Directv opinions

Got a letter in the mail the other day saying we were grandfathered in a price the cable company did not like so they were upping our rate, then were tacking a sports fee on top of it. It did not raise the rate that much but it is the principle of the thing. So we are thinking about directv.

After research and thought I figured I would ask what experiences people have had with directv.

I've had them since January '14
couldn't be happier with the customer service....all of 10 minutes having to talk to them. Yeah..in 9 months I've called them one time and it was to see about internet service.

I have not had one single issue with the service or equipment. Yes.. the signal does go out when a storm rolls through, but longest it has ever been out at one time is roughly 10 minutes. When the worst of the storm passes over it goes out, once the worst of the storm has passed it's back on.

As of this moment I foresee myself as a looooong time customer.

I have been with them 12 or 13 years. In that entire time I've only had one issue. I often recommend them, their service is top notch.

It really depends on what you like, but I absolutely refuse to pay for TV. Everything I need can be picked up with my old-fashioned antenna on the roof. If you're really into sports I could maybe see the need to get something that may not be broadcast on the major network. To me, cable or satellite TV is a vast wasteland. There are plenty of other options with internet streaming, too. You can target and pick what you want. You'll pay for this, but it's not as much and you'll be getting exactly what you want.

There was a time when I thought I couldn't live without 100+ channels, but believe me, you can. Try going without it. Financially you'll be a little better off. Your life might get a little better, too. Mine did. Don't be a slave to that box.

Don

Had them for 10-12 years and couldn't be happier. Had dish for a year prior and they are directvs best seller.

Black Adder said:

It really depends on what you like, but I absolutely refuse to pay for TV. Everything I need can be picked up with my old-fashioned antenna on the roof. If you're really into sports I could maybe see the need to get something that may not be broadcast on the major network. To me, cable or satellite TV is a vast wasteland. There are plenty of other options with internet streaming, too. You can target and pick what you want. You'll pay for this, but it's not as much and you'll be getting exactly what you want.

There was a time when I thought I couldn't live without 100+ channels, but believe me, you can. Try going without it. Financially you'll be a little better off. Your life might get a little better, too. Mine did. Don't be a slave to that box.

Don

Click to expand...

I can certainly understand this. over 100 channels and I rotate between 5-8 only.

I've got about 20 movies on my DVR that I've recorded though, just waiting for me to watch one day.

I had them for three years, and Dishnetwork for eight. I had good cust service from both, although I'd heard of more problems with DN from coworkers who had them. I went back to OTA a year ago. Simply am not around enough to justify the cost.

If you're in a northern/snow state, consider having the dish mounted on a pole. It wasn't often, but my dish would get blocked with snow. It happened more so with the wetter snow...easier access to clean it if at ground level. And yes, heavier rain interferes. I'd just watch something I had DVR'd.

I guess I am the lone dissenter. I had them for six months here in FL. The Internet was S-L-O-W and they said this was normal for the area. And with all of the storms we have in FL, we had no service many times a day. When our trial period ended, so did our account. We went to cable which was more expensive but much more reliable. I think a lot depends on where you live. Also, be careful of long term contracts. My brother-in-law moved and could not get out of his contract unless he was willing to pay $20 a month for the 18 months remaining on his contract.

DirecTV is the best TV service out there, it just becomes a bit pricey once the promo rates expire. But it's easy enough to call every so often and re-negotiate rates.

I've had DirecTV since 2001 and am very happy with it. I've never had problems with equipment or service.

I have a pretty basic standard definition package of about 150 channels and three DVR's in separate structures, each with their own dish. It's nothing fancy like their whole house DVR or Genie systems, but is enough for me.

Recently I added the Off Air (i.e. antenna interface) to the DVR and it works like a champ for picking up channels like 11.2 & 11.3 whereas the local channels via satellite only gave me what was on 11.1.

It's kind of a pain having to run a line in from each LNB to each receiver. For a while I was in an apartment that was previously wired with Dish Network, which only requires a single cable through the wall. Thus I was only able to record one program at a time.

One of my dishes loses signal in more storms than the other two. It's the only one that was installed professionally. I think he just didn't do as good a job at pointing the dish as I did myself.

Both of the dishes I did myself are mounted to a standard metal fence post from a chain link fence. It puts the dish above most of snow drifts, but it's low enough that if blowing snow accumulates on the dish I can clean it off with a broom.

Hooking the DVR to the home network lets me access a lot of free on demand programming as well as YouTube videos. I've found that to be really handy.

The internet through DirecTV was less than thrilling. It was slower than dial up AOL when using the VPN for work, but did regular browsing OK. My internet got split fromt he DirecTV to HughesNet. They created an unresolvable billing issue about the time that DSL came to my rural neighborhood, so it was a no-brainer to make the switch.

My brother and sister both have DirecTV as well and thoroughly enjoy it. He has some movie channels in his package and multiple networked DVRs. She has even less than I have, getting her local channels by set top antenna and minimal DVR usage.

