Okay, I got my bill from the cable company and once again, I have realized what a rip-off cable is. They screwed up my bill and I’m past the point of wanting to get it straightened out.
Thus, we’re thinking of getting Direct TV or some such. Anyone have it? Comments? Concerns? Likes? Dislikes? I know you can’t get local channels but I can’t remember the last time I watched a local channel. We’re usually on TLC, Discovery Channel or VH1.
Any recommendations on where to buy it, where not to buy it, etc. etc.
Any Dopers with experience out there? (Direct TV experience, that is!)
I just got rid of DirecTV and went with DishNetwork.
Several reasons: I don’t want all the sports channels that are on DirectTV. I prefer to watch movies, some sitcoms. DirecTV is more expensive that Dish. In my area DirecTV didn’t carry the local stations, Dish does. Of course AFTER I disconnted DirecTV they informed me that I could get the local stations, and that I could upgrade my equipment for free. I told the guy that DirecTV should have informed me of this before I went out and bought a Dish. But I would have switched anyway. I hate DirecTV. So now I have Dish, clearer picture, more channels, cheaper prices. If you are really interested, visit both sites on the Net. That’s what I did and I decided to switch. I bought my Dish…at Sears, in two months Dish will automatically issue me a rebate check for the Dish, and you have to agree to carry at least $40 in channels a month, which is ok because I carry about $55, which is for more channels and less money that I was doing at DirecTV.
I have made out great with Direct TV- outside of the lack of local channels (which they are adding to a lot of metropolitain areas), I’ve never had a service issue, billing problem, or other hassle. If you need customer service, they pick up quickly when you call. We installed the system ourselves, and didn’t have trouble finding a good signal. The billing is easy to understand. It beats the shit out of cable- (I hate Time Warner).
Your milage may vary, but I’ve made out great with Direct TV. They offer channels like Odyssey (which carries the Muppet show) and Biography, which are interesting. Also History Channel, Discovery, Animal Planet.
I suggest you pop by their respective websites and look at the packages they offer and how much it will cost you monthly to get what you want. Also, at Christmas time, you may get to take advantage of a free install or possibly free months of service- check that out, too.
I had cable. Got DishNetwork. Switched to Directv. Love it. Won’t go back to cable — EVER. It is great. All the channels you could ever want at a fraction of the price of cable.
FWIW, most programming on Dish and Directv is basically the same. Dish has a superstation package that Directv doesn’t have but other than that it is basically the same.
I love my DirecTV. I get my local channels. I like sports and they got aplenty. And I agree with Zette, I’ve never had a billing problem or gripe. And when I call the customer support, they use their caller ID and know who I am and have my account pulled up when they get on the phone, which is very quickly. Plus lately, there have been a bunch of free PPV concerts and specials. Cable sux, satellite rules.
Oh, I forgot about that- every month for a while now they’ve had free concerts on Direct TV- So far I’ve seen:
Hanson at the Filmore (which was very good, believe it or not)
Peter Frampton
Sting
Alanis Morisette
Clay Walker
(there are more, I’m sure- but you get the point). They change it every month, so that’s nice, too.
Thanks for the input, all. I’m thinking we’ll be able to do this after the beginning of the year (read: after Christmas!). I’ve taken a peek at their websites and will check into it at my local radio shack.
I am <cue fanfare> an Authorized Installer for DSS systems <fanfare trails off into the sound of a wet leather trombone>. Installation is trivial unless you want (or must) put the dish in some ridiculously inaccessible location. When I installed mine (which I have been very happy with, BTW) I mounted it on my chimney (mounting kits are available for that) and had it set up and running in about an hour. It helps to have 2 people–one aiming the dish and one monitoring the signal on-screen.
Sure Bunny, try ebay.com they have tons of used dishes cheap. Also surplusauction.com [watch out for high shipping] often has them for real cheap prices…I also bought one but I need local channels & I was getting dizzy reading all the packages you could get.
Got Direct TV. No gripes at all. Some things to consider.
My system bombs out when we get that occasional thunderstorm. Can’t recieve anything, tho the signal breakups are fun to watch. (Hey… her head and body are on two different sides… Wow.)
Local channels. If this is a big thing for you, check it out. I don’t care, so my old fashioned Rabbit ears pull the signal in well enough for me, as my local stations aren’t, and probably won’t be available. But them I’m in a small market.
They have more channels than you’ll need. I get like 6 HBO’s and all the Encore package for what normal cable would cost here. But if you really decided you need to see every, say, Hockey game in existence, they’ll be happy to hook you up.
