Direct TV...Discuss.

[katrina1122]

Are you happy with it? Does it go out if it rains, is windy, etc?

We are looking to save money on cable...we have Fios right now but Comcast is not much less. Direct TV is about half. Of course we'd need internet still, but are in research phase. Dish does us no good as it does not have the Yes network and only has Philly stations. We live in an odd spot in NJ where we get Philly and NYC stations for all the networks. Direct still has this option. We don't see paying for Dish if we can't get that. DH watches both for sports, but we prefer Philly stations for local news.

We are also thinking of dropping it all together and going the Hulu+ route.

Any thoughts?

 

[luvsJack]

We have direct.

I like it as well as anything else we have had.

It does go out when its raining sometimes and it takes longer to come back up than Dish did.

 

[GaBelle]

We have had Directv for 11 yrs. Overall we have been very happy. Here's the good:
Great selection of channels especially sports, responsive customer service, no crazy fluctuations with monthly bill, frequently offers various perks such as free PPV movies.
The bad:
Yes, bad weather can and will disrupt your service. Heavy rain, heavy snow, strong wind.
From time to time when DirecTV is negotiating contracts with various media companies, one of their tactics is to drop the company completely. They almost always work it out and usually without it disrupting service. But I think it was last year, we didn't have Nickolodean channels for over a month while they had their little pissing contest.

 

[FireDancer]

I have DirecTv and recommend it. Yes, there are occasions where the weather will interfere with the signal but it is rare. If I had to guess I bet it happens about once a year.

The issue with the contract negotiations happens to everyone so while DirecTv has had their share of those situations they've had no more then cable providers.

Remember to check on the packages from time to time though. I was just able to save about $13 because they updated their XTRA package to include the channels I used to pay extra for in the Sports Pack.

 

[Planogirl]

We switched from Dish to DirecTv and couldn't be happier. I love the ability to record and have premium channels for the same price as what we paid at Dish. I'm referring to regular price and not the special prices you start out with.

We do lose the signal when a bad storm comes through but only briefly. I don't think that there's any way around that.

By the way, we have Hulu+ that we watch through the Xbox and it is very moody. It locks up sometimes or just spins. It's great too sometimes but very inconsistent. Maybe it's our connection or the Xbox....

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We are Directv customers and we are very satisfied. We went to Dish before, because Directv wouldn't give us free HD. Dish was a mistake. We went back to Directv and they gave us the free HD like Dish was offering. Everything seems to just "work" with Directv for us: the DVR is easy to understand and I can use it (unlike what we had from Dish that would take an engineer from MIT to figure out), it has been reliable, it is a very rare occasion for the weather to knock it out. It takes a really hard rain to make that happen. When it does, the outage is very brief.

 

[sam_gordon]

High wind (unless approaching hurricane strength) should not knock out satellite service. Heavy rain and snow (not even necessarily at your location, but to your south) could. The amount of weather knockouts you get will depend on where you are located and how well the dish is installed. Just because FireDancer only gets knocked out once a year, doesn't mean the same will happen to you.

I'm guessing by the time you add internet back in, you won't be saving a lot of money. Since Dish Network doesn't provide you the stations you want, don't even comparison shop with them. However, keep in mind with ANY provider (sat or cable), they can change what channels you can receive at any time (it's contingent on the contract between the sat/cable *** and the channel owners).

 

[sam_gordon]

We are Directv customers and we are very satisfied. We went to Dish before, because Directv wouldn't give us free HD. Dish was a mistake. We went back to Directv and they gave us the free HD like Dish was offering. Everything seems to just "work" with Directv for us: the DVR is easy to understand and I can use it (unlike what we had from Dish that would take an engineer from MIT to figure out), it has been reliable, it is a very rare occasion for the weather to knock it out. It takes a really hard rain to make that happen. When it does, the outage is very brief.

I don't know what DVR you had from Dish, but my kids figured out very quick how to record shows and watch them later.

 

[kellyjeanie]

We're happy with DirecTV. We had cable before and while DirecTV is sometimes affected by weather, we would sometimes inexplicably lose cable so I figure it's about the same.

 

[FireDancer]

High wind (unless approaching hurricane strength) should not knock out satellite service. Heavy rain and snow (not even necessarily at your location, but to your south) could. The amount of weather knockouts you get will depend on where you are located and how well the dish is installed. Just because FireDancer only gets knocked out once a year, doesn't mean the same will happen to you.

Yes, the quality of the installation makes a world of difference. Not only how well secured the dish itself is but how well it is aimed. There is a range at which the signal will be received and the closer to the center of that rage (in both azimuth and elevation) you are aiming the less chance you will be knocked out by anything other than dense cloud cover.

Of course you might have line of sight issues too. I can't get HD because the line of sight needed for that is blocked by a large tree. I don't care about HD so it isn't an issue for me but those kinds of things come into play.

Also, while it is illegal and had been ruled as such for a landlord or HOA to forbid satellite dishes you might have some rules involving their installation and/or a security deposit you have to pay so check into that too.

 

[hlg22]

I had it for several years at my old house before switching back to Comcast when I moved. It was generally fine - would go out with strong storms or snow which was a little annoying...right when there's a severe weather warning and you want to be keeping tabs on things, the signal would go out, but the outage would end as soon as the worst of the storm passed. I did have one or two times where the signal went out because of a problem with the dish, which was mounted on the top of my 3-story townhouse so I couldn't just go try to fix it myself, that they did come out and fix pretty promptly.

