DirecTV

[Klaus]

Here is my 90 day review of DirecTV:

Hardware:
Installation was free and included the dish, the "genie" whole home DVR and 3 "genie mini" clients. Everything pretty much works as advertised with recording being able to play on any of the clients or my Samsung smart TV that features a built in RVU app that connects to the Genie like a client. There is a bit of lag in the guide on the clients but for the more part it's ok. If I am on my TV that is directly hooked up to the Genie DVR the guide is smooth and I have no complaints. Every couple weeks a client will fail to connect to the Genie and I need to hit the reset button on the DVR that reboots and reacquires the satellites. Takes 5 mins and usually happens at the worst possible time.

Software:
I like the Directv guide compared to Comcast. It's fast and has much better search features. It also has some nice statistics that show what other viewers are watching that can be fun to watch. Interactive features show promise but are sometimes slow and take forever to update (weather app etc). DVR menu is pretty standard and groups by show or channel. I do appreciate the ability to delete an entire series with one button press. With Comcast you had to go into the folder with all the episodes and delete each individually and that was slow.

Internet/App/Laptop viewing:
This is a huge growth area for all the TV providers. Comcast allowed you to control your DVR from your smartphone/tablet and I found that sometimes useful (log on at work and record a upcoming program). DirecTV has a similar app that I have used a couple times but they also offer viewing content on your phone from within the network. If you have a iOS device you can watch "some" live content anywhere. With Android you get the same "live" content but you must be within the network. Problem is the "some" content is not what you would want to watch like live sports or HBO etc. But of course you can get HBO etc on demand but just like Comcast the On demand HBO is not complete. There are seasons/episodes missing that you might want to see. HBOGO is a really nice addition to any HDTV subscription and contains all the episode of every HBO show making it extremely useful. With DirecTV you get HBOGO access BUT it's only allowed on laptop and smartphone. I tried to activate it on my Ruku and Blu Ray player but DirectTV will not allow it (ugggg I googled it and I guess DirecTV considered it competition.... even if it requires their service to login)

Cost:
To sign up of course there is a 2 year contract required but the savings is tiered over the two years. So you would say get a $40 discount per month the first year and a $20 bill credit the second year. They also offer other discounts such as $10 off a month if you have your bill auto deducted. My calculations show about a 20% savings over Comcast for the first two years. The major complaint I noticed when researching a few months ago was that DirecTV treats older customers like crap and does not provide a affordable path to upgrade older equipment. I heard that 10 year customers that wanted to upgrade to the Genie DVR were asked to pay $400 upfront. Horrible. My plan is to ride out the two years and attempt to re-negotiate another contract if that fails I will return the equipment and go to Comcast. Of course in two years maybe there will be enough content online TV won't be required.....

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTteXxhmDziDIkg_rKJh4V9k295S7EXe Q6s1-MUoECp6E0RivUPUQ

[Klaus]

Three year review:

Just re-read my review above and I pretty much stand by it. I am now out of the promotional pricing and I am considering switching to DISH or Comcast to get a new two years of promotional pricing.

Things I like about DirecTV:
Genie system works pretty well. I got mine before they offered the wireless clients so it's not as flexible. Can't take a client to the garage for instance but I read that the wireless clients are shitty.

Guide is pretty good. Snappy on the main Genie and fast enough on the clients. Xbox controls the client perfectly.

Website is easy to navigate and pretty useful. Ability to log on and set up recordings is nice.

iPad/Android apps decent but not all programming is allowed to be streamed even inside the network. I am sure this is so you don't skip adding more clients and just run an iPad in your bedroom for instance. Annoying - whichever service adds live streaming of all channels will probably get my $$ in the future.

Customer service is pretty good and only takes under a minute to be talking to a person. They are the normal script reading/ flow chart following CSRs we all love to hate but at least it's fast to get them on the phone.

Things I don't like about DirecTV:
When the service works awesome - when it doesn't it's a POS to get working again. Sometimes a client will fail to connect to the main or a program will freeze during playback. Normally a reboot of the client will fix it but sometimes a reboot of the main Genie is required... this is an automatic 15 minute process while it self checks and acquires satellites. In three years we had 4-5 problems with the physical dish being out of alignment or ice getting on it. Two service calls had to be made at one point and DirecTv does charge for those - something like $60 each. I ended up adding a $10 a month up charge that makes them free and you get new equipment every couple years if you are on the plan.

