Direct TV users read!!!!

[Russ Jerome]

So Im on the phone canceling my Direct TV tonight, getting
RR complete pkg wen..............OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If YOU go to Best Buy and BUY an HD box YOU are NOT BUYING
it you are simply giving Best Buy/Direct TV the $150.00!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup You are paying them to RENT there box on top of the raised
fee you pay every month.....Im out $150 as they want MY box
shipped back...on top of the elevated HD service/rent fee.

Road Runner ladies and gentelman Road Runner, you can argue
all you want but the Direct TV sucks. Rant off!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Neal Steffek]

So Im on the phone canceling my Direct TV tonight, getting
RR complete pkg wen..............OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If YOU go to Best Buy and BUY an HD box YOU are NOT BUYING
it you are simply giving Best Buy/Direct TV the $150.00!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup You are paying them to RENT there box on top of the raised
fee you pay every month.....Im out $150 as they want MY box
shipped back...on top of the elevated HD service/rent fee.

Road Runner ladies and gentelman Road Runner, you can argue
all you want but the Direct TV sucks. Rant off!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are not renting it, you are leaseing it. It has been that way for years. Oh yea, if you have an HD TV, why would you want to have the way lower quality picture with RR? Plus less channels?

[Holeshot]

^^^^^ X 1000000000000000 RR sucks for HD Have been leasing my HD box for 2 years. I just changed to an HD TIVO and its the best ever!!!!!!!

[88Nightmare]

So Im on the phone canceling my Direct TV tonight, getting
RR complete pkg wen..............OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If YOU go to Best Buy and BUY an HD box YOU are NOT BUYING
it you are simply giving Best Buy/Direct TV the $150.00!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup You are paying them to RENT there box on top of the raised
fee you pay every month.....Im out $150 as they want MY box
shipped back...on top of the elevated HD service/rent fee.

Road Runner ladies and gentelman Road Runner, you can argue
all you want but the Direct TV sucks. Rant off!!!!!!!!!!!!

OWNED!!!!!

I got two standard Directv boxes and a DVR box for my house, after mail in rebates, it was all free :D

[Reverend Cooper]

i just told direct tv if they didnt put the stuff in my house for free i would quit using them,new satelite 2 reg hd boxes and a hd dvr were all free to me, i just pay for my regular service, sure i have to return it if i quit using them, but who cares i didnt pay for them anyhow

[Rocket Power]

While I don't have the HD stuff , when I got my Directv 5 years ago it was free after rebate too, 2 recievers and free install.:headbang

[Karps TA]

I'm missing why TWC sucks for HD? Looking at Direct TV's lineup I don't see any difference besides maybe the NFL ticket. Which even then, CBS doesn't broadcast all their games in HD anyways.

Both have local channels, TNT, discovery, ESPN 1&2, HD net, Universal, etc...

If anything Direct TV has finally caught up to TWC considering not too long ago if you wanted the local channels in HD you needed to run an antenna, and if you lived out in the burbs the signal was hard to get.

[Breecher_7]

Ill have to agree that TWC HD sucks........mine is always breaking up and distorting....... BLAH!!!!!

[PureSound15]

I love my Direct TV, HD looks great on my DLP projector downstairs and on my LCD in my bedroom. My parents always had Dish Network, and although I think Dish Network is more user friendly, I really like the channel options on Direct TV and the HD channels are great.

[contact]

i have to agree TWC HD sucks compared to directv

[Russ Jerome]

You are not renting it, you are leaseing it. It has been that way for years.

Wish Best Buy or Direct TV would have told me that when I upgraded
to HD and "bought" my own box. I called DT and asked about upgrading
my setup to support my new Plasma:

We will send you a free box in a week or two or you can simply buy
your own at best buy. I bought it, nowhere on the box or the sales
people at Best buy say thanks for renting your new HD box.

I wish somebody would have said the picture of TW in HD sucked
earlier this month when I asked, nobody complained about the picture
quality :( As far as the number of channels the sheet I have in front
of me shows more, we'll see wen. May as well go back to the pirate
box's and steal both Sat and Cable again, used to feel guilty.

