Direct TV: Yay or nay?

[YankeeDudeL]

So yeah, I'm very much considering Direct TV. Cost-wise, it looks like it'll be comparable to my current cable bill. Certain added perks would actually make it cheaper. This would also give me more than what I have now and in more rooms. So financially, this is almost a no-brainer. Almost.

There's always one huge deciding factor when deciding on satellite over cable. Can I tolerate the lapses in reception? I understand there's newer technology that has improved in that area, but what can I feasibly expect to see?

So, do you have or have you had satellite tv? What are your experiences? Do you want to get satellite? Do you utterly refuse to have satellite? What say ye, fellow phandroids?

 

[NYCHitman1]

When I was a kid, we had Direct TV - I hated it. Anytime it rained, we lost signal. As you stated, the tech must have been updated by now so who knows if that is even an issue anymore.

I still would vote no since you can get the same or better from your local cable provider.

 

[B2L]

When I was a kid, we had Direct TV - I hated it. Anytime it rained, we lost signal. As you stated, the tech must have been updated by now so who knows if that is even an issue anymore.

I still would vote no since you can get the same or better from your local cable provider.

I had Direct TV before i switched to Comcast a couple of months ago, sure cable is more expensive. But when it comes to signal and reception it's much better. As far as i know they haven't made that many big updates to it, because I always lost signal when it was snowing or raining really hard. That's the main reason that i switched. I never have problems with signal from cable, except for every so often it will slightly freeze up. But that only happens once in a blue moon.

 

[shawn1224]

I have DirecTV with 1 HD DVR box, 1 regular DVR box and 1 standard box. No premium packages but I did manage to get the Encore movie channels for free. Haven't experienced any outages due to inclement weather and they have a nice broad selection of HD channels to choose from. Nearly all my favorite channels offer an HD channel. Most importantly they carry the NFL Network for free and the option for NFL Sunday Ticket which is something Comcast wasn't offering in my neck of the woods. This made it an easy choice for me.

 

[zuben el genub]

Y'all missed OTA and/or streaming. Or non of the above

 

[lordofthereef]

We had it here in IA for a while until we moved (we get free cable where we live now and that coupled with Hulu and Netflix seems to be plenty). We do get some acclimate weather here, and never noticed reception issues. Then again I don't watch much TV, but the lady never complained.

 

[Barbara]

We switched from Time Warner to Direct TV. There have been some minor outages during a hard rain. It hasn't been any more than the outages from Time Warner due to unknown causes. We have more features for less money. So far, so good. My son-in-law negotiates every time his contract comes up and pits Direct TV against Dish Network (he has both dishes on his house). He gets a better deal every time. He won't go back to Time Warner and neither will I. (Long story but bad, bad service and very expensive.)

 

[Adauth]

U-Verse 450 package...rocks, had direct tv, got tired of losing signal in bad weather or any other reason, got U-Verse and never looked back.

 

[YankeeDudeL]

We switched from Time Warner to Direct TV. There have been some minor outages during a hard rain. It hasn't been any more than the outages from Time Warner due to unknown causes. We have more features for less money. So far, so good. My son-in-law negotiates every time his contract comes up and pits Direct TV against Dish Network (he has both dishes on his house). He gets a better deal every time. He won't go back to Time Warner and neither will I. (Long story but bad, bad service and very expensive.)

I hear ya. I currently have Time Warner and they're about terrible. And there are def a lot of phantom outages and other issues. And they're new digital boxes have a lot of quirks.

I really became interested when I was doing my DirecTV training for Costco. The rep was informing me about the newer dishes that give off a stronger and better signal. I've since talked with a few people that have it in my area. Where I live, you can expect a storm to pop up almost once a day, even if it's pretty short. So it was important to get that opinion. Each person (who has the newer dishes and such) has said they haven't had any more reception issues than they would get from Time Warner. Plus DirecTV does guarantee 99.9% reception.

I dunno, but I hate Time Warner, with my perks it'll be considerably cheaper, I'd get a lot more service than what I have now, and the Freaking NFL Sunday Ticket. Not to mention NFL Network and YES network (living out of market from your teams can suck).

 

[PGP_Protector]

Re Reception.
I'm using Direct TV & have watched HD Movies during storms and such without issue. But other times on a clear day we've had fuzzy images.

But...
Reception goes out with satellite TV, it might be out for just a short time frame unless it's something Major with the satellite itself.
Reception goes out because of a Cable issue (cut cables anyone) you may be looking at days without a signal.

 

[MyTjSux]

i have direct tv and i have had maybe 2 times where i had outtages but it was for a max of a min or two....other than that perfect....plus my bill amount is great, i have referred one friend and got the $10 a month credit and for the premium package i am paying just over 35 a month with obviously the movie channels i got for free for the first 3 months....if you end up joining i could pm you my information and we can both save $100 for the refer a friend you both get $10 a month off ...you can pm me but i love my direct tv

 

[ParishL31]

We've had DirecTV for a few years now and the only times we have outages are in rain storms. It has to be fairly heavy storm for it to lose signal, fairly rare actually. Never lost signal on clear days. I think I've lost signal in a blizzard once, and I just went out and poked the snow off the dish with a broom and it fixed it.

I saw a commercial about free Sunday Ticket now, which I'm guessing is only for new customers. But Sunday Ticket is amazing if your favorite team isn't the local one.

The Android App is amazing too. A simple TV guide app and allows you to set your DVR on the run in case you forgot to at home. Doesn't sound like much, but amazing when you realize there's a show/game going on that you want to catch but can't.

