DirectTV vs. Cable (