Here’s the deal. I live in an apartment in Northern VA (Arlington) and am currently subscribing to cable through the evil known as Comcast (have no choice). My roommate and I are looking into getting DirecTV. From what I can see, for our one TV we can get more channels than we get with cable for about ten dollars a month less. So we decided to throw in a Sports Package. So now we will get our local sports networks (he’s from NY, I’m from SoCal) so he can watch the Knicks and Mets when he wants to and I can watch the Angels and Lakers whenever. We think this is a pretty good deal.
So what am I missing? We are looking at a special package where we get the equipment and the installation for free with our package.
Any problems I should be aware of? Anything particular to Arlington that causes problems with dishes that I should be aware of? Otherwise it looks completely worth it.
Plus, we never have to deal with the raging evil that is Comcast ever again.
I highly recommend getting a DirecTV-TIVO receiver if you decide to get satellite service. If you are a first time customer you can get them for about the same price as a standard receiver, but in addition you get about 25hrs of recording time and Dolby Digital sound.
I’ve had DirectTV for over 5 years, have never regretted it, and highly recommend it. But with one warning: the merger with Echostar (Dish Networks) was rejected by the FCC. The rejection is being appealed, but DirectTV’s future is still somewhat up in the air: GM/Hughes wants to unload it, and the only other buyer I know of is Rupert Murdoch. If that happens, I’m bailing to Dish, if for no other reason than to avoid “all Fox News Channel, all the time.”
One thing’s for sure—I am not going back to the ECC (Evil Cable Company) (in this area, AT&T).
I got a deal with DirecTV and Ultimate TV (not TiVo, but very much like it) – we got the receiver for around $50 after a rebate. DirecTV is great but when it rains or snows heavily you can have reception problems.
If you take your sports watching seriously at all, you should definitely consider getting TiVo/Ultimate TV. The live TV rewind is worth it.
Yeah, you need to have a view of the south west sky to get the sats. At least in IL, you need SW. In VA it might be more due S or something. In any event, you have to be able to point the dish at some part of the sky and what part you need I suppose depends on your lat and long. If your apartment faces north, you may have issues. Just something to think about.
The DirecTV satellites (four of them to date) are located in geostationary orbital slots from 100.8 to 101.2 degrees west longitude. This places them roughly in line with Texas. So, if you’re east of 100 degrees, you’ll be pointing south to southwest (depending on how far east you are) and if you’re west of 100 degrees, you’ll be pointing south to southeast, depending on how far west you are.
Somthing else to think about is how far north you are as well. The farther north, the lower in the sky (closer to the horizon) the satellites will appear to your location. A person may not have a problem “seeing” the satellite past a 75 foot tree in Louisiana, but may very well not be able to see past that tree in Minnesota.
Out here in the pacific northwest, we point well southeast and at about 28 degrees up for DirecTV.
(the service is great, by the way, I was a very satisfied customer for a long time before I decided that it was too expensive - I watch TV for free now over the air with a regular old fashioned TV antenna.)
Hmmmm…that is definitely a major problem then. I live on the third floor of a ten storey high rise. And I live on the east wing facing north. So the only thing it would get if we pointed it south west is 7 storeys of concrete. If we ask the installer, do you think they’ll tell us the truth about how the reception will come in?
Maybe they’ll stick it on the roof or something. If it’s on the roof it won’t be a problem.
We had it for about a year. To be honest, it was… okay. I didn’t like the fact you couldn’t get true “local forecasts” on the Weather Channel, they had a DirecTv version that I.did.not.like.
Plus, the reception went out a lot more than they said it would. Almost any kind of rain seemed to block the signal, even though in clear weather our signal was at about 98%. If it snowed, you had to keep going out and either climb on the roof or use a push broom to sweep the snow off the dish. So if there was a BIG storm approaching, the kind where you want to turn to the Weather Channel and see how it’s moving, etc… you couldn’t, because the reception went out!
