DirecTV, HD, DVR, 2 feeds - what are you paying?
 

I've had DirecTV since I moved here 7 years ago. Dish isn't available at all but they just recently started offering cable.

My brother called DirecTV just asking them how to cancel and got all kinds of crap for free.

I'm pretty sure I'll need a new dish, new receiver for the basement, DVR for the den (I'm gonna miss the hell out of my TiVo I've had for 5 years :( ), dual feeds and I have the full package of everything. I also want them to put the line that's in the basement into the den so I can watch/record different channels. Someone tried doing that but after 3 or 4 tries, I'm pretty sure he brought the wrong line up.

I would need everything set up for me because I'm an idiot. I tried to set this up a couple of years ago but they sent someone out TWICE w/o 4WD even though I specified they needed 4WD and I got pissed and gave up.

Right now I pay $104 a month for the full package, 2 receivers and TiVo.

I had dish network for a week, went back to time warner as fast as I could. Time warner is more exspinsive, and worth every penny.

Time Warner isn't even an option for me :winkwink: I either can have DirecTV or the local cable company (and by local, I mean it only serves this small town and a couple of others).

I can't reach the Dish satellite from my house and obviously can't get a large cable company to come in and hook up just me :)

I called DirecTV before I posted this but apparently their computers are down for 2-3 hours so they can only give me "basic" information. Figured I'd find out what others were paying first.

we have the dual tuner directv tivo, hacked/upgraded to 250gb...we have the showtime package..I think we pay $60 a month or something like that

i will NEVER get rid of my directivo

they still make the directivo, you just have to buy them elsewhere http://www.weaknees.com/directv-tivo...FR8UlgodGWZgPA

just so you know, to have them add more than 5 feet of cable gets expensive now...some new dumb shit rule they have....i think it is either 5 or 10 feet, then you pay for labor and cable by the foot

I went ahead and had them do it all, I would rather have it done right then have my fucked up ass trying to do that shit

Hmmm - it looks like if I want an HD receiver, I have to get a refurbished one though. The only one they are showing new says "DIRECTV HR21 - High Definition DirecTV DVRs
(This unit is not a TiVo - it runs DirecTV's DVR operating system)"

The area I'm buying my house only has DirectTV to offer and I'm seriously bummed about it. Just seems like more money for more hassles, especially with the monsoons we get here. It sucks.

Everything SHOULD already be there cable wise for DirecTV - or do they need to put in new cable? Most of mine is underground (my dish is in the yard - with a metal roof and massive amounts of trees, the yard is the only place to get a signal. Thank goodness I have no neighbors who have to look at it - it's bad enough when I take a picture of the house and it sneaks its ugly self in there).

you should be all right then, the only thing they NEED to do is install the dual cables for the dual tuner, and they have a special splitter they use for it...other than that if you have the cables run already they will probably be pretty quick

they had ours installed and running in 30-60 minutes, and they even had to drill through our brick walls outside to run the cable

the only bad part about getting our dish was, because of the trees, the only place they could put ours was on top of the garage, right in front of the house...so, our house looks great, then you look a little to the left and there is this dish drilled into the garage roof

if I wasn't such white trash I guess I would mind

Granted, we've been in a drought for a bit, but I have to say the sat is down less than cable was when I was lived in the burbs. During really heavy rains it will get pixely and sometimes lose connection, but really not that often. The biggest problem I have is that I constantly forget to cut back the crepe myrtle that is in front of it :helpme Thankfully since it IS in the yard, the few times it snows I can just go out and push the snow off.

oh, btw, you are going to HATE HATE HATE the directv dvr.....my dad has it and he loathes it, it is sluggish, buggy and just plain crappy

Yeah - see mine on the far left of the pic? Classy, eh? :1orglaugh

http://www.onlinebeach.com/finished009.jpg

I gave my Dad one a couple of years ago and he LOVES it - but he'd never had TiVo before. When I said something about the "Keyword list" he was like "WTF?". I use that feature all the time :(

around here the basic directv package is about the same price as the comcast basic package...and aside from "ondemand", comcast is just plain crap, they have excellent internet, but their cable tv system blows

yeah, i can see if you never had a dvr it wouldn't be that bad...but after having tivo I can't ever see going any other route....wishlists, suggestions, keywords, etc....you can't beat it

btw, there are talks of directv striking another deal with tivo

My mom has comcast and absolutely hates it, but it's all that's offered in her area. I've had Cox for years and I think I can count on one hand the amount of times it's gone out. I wish I could stay with them, but I'm soon to be out in the sticks were it's dish or nothing.