Weather while usually not a huge deal does effect satellite reception. Usual during a sports game or at the worst time.

Price - just as bad as Comcast out of the promotional period.

Promotional calls - This is one area I hate about DirecTv. They call every couple months to give you a "reward" for your loyalty. This is usually some new HD channels you have never heard of free for 3 month and then $10 a month after that if you don't cancel. Easy to turn down - but they are pretty aggressive as to why you don't want this free reward. The thing I hate is if you just listen to the pitch and don't say anything they take that as a yes that you want it. I have let them go all the way to saying "thank you for using directv" without saying anything and then stop them and ask for a manager. The manager always claims they are not allowed to sign you up unless you accept etc but the CSR/sales people are not following that at all.

Promotions on premium channels. Comcast only allowed you to qualify for about one promotion a year or something. Direct is a bit better about allowing promotions a few times a year. I like to have HBO in the spring/summer (GOT) and Showtime in the fall (Homeland) - the last two years I have qualified for 3 month cheap service when I called.

Anyone have current Comcast/Xfinity?

[Ender]

Comcast is second in my book for worst customer service, behind only Sprint. I would avoid them if possible.

If Centurylink is in your area, they are working on rolling out Prism TV service bundled together with internet: http://www.centurylink.com/prismtv/#index.html

They don't have Prism service in my area quite yet, but it should be coming sometime this year. They intend to service all of Eagan. I have had Centurylink internet for 2-3 years now and they have WAY better customer service than Comcast. They also have said they have no problem with calling in every year for a new promotional rate.

[Jomama]

I just went back to dish.

Current promotion locks in a discounted price for 2 years, plus 3 months of free premiums, plus a year of netflix or NFLredzone.

We got the Hopper-sling with one wireless Joey. Not happy that the Joey takes up one of the 3 tuner bands, but not much I can do about it, its still one more band than I had with our local cable.

As when I had before, I love the guide interface for the most part, and Dish consistently gets excellent reviews on how good their hardware is. (A full reboot for me is more like 5 min, compared to the 15 you mention).


The only thing I really dont like, is that all of their Free On-Demand content is actually served over the internet. The only content served over the Sat signal is the current new releases On-demand that you pay for. So this is no different than netflix and dings against my download cap. It downloads a movie and then holds it on the DVR for 30 days, so you can rewatch in that time without downloading again (good for kids who watch shit over and over)... but still...

You guys probably have more Sat signal problems than me, as we rarely have the heavy wet atmospheric moisture (whether rain or snow) that is the real problem for Sat signals. You must be getting some serious wind torq on the dish to need it re-adjusted that much. Mine has never moved.

One thing I'm not sure of yet, but have read about, is that at least for some period of time, Dish did not carry UFC PPV events on their PPV channels. This may have been resolved but I'm not sure yet. Not a huge deal, can always stream from the the UFC site.

[Klaus]

Good info. I will probably call both providers and DirecTv and get quotes. I did like the new Dish hardware that was rolled out at CES and might wait for that. Hopper 3



The Hopper 3 gives you the power to watch and record 16 programs at once. So you can say goodbye to tuner conflicts and record everything you’ve ever wanted, all at the same time.



WATCH & RECORD http://www.dish.com/ces/images/sixteen.png PROGRAMS AT ONCE
BUILT-IN http://www.dish.com/ces/images/four.png ULTRA HD RESOLUTION
CUSTOMIZABLE MOSAIC ALLOWS YOU TO WATCH http://www.dish.com/ces/images/six.png OF YOUR FAVORITE CHANNELS ON 1 TV SCREEN
BUILT-IN http://www.dish.com/ces/images/youtube.png AND INTEGRATED
http://www.dish.com/ces/images/netflix2.png SEARCH

However, I don't have 4K and don't plan to get into for a few year due to nothing (except a few Netflix show) being shot in it yet.

I don't mind the idea of having a Dish and I think our realignment might have had something to do with a chair blowing into it (it's mounted on our porch). Rain in the distance will drop the signal but it's not often.