[JC70SS]

That's what you get for getting shitty rr/time warner. Direct TV owns them

[Neal Steffek]

Wish Best Buy or Direct TV would have told me that when I upgraded
to HD and "bought" my own box. I called DT and asked about upgrading
my setup to support my new Plasma:

We will send you a free box in a week or two or you can simply buy
your own at best buy. I bought it, nowhere on the box or the sales
people at Best buy say thanks for renting your new HD box.

I wish somebody would have said the picture of TW in HD sucked
earlier this month when I asked, nobody complained about the picture
quality :( As far as the number of channels the sheet I have in front
of me shows more, we'll see wen. May as well go back to the pirate
box's and steal both Sat and Cable again, used to feel guilty.

The problem with RR is that most of the channels are not digital.

[Reverend Cooper]

i agree dtv ftw. russ time to call and get the free shit delivered do what i did

[Yooformula]

TWC hd does suck! too few channels and constant picture outages and sound corruption.

[Russ Jerome]

Im gonna try it, the TW package is free for the first month and see
how I like the picture. They go down on you for another 6months
giving you more premiums than I'll ever watch. I'll take the $100
a month Im saving on DSL,phone and Sat, buy beer for the garage.

I'll be the first to whine if RR picture is bad :wooo

[Heat Seeker WS6]

For a small fee, beer or LT1 parts:goof if anyone wants thier stuff looked at to make sure its on the up & up drop me a PM.:thumbsup

[DirtyMax]

I dealt with DTV directly from day 1 and can't say I've regretted it. Called and expressed concern when the installer was 8 hours late, essentially screwing up the entire day versus the already absurd 4 hour window, ended up with an HD DVR box for free (new dish too). Got a DOA DVR box, called, got a new box and 2 months free. Can't speak of the hose job you got with the reseller (Best Buy) but I can say dealing with them directly has been OK.

[Yooformula]

For a small fee, beer or LT1 parts:goof if anyone wants thier stuff looked at to make sure its on the up & up drop me a PM.:thumbsup

like what? tuning of the picture?

[Knyghtmare]

Direct TV boasts that you get signal 99.9% of the time.

We have Direct TV where I work and if it is even a little bit cloudy or anything like that... we get "Searching for signal" BS.

When its nice out, we take the kids outside. When it is crapy out there isnt much to do but have the TV on, but when its crappy out it doesnt work, and thats when we cant go outside, when we need it to work the most... pointless to me...

[Yooformula]

funny during that last storm that rolled through last week, our cable boxes were down but still had music and hd channels from our dishes. TWC was down for an hour or so but nobody knew because our dishes were still working fine and it was pouring BAD by us.

[Holeshot]

Direct TV boasts that you get signal 99.9% of the time.

We have Direct TV where I work and if it is even a little bit cloudy or anything like that... we get "Searching for signal" BS.

When its nice out, we take the kids outside. When it is crapy out there isnt much to do but have the TV on, but when its crappy out it doesnt work, and thats when we cant go outside, when we need it to work the most... pointless to me...

Who ever installed and aimed the dish did it wrong. there are 3 satellites that need to be aimed in as different channels come from all three. your dish needs to be tweaked just a bit. I always aim my own dish to get the best poss signal from all three sats. In 9 years of satellite service I can count on one hand the times I lost signal.

[Karps TA]

Well my story would be a complete opposite. Besides a splitter going bad, I have had no problems with my HD breaking up in the last 3 years on TWC. I can only think of not having service maybe twice in the last 4 years.

The only thing I can say that DTV has over TWC is NFL Sunday Ticket. It would be the only reason why I would ever switch.

[88Nightmare]

we were tired of getting dicked around by TWC and their shitty customer service, so we went to directv. got a deal with some mail in rebates, all the equipment ended up being free. so we were happy about that. we set an appointment, we had to reschedule our appointment because of a few things that came up. once our install date came around, we had an appointment for the installer to come between 9am and noon. he called at 8am, asked if it was a bother for us to come early. I never had that happen before, and it was nice to just get it done.

