I currently have digital cable but am looking to possibly going to DirecTV. But I am unsure right now. I am a little skeptical. One of the reasons I am thinking about DirecTV is that the NBA League Pass is NOT currently being offered on my Digital Cable and I hear the picture quality on DirecTV is far superior to Digital Cable. Not to mention DirecTV offers the NFL package. I was wondering if I could get some info from those of you on here that have DirecTV. Is it worth it? Pluses, Minuses, anything I should know about? Thanks for the help!
Up at my place in East Texas that is all that is available, and the picture quality is great, and the options are great, BUT.... The money savings they talk about on the commercials is WAY over blown. You get a real good price on your base package, but by the time you add in the sports channels and the HBO's etc, you pay more than you do for cable.
i've said it once before... and i'll say it again... do NOT go with direct tv!!! if you decide to purchase the nba league pass, it might seem like the best thing ever until... ... clouds start to form outside (it doesn't even need to rain). THEN you will get the infamous black screen with the message "searching for satellite signal" right smack in the middle of watching a rockets game although my dish was NOT obstructed by anything. it happened numerous times for me during the season and it pissed me off so much that i switched to digital cable. now i can watch tv when it rains outside... YAY!!!
Deuce - If you are sure NBALP is not being offered on cable, then you have answered your own question. NBALP is the reason I have DirecTV. I can only speak for Austin, but the weather related interruptions are minimal. I have seen enough complaints about Rockets games (or the lack there of) in the GARM to know I am not interested in cable.
Oh my God, best thing since sliced bread. NFL Sunday Ticket rules! I'd die without it, I have to have my Chicago Bears games. btw - this is my 5th season of Sunday Ticket.
I had it before I got dig cable. 1) Picture quality not that much better. 2) Signal disappears during rainstorms or even when it was just threatening to rain. 3) Will force you to run a phoneline to the box or no PPVs 4) One box, one TV..at least with dig cable, I get basic cable in the other rooms. With satellite, you only get over-the-air channles on the other tvs. and, irregardless of the complaints I have heard in GARM, i get KNWS just fine over cable. I never miss a Rox game becasue it is on one channel or the other. and the cost issue, I get the same channels over the cable as I did on DirectTV, and pay less. the only way my cable bill is the same is if you throw in my high-speed internet.
Seems to me the biggest drawback is the "weather" issue with the signal going out. I have heard from some that say that it is a BIG problem and yet I have heard from others saying that it is WAY overblown. I guess there are two issues: 1) how often does the signal go out? and 2) for how long is the signal out when it goes out?
I've been thinking about getting Direct TV, but living in Sugar Land , Texas where it is cloudy ALOT and rains ALOT, I'm concerned about blackouts. I get EVERY Rockets game fine. Digi Cable DOES have NBA league pass...at least it did last season. NFL Season ticket is exclusive to Direct TV. I'm actually thinking about going out and get the dish and box and not pluggin it in to the phone line and getting a "Smart Card" to try it out for free. I know alot of people that get Direct TV for free with EVERYTHING including PPV and good ole p*rn (if you like that sort of stuff). But the whole thing about possibly getting caught might not make it worth it. I'll probably stick with good ole safe cable!!!!
i guess i'm making direct tv look bad or something, but these are just my experiences, so please take others' into account. 1. the signal for me went out whenever a drop of rain hit the ground. other times, it just takes it getting really cloudy for it not to work. so pretty much it's up to God whether or not he wants me to watch a rockets game. 2. the signal is out until the rain or clouds leave. the signal will come and go, but it comes and goes after being on for about 1.5 seconds. again... these are my experiences. others seem to be happy with it and they live closer to you as well, maybe they have better info. but for me... never again.
Keep in mind the receiver issue. I only need digital cable on two TVs and just have the basic channels on the other 4. You can run more than one TV off of one receiver, but you will be limited to what is on the other television.
I had digital cable, but now have DirecTV. I love it. I have alot more selection than I did with cable, and the picture IS better. Also, I order PPV movies a few times a month and I DO NOT have a phone line plugged into any of my recievers, so that is false. I have the Total Choice Plus w/HBO and my bill is about the same as my cable bill was. I've heard Dish Network is a little cheaper, but they don't offer the NFL Ticket so that made my choice easy. Oh, and the only time I lose the signal is in a really bad storm. If it is just raining outside then everything is good.
False, my ass. I never plugged it in and ordered ppvs...but after a year of it not being plugged in, they took away my ability to order.When i called them on it, they said that they had not been contacted by the reciever in so long...and that they would not return my PPVs until I plugged the line in. It dioes need to be plugged in...whether or not they notice for a couple of months or not..they will eventually notice.
First of all, if you have your weakest transponder tuned at above 95%, which isn't THAT hard to do, you will always have a signal save for a Hurricane or Tsunami...Secondly, the signal, if it does go out, ususally comes back within 1-2 minutes--the LNB, the little do-mo-hickey that catches the feed from the dish, needs only to get wet for a minute to bring the signal back. Again, this is based on the premise that your lowest transpponder is tuned above 95%. This is what I've found while selling and installing DirecTV
Got it! Love it! Weather conditions must not be as bad where I live, here on Earth, as my service is only interupted in worst of the worst thunder storms. Question for all those with weather complaints...Install it yourself did ya? Well at least you've got that going for you.
Man, I want to move to wherever you guys go to get good cable. I've got cable, and my cable signal goes out all the time. My Showtime 2 is unwatchable because of static. Anything above Channel 26 goes out at least once a day. The sound sometimes goes out completely on some channels for days at a time. And I've had multiple instances where HBO went out on a Thursday and didn't come back until Tuesday. And forget about getting credit for downtime. And the channels that do work are often fuzzy, and in the bedroom, I can't even get FOX or UPN. And forget about digital cable. They just don't offer it. I haven't had good cable in ten years, at least. And any time I complain, I'm just told that that's just the way it is in apartments because the cable is old. I just have to live with it. But even so, the company doesn't offer much on its cable system. The basic packages from DirecTV have roughly twice the number of channels. My cable company doesn't even follow the Must Carry rules. I don't even get all the local channels. All this for the low, low price of nearly $60 per month. The cost of DirecTV with HBO and Showtime would probably be slightly more with taxes, etc. But, then again, I'd have twice the number of channels and I'd probably be able to watch it more consistently. When I had DirecTV, it was the only time I got decent television service (and it had to be a major deluge to knock my service out in Arlington. My friend had less success with DirecTV, but when he got Dish Network in McKinney, he rarely lost the signal).
I installed mine myself and had no troubles when I had it. I remember losing the signal twice in nearly three years of having the service. Both times, it was extremely heavy rains and flooding. Interestingly, to me, I lost phone service more often than I lost satellite service at that apartment. And actually, the friend of mine who had weather troubles had his "professionally" installed.
I'm a cable junkie but I wanted to also comment on the HD side of things. If you want High Def you pay cable 5 bucks a month for the converter and 5 for the programing. Last time I checked with a dish you had to buy a 400 dollar converter and pay 10 bucks for the programing. (on a side note about the nfl sunday ticket... I guess it is great if you have to follow your favorite team from out of town but figuring there are max 15 games a weekend and the networks show 3 on sunday 1 on espn SNF and then 1 on MNF and all the other games take place at the same time (between Noon and 6pm cst on sunday) you can only watch so much durring that timeframe.)
