cable vs. Direct TV

[BCGroup]

We are trying to decide if we should switch from Cable to DirectTV. We are in the Asheville/Hendersonville area. Of course, my concern is the games...anyone want to give us feedback on your experience and recommendations on the change?

[Heelkiller1]

We went thruogh a small Hurricane a few years ago,and our cable went out about 2 hours into it,but our Direct TV stayed on the whole time. Just another example of why I think DTV is better.

[moonpie23]

check to see if your area has AT&T U-VERSE....just another alternative.

[DukeUsul]

We switched from TWC to DirecTV a couplea years ago. I'm much happier now. We very rarely lose the signal in heavy rain. I can get all of the games. And when I did my analysis, at the time, DTV offered many more HD channels than TWC.

[hughgs]

We switched from TWC to DirecTV a couplea years ago. I'm much happier now. We very rarely lose the signal in heavy rain. I can get all of the games. And when I did my analysis, at the time, DTV offered many more HD channels than TWC.

In terms of $/channels I think it's hard to beat satellite. We must be saving close to $20/month over cable.

However, dish placement is critical. Our house is surrounded by a number of relatively tall trees. When storms approach we tend to lose quite a few channels. I'm not sure reception is worse then when we had cable but it certainly isn't better.

The biggest issue we had when switching to satellite was which provider to use. Figure out what channels you like to watch then compare the packages that each provider offers. For us, DTV was much, much cheaper then Dish Network, but if I had preferred different channels I could see where Dish would be cheaper.

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

Another big plus is the DirecTV DVR is really well done. You get a huge hard drive (it's now something like 100 hours of HD recording).

If I didn't work for Verizon, I'd likely go back to DirecTV. It was way better than cable in quality, content, and price.

[BCGroup]

Thanks for all the help. The A T and T option is available after we checked, and the Direct TV seems to offer more choices, but will actually cost quite a bit more. We're looking into the other satellite options!

[budwom]

Much depends on how good or crappy your local cable company is.
I've had DirecTV for many years, and like it. One of the best features is the availability of football Gameplan, which has enabled me to see quite a few Duke football games. Many cable systems do not offer this sort of thing (DirecTV picks up the Raycom games, for example). They also have FullCourt for hoops, featuring hundreds of games, but in fact most Duke games are available on the various ESPN channels or the Fox Sports channels (which, by the way, DirecTV has a package for).

But DO make sure you request and get a competent installer. Sometimes they use sub-moronic contractors who can't do dish placement properly, or otherwise botch installation. I've had to have them re-do things several times, which is annoying.

p.s. try to avoid roof placement of the dish if you can.

[DukeUsul]

Call both companies up and see what kind of best introductory deal you can get.

I LOVE that DirecTV allows you to schedule your DVRs over the Internet. I love it that when I'm out somewhere and I realize I forgot to schedule something, I can just hit up the DirecTV website with my computer or phone and tell it to record something. I don't know if any cable companies offer that.

[Pacer]

Good point. Similarly, the DirecTv Iphone app is incredibly easy to use for scheduling those recordings as well.

[chattpanther]

We had Direct TV for 3 years and loved it. Just switched to Uverse because of the price, internet, and DVR. You can record 4 shows at the same time and watch the DVR on any of your TVs. Also, has free on-demand. I love it and it certainly has more channels than Directv. I would definitely go with Uverse if you can. Unfortunately, we will continue to have the Directv Dish on our house for a long time since we now own it.

[allenmurray]

I live in a neighborhood with undergound utilities (including cable). In 10 years the only time I ever lost my cable was during an ice storm of near-biblical proportions. Since had no electricity for 8 days the loss of cable was no big deal. The cable was back as soon as the elec was. TWC has always been incredibly competent and helpful. I realize I may be the only person with this experience, but I have had nothing but excellent service from TWC.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I live in a neighborhood with undergound utilities (including cable). In 10 years the only time I ever lost my cable was during an ice storm of near-biblical proportions. Since had no electricity for 8 days the loss of cable was no big deal. The cable was back as soon as the elec was. TWC has always been incredibly competent and helpful. I realize I may be the only person with this experience, but I have had nothing but excellent service from TWC.