We have to get the whole package, DirectTV, phone and internet through Qwest and I think if we do it in a bundle pack it's only 120 a month or so. Then when all the intro rates fall off, it goes up to about 160 or so, and that's if we keep all the movie channels.

That's the thing - I can get a package with phone/internet/cable/alarm through the local company. But I think I'd still be stuck with a non-TiVo DVR :(

What's sad is that I've had an HDTV ready TV since I moved here and just have never hooked the HD up :helpme

we have had directv for 7 or so years now, and in the past 2-3 years I can count on one hand the times it has gone out due to weather

usually if the directv goes out it means there is a HUGE storm comin

My payment is set up for auto draft so I actually had to log in to the website to see what I pay, lol.

I pay for the following: HD DVR in the family room, TiVo in the Master, one regular receiver in a guest room, and one regular receiver in the kitchen. I subscribe to the Total Choice Plus plan with the local tv stations, and the HD channels package. No movie channels or any other premium channels. My bill is $83.38.

I copied this:

01/16/2008 Payment - Auto ($83.38) $0.00
01/04/2008 BellSouth Cust Sav ($5.00) $0.00
12/28/2007 Monthly Bill $0.00 $0.00
12/28/2007 XXXXXXXX4050 Additional Receiver - Charge $4.99 $0.00
12/28/2007 XXXXXXXX0726 TOTAL CHOICE PLUS - Charge $51.99 $0.00
12/28/2007 XXXXXXXX0726 DIRECTV DVR Service - Charge $5.99 $0.00
12/28/2007 XXXXXXXX6994 Additional Receiver - Charge $4.99 $0.00
12/28/2007 XXXXXXXX8871 Leased Receiver - Charge $4.99 $0.45
12/28/2007 XXXXXXXX0726 HD Access - Charge $9.99 $0.00
12/27/2007 XXXXXXXX0726 DIRECTV on DEMAND - Charge $0.00 $0.00

First price is monthly fee, second price is taxes. I also didn't even realize I'm getting a $5 credit for being a BellSouth customer. I didn't see a charge for the TiVo subscription, but that must be that "leased receiver" deal because I own the TiVo receiver.

But, I paid $300 for my damn HD DVR over a year ago and had to get on a waiting list. I'm sure they're probably giving them out for free now. :1orglaugh

Thanks, Holly! Yeah, one the first things I'm demanding is a free receiver/DVR. My brother got that, free install, free 3 months and free something else.

I thought I'd miss my (HD) DirecTivo a ton.. I seriously considered never upgrading, and saying fuck it about the new HD lineup (mpeg4)

However.. after giving the new DVR a decent shot, and getting the latest software on it, it's truly "not bad". It's definitely not Tivo by any means, but it doesn't offend me that much.

Really the only feature I *truly* miss from Tivo is the suggestions.. I really loved that feature, since I'm too lazy to actually sit there and look for shit I might want to watch sometime. Usually when I'm in a "TV Mood" it's 1am, and nothing good is on. I loved that my Tivo would record a bunch of history channel shit, random movies, etc. and I could page through it all.

Other than that though, the DTV DVR isn't horrible. It's much, much, much, faster than the DirecTivo is (beta code makes it even more so), and generally is pretty stable. The shortcuts take a bit to get used to and learn, but they are essential. Some thing tivo sucks at, the new DVR is great with. Being able to setup "season passes" from the guide by hitting record twice, is one such thing. It also seems a lot smarter about some stupid "bug" type things tivo had w/ dual tuner use.

That said, it does have one bug I see regularly, which is inexcuseable. One tuner randomly "goes out" and no longer thinks it has sattelite link. Only a reset fixes it. It's beyond annoying, and you can miss shows due to it if you have multiple things being recorded in the same timeslot.

All in all though, DTV has "won me back" after hearing they were going to dump Tivo. I was very close to canceling. If the rumors of them coming up w/ a Tivo interface for their DVR's are true, I will be very happy!

All in all, DTV is usually the absolute best choice for HD content delivery right now. Some markets may have a cable provider that "gets it" - but most simply do not.

-Phil

I've actually been thinking about leaving Charter Communications to get Direct TV, at least the south side of my house is the back and not the front, ha ha.

