[NJblue]

Originally Posted by RCR

I'd advise you not to contract with Direct TV. During our thunder storm season which last about five months the storms arrive anytime between 3 and 6PM. All you get on your screen is "Searching for Sattelite". Had them out several times for adjustment of the Sattelite. TO NO AVAIL!! Also, we have frequent outages of electricity some very short some for long periods. Regardless of the length of shortage, each time you will have to reprogram your remote. If you tire of this and try to cancel they will charge you a substancial fee for early termination. I went back to Comcast and have had very little problems.

First, I'm not sure where you live, but we don't have very many electricity outages where we live in TV - in fact perhaps only two in the past 3 years. Secondly, when power is interrupted, we never had to reprogram the remotes.

Yes, during SEVERE thunderstorms there may be disruptions, but this is far from a daily occurrence and the disruptions are for perhaps 10 to 15 minutes.

I have been looking for lower cost alternatives to DircTV but have not found any that offers what we want. The closest was Prism but they are severely limited on recording capability on their one DVR (something like 35 hours of HD content) and also limited on the number of simultaneous HD channels that can be recorded. They also do not offer the sports packages that we want.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

The only thing that happens whenever our power drops is the receivers will essentially "reboot" themselves when power is restored. Thus it will take a few minutes for them "to gather their brains" (as I jokingly like to call it) and be ready for use again once the power comes back on. It's similar to what you'd experience if you shut your computer off and then power it back up again - it's got to start things back up from scratch.

Never had a need to reprogram any remote on a power drop.

Bill

[John_W]

I'd advise you not to contract with Direct TV. During our thunder storm season which last about five months the storms arrive anytime between 3 and 6PM. All you get on your screen is "Searching for Sattelite". Had them out several times for adjustment of the Sattelite. TO NO AVAIL!! Also, we have frequent outages of electricity some very short some for long periods. Regardless of the length of shortage, each time you will have to reprogram your remote. If you tire of this and try to cancel they will charge you a substancial fee for early termination. I went back to Comcast and have had very little problems.

For free installation and one free satellite box you had to sign a 24 month agreement, that's the reason for the huge disconnect fee. Directv is not as easy as Comcast to operate, so for the novice TV watcher Comcast is a good deal.

For sports fans there is nothing close to Directv, with NFL Sunday Ticket I can watch any game on the weekend regardless of what's on TV in Orlando. You can also have the same situation with Major League Basement and NHL Hockey. As far as outages, we have never lost our power in the five months we've lived here. During rain storms, on occasion I will have to go to the backup channel (non-HD) and usually you can continue to see the channel even during rain. If it's a severe storm you may lose backup signal but then again, you should be turning off your TV in that situation.

Directv is probably guilty of not training customers in the proper use of their remotes and receivers. If I had ten minutes with you and your Directv box and remote you would have a completely different outlook on the system.

[Bill Gordon]

Had direct tv for almost two years, we are not full time residents. Arrived Weds. Nov 9th and everything was fine. On Thursday we played golf in the AM and when we returned we had no reception from satellite. Called Direct tv and went thru several checks with no success. At this time, Thurs. At aproximately Noon that they needed to send a service person and the earliest they could get someone there was Sunday AM. Totally unacceptable now have Comcast Cable.

[Number 6]

I have been a customer of DirectTV for quite a few years, mostly for the NFL Sunday Ticket. The rain fade does not happen very often and only for a short period of time.
One thing that you should know is that you can "deal" over price. Every once in awhile I call them to discontinue service. Do this and you will be introduced to any number of offers to stay. Anyone paying full price for their service is way overpaying.

[PennBF]

Thanks to all who responded to my question. I ended up calling Direct TV and going over their pricing. The key question was to forget all the "new customer discounts and perks"..What will I have to pay after the all of these are through and I am on a regular rate schedule.
It was interesting as it ended up that if I duplicated all of the things I now have with Comcast, (e.g. 3 DVR's, etc.) I would end up paying just about what I currently pay Comcast and maybe just a little bit more. Agreed, I would most likely get some added channels but for a few football games for a short time I would be at breakeven.
Again..thanks to all who took the time to write..That is what makes the TOTV and the Villages such a great place to live.

[Realitybreak]

Originally Posted by RCR

I'd advise you not to contract with Direct TV. During our thunder storm season which last about five months the storms arrive anytime between 3 and 6PM. All you get on your screen is "Searching for Sattelite". Had them out several times for adjustment of the Sattelite. TO NO AVAIL!! Also, we have frequent outages of electricity some very short some for long periods. Regardless of the length of shortage, each time you will have to reprogram your remote. If you tire of this and try to cancel they will charge you a substancial fee for early termination. I went back to Comcast and have had very little problems.

