Racer's Lounge - Switch to satellite?

I received a letter from my wonderful cable company today, stating they are raising my tv/internet package $10.00 a month due to high maintance costs and a bunch of other BS. I am seriously considering dumping my cable TV, and keep just my internet for only $34.00 a month. I had just basic non digital cable and cable internet and its costs $70.00 a month. Now its going to go up to $80.00 +. Directv is running a deal for 39.99 for 200 channels with a DVR and DVR service included. Sounds like a good deal to me. Any guys out there that switched to satellite like it better than cable? Or is it such a pain to have a dish, that I should keep my ass raping cable?

There are tradeoffs. DIRECTV's 200 channels contain a lot of fluff. Look at the channels they offer and see if you like that many of them. Is the DVR service always included, or does it expire and go up at some time. Satellite is subject to rain fade, where extreme weather can block the signal at times. The picture quality, however is superior to cable.
Cable is not subject to rain fade, but their picture quality is not as good. I would compare the channels and see what you think.
I used to work in the industry, so you can trust me on these things.
I have a Tivo, and I would never go back to live tv. Commercial skip, ff, rewind, pause, are awesome.

I have had DIRECTV for 10 years now and love it. I would never go back to cable. It's true that when a bad storm comes in the picture can freeze up or go out, but that usually only happens a few times a year. It comes right back on though when the storm passes. I had cable and it would go out sometimes too when a storm came. However it never seemed to come right back on like Directv. I say go Directv. Keep your internet though separate as it is kind of costly to use Directv for that service too.

I prefer Directv. I used to have Cable TV and it's no comparison to Directv. The only thing is, that the DVR is free if you get the service. Which is like 10 bucks a month, I think? Not too sure. I'm about to get the HDTV DVR... can't wait :thumb:

Thanks guys, I ordered the deal online. Once they get it set up, I'll my cable company and tell them where to put their crappy service at.

Once they get it set up, I'll my cable company and tell them where to put their crappy service at.

Hey we arent that bad. People think its free to run a cable company, its just like any business its not free.

There are tradeoffs. DIRECTV's 200 channels contain a lot of fluff. Look at the channels they offer and see if you like that many of them. Is the DVR service always included, or does it expire and go up at some time. Satellite is subject to rain fade, where extreme weather can block the signal at times. The picture quality, however is superior to cable.
Cable is not subject to rain fade, but their picture quality is not as good. I would compare the channels and see what you think.
I used to work in the industry, so you can trust me on these things.
I have a Tivo, and I would never go back to live tv. Commercial skip, ff, rewind, pause, are awesome.

Everything he said is true. However...I used to think the world of Directv, their pricing, and their customer service. Now I think their customer service sucks balls. I was over charged $181 on my account about a month and a half ago, and have yet to receive any money back. Every time I call, I get put on hold for at least 15-20 mins, and have to explain my entire situation all over again. As far as their claim about receiving a $50 Visa gift card for signing up, they dont tell you it will take 5 months to get it! Theres just a lot of little things that they are real shady about.

I have Direct TV and I've had it for 4 months now and its the shit.

If Direct TV is so great, how come every store that sells TV's uses cable?

Not only that, they have 100 TV's splitting off one signal and every picture is suberb while the sales rep is telling you this.

... and what's with the free this and free that when you (have to take a 1 year subscription) switch to Direct TV from cable ... haven't you figured out this bait?

Have fun with your gamma ray blasted Direct TV ... I'm sticking to my comcast cable & internet ..


:nod:

Everything he said is true. However...I used to think the world of Directv, their pricing, and their customer service. Now I think their customer service sucks balls. I was over charged $181 on my account about a month and a half ago, and have yet to receive any money back. Every time I call, I get put on hold for at least 15-20 mins, and have to explain my entire situation all over again. As far as their claim about receiving a $50 Visa gift card for signing up, they dont tell you it will take 5 months to get it! Theres just a lot of little things that they are real shady about.I agree their customer service sucks. On hold forever, even back in 98 when I first started working with them.
And that is why I wondered about their DVR service; Tivo is normally $10 a month addition. One nice thing about them is that they charge $5 each for every additional receiver on the same account with the same service. Its called mirroring.
AFA why stores use cable, it is because the TV can be set to cable and then use the TV tuner to change channels. With DIRECTV, you have to have line of sight to the STB and use their remote.
AFA why the service is so cheap, their goal is to replace all the Tivos with their own design of DVR.
Like Pinky and the Brain; they are out to take over the world. ;)

Not only that, they have 100 TV's splitting off one signal and every picture is suberb while the sales rep is telling you this.

:nod:They use amplifiers to amplify the signal. Very basic concept. There is a 3Db drop for each split, so the installer makes his calculations, installs the correct strength and number of amps, and he is done. It can also be done for DIRECTV signals, but the frequency range is much higher and more expensive for the parts; both amps and splitters.

I agree their customer service sucks. On hold forever, even back in 98 when I first started working with them.
And that is why I wondered about their DVR service; Tivo is normally $10 a month addition. One nice thing about them is that they charge $5 each for every additional receiver on the same account with the same service. Its called mirroring.
AFA why stores use cable, it is because the TV can be set to cable and then use the TV tuner to change channels. With DIRECTV, you have to have line of sight to the STB and use their remote.
AFA why the service is so cheap, their goal is to replace all the Tivos with their own design of DVR.
Like Pinky and the Brain; they are out to take over the world. ;)

Let me ask you a question. Why does Directvs customer service put you on hold for so long?

Hey we arent that bad. People think its free to run a cable company, its just like any business its not free.

