Switch to Directv from TWC?

[klwillis45]

Time Warner is raising prices again so I'm strongly considering a move to Directv. The current whole house & sunday ticket offer is looking pretty attractive. I do have a few concerns.

1) My house is on the market so I could be moving next month, next year or who knows. How easy is it to move Directv service? Is there a cost or extension of contract?

2)What ISP do most Directv subs use around here? I see that bundling may be a possiblity

3)Any other pitfalls to watch out for?

[PONIES]

DirecTV's HD lineup sucks. If you move you will need to take the dish with you. Time Warner Cable is the best ISP in this market.

If you just threaten to go to DirecTV to Time Warner's retentions department I'm sure they can offer you a discount.

[REVM1M]

DirecTV's HD lineup sucks. If you move you will need to take the dish with you.


HD line up is fine and NO you don't take the dish with you, only the receivers. I switched from TWC back in 1995 when Directv came out and never looked back.

[AndrewP]

DirecTV's HD lineup sucks. If you move you will need to take the dish with you. Time Warner Cable is the best ISP in this market..

It is not true.
Leave dish to the next owner, bring receivers, free install and free 3 months premiums as usual Move offer from DirecTV.
As for the lineup: Premiums HD better on DirecTV, basic cable  alittle bit better on TWC. With addition of AMC HD the differnce is nothing for me.
With DirecTV you will get so much more sports HD with correct package. Like Champions League and UEFA League from Europe (all games in HD). It is not available on TWC. Sunday ticket is good but for Packers fans in our area is just wate of money. It is good as a free startup offer.

If you just threaten to go to DirecTV to Time Warner's retentions department I'm sure they can offer you a discount.

This is true for almost all providers.

Agree TWC is the best ISP provider.

[klwillis45]

Yeah, I'm not seeing what is so terrible about the HD lineup. AMC is there now.

I'd miss BBCA but gain HDNet & NFLN.

[PONIES]

DirecTV only has around 100 HD channels:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1058081

That's pretty terrible. Also, they have more compression than Time Warner Cable.

I don't see why anyone would want to settle for less HD and more compression.

[Northern Fringe]

I've been happy with DirecTV since switching from Charter cable.  The sports packages are great, and I've been pleased with the video quality.  The signal only drops out when a major storm is going through and the clouds are really thick up there.  In a year, it's happened to me once.  

Something to consider is how many TV's you want to have on the service.  With cable, you can hook up multiple TV's and get a good lineup of analog channels for your "non-primary" TV sets that's included in your cost of service.  With sat service, you need a receiver at each TV... for an additional charge per month per receiver.  In my case, I have my "non-primary" TV's on antenna service which is fine for the news and major network programming.  It's just another aspect to consider.

[kevbeck122]

Is there a cost or extension of contract?

Unless you order a new/additional receiver, I don't think there's an extension of the contract when moving.  Just be careful though when you do call mover's connection and make sure there is no extension.  I've heard stories of DIRECTV extending contracts when they shouldn't.

Overall I'm happy with DIRECTV... been with them for just over two years.  I can't beat the price... between that and RoadRunner standard, I'm paying just under $100/month (Choice Xtra, Showtime and 1 HD DVR), though I'm getting a bunch of discounts.

[klwillis45]

I've been happy with DirecTV since switching from Charter cable.  The sports packages are great, and I've been pleased with the video quality.  The signal only drops out when a major storm is going through and the clouds are really thick up there.  In a year, it's happened to me once.  

Something to consider is how many TV's you want to have on the service.  With cable, you can hook up multiple TV's and get a good lineup of analog channels for your "non-primary" TV sets that's included in your cost of service.  With sat service, you need a receiver at each TV... for an additional charge per month per receiver.  In my case, I have my "non-primary" TV's on antenna service which is fine for the news and major network programming.  It's just another aspect to consider.

Not a problem witht the current offer. I'd get 4 HD boxes, 2 of which are DVRs for just $99 out of pocket. And the monthly fees for the boxes are less than I pay TWC now for just the 2 HD DVRs. And I'd have whole house capability.

[PONIES]

What is with all these people actually renting DVRs and set-top boxes from the cable companies? The biggest advantage cable has over AT&T and the satellite companies is its capability to use the CableCARD.

Buy a PC tuner like the Hauppauage WinTV DCR-2650, Ceton InfiniTV 4 (which supports up to FOUR channels at once unlike Time Warner DVRs' TWO), or HDHomeRun PRIME.

Enjoy a vastly superior, native high definition lag free interface via Windows 7 Media Center and no set-top box rentals with Xbox 360s as Media Center extenders. Functionality which is completely free, by the way. The Xbox 360 can access your PC and use it as a master DVR via the network.

[Jack 1000]

What is with all these people actually renting DVRs and set-top boxes from the cable companies? The biggest advantage cable has over AT&T and the satellite companies is its capability to use the CableCARD.

Buy a PC tuner like the Hauppauage WinTV DCR-2650, Ceton InfiniTV 4 (which supports up to FOUR channels at once unlike Time Warner DVRs' TWO), or HDHomeRun PRIME.

Enjoy a vastly superior, native high definition lag free interface via Windows 7 Media Center and no set-top box rentals with Xbox 360s as Media Center extenders. Functionality which is completely free, by the way. The Xbox 360 can access your PC and use it as a master DVR via the network.

Ponies,

Cable Cards can be an option, but some people like to have VOD, PPV, and Caller ID on TV if they have TWC Digital Cable/Phone.  You lose that with a cable card.   I know that Start Over/Look Back are not available with a Cable Card.  Can you get the TWC Music Choice Channels with a Cable Card?  I am not sure about that.

They also may not like to have to rescan their TV during a line-up change.  The big plus is that the third-party equipment like the Tivos and other boxes are more modern and more reliable than TWC's current set top boxes and DVR's.

Jack

[PONIES]

You get every channel except Pay Per View and On Demand with CableCARD.

Is Time Warner's meager selection of On Demand really worth paying $18 per box every month and spending an extra $216 a year on cable? I don't think so. They've got A&E, History, National Geographic, and Spike TV HD on Demand - all which show a meager selection of some of their recent episodes, which if you'd just pay attention and schedule the series to record on the live channel, you don't even need On Demand for.

Are there seriously people who use "Pay Per View" in this economy? Who is buying these $20 hour-long comedy specials? You can get comedy specials on vastly superior Blu-ray for half that. And you get to keep them. In fact, I've glanced at PPV and a lot of the stuff is on Blu-ray... for purchase much cheaper than these inferior quality pay per view "rentals." The concept of "Pay Per View" is deader than $5 physical media rentals down at a brick-and-mortar video store.

You don't have to rescan your channels with a CableCARD tuner. The Media Center guide updates channel changes automatically. Another great thing about the Media Center guide is you can customize how many columns are in it, rows, which channels are displayed (don't want the SD channels shown when they have a HD counterpart? Uncheck them! Don't want crap that's not in your package spamming up your guide? You can remove them from being displayed too...)

And what is "Start Over / Look Back" ?