconsider when your bill has doubled. That's not just Directv though, that's really any company out there.

As I move every few years or so, I can easily switch back and forth and get the best deal. The only reason I kept Directv when I moved last time was because I got NFL Sunday Ticket for free and watched a fair amount of games. Believe me, internet and TV options will be a factor in my next choice of living location.

[1and1]

Well, here's a better look, maybe it'll help.

For a company that answers customer service calls with "Thank you for being a loyal customer since 2002, how can I help you today" I suspect being a short timer is hurting you more than helping when it comes to requesting a discount.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by IndotagSwizz

cable getting knocked down by trees?? cable in my neighborhood comes all underground that's why is so reliable, is impossible to get knocked out by mother nature only way it can go out is by a technical issue, in Miami we have thunderstorms that come out of nowhere all the time and trees get easily knocked down often and for that reason everything runs underground including power

That is because everything in the northeast is on poles, However, all the utilities in my housing plan are underground too, but once they leave the plan they are back up on poles, and they is where you have the problem. Plus cables under ground are not immune to issues.

Cable systems are inherently unreliable and the cable company put in very little redundancy in their systems so it fill with single points of failure. DTV issues are stray space debris taking our more than one of their satellites and sun spots which may fry a Satellite or two. Everything at the Colorado Facility is redundant and highly reliable.