Called Direct TV...

[brewguru]

The 2-year contract is no big deal. Don't be intimidated by it. I switched to D* 10 years ago and have never regretted it. You've heard all the glowing reviews of D*, why would you think you'd cancel??

[RLJSlick]

I'm still looking to Direct TV, but one thing I can't seem to find, is FSN (Fox Sports Network) is it on, and do we get the Brewer games? I think they call it Fox North or something?

[Steve Mann]

I'm still looking to Direct TV, but one thing I can't seem to find, is FSN (Fox Sports Network) is it on, and do we get the Brewer games? I think they call it Fox North or something?

Yes, FSNWI is on DirecTV and you should get the Brewer's games. However, I always have the MLB EI package, so I'm not exactly sure if it will be available to subscribers who don't pay for the Extra Innings package.

[Skywalker]

Channel 642 on DirecTV.  They also broadcast Bucks, Badger hockey, etc and offer HD when available.

[qawsed]

I agree with Vic on this one.  Once you jump from TWC to D*, you won't want to go back for a long, long time.  I made the jump 3 years ago - no way I'd go back.

Well I disagree with the 2 directv advertisers.   I had D* for 8 years, and here are some things I don't miss:

Losing signal - it happens more than anyone admits.  You get a lot of 3 second blips during rain/snow

2 year contract - TWC had been leading in HD for a while before D* came out with the new channels.  What if TWC gets the new, flavor of the day must-have channel a year from now and D* doesn't?  What if D* goes back to providing a grainy, HD-Lite picture like they had been?  With cable, I can dump them anytime I want.  Believe me, someday you will want to switch to something else.

Paying hundreds of dollars for buggy equipment.  I have several hundred $$ of obsolete D* boxes sitting around.

Calling D* customer service every 6 months begging for price breaks, etc.  They give price breaks, but only if you call and beg.  I don't want to pay $99 extra for NFL Sunday Ticket in HD when everyone who begs them gets it free.

No local weather channel forecasts

No CBS58 HD

Having to have a D* box attached to every TV in my house (at $5/per) - you can't just run the cable like you can with TWC.

No movies on demand - this really sucks when it's a rainy night and you want to stay in and watch a movie.  You order the PPV movie, wait for it to start in 30 minutes (not instantly like TWC), and then you lose the picture for 10 minutes because of the rain.  Guess what?   Another call to D* to get a credit.  But worse, you can't just rewind the movie and watch the part you missed.  You have to order again, and wait for the movie to play all the way to the part you missed, which is at least 2 hours later if you missed the ending.

Having external "rabbit ears" antennas in the house.  It's 2007, I shouldn't need to be buying silver sensor antennas, stashing it in my closet, and running cable to my box.  I also shouldn't need to run to that closet and climb on a chair to adjust the antenna because 58 HD comes in better with it faces SW and 24 HD comes in better when it's upside down and tilted 10 degrees off vertical.

Having multiple cables running everywhere.  Cable has one cable, and it can be split with a splitter.  D* has multiple source cables coming in from the dish, and diplexers to split the signal.  I regret the fact that I even know what a diplexer is.

[AndrewP]

OK, I have Dish Network and not DirecTV. But in this case I can respond in behalf of both Dish and DirecTV.

Losing signal - it happens more than anyone admits.  You get a lot of 3 second blips during rain/snow.

Not true. It happened couple of times for several minutes. But I lost cable once for a day, when I had TWC in 2001.

2 year contract - TWC had been leading in HD for a while before D* came out with the new channels.  What if TWC gets the new, flavor of the day must-have channel a year from now and D* doesn't?  What if D* goes back to providing a grainy, HD-Lite picture like they had been?  With cable, I can dump them anytime I want.  Believe me, someday you will want to switch to something else.

I have a different angle on a contract. If you beleive that in two years you will get a better service then TWC (for me more HD), then it is not a big deal.
Also this new, flavor of the day must-have channel from TWC never existed, doesn't exist now and will not magically appear in the future.

Paying hundreds of dollars for buggy equipment.  I have several hundred $$ of obsolete D* boxes sitting around.

Do not remind me about that buggy TWC HD box. And Dish DVR just blows away everything from TWC. I saw current TWC box at friend's house. Don't want to go there. I don't know about D* boxes, heard about early problems, most of them were fixed already.

Calling D* customer service every 6 months begging for price breaks, etc.  They give price breaks, but only if you call and beg.  I don't want to pay $99 extra for NFL Sunday Ticket in HD when everyone who begs them gets it free.

The same applies to all providers. I will be really suprised to get a call from my provider offering some better deals. That is why such forums, like this one, help.