The main reason is the lack of high def channels on Charter in my area. They don't even have a high def FOX or ABC yet. Plus Direct TV has "Sunday Ticket", so I'd never miss a Cowboys game :)

Are the dishes better than years ago, as far as cutting out ??

Like I said previously, my sat dish has been up for 7 years and MAYBE if there's a really, really hard rain (or I've forgotten to trim back the crepe myrtle), it will pixelate for less than a minute and sometimes lose connection. It probably loses complete connection an average of once a year.

I have a lot of power outages and even though I have an automatic generator, I lose more "recording time" (90% of what I watch now has been recorded due to commercials) a lot longer while everything reboots.

BTW, the deal my brother got was with Dish, not DirecTV.

TiVo will let me manually add something "far far into the future" before the Season Pass has had a chance to put in my preselects. When that happens, my manual choices preempt the season pass. I've had to really watch myself on that after missing several episodes of Nip/Tuck. :mad:

Since dialing in every day is long distance for me, I just unplugged the phone line and get the updates via satellite. This makes "suggestions" impossible though I'm kinda glad since mine is so old the hard drive is quite small and when I was recently away from the house for 2 weeks, even my season pass and manual selections knocked off several shows and movies :(

When I first switched, I HATED the Direct DVR. I seriously would have went back if there would have been any way to get HD with TiVo.

But here we are a year later, and the TiVo now drives me crazy. Most of the initial bugs have been worked out of the HD DVR with regular software updates. It's so much more interactive than my TiVo. I would never go back. I may even dump the TiVo in the bedroom because it's like a dinosaur now.

It's like going from Windows 2000 to XP, or XP to Vista. You hate it with a passion in the beginning, but once you get past the learning curve, you can't even think about going back. And once you start watching everything in HD, you'll never, ever, ever go back to SD again.

That's what my SIL said. She cares about these things as much as I do (almost zero) and when my brother finally convinced her to get HDTV, she said she was amazed.

Sad thing is that they got the TV, invited everyone over for a football game and the TV broke down 1/2 way through :helpme They obviously got it replaced, but that's like not being able to get a hard on during your first time :(

Here's what I got:

Free install
Four rooms (I only have it in 2 now)
New dish
Free HDTV DVR
Will connect my old TiVo to another TV for free
Free HDTV for 12 months
$10 off bill for 12 months
Will connect the main TV so I can record and watch at the same time

So....my bill will be $10 less than I'm paying now a month for 12 months, then will be $19.99 more than I'm paying now.

2 year contract.

And he's going to MAKE SURE THEY BRING A 4WD VEHICLE.

No, that's not right - it will be $9.99 more than what I'm paying now, but $19.99 more than what I'm paying for the next 12 months.

My total bill when I'm not paying for the NFL package is like $102 after taxes and everything.

We don't have any HD stuff, two receivers with DVR's (the dual ones where you can record two things at once) and all of the movie channels.

Yeah I get that too. It'll be recording something and won't let me change the channel, even though it's only recording one thing at that time and it's supposed to be a dual setup.

And if you reboot right then and there, you lose the program you're recording.

They should definitely fix that.

Direct Tv is what I got, but there's never anything good on anymore. I find myself watching the Biography Channel whenever I sit down to actually watch tv. I might get rid of it one day, but I keep it for NFL Sunday Ticket,

I have had DirecTV for years. Always loved it. But .... I recently moved and when I canceled it they tried to nail me with all sorts of fees totaling hundreds of dollars. They wanted me to ship them my HD-DVR that I bought at Best Buy! So I am done with them. They USED to have the best customer service. Not any more! :disgust:disgust:disgust

I have to admit the 2 people I spoke to with DirecTV were very good and very professional.

If you have an old computer laying around, you could make it a Linux box, throw Myth TV in it, a hd card and use it as a DVR. We have one and we love it. Plus, it never has to call home.

I haven't had a desktop in years :( Plus, my TiVo doesn't call either. All the numbers they offer are LD and I don't have LD on my landline (I use my cell or if I need to send a fax, a phone card). I think I'm now up to 1580+ days where I haven't called in - it reminds me every day :thumbsup

Well, that was a nice dream for a while.

They could barely get a signal even with the tree leaves off. He said they could hook it up and the minute the wind blew, I'd lose the signal and looking at the trees there would be no way to get ANY signal in the spring/summer.

Time to call the cable company.....

Bummer :(

I'm really hoping to get this hooked up before Lost starts!!