I've always been satisfied by the customer service, and service techs, at both TWC and Alltel. Now that Alltel is Verizon I hope it doesn't change.

[Lid]

I've been happy with TWC customer service, but I could not dislike their DVR any more. We only recently got an HD set, and thought we'd try out the cable company's DVR instead of buying a new HD Tivo (we've had Tivo for years), but it was a big mistake. It's glitchy (sometimes won't rewind or fast forward), has no 15-minute skip feature, the guide is terrible (can't filter for sports, e.g.), and worst of all, it has no Wish List feature. With TiVO, I could just record any basketball event with "Duke" in the title. I'm just about ready to pay for the HD Tivo.

[hughgs]

I live in a neighborhood with undergound utilities (including cable). In 10 years the only time I ever lost my cable was during an ice storm of near-biblical proportions. Since had no electricity for 8 days the loss of cable was no big deal. The cable was back as soon as the elec was. TWC has always been incredibly competent and helpful. I realize I may be the only person with this experience, but I have had nothing but excellent service from TWC.

In general I agree with your opinion of TWC. I think you're going to lose the TV signal at some point, and TWC always got out to us and fixed the problem. Our only gripe was that TWC was constantly adding new "channels" (shopping networks, etc) and then increasing the fees. Since we weren't interested in the new stuff, it seemed we weren't getting anything new for the price. Plus, we weren't tied to their computer lines. Hence we switched to DirectTV.

[moonpie23]

the AT&T uverse has an iphone app as well..

[Acymetric]

I've been happy with TWC customer service, but I could not dislike their DVR any more. We only recently got an HD set, and thought we'd try out the cable company's DVR instead of buying a new HD Tivo (we've had Tivo for years), but it was a big mistake. It's glitchy (sometimes won't rewind or fast forward), has no 15-minute skip feature, the guide is terrible (can't filter for sports, e.g.), and worst of all, it has no Wish List feature. With TiVO, I could just record any basketball event with "Duke" in the title. I'm just about ready to pay for the HD Tivo.

I'm not really sure how to explain the differences between your experience and mine, but my HD tuner does have a skip feature, can filter by catogories, and I've never had trouble with it not rewinding or fast forwarding. There is no wish list feature, but I can usually remember to set it to record sometime in the week preceding the game...I imagine that feature would be nice though.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I'm not really sure how to explain the differences between your experience and mine, but my HD tuner does have a skip feature, can filter by catogories, and I've never had trouble with it not rewinding or fast forwarding. There is no wish list feature, but I can usually remember to set it to record sometime in the week preceding the game...I imagine that feature would be nice though.

I have not been satisfied with the DVR, and months ago had several service techs come out and try to fix/upgrade the box, but basically what I learned was that every time they upgraded the software so that "blue haired idiots" could use the box, they took away upper end functionality that I used and there was no current solution to my gripes. There is supposed to be a 3 tuner DVR coming out sometime in early 2010, at least that is what I was told 6 months ago.

One positive about my griping with them, they lowered my bill by ~$25/month and gave me free Showtime for a year (I rarely if ever watch it, but I've got it for free).

[Battierfan01]

I have had Direct TV for as long as a can remember and I have never had any problems with it. A lot of people say that the picture goes out with heavy rain, but I have only experienced this problem two times since I have had Direct TV. My in-laws have TWC and the picture quality is much better on Direct TV, especially the HD picture. I also love Direct TV's DVR and use it all the time. You even have the ability to record on your DVR from your computer or phone. I would highly recommend Direct TV.

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

I've been happy with TWC customer service, but I could not dislike their DVR any more. We only recently got an HD set, and thought we'd try out the cable company's DVR instead of buying a new HD Tivo (we've had Tivo for years), but it was a big mistake. It's glitchy (sometimes won't rewind or fast forward), has no 15-minute skip feature, the guide is terrible (can't filter for sports, e.g.), and worst of all, it has no Wish List feature. With TiVO, I could just record any basketball event with "Duke" in the title. I'm just about ready to pay for the HD Tivo.

The DirecTV DVR does all of this listed as the Tivo does. It does not however make the "bloop bloop" sound.

Wishlist is key. I really miss that feature.