The customer service seems hit or miss. Sometimes you'll get great people that are super helpful and help you out through everything and comp fees left and right. Other times you get a douche that charges you for everything and gives you the whole "Is it plugged in" and "Reset the receiver" nonsense. Whenever I get those I just wait an hour or two and call back and try to get a more helpful person. But that seems the case with all customer service for any company.

Overall, I'm happy with the service.

 

[sadielynn]

I've had Direct TV for about 5 years now, and I wouldn't trade it for anything! There are relatively few outages due to weather-a lady i work with switched from comcast to direct tv, and she told me her comcast went out way more than direct tv. Some other notes (I'll try to keep it short)
*every year for the last 3 years or so, on my anniversary month, they send me a 'thanks for being a loyal customer' card & give me a free service, such as 3 free payperview movies, free showtime channels for 3 months, etc.
*if you buy the protection plan (i highly recommend!), you never pay a penny for service calls if something breaks and a tech has to come out. I also got a free receiver when my old one died of old age
*after a year or 2,you become eligible for a free receiver upgrade (i could upgrade to an HD receiver for free if I wanted)
*extremely nice and helpful customer service people and installation techs. We actually went up to a tech who was at our apartment complex installing a dish for someone else and asked him if he had any extra remotes in his truck, because ours was getting old-he did and gave it to us on the spot, no charge.
*only issue i've *ever* had was an instance where 4 movies of, erm, questionable nature showed up on my bill when I had never ever purchased a single pay per view movie ever. I called, explained that I can't even order pay per view unless I called, since I don't have the Internet, thus can't order online or by remote, and that the movies (i don't think) had even showed up on my receiver (or showed up as un watched, i can't remember). The customer service guy removed the charges, no questions asked and offered to lock out my pay per view (since I never used it) so if it ever happened again, they would see that I couldn't have ordered them since the option was locked out. Very nice and helpful, wasn't suspicious of my claim at all(as I had expected them to be-i would have been if I were them!)

OK, so I didn't keep it that short, sorry. I love my direct tv, what can I say? at this point, it would be way cheaper for me to get the internet and netflicks instead, but I can't stand the thought of not having my direct tv,lol

 

[shawn1224]

IMO, the only thing that Comcast/Time Warner trumps DirecTV in, is a wider variety of On Demand content. That's about it.

 

[YankeeDudeL]

I saw a commercial about free Sunday Ticket now, which I'm guessing is only for new customers. But Sunday Ticket is amazing if your favorite team isn't the local one.

You would have had to have cancelled your contract a minimum of 24 months prior to get the free Sunday Ticket. Or you could just put it in your spouse's (or whatever) name. I did that for a couple just the other day.

I've had Direct TV for about 5 years now, and I wouldn't trade it for anything! There are relatively few outages due to weather-a lady i work with switched from comcast to direct tv, and she told me her comcast went out way more than direct tv. Some other notes (I'll try to keep it short)
*every year for the last 3 years or so, on my anniversary month, they send me a 'thanks for being a loyal customer' card & give me a free service, such as 3 free payperview movies, free showtime channels for 3 months, etc.
*if you buy the protection plan (i highly recommend!), you never pay a penny for service calls if something breaks and a tech has to come out. I also got a free receiver when my old one died of old age
*after a year or 2,you become eligible for a free receiver upgrade (i could upgrade to an HD receiver for free if I wanted)
*extremely nice and helpful customer service people and installation techs. We actually went up to a tech who was at our apartment complex installing a dish for someone else and asked him if he had any extra remotes in his truck, because ours was getting old-he did and gave it to us on the spot, no charge.
*only issue i've *ever* had was an instance where 4 movies of, erm, questionable nature showed up on my bill when I had never ever purchased a single pay per view movie ever. I called, explained that I can't even order pay per view unless I called, since I don't have the Internet, thus can't order online or by remote, and that the movies (i don't think) had even showed up on my receiver (or showed up as un watched, i can't remember). The customer service guy removed the charges, no questions asked and offered to lock out my pay per view (since I never used it) so if it ever happened again, they would see that I couldn't have ordered them since the option was locked out. Very nice and helpful, wasn't suspicious of my claim at all(as I had expected them to be-i would have been if I were them!)

OK, so I didn't keep it that short, sorry. I love my direct tv, what can I say? at this point, it would be way cheaper for me to get the internet and netflicks instead, but I can't stand the thought of not having my direct tv,lol

I'm glad you didn't keep it short, I def wanted to get as much feedback as possible for both myself and anyone else thinking of making the change.

Well, I went ahead and did it. I've done plenty of reading up on it, and have asked customers how they feel about the service. Just about all the responses are exactly the same. I feel very confident about the decision, and def feel a lot better about my monthly bill. lol

For anyone wondering, I went ahead and got the Premier package (their highest plan). I did this for 5 TVs (1 HD DVR, 2 HD, 2 standard boxes), Direct Bill Pay (which waives the $10 HD Access fee), signed up for email alerts (saves an additional $5), and added the Protection Plan. All in all, my first 3 months bill is $78. From months 4-12 $128. From months 13-24 $154. This is almost exactly what I'm paying now, for far less channels, and in two less rooms.

The only cost I paid today for setting it up was the price of one HD receiver, and that was half off ($49). And I get a $180 Costco gift card for setting it up there (which will be going toward getting a third HDTV). Not a bad deal, in my opinion.

 

[sadielynn]

Wow, good deal! Hope u like it as much as I do!