No local weather channel forecasts

You got to be kidding. What about 4.2, 10.5-10.8 and all these weather alerts.

No CBS58 HD

OTA works very good here.

Having to have a D* box attached to every TV in my house (at $5/per) - you can't just run the cable like you can with TWC.

And watch those snowy channels? I better have another box. In my case I have one 622 box, connected to three HDTVs.

No movies on demand - this really sucks when it's a rainy night and you want to stay in and watch a movie.  You order the PPV movie, wait for it to start in 30 minutes (not instantly like TWC), and then you lose the picture for 10 minutes because of the rain.  Guess what?   Another call to D* to get a credit.  But worse, you can't just rewind the movie and watch the part you missed.  You have to order again, and wait for the movie to play all the way to the part you missed, which is at least 2 hours later if you missed the ending.

With DVR working good I don't know if I missed something here.

Having external "rabbit ears" antennas in the house.  It's 2007, I shouldn't need to be buying silver sensor antennas, stashing it in my closet, and running cable to my box.  I also shouldn't need to run to that closet and climb on a chair to adjust the antenna because 58 HD comes in better with it faces SW and 24 HD comes in better when it's upside down and tilted 10 degrees off vertical.

What is wrong with installing an antenna in the attic, which will pickup Milwaukee and Chicago HD stations. Can TWC provide Chicago HD?, or Chicago Comcast Sports Net HD?

Having multiple cables running everywhere.  Cable has one cable, and it can be split with a splitter.  D* has multiple source cables coming in from the dish, and diplexers to split the signal.  I regret the fact that I even know what a diplexer is.

You are confused what diplexers are. And when cable is installed should I care about how many cables I have

[vegasvic]

Andrew pretty much summed it up.  I had A LOT more outages with TWC that last much longer than anything I've had with DTV.  And worrying about  "what if" TWC suddenly has more or better HD channels is the next two years is humorous.  

TWC and their fans are really grasping at straws.  I especially enjoy the "well sure they have a lot more HD channels but how many do you actually watch?" argument :rolleyes:

[Talos4]

HMMM.... What happened to this guy?

My (long) Time Warner Cable story

03-06-2004, 02:11 AM

[Well, I'm back with Directv, got a sweet deal on a HD receiver, and I'm happy with the better picture and lower monthly price. I'm glad it happened, in a way. TW never did get ESPN-HD, so that would have been a deal breaker anyway. I would like to have had fox 6 in HD for the football season, as well as the Bucks games in HD that TW has, but hey, I tried.

Bottom line - I should have never tried to go back to cable from Directv. Just to point out a difference in the 2 companies: When I bought my HD receiver from Directv, they didn't yet have any official deals like they do now. I got a decent deal to offset the cost of the receiver, including lots of free programming and a credit on my account. Well, now of course they're offering the HD receivers for $99. So on a lark, I called them back and explained that I bought before the promotion started and could they do anything for me. Within 20 seconds they had credited my account another $150! This was MONTHS after I had bought my receiver. They didn't have to do anything, but they did. Try getting Time Warner to do that!!/QUOTE]

Did they flag your account and refuse to give you a free HR20, and/or more programming credits?  

C'mon if you're going to rip on a provider quit picking the flavor of the day.

I chose D* 10 years ago because they actually had / have customer service.  

I have TWC for Phone and RR. All my dealings are online, why? You can't get through on the phone.

[qawsed]

HMMM.... What happened to this guy?

I should say that I do hate TWC as well, I really do.  But to say that D* is perfect is flat out wrong.   One guy said that TWC's "fans" are grasping at straws.  I'm not a fan at all.  I just hate to see these guys basically advertising D* without telling the whole story.  I guess I don't understand the fanboy attitude of some of these guys.   I don't see how a grown man can be such a little fanboy that they view my post above as "ripping" their precious provider.

For me, right now, I'll stick with TWC.  If there was a better alternative, I'd jump, but right now D* is not it.   I mean, I'd rather eat that silver sensor antenna than put it up again.

[Dan the Man]

qewsed, no one is ripping on you because you prefer TWC, but I bet if you had the chance to try D* you might find it better than cable.

Over the last 10 years, I have been both a DirecTV, Charter and TWC customer and have switched back and forth at least a few times. I had D* in 2003 and liked it then. I left D* not by choice, but by divorce and the dish had to stay behind. I didn't know where I would end up do I went ovet to Charter and then TWC with my many moves. I just this week got back on D* and have to say that I feel the PQ is better (non-HD), and the H20 DVR seems to be much better then the SA8300 from TWC. Not to even mention all the additional HD content that D* now has available.

By your own admission, you dislike TWC. The only way anything will ever change is if TWC looses customers and the step up to the plate and improve programming. Customer service and the TWC infrastructure may never substantially improve.

