Is "Direct TV" better than cable ???
 

I've always stayed away from Direct TV because I always heard bad things about dishes, but my local cable company has only a handful of high def channels, none of which are FOX or ABC, which those two are the networks I watch more than the other networks, plus it seems like they're raising their rates up all the time.

Direct TV says they'll have 100 high-def channels by the end of this year, plus, of course they have NFL Sunday Ticket, so I could watch my Cowboys every week.

I suppose I'd have to do what others do and keep a very small cable package if I wanted my local channels, but I suppose my cable company would fuck me on my high speed internet without taking a huge package which I have now.

Anyone here have any Direct TV experience ?? Are you happy with it ??

I want to hear about this one too.

nobody here watches tV!?

Ugh, I'd like to know too. My little cable company now services where I live and will have "on demand" in a month or two. In addition, they have Chattanooga channels which means I can tape a show in EST and what WOULD have been a conflicting schedule show I can tape in CST.

I've had Direct for almost 7 years and I have to say I love it. I went through and there were about 4 channels that the cable company didn't have that I like that Direct has but none that were deal breakers.

Direct is SUPPOSED to be coming out with more HD channels but it's been hell trying to get them out here to set me up for HD.

I hate decisions :(

Weather fucks with it BADLY. I switched back to Comcast last year because of it.

Depends how much you value your local stations for news and such. A lot of the time you get the news for stations in cities very close to you with directv but not your actual city if its not a major center.

If you don't prefer your local news then I would say in more instances Directv would be best for you especially if you love sports or want the most variety in HD

if you only enjoy watching tv when it's not raining then direct would be great.

I have to use sat tv (dish network) because cable people didn't run line out in the sticks where I live because it's not worth the money I suppose. I also have sat internet since that's my only highspeed option out here and it goes tits up if it's too cloudy.

I would go back to cable in a heartbeat if I ever decided to move back to city.

I rarely have any outages due to weather. When I do, it's usually because I've forgotten to keep the crepe myrtle trimmed ;)

My DirecTV dish is in the freaking front yard because there was no where else to put it. I think it's in there pretty solid. I guess I could try cable and if I didn't like it, easily go back to Direct.

I'm curious to hear more opinions. We've been trying to decide between dish and cable. Dish seems a hell of a lot cheaper. Plus they have a pretty sweet deal that I've been looking at. http://mydishnow.com/ Haven't looked at the direct tv deals yet. Gonna give them a look tonight.

You should make a poll dish vs. direct tv vs. cable.

I have cable and i have no problems..

I love DirecTV. I have the receiver with Tivo built in, and it auto-records all my fave shows and whatever else I want. Mine has two lines so I can record two programs at the same time. Weather rarely affects it, only bad thunderstorms will make it drop a signal occasionally.

I had it for about 3 years. I never once had it go out from weather.
There was one time when it got covered with snow and I had brush some off. Other then that I never had any problems.

Those were problems with the old dishes and not new ones. I think its more of a myth now.

I agree with this statement.

Have dish network and like it much better than cable. The quality of many of the channels with cable was terrible on 65" dlp hi-def tv. Premium channels such as hbo, showtime etc were good, however fx, history channel etc were terrible..
The satellite picture quality is much better on all channels and really great on the many hd channels.
The only downside is if heavy rain then loose signal however that only happens a few times a year.
The HD dvr is also good, and has two tuners so can watch one channel and record on another, or even record two channels at once...

I recently got into free to air satellites. You can get all the channels for free if you are so inclined. (including the PPV and porn channels). You can even run dual dishes and pick up dishnet and expressvu at the same time, well over 1000+ channels.

I love DirecTV. It's more affordable than cable, and yeah, in really really bad weather, there can be problems, but I live in northern Maine and experience a problem maybe once a year for an hour. You need a clear view of the southern sky though.

Email me that info :winkwink:

naugthy naughty boy .... tst tst tst :1orglaugh

Thanks for all of the comments people. I'm leaning towards getting Direct TV, but will stop by my cable company and first of all, I'm gonna ask them how much they're gonna charge me for my high speed internet and secondly, ask them what they're plans are for new high def channels. The last time I asked them about FOX and ABC, they said they had no idea when they'd be adding them.

Just purchase a FTA receiver. There are many models to choose from. The most popular seem to be coolsat or viewsat.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=...eceivers&meta=

If you are currently running either dishnet or bell, it is just a matter of downloading the necessary file off the internet, uploading it to your receiver, then scanning the proper satellites to get the signal. Free TV.

There are tons of forums that talk about them. Just search for FTA forums.

They do go down once in a while when the sat providers alter their signal to fuck with them, but there is always a fix within a couple days.

Just be sure to have the receiver sent to a neighbors house or something. :winkwink:

The receivers themselves aren't illegal since they can be used legitimately to receive true free channels that are available. Trouble is, all the free channels suck. :winkwink:

I have the hd sat and I love it.. beats the hell out of cable

I'm with Dish Network, have pretty much everything but the porn channels, and pay only 70$/mo -- same setup at comcast (cable) was close to 200/mo. Has only gone out twice this year during storms, and only for about three hours at a time -- not bad.

Would recommend dish network over direct tv myself.

What he said.
Get a pansat, and get ALL the channles for free...

I used to have cable for 8 years but after a week of outages i switched to Direct TV.
Ive been with them over a year now without a single hour of down time. It does not rain much here in San Diego but during last years record 25 inches of rain the picture was fine. I also get all the local channel for $5.00. My basic cable used to cost $95.00 from Cox Direct cost me around $54.00 with a few special channels included..

I have the built in TiVo too but Direct no longer has whatever contract they have with TiVo :( Mine is updated via the dish and the calls are LD for me. I'm to like 1500 days w/o a call, lol.

However, since it's old the HD isn't that big. Plus it has it's moments where it wants to get snowy on me. I've isolated the problem TO the receiver so getting a new one is the only solution.

I bought my Dad one of the DirecTV DVRs last year and while he loves it, it doesn't have the keyword search! I love the keyword search :(

But in reading all the comments, it looks like keeping Direct is the way for me to go, I just need to get someone down here to switch out the dish for an HD one (I told them 3 times the driver needed 4WD and 3 times they showed up in some pitiful van or 2WD 4 cyl truck). Maybe if I call them and let them know the cable company is here now they'll find someone with a real truck. :)

Hey man, I appreciate the info. I'm probably gonna pick one of these up and settle for the free channels. :winkwink:

it's the same fuckin thing, do whatever is easiest or makes sense for you.