[Ricky Bobby]

well all techs are diff with routes i always showed early never late so not all installs are bad u had a bad experience we also have more customers than most and also have more services than dish so that also increases number of calls and service calls. Like now we are 2wks out on installs cause we are so damn busy

[Holeshot]

The only thing I can say that DTV has over TWC is NFL Sunday Ticket. It would be the only reason why I would ever switch.

That and the fact that all DIRECTV channels are 100% digital unlike TWC and it has twice the HD channels

[Karps TA]

Where's the twice the HD channels? I went to Direct Tv's site and I didn't see anything they offer they I don't get on TWC?

[Holeshot]

Are your locals in HD?

[Karps TA]

Yes and have been for a lot longer then Direct TV was.

[Yooformula]

there are a total of 17 hd channels in TWC. The flyer I got from direct tv had like 50 listed iirc.

[SSScottSS]

I just saw something recently that TWC is in the process of licensing approximately 100 HD channels, they said they hope to have it all done before the end of the year.

I've held off on buying a nice 46" LCD TV until TWC finishes up their HD line up. I've heard the regular analog/non HD shows look worse on a large screen TV then they do on a regular tv.

[Karps TA]

heres the link on Direct TV's site for their HD channels.

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packProg/channelChart2.jsp?assetId=1200064

I know Zoom had a bunch of HD channels, if you cared to watch a bunch of 70's and 80's movies in HD which wouldn't even show any improvement anyways.

This is where they get people
"Satellite. With satellite, there are hundreds of HD programs (movies, sports, pay-per-view and more). Providers such as DIRECTV offer set-top receivers that combine HD with digital video recording, enabling viewers to record up to 50 hours of their favorite HDTV programming. Soon, DIRECTV will have the capacity to offer 150 HD channels.† That's three times as many HD channels as cable.†† "

Keywords "100's of programs" Yeah I think you could have 100's of programs with only 2 channels
"soon they will have the capacity"
"That's 3 times as many as cable" Assuming cable never ever adds more channels, and they actually do.

I have cable and an HD DVR, that's not an exclusive

[88Nightmare]

yeah but time warners customer service sucks and always give me shit over the phone. that is enough for me not to have their cable service. I dont care if they have more services and have a higher call volume... shouldnt they increase their staff and call center capacity then? maybe they can train their straight from the ghetto black employees with attitudes on the proper way to talk to customers too.

[Karps TA]

I've never dealt with anyone rude on the phone either. I've had some people not very knowledgable, but never rude.

When I lived with my folks we had Direct TV. It was fine. Except that unless they want to put the dish out in the middle of their yard and a couple hundred feet from the house they have to try to shoot a signal under some trees. And while it's great when it's sunny and fine, on days when it's raining the wet leaves make the branches droop and they lose signal all the time. That and the last installer they had was pretty shady and asked us to lie to his supervisors about how long he was there and how much work he did. That was the same story with a friend of mine. I had another friend who his installer was too claustiphobic to go in his attic crawl space so run the wiring so my friend had to do it. IMO the subcontractor thing with DTV is not the best setup.

I don't have an allegiance to either side, I just think the bashing of 1 side or the other is kinda unfair. They are like Pepsi and Coke to me. Essentially the same with both having their pluses and negatives. I debate every summer switching just for the NFL package.

[Mssplayboybunie]

I have to say TWC Suits us very well every channel we get is clear as day with or without HD having plasma though makes everything look clear, but the customer service we get is the reason were staying, we have a twc 5 mins from us and everytime we go we get the hook-up, great deals and we always deal with the same guy who's awesome and if you say you want the price lower they will go out of there way to help you out 100% so no complaints here

[88Nightmare]

clearly if you have big ass trees in your yard, that is out of directv's control. Our installer was a very nice guy, very efficient, he knew what he was doing.