I bet that D* would be willing to hook you up, and if you didn't like the service would let you out of the contract and service within a 30 day window.

I'm not trying to be a "fanboy" here, but I will tell others when I am happy (or un-happy) with a product or service.

[RLJSlick]

Well I called Direct TV and there isn't any money back guarantee, and if you want out of your contract you will have to pay $20 for every month left on your contract.  Direst TV must be the only service in the World that don't give you at least 30 days to try it out.  2 year contract and you can't even try it out first. That's just nuts.

qewsed, no one is ripping on you because you prefer TWC, but I bet if you had the chance to try D* you might find it better than cable.

Over the last 10 years, I have been both a DirecTV, Charter and TWC customer and have switched back and forth at least a few times. I had D* in 2003 and liked it then. I left D* not by choice, but by divorce and the dish had to stay behind. I didn't know where I would end up do I went ovet to Charter and then TWC with my many moves. I just this week got back on D* and have to say that I feel the PQ is better (non-HD), and the H20 DVR seems to be much better then the SA8300 from TWC. Not to even mention all the additional HD content that D* now has available.

By your own admission, you dislike TWC. The only way anything will ever change is if TWC looses customers and the step up to the plate and improve programming. Customer service and the TWC infrastructure may never substantially improve.

I bet that D* would be willing to hook you up, and if you didn't like the service would let you out of the contract and service within a 30 day window.

I'm not trying to be a "fanboy" here, but I will tell others when I am happy (or un-happy) with a product or service.

[vegasvic]

I switched 7+ years ago from TWC to DTV.  Since then I've had better (much better) service, better (much better) picture quality, more (lots more) HD channels and an overall better (much better) experience.

The whole purpose of forums like this is for people to post their experiences and opinions. If liking one service over another makes one a "fanboy" so be it. Does that mean we are "basically advertising" D* without "telling the whole story"?  I told my story.  Others told theirs.  I guess that would be the whole story.

qawsed seems upset because of some of us like DTV and he doesn't.  I don't get upset if someone doesn't like DTV. That's their choice.  I get a kick out of people that get so sensitive on an internet board.  :cool:

[vegasvic]

I just wanted to add that I certainly don't think D* is "perfect" at all.  I wish I didn't have to pay for equipment.  The two year contract doesn't matter to me but I can see where it would matter to someone thinking about switching and not wanting to get locked into a service they may not like.  

Now let's all get ready for some football.  TWC is carrying the Packer game right?  

[Matt Heebner]

I had TWC many years ago, and went to Directv in the mid 1990's.
Now if you search my posts over the years, you will see that I have been extremely critical of Directv over the past 3 or 4 years for their utter failure to keep up with other providers, however the promises by Directv were made so I continued to stick it out.
Finally Directv has started  fullfilling some of those promises they made back about 2004 or so. I tellyou right now, there is no way Directv is perfect, but they are totally bitchslapping TWC around like they are a cheap hooker, more HD channels, offering BTN, and NFL Network etc. The picture quality is far superior to what they were providing before the MPEG4 switch, and the amount of HD channels provided is actually more that the HD content on those channels for a change....

I do feel the need to address the whole signal dropping argument though....Yes Diectv does drop signal when serious storms move through, but I have never had it happen more than about once or twice a year, and never, ever more than about 2-3 min. In fact the only time I have had a drop longer is when snow builds up on the dish, which admittedly also happens on occassion. I will take the small minor drops over an outtage of much longer if they need to repair a cable. Really it is such a non-factor, I very much get a kick when cable companies try and use this for an "edge" over satellite.

[gparris]

Outage?
TWC never admits to it being an "outage" but more recently, in discussions within this forum, there are threads about the constant rebooting of TWC STBs.
We TWC HD subs get more "reboots" - similar to that passing storm cloud for 30-90 seconds you than dish subs EVER get - when our HD DVRs reboot.

It can take several minutes while the STB does its "reboot dance" and then your DVR box has to "remember" it was recording something, then goes back on.

-IF you recording TWO shows at a time, the TWC HD DVR "forgets" the other channel it was recording althogether, so you are just screwed.

Directv's HD DVR boxes, in my experience, will keep on going during a quick "outage" and not stop, offering the possiblity of less record "down time" than the TWC HD DVR.

Heck, Directv should advertise or "spin" that one, too, since TWC is always "dishing" satellite services' so-called "rainfade" all the time.
If you have an antenna that works well enough for you (or you like to record/watch CBSHD locally), you can always watch/record the network HD shows, anyway without compromising "rainfade", too.  (Local weather comes in on 4-2, right?)