TV or not TV

[gwyn]

I've been thinking about changing my TV service to satellite for a lot of reasons, one of which is that it might be cheaper and right now, cheaper is good, while still maintaining my ability to rely on TV to keep me entertained as I adjust to all these changes in life. I've been talking to friends with DirecTV and they seem happy with both their TiFaux and package, and they say they haven't had weather issues to deal with, etc. I think DTV might be better than Dish Network for my location, but I see both in my neighborhood. I walked down my alley today and I counted 9 houses with a satellite, which surprised me a lot.

I've always hated Comcast and everyone before them for their monopoly and bad service. Every once in a while, I get good people, but more often than not, I don't. I will say that since they went to underground cable, I've never had problems with transmissions -- my cable doesn't go out even in windstorms. But what I want is HD -- I have an HD-ready TV, but I really don't want to add yet more money onto my bill, which is already incredibly high for a sporadically employed person, just to get an HD box. I still wouldn't have an HD digital video recorder, and it looks like not only is there a package with a fairly low price for one year that includes a free (after rebate) HD DVR in one but you get a pretty nice level of extra channels for a while, for free, as well.

My main issue is that my TV, while HD-ready, is just old enough that it doesn't have an HDMI port, and we've never been able to get the component video cables to work with it, even though everyone said we had stuff set up correctly and there are plenty o' ports for the damn things. They've just been dangling off the back of the receiver the whole time I've had it. Now, it's not totally outside the realm of possibility I might be able to get a newer plasma tv in the near future, and if push came to shove, well, I'd just make that my priority to pay for one with HDMI or something, or find a way to make those ridiculously expensive component cables work.

But! What I'm wondering is... oh flist...

• Do you have satellite?
• If so, what do you think of it? Who are you with?
• Do you find it better than cable?
• Do you think of it as a better deal (right now, I'm paying for expanded basic cable and my TiVo service separately, so I'm curious about people who have different types of services)?
• Are you happy with your DVR if it's not the TiVo?
• Do you get HD, any of you, either through cable or satellite?
• Do you think the service people are better with satellite than cable (I'm asking this because if they are, maybe I'd be lucky enough to get someone who can help me get my strange setup to work).
• And just overall, what thoughts would you share with someone who's considering the move?

Comments

[carbonel]

Do you have satellite?

Yes. Made the switch about seven years ago (at a guess), when DirecTV offered a free TiVo for new customers.

If so, what do you think of it? Who are you with?

I've never regretted switching, even though it meant paying for two lifetime accounts (original TiVo, then DirecTiVo). I'm with DirecTV.

Do you find it better than cable?

Yes. Better picture, and the DirecTiVo (and now the TiFaux) record at higher quality at lower memory than I ever got with the original TiVo.

Do you think of it as a better deal (right now, I'm paying for expanded basic cable and my TiVo service separately, so I'm curious about people who have different types of services)?

Probably about the same amount of money, except that the cable company annoyed me no end when they offered a free month of digital cable, and when I didn't see an improvement, didn't want to give my old service back.

Are you happy with your DVR if it's not the TiVo?

I'd rather have a real TiVo, but the DVR is acceptable. The most annoying lack-of-feature is that the TiFaux doesn't have a "skip to the next tick mark" feature. It takes forever to fast-forward through long things, even though the TiFaux has four levels of fast-forward, not just three.

Do you get HD, any of you, either through cable or satellite?

Yes. Switched about a year ago.

Do you think the service people are better with satellite than cable (I'm asking this because if they are, maybe I'd be lucky enough to get someone who can help me get my strange setup to work).

Maybe. I've had a couple of very patient tech support people from DirecTV, where it took an hour-plus phone call to get things working, but where we were ultimately successful. I don't remember having comparable problems with cable, but I didn't have as complicated a system then, either.

And just overall, what thoughts would you share with someone who's considering the move?

I was really leery about making the switch originally to DirecTV. If it hadn't been a combination of a wonderful deal (free TiVo) and TimeWarner pissing me off at the right time, I might never have made the jump. And the only problem I've ever had is very occasional weather-related issues. The DirecTV customer service has been quite good, too.

On a related note, I have an HD DirecTV TiVo (a real one, not a TiFaux -- got it from my parents when they moved to a condo that only had Comcast) that I ended up having to give up using because it's not compatible with an oval satellite dish, and that's the only way to get local channels other than over the air. I bought an HD antenna and got great HD reception over the air, but for some reason the TiVo refused to recognize the over-the-air inputs.

If you don't need an oval dish, I could pass on the TiVo to you.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

That is really good info. With the change coming up to digital broadcast, it seems like now's a good time anyway to make a change. It's only $7 more to get a cable HD receiver, but... I still wouldn't have any more channels or deals, and the $$ I would save in getting more channels for a year would let me buy a plasma TV! Yeesh. I will definitely miss the cute TiVo interface, but... I can't really afford to buy another box for HD and it would stupid to use the old box for that, even if I could with the dish. I do worry about the weather issue, too, because it's very windy and rainy in my neck of the woods, but Christy says they haven't had any trouble at all. they're a bit more sheltered by trees than I am, and I'm right up from the water, so we get more weather issues, but I guess I'll see.