My father has DishNetwork and is VERY unhappy with the pricing and programming selections. He has no DVR. He won't really say what he's unhappy about with it, though, so I can't be much help there.

If this is your first foray into satellite TV there are a few differences between it and cable you might not be aware of.

On-demand: Probably the largest difference. DTV can't really pipe you a movie when YOU want (though they have some tricks around that) so they typically have 2-4 "slots" of the same film, each starting 30 minutes apart, so usually you just need to wait a little bit for the film to start (or record it on the DVR and watch it later). So the selection is limited, and there isn't much of a library.

Local feeds: Unless you are near a big(ish) city/town, you may not get your local feed, just the feed from the closest town to you. And you can usually get both east and west coast feeds, so you have some latitude for watching network stuff or other major networks.

It helps to have a phone line or internet connection for your sat receiver. This allows it to communicate back to DTV which makes ordering movies much easier (otherwise you have to call, use the text feature, or use a computer). I find it much smoother on cable. An internet connection may allow you access to the DTV digital library, otherwise a DTV subscription usually lets you access it with a computer.

Internet: You are usually offered a DSL service with DTV. You are not typically locked in to this though, and can use another ISP if you want (usually costs more $$$ though), same with land line phone service.

Overall I'm happy with DTV over most of the cable services I've used. Nothing would make me happier than to see the cable company monopoly crushed in this country, along with there chokehold on internet delivery. Ain't gonna happen anytime soon though....

My 2 cents...having been down this road and having price shopped DirecTV vs. our cable (Time Warner).

Call your cable company and ask to cancel the service. Be persistent until they connect you to the Customer Retention Department. Then, continue to request cancellation. The Customer Retention Rep will lower your cable package cost until it's a win-win. It's the way the game is played.

In our case, going with DirecTV was going to cost us more, and internet access was going to be a step down in speed, and would still cost us more. There was no advantage in switching to DirecTV except the satisfaction of dumping Time Warner. In reality, staying with Time Warner was a better and more cost effective way to go.

Have had Directv for a number of years. Have remained happy with their service and rates, though we do not get the premium channels nor the internet. Very responsive at all kinds of hours for troubleshooting over the phone, and fast to replace defective equipment. Only "problem" I had was lack of responsive once early on because, as I found out later, they physically did not have the new personnel trained at their Omaha branch to meet demand.

if you have cable internet, you will likely be downgrading to DSL with a satellite service.
Picture quality - so long as no storms - is as good as, if not better than cable.
Video on demand stuff, much bigger library with cable (dependent on operator)
Customer service, generally better than the cable companies.
Cost per 2 year period - do the math, and as tvad said, haggle with the cable guys, then do the math again. Include at least 2 years so that you're past the promo rates and take into account termination fees.

Above all else...make sure you have a clear line of sight to the South!

Sure wish there was a way to just get the channels we watch. We watch maybe 10 and of that 7 regularly. If streaming was an option I would happily do that but our internet here sucks. Super slow. All internet and TV is microwaved in even the cable.

In fact I think our cable company piggy backs off a dishnetwork satalite. It went out once and the TV said "DISH is attempting to solve the problem as fast as possible"

It's not an easy situation. The best you can do is crunch the numbers on a DirecTV deal (be sure to add the cost of internet if that's part of your cable package), and then contact your cable company and use the cancellation technique to wrangle their best deal. Only then will you know where you stand from a cost standpoint. If your decision goes beyond cost, then only you can decide what service offers the best value/service.

New subscriber here and so far, we are pleased and hope that it remains that way.

Frank

I have direcTV mostly for the Red Zone package. My reception is very good, service drops >5 times per year, and almost always comes back within 10 minutes. Less often than my Time Warner supplied modem has to be rebooted or drops it's signal. Any time I have had to contact them, their services has been helpful and prompt.

IMO, However the cost is too high, and their receivers are infuriatingly slow.

Black Adder said:

It really depends on what you like, but I absolutely refuse to pay for TV. Everything I need can be picked up with my old-fashioned antenna on the roof. If you're really into sports I could maybe see the need to get something that may not be broadcast on the major network. To me, cable or satellite TV is a vast wasteland. There are plenty of other options with internet streaming, too. You can target and pick what you want. You'll pay for this, but it's not as much and you'll be getting exactly what you want.

There was a time when I thought I couldn't live without 100+ channels, but believe me, you can. Try going without it. Financially you'll be a little better off. Your life might get a little better, too. Mine did. Don't be a slave to that box.

Don

Click to expand...

+1000! I was paying my DirecTV bill one month and realized I had turned the TV on between 5-10 times that month. Enough was enough! I cancelled the service, went to Wal-Mart and picked up a digital antennae that sits on my TV (it gets about 20 local channels and is as clear as satellite/cable) and never looked back. If I feel the need to watch something I can stream programs from PBS or get sports from a variety of sites.

If you end up going the "over the air" route keep in mind that most new flat panel TV's have a digital tuner built in. So no need to buy one.

I just don't know if I can do without AMC, History, and HBO.