We have 3 receivers. The old non DVR receiver needs to be reprogrammed after a power outage, the 2 DVR receiver do not need to be reprogramed. I would contract DirectTV and explain your problem, you may be able to get your receiver upgraded for free. We do not use the old receiver much so it is not an issue for us.

[Dbinac]

Have had DirectTV for many years. Very pleased but it can be a touch pricey but to us it is worth it.

[Irishmen]

We just ordered a HD DVR for free on line for being a loyal customer. We've had the service since 1997 and love it. We were one of the first to fight for dishes to be allowed in the villages. Glad they let them.

[Vinny]

Went through the pricing thing myself and found Direct TV to be more costly for me. As much as I hate Comcast Customer Service which seems to take several phone calls before you get a US CS rep and then a few more calls to find someone who fixes the problem in two minutes while the others schedule a technician to come out to your house. I evern had them insist that there was no outage in my area even though all my neighbors called to ask me if my Comcast was out too.

However, there is no really good alternative that would get me to switch right now. I no longer watch sports and the only thing that would get me to switch is a multi room DVR. Comcast, now Infinity has that but is rolling it out city by city and TV is far from a big city with a large user base eager to spend more money for better services.

In any event it seems that as I age, the offerings on TV that interest me grow smaller and smaller each year. Even the movies out these days hold less interest for me. I guess the target audience audience for most movies and television shows are for the 25-45 age group and not those on fixed incomes. I find more entertainment on the internet these days but know that a good number of TV residents are not very computer literate beyond basic web browsing and email, so they are still stuck with the traditional forms of entertainment. i have to say that Comcast's internet and phone service have never given us a moment's trouble in the last two years. I also like the ability to watch movies and TV shows on my iPad on my lanai, when travelling and even at anyplace that has a wifi hot spot.

[jflynn1]

Signifigant problems between what is told to you by the salesperson and what is actually provided. ie; ON Demand features that are provided by Comcast are not the same with direct TV, need seperate box, and reciver. Depending on oyu level of expetise you could ihstall it your slef for $50.. cost of the reciever or Direct V will install for $250.00. NFL Package. YOU DO NOT get evry game. If gam is Blacked out it is Blacked Out. Example, Tampa Bay Bucaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, When it rains you loose the signal or the signal breaks up. If Dish installed on house need to consider adding gutters over the dish, sometimes that helped.After discussing the misinformation provided by the sales people at Best Buy We finally went back to Comcast.

[John_W]

Originally Posted by jflynn1

...NFL Package. YOU DO NOT get evry game. If gam is Blacked out it is Blacked Out. Example, Tampa Bay Bucaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, When it rains you loose the signal or the signal breaks up. If Dish installed on house need to consider adding gutters over the dish, sometimes that helped.After discussing the misinformation provided by the sales people at Best Buy We finally went back to Comcast.

Since TV is in the Jaguars and Buccaneers viewing area you're right, if the Jaguars or Bucs game is blacked out you won't get it. However, if that were the teams I wanted to see then I wouldn't need NFL Sunday Ticket. I would guess that 99% of the villagers that order NFL Sunday Ticket aren't wanting to watch those two teams, at least I'm not.

I've had Directv since 2008 so after awhile you will pick up shortcuts. Unless you get a monsoon type rain, you can still watch TV by going to the backup channel. For example if you're watching TNTHD and it goes out because of rain, bring up 'all channels' on your onscreen guide and then select the TNT backup channel. You'll lose the HD but still see the show in digital format.

As far as On Demand, I've never used it with Directv since I mostly watch sports and movies I don't find much need for that service.

[graciegirl]

Does anyone know if it is possible to get a station from another city hooked up on Direct TV?

Granddaughter has just been hired by TV station in Louisville.

[John_W]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Does anyone know if it is possible to get a station from another city hooked up on Direct TV?

Granddaughter has just been hired by TV station in Louisville.

From what I've been told, your local stations are determined by your zip code. I've heard of people giving a different zip code to Directv but then you would lose all your Orlando channels and only be able to see Louisville. She would probably be best to just mail you some DVD's of her work.

[OpusX1]

Gracie, I think, but am not sure that you can get other cities for a fee. Almost every city is on the satellite. I would call Direct TV customer service.