I understand its not free, but in the same token I expect a decent service for the money I pay. The cost keeps going up and the service keeps going down. I have been fighting with them over my internet connectivity problems for four months. My download speed is nowhere near what they advertise, and it will randomly disconnect its self for a while then reconnect and start working again. According to them there is nothing wrong . The other problem I had was some of my upper channels were not coming in on my TV. After I called to report my problem, it took over a month and several more calls to fix the problem. All it ended up being was a bad trap in their box in the back yard, and It took the tech 10 minutes to fix it.

After price comparing and the problems I have had, I'm going to try the satellite route for a while. If it sucks, I guess I will figure something else out. What else I don't like is, they are the only ones that provide high speed internet service where I live.

I understand its not free, but in the same token I expect a decent service for the money I pay. The cost keeps going up and the service keeps going down. I have been fighting with them over my internet connectivity problems for four months. My download speed is nowhere near what they advertise, and it will randomly disconnect its self for a while then reconnect and start working again. According to them there is nothing wrong . The other problem I had was some of my upper channels were not coming in on my TV. After I called to report my problem, it took over a month and several more calls to fix the problem. All it ended up being was a bad trap in their box in the back yard, and It took the tech 10 minutes to fix it.

After price comparing and the problems I have had, I'm going to try the satellite route for a while. If it sucks, I guess I will figure something else out. What else I don't like is, they are the only ones that provide high speed internet service where I live.What people fail to realize is that cable uses hardware in rooms and boxes, and cables buried under the ground. These can deteriorate over time, and it costs money to replace/repair. So the bean counters make them wait until there is a catastrophic failure.
So you are saying that DSL is not available? It would be a reasonable alternative, since it finally reached cable modem speeds. DIRECTV internet connectivity is far too expensive, IMHO.

My download speed is nowhere near what they advertise, and it will randomly disconnect its self for a while then reconnect and start working again.

If you have an older modem it may be time to upgrade. I'm in the same boat as you, I've been paying $60 a month for crappy service and slow ass speed. I got a call from Comcast saying that my rate was going down and speed was going up. That was a shocker! But I was also told I needed a new modem to take advantage of power boost.

I had comcast when I was in KY before I was deployed bc I was basically forced to have it. Only cable and internet service for people that lived on post, couldnt get DirectTV bc of living in the barracks.

On the cost it was pretty stupid. It was $80 a month for the slowest internet and smallest cable channel package. Had around 30 channels and was worthless. I HATE comcast and their customer service. Yea its not a free service but you have NO say in what channels you get and they included some bogus channels in the package. Cable is such a ripoff.

I had comcast when I was in KY before I was deployed bc I was basically forced to have it. Only cable and internet service for people that lived on post, couldnt get DirectTV bc of living in the barracks.

On the cost it was pretty stupid. It was $80 a month for the slowest internet and smallest cable channel package. Had around 30 channels and was worthless. I HATE comcast and their customer service. Yea its not a free service but you have NO say in what channels you get and they included some bogus channels in the package. Cable is such a ripoff.

I don't know what you're talking about.
My comcast has 183 channels and the fastest internet possible for $100 a month.
When I recently moved to a new home, comcast came out the same day I moved and set me up.
I even requested all new cables from the main junction to my modem and box and they did this in a few hours that day.
They even used all hi-perf cables and connections.

The cable guy even gave me a filter to try out on PPV just to see if PPV was to my liking.

Try this with Direct TV and see if you can even talk to someone.

Talk to anybody on Ft Campbell and you will get the same answer. They are the ONLY cable company that is allowed to service Campbell. They had three packages for the area: bronze, silver and gold. Bronze was $40, silver was $60 and gold was $80. If you wanted HD you had to pay an extra $10 or 20 for the HD receiver a month.

It took a week and a half to get them to come out and turn on my room. All they have to do it barracks is go to the control room and literally switch on my room. Then I had to pay a $60 install fee for him doing that. He turned on 7 other rooms that day and was there for about an hour so he made $420 just in install fees.

The internet service was not a problem at all. It only went down one time the whole year I was there because someone took out a cable junction box in a traffic wreck. It was pretty fast and besides Sprint DSL the ONLY cable internet company that serviced Ft Campbell.

The intial $60 a month package of cable and internet was ok but then it went up to $80 a month and a month after we left it was slated to go up another $10 a month for some reason.

I just went and checked the channel line up and they have added about 6 channels since we left 4 months ago. There are still CSPAN and CSPAN2 and the useless home shopping channels that they make you get. Plus the fact that they dont offer Speed still shows that while receiving huge amounts of demand for the channel they still havent added it.

I understand its not free, but in the same token I expect a decent service for the money I pay. The cost keeps going up and the service keeps going down. I have been fighting with them over my internet connectivity problems for four months. My download speed is nowhere near what they advertise, and it will randomly disconnect its self for a while then reconnect and start working again. According to them there is nothing wrong . The other problem I had was some of my upper channels were not coming in on my TV. After I called to report my problem, it took over a month and several more calls to fix the problem. All it ended up being was a bad trap in their box in the back yard, and It took the tech 10 minutes to fix it.


If you want I can try to take a look at it for you when I get to work tomorrow? I work in Tech Support for PW. Ill see if I can find anything that someone may have missed. Also do you have any router? If so have you tried connecting directly to the Cable Modem? I know when I plug directly to my CM the speed goes up, not a lot but maybe if you have a cheaper router that could be causeing it. What is the Download speed when you test it?

If you want me too PM me your name or phone number(so I can look up the account) and I can check it out.

My speed tested out at 1100 down / 480 up. Pretty slow for cable. Yes, I do have a router and tried connecting the modem directly to the computer, same speed result. Im going to check my cable in my house for the second time to see if there is a bad section or spliter somewhere.