[chelsea24]

We are thinking of getting Direct TV and I was wondering if you could share your experience with it. How reliable is it? Are there really more channels? Is the cost much less than Comcast? Most of all, I was wondering how the HD programs come in and of course how the weather effects it. Any thoughts please?

[aln]

I feel Direct TV is a better service than Comcast. And I get more channels on more TV's for less that I did with Comcast
Back in WIS I had "cable", DishNetwork for 5 years and DirecTV for 5 years.
Here in TV I have had Comcast for 1 year and DirecTV for 1 year.
I don't know the facts on number of channels but DirecTV is certainly on the forefront and you can get the NFL ticket with them which is not available anywhere else yet to my knowledge.
However, keep in mind that the weather does affect satelite tv. It did in WIS and it does here. Usually outages are short. Anywhere from a minute or 2 to 5 minutes. But if it's a slow moving storm it could be 15-30 minutes.

[njgranny]

We have Direct TV at home and love it. I was worried about outages, but they're so infrequent and usually short.

[villages07]

One of the things that has held me back from Sat TV is that they have to install all new interior cables/wiring, right? And, you have to install wiring into each room that will need an outlet. And, each outlet requires a set-top box?

We have 4 TVs going....1 in each of 3 BRs and in Living Room. I assume we would have to have each room wired? Is this process clean and seamless or a mess?

What would be the monthly service cost for 4 outlets with basic Satellite service, i.e. no HBO or other premium channels?

Thanks for your input.

[chacam]

We needed no new wiring fori Dish Network. We used the same coax cable that was installed when the house was built. If you want service in a room without outlets, well you need to run new cable to that room. Talk to Tobin Satellite at The Markets of Marion. They installed our system. I think they might do Direct TV as well.

[chuckinca]

We have had Direct TV in CA for about the past four years after having Comcast for many years prior.

Didn't have to install new cabling into the bedrooms and other Tv locations - they just connected to the existing.

They need to make a permanent connection with your phone to get updated info periodically (this could be due to the TIVO and not the Direct TV ?)

Can't live without TIVO.

[SteveFromNY]

I had Direct TV for 10 years and recently dumped it. I still have the antenna on my roof and reserve the right to go back.
I was VERY happy with it until I got a HD a few years ago. I was very happy with their HD channel quality, but found the non-HD channels unwatchable. My brother-in-law has both cable and Direct-TV and on cable, the non-HD channels were very watchable, so I switched back to cable. I am happy with the service.
At the time Direct-TV had only a dozen or so HD channels, and that was all I could watch. Now that I have cable, I get more HD channels and can watch the non-HD's as well.
I know Direct TV has recently upgraded the number of HD channels they broadcast, but I found the quality of these to be subject to a lot of "digitizing" - possibly more to do with trees in the neighborhood than anything else. In a nutshell, I would only consider it again if there was an overwhelming number of HD channels to watch.
I have found that there are weather related outages on cable as well. Just not local weather. The cable systems use satellites to broadcast their signals so I see occasional blips presumably related to weather affecting the satellites in use by the cable providers.

[Muncle]

Originally Posted by villages07

One of the things that has held me back from Sat TV is that they have to install all new interior cables/wiring, right? And, you have to install wiring into each room that will need an outlet. And, each outlet requires a set-top box?

We have 4 TVs going....1 in each of 3 BRs and in Living Room. I assume we would have to have each room wired? Is this process clean and seamless or a mess?

What would be the monthly service cost for 4 outlets with basic Satellite service, i.e. no HBO or other premium channels?

Thanks for your input.

As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by a power failure (VERY uncommon in TV), in 07's scenario above, what do you need to watch different channels on the various sets simultaneously? I find that there are really few shows that interest me, but invariably two or more are on at the same time (e.g., Friday has Monk and Psyche, the SciFi lineup, and the CBS cop shows, plus often a Law & Order on NBC. I trap them now so I'll have something to watch during the parade of inane reality shows. I've avoided digital cable since each set would require a box. What's the situation on dish and direct?