BTW, time warner subcontracts too. Ever hear of ACI?

[Karps TA]

clearly if you have big ass trees in your yard, that is out of directv's control. Our installer was a very nice guy, very efficient, he knew what he was doing.




I understand that, but that is a negative to the service.

[88Nightmare]

i dont have that problem, so it doesnt effect me at all. even if I did have that problem, id hack my tree down before I give TWC more money. they are lucky I still give them my money for roadrunner.

[Ricky Bobby]

actually they are addin 80 more reps to help with the call volume and everywere u go customer service can be bad. Because u get one or 2 we suck ask anyone on the board that ive helped im not an ass or rude usually help out no prob. If u are having pic problems call us we will come out for FREE and take a look and hopefully fix it first shot. Yes TWC does contract out but with only 400 in house techs and 580,000 customers we cant handle all the volume so we actually have 4 contractors that do work for us, and isnt sat. all contractors who get paid per job and not per hour also.

[88Nightmare]

nope, whoever did my install rolled up in a truck that said Directv with the directv logo and shit. didnt say anywhere like so and so company contracted out by... .blah blah. guy had a directv shirt on and a hat and the works.

[Russ Jerome]

Just got home from my TWC install:

Looks to be close to 20 channels in HD including local stations.
Thats about double what I was getting with satelite.

My 1080 Samsung picture looks kick butt in HD, the other channels
look grainy just like my satelite. The free on-demand is COOL! Im
watching that douchbag on an old Pinks epesode right now!
Phone sounds fine, will check my adult movie feeds on-line later
tonight when the family is asleep ;)

Day one Im happy so far, you guys had me worried!

[Russ Jerome]

The ondemand is too cool, wife wished we had waited until
winter as she is finding all my car shows I missed.

[Russ Jerome]

there are a total of 17 hd channels in TWC. The flyer I got from direct tv had like 50 listed iirc.

Im flipping thru my cable right now, my satelite didnt have any more
HD channels than this, maybe less I never counted.

[Holeshot]

i dont have that problem, so it doesnt effect me at all. even if I did have that problem, id hack my tree down before I give TWC more money. they are lucky I still give them my money for roadrunner.

+ 1 on that!!!!

[turbogarrett]

Here's a few things I have learned from some of the a/v pro's I have worked with on jobs and backed up with personal experience. You will notice no difference in hd picture quality with cable vs. satellite, satellite is much more likely to give you problems and hdmi cables are a waste of $$.

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Here's a few things I have learned from some of the a/v pro's I have worked with on jobs and backed up with personal experience. You will notice no difference in hd picture quality with cable vs. satellite, satellite is much more likely to give you problems and hdmi cables are a waste of $$.

+1000 for the M'Fing truth! :thumbsup

HD- wheather its cable or sat is still 1080i or 720p (ex: espn). Its the other channels like with TWC where one may see a difference because the 2- 100 channels are still analog, whereas sat has them up'd to digital. Movie channels are a bit higher quality from the basics yet.
HDMI & DVI both send the video uncompressed from sat or cable box to TV. But thier main advantage is that both can carry (besides HDMI carries audio as well, whereas DVI has vid only) 1080p signals from blue ray & HDDVD players. HDMI is useless for tv watching because component transfers HD just the same. Crappy video from equipment using HDMI is from the TV, receiver, cable or sat boxes handshaking improperly or the signal getting fu-barred due to crappy wires. The latest HDMI software version is 1.3

If you want the cat's meow for video greatness and have the coin to get one, pick up a Farudja scaler. :thumbsup They'll upscale any inputted resolution to 1080P regardless of connection type- RCA, S-vid, component & etc.
The just discontinued Denon 5807 receiver can do this and a crapton more things.

[Karps TA]

When I got my 65" Hitachi HD projection TV a couple years ago I went and picked up a DVI cable right away. And I didn't notice any difference in picture. To be honest I thought it made the tv slower to respond to the box when I changed channels. I ended up switching back to components. Waste of a $100+ cable.