Plus, there was one time our bill had an adult movie charged. But the thing was, no one was even home at the time it was supposedly ordered! When the customer service line was called, if they had just said politely, “I’m sorry, but we’re unable to remove that from your bill blah blah”, it would only have been minorly irritating. But they tried to make it sound like we were porno weasels trying to get our kicks for free.
Although, and I’m being quite serious, if your only choice is DirecTv or Comcast take DirecTv! Good God, Comcast is evil around here. Thank God we have WideOpenWest around here to compete.
The reception is either there or it isn’t. It isn’t like analog tv where you get good reception on some channels and bad reception on others. I am sure the install people can tell you more, and I’d be surprised if the landlord would let you use the roof.
Did I mention how really awesome DirecTv is? It is so cool! I don’t know how anyone could live without it! Especially if you like sports, and if you can get a Tivo, well, you’ll never want to leave….
<yeah, I’m an ass>
I’ve had Directv for over 2 years now, and have only minor complaints. First, the aforementioned problems with reception are accurate. Fortunately, where I live in CA it’s sunny most of the time, or at least the rain isn’t too bad when it happens. But a serious rain shower will cause the reception to go.
I also don’t like not getting local forecasts on the weather channel, but that’s no big deal, I use the internet for my weather.
I have NEVER had a problem with their customer service, which is almost unimaginable given other “utility”-type customer service.
You’d have to get your landlord’s permission to place the dish on the roof, and that might be very hard to get. DirecTV will NOT work through concrete walls, AT ALL. It may work through a window if that helps. Otherwise I’d think you’re out of luck.
Neurotik - you may very well be out of luck given your position on the building. And yes, the installers will check it out before they go to any trouble doing the install - although they may charge you for the visit, I don’t know. The person selling it to you should (note the word should) ask you about the general direction you face, whether you have a clear view of the southern sky, etc.
OTOH, have you looked in to the possibility that your building may already have a satellite installation installed and available to tenants? Multi-tenant building systems are becoming more common, it seems, if I base that on calls we get about satellite a the TV station.
What about Hi-Definition broadcasts? I’m looking into getting a widescreen hdtv, but my cable company (Comcast…ptooie!) doesn’t broadcast in hdtv. If I were to get Dish or DirectTV would I then enjoy the widescreen richness and clarity I see on the electronics store showroom floor?
We have had both Dish And Direct. We currently have Direct TV. We switched because of the sports packages Direct offered, and (at the time) Dish did not broadcast in HDTV. Dish also mistakenly double billed us once in awhile, and the customer service wasn’t great when we tried to get it figured out. Max Carnage - yes, with Direct TV we get HDTV broadcasts. Not every channel yet, but the stuff that does come in HD is great.
I’ve had it for about 3 years, and have been real happy with it. The customer service has been great, and I only lose the signal in VERY heavy rains.
The only thing I miss are my local channels. Since the cable company won’t run a line to my house (too far off the road) and my small antenna barely picks anything up, I’ll need to install a pole at least 30’ high for a large antenna to get them.
I have DishNetwork instead of Direct TV, and I never want to go back to Cable. Right now we are having trouble with our reception, but that is due to some roofers messing with the dish’s position, or something. We intend to get someone out here to fix it soon.
One thing that is interesting—with our reception being all wacky because of the roofer messing with the dish, we sometimes get no stations, sometimes just get some stations (but not all) and sometimes we get all. Weird.
I love the fact that there is so much variety to what we get (better than Comcast). Also, as a Californian exiled in Hooterville, I like that we get L.A.'s KTLA. We also get KNBC (Channel 4) but who knows how long that will last. There was some ruling or bullshit a while back that said that you can’t get distant networks if your local network didn’t sign a waiver (or at least did not refuse a waiver request). So far our local Hooterville NBC station hasn’t refused (and it’s been 7 months since the waiver was submitted), so for now we get to see Paul Moyer and Colleen Williams report the news on KNBC.
Boscibo, did you have to get a special, more expensive dish? I’ve heard tale that it takes a dish with three of them there sticky-out parts. And it costs more. What’s the poop?