Service has been good, and the system has worked fine. They came and installed it, which was the deal at the time. Beat climbing on the roof myself.
ultress summed up the difference between Direct TV and Dish Network pretty well. Movies vs. Sports.
You can’t beat Direct TV for Sports. Currently I have NFL Ticket, which rocks. I also am enjoying a free preview of NBA League Pass, so for one week I will see all the NBA games. The free movie previews and concerts are excellent.
As mentioned above the service is excellent. I hooked my system up on a Sunday Night and called to get programming turned on and lo and behold there was someone there.(Try that with cable) Took about 5 minutes and we were up and running.
Check out their respective websites for programming options. Also they should list any specials they have. I purchased my system from Walmart.
Things to know:
Thunderstorms = no programming for a short time(probably the same with snow but I got mine in February last year and it basically never snowed again.(I’m serious)
Local channels will require an antenna most likely. If your local station’s signal is deemed to low you can pay like 1.17 a month for the national feed for that network.
If you want to watch separate programs on different TV’s you will need additional receivers.
If you want to use the PIP on your TV you will need 2 receivers for that TV alone.
Setup isn’t bad if you are at all handy. If you aren’t see if you can swing a free install deal or find someone you know to set it up. I did mine at our rental and replaced the existing Primestar dish. Setup was a piece of cake!! But definitely have 2 people for finding the signal!!
In closing the cable company can kiss my shiny white ass!!!
I’ve had DirecTV for a little over 2 years, and I love it. When I found out that they’d be adding local channels to the L.A. area, I nearly had an orgasm.
I installed myself. The only thing I found to be a problem was angling to the dish to the right long/lat coordinates. It took me about an hour just tweaking it right and left, up and down, until finally, the signal hit.
Like Balance has pointed out, 2 people are really helpful for this. I thought I could be cool and do it myself, but in the end, I needed a friend’s help. As for everything else though, it was pretty much hassle free.
The only thing I had to get from the hardware store were some masonry drill bits to drill through the house for the co-ax cable. Everything else is included with this installation kit they have (which you get for free under some plan of theirs).
First of all we DO like the sports channels. After we ordered the sports package they had some trouble with it. It kept telling us that we needed to order what we already should have been getting. They finally got that worked out.
Secondly, they have recently added our local channels as an option. When asking for more details about this, we were told then (not when they were selling us on Direct TV and we were purchasing their equipment) that we will need to upgrade our equipment to get the local channels. When my husband complained about not being explained this while they were selling us this and telling us that “local channels are coming” we were given 3 months of the Showtime package which includes Sundance, Flix, both The Movie Channels, and all of the Showtimes. Of course, I would never purchase this package because everytime we have complained about anything, this is the package that they give us to make us happy. Out of all of those channels, we usually find one thing to watch every 5 or 6 weeks.
Another thing we like, is the family package. It has Discovery Kids, PBS Kids, and Noggin that my kids watch a lot.
Another thing we like is BBC America. Everyone that I know with cable, including digital cable, does not have BBC America.
Also apparently some places cannot get rock channels like MTV or VH1 on their cable. YIKES! Anyway, we get VH1, MTV and MTV2, and Much Music. Sometimes VH1 actually plays some videos, even!
We don’t really miss the local channels all that much. Well, we can pick up the Fox and NBC affiliates almost all of the time with our power rabbit ears, so we’re not completely cut-off.
This is based on how high of a signal you get when you aim your dish. The higher the signal, the less often it goes out during a thunderstorm. My signal is about 97 and it has to be a torrential downpour for me to lose my signal. And even then it only is out between 1-3 minutes. YMMV.
I’m also a supporter of DirectTV, signal hardly ever goes out here, I think once in the year I’ve owned it. Right now, Best Buy has an add for a dish with free installation for like $89. You should check your local stores. Best of luck.
I got my dish from http://www.onsale.com back when it was truly an auction site, for $9.99 w/ a commitment to have at least one year of at least $19.99 service (which is the basic service). No problems with it whatsoever. In fact, I just found what I’m hoping is a perminant fluke: I hadn’t hooked it into the phone jack, which is necessary to authorize movie I believe, yet I’ve still been able to. Unless the dish can transmit itself (which it shouldn’t, it’s s’posed to be only a receiver) Woohoo, free pay-per-view!
You should check whether or not your area has fiber-optic cable available, it’s damn near the same thing and in somecases, it’s a touch better.
thinksnow, you have a fluke. We don’t have ours hooked up to the phone line. We have to call them when we want a pay-per-view and they turn it on somehow without us hooking up the phone-line.