If your dish is going to be mounted somewhere you can't access it yourself, you may want to consider how much snow your area gets. Once, due to a series of snowstorms, my neighbors who also had DirecTv lost their signal for a month. The dish (again, on top of a 3-story townhouse) had filled with snow and their house was on the shady side of the street so they didn't get enough sun to melt it before it would snow again. DirecTV (reasonably) wouldn't get on a super tall ladder to get up there and clear it off until the snow melted.

 

[wiigirl]

I have had it for years and love it. The only reason I will drop it is when Google Fiber gets to my neighborhood.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We have had DirecTV for almost 7 years now and are happy with it. It does go out in heavy rain, but that's not really that often.

My wife and son like a out-of-area football team, so we buy NFL Sunday Ticket every year, and DirecTV is the only service that offers it.

During Sandy, they came by and realigned our dish for free, which I thought was great.

 

[heatherleigh]

My husband has been wanting to ditch Comcast and get direct. I recently read abt this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/14/jeremy-beach-directv-bill-house-burns-fire_n_3442255.html

Bad customer svc, which gave me second thoughts. We live in fire territory, so It can affect me one day.

 

[ThisIsJason]

My parents got DirecTV back in September 1994 (service launched in June 1994). My dad says he only needs both of his hands to count how many times service has been lost for more than 5 minutes over those years. As others have said it depends on how well the install/alignment is done. My wife and I switch to DirecTV about 2 years ago after having U-verse (in my area it went out way to much). Have been really happy with it.

Also, while it is illegal and had been ruled as such for a landlord or HOA to forbid satellite dishes you might have some rules involving their installation and/or a security deposit you have to pay so check into that too.

FCC ruling states that is illegal also. One of the satellite forums had a huge thread about a guy having a problem with his complex of it.

 

[katrina1122]

Interesting, thanks everyone!

We are the tallest house on the block as we are 3 stories and the top of the hill so line of site should be fine. No HOA as I live in a city and there's not an ordinance against satellite dishes; they line our street actually. Snow in it could be a problem depending on the direction it faces, as could winds. Being the highest point on the street we do get hit. We lost a portion of roof during Sandy and we are 50 miles inland.

We left Comcast for Verizon fios because our Comcast was out constantly (Phone, tv and internet). After 2 years of problems when fios came in we switched, Comcast admitted at that point that my neighborhood had underground cable issues and they knew there was a significant problem with service there. (Um, why keep coming out to "fix" it then by replacing the box?) Fios was offering an awesome deal to switch to phone, internet, fiber optic cable so we did (FYI we can get NFL Sunday Ticket on FIOS to person who thinks it's only on Direct TV). Anyway, it's been about 4 years now with amazing service, but the deal is long since gone and it's gotten stupidly expensive. I am going on disability retirement in August so we need to cut expenses.

We can drop home phone we both have cells with super cheap plans since DH has been with the same company almost 20 years now, but it's cheaper to have it with Fios then not. We've checked Comcast their rates aren't much less than fios...they claim the cableing issues are fixed
Again cheaper to keep home phone packaged in.

Direct tv has a deal with Verizon (who does Fios) to have direct with Verizon internet, but we can't seem to get a straight answer if we are eligible for it since we can have fios at our house.

Hulu+ could work for tv shows, but isn't good for news/sports and history/discovery channel type things which is all dh pretty much watches. We could go that route, but I've read it can have significant streaming issues so it may be more frustrating than the money saved.

Do you have to rent the box with direct tv or is it included? We would need the hd as our TV's are hd and the one doesn't seem to handle non-hd picture very well at all. Then, we could live with squirmy picture if we had to.

Gah!!! lol. So much to think about. Thanks again all.

 

[sam_gordon]

The dish will point south (actually southwest).

Two suggestions...

1) Go to http://www.dishpointer.com, put in your address, select the DirectTV dishes and make sure there's not trees or buildings in the way (probably not, but good to make sure).
2) Have the Dish mounted no more than 6-8 feet up. Somewhere so if there is snow buildup in the dish, you can use a broom to remove it.

 

[mikehn]

We used to have direct tv. The biggest limitation is placement of the satallite dish itself. The placement with the best reception doesnt always work out to be the most convenient for the homeowner. I cant complain about the price, quality, and service. But after two years, I decided the dish was really getting in the way of things and so I reluctantly went back to comcast.

 

[PigletsPal2]

We've had DirecTV for about nine years and rarely have problems with it. The longest we've been without a signal was 15 minutes, even during the four back-to-back-to-back-to-back hurricanes we had in 2004.

My DD#1 used to work for a local cable company, so I had her negotiate some discounts for us. Not sure what she said or asked for, but she got our bill lowered by about $20 a month. Of course, that's negated during the baseball season because I've gotta have my extra innings channels!

Queen Colleen

 

[rgf207]

Not to hijack this thread but I'm a little curious about the FCC regulations and dishes. I'm planning on renting my house at the end of the summer. Can I restrict a tenant from installing a dish on the roof of my house?

Edit: NVM. I found the answer

The FCC ruled that a resident has the right to have a satellite dish that is less than one
meter (39.37 inches) in diameter. The dish may be installed within the renter's or owner's
exclusive area, such as inside a balcony, yard or patio. However, the landlord or the
Homeowners Association can enforce restrictions on common areas, such as the exterior
of the building or the roof.