My Dad just signed up for the CenturyLink TV Luke mentioned but it's not installed yet to test how well it works.

I prefer the OnDemand stuff be served from the internet because I have no limit but DirecTv's server must be slow because it comes over really slow and buffers. I pay for 100mb Comcast and it's really fast but not for on demand stuff. I have called a couple times and they have done testing but won't admit it's their problem.

[Jomama]

Oh man, I hope I can get that Hopper 3 without a nasty upgrade fee.. Thats awesome. I always seem to be in interested in too many shows on at same time, so I have to figure out when to record a replay for one (when it is no longer listed as "New"), and such..

Dish seemed to buffer a little on 50mb, but I bumped up to 100mb and have had no stuttering or apparent buffering.

[Klaus]

Called Dish last night for a quote. They don't have the pricing on the Hopper 3 yet (released on the 29th) but with a Hopper 2 and 4 Joeys it came out to $111 for three year price lock. That's a pretty good deal compared to over $200 on DirecTv.

Only negative I have found on Dish is the picture quality compared to Direct is worse. The HD streams are 1080*1440 (should be 1080*1920)

Joe do you have a single dish or do you need two?

[Jomama]

lol, I need 2 dish's, and one has a twin receiver on it in order for me to get all the channels I pay for. I never took them down after the last time I had dish so they just plugged back in. Yeah their stuff is still 1080i according to the dvr info.

[Klaus]

Was checking a forum on Saturday and found out the Hopper 3 was released. I called late Saturday night and was surprised to learn that I could get installation noon on Sunday.... so I set it up.

Straight forward install (and removal of DirecTv dish etc). I guess the Hopper 3 system is a new single line system (like Direct) and installation is much easier for the tech. I had the choice of East or West Arc Satellites depending on where I wanted the dish mounted. I put it where the Direct dish was and it pointed more south but pretty much the same.

I have 4 HDTVs so in addition to the Hopper I got a wireless Joey (pretty neat that I can move that to the garage etc) and 2 4K Joeys. The 4K Joeys are new also and they have a fast processor/RAM and nice interface. The CSR did not want to give me the 4K Joeys at first but then I lied and said I had 3 4K TVs. CSR stated that the 4K Joey will not work unless it's hooked to a 4K TV.... not true works just fine on a 1080 HDTV.

First impressions: Love the fast guide on the 4K Joey and Hopper 3. Direct was laggy and annoying. 16 tuners is crazy and I will try out the primetime anytime feature this week. If it's true that it auto skips commercials if you watch programming 24 after it airs that's incredible. I tried Dishanywhere inside and outside of the house on iPad and laptop. I was able to control my DVR and watch live and DVR content - which is really nice. Moving content from DVR to iPad for offline watching is my next test.

Only glitches I have had so far are attempting to schedule DVR recording from the website and I hate that it defaults to "record all episodes" instead of "record new episodes only". I scheduled the XFiles and I see it's already recorded 10 hours of repeats.... annoying (and I get an error on the website when I attempt to switch it).

[Jomama]

Yeah I struggle with the DVR recording.. The problem afai can tell is that the guide will list some episodes as "new", when in actuality they are a repeat a few hours after the true New episode aired. Seems to happen when they reair a new episode a few hours later. In that case you need to use the "only once" filter, and it will only record an episode 1x (so that only works when they arn't playing lots of reruns).

[Klaus]

A couple of nice features I have found. By hitting the red options button twice it will show what each tuner is "tuning". Last night I had two tuners both tuned to NBC on different TVs. They were both on my 2nd floor and out of sync by 2 seconds. On that screen you can select any tuner and join watching that stream. I joined the other TV stream and they were in almost perfect sync. I couldn't get that to work 100% with the Hopper and a Joey (still out of sync) but Joey + Joey was perfect. I always hated watching sports on the Genie and a Genie mini downstairs because there was about a 5 sec delay.

Joe here is more info on some problems in the Seattle area being so far north.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/why-no-h3-for-me.357284/

[Klaus]

Also a note for the next time I switch companies. After cancelling Direct they of course tried to give me $40 off per month when I cancelled to stay... But they called the next day with an even sweeter offer - $80 per month for a year (basically 50% off) and free NFL Sunday Ticket in 2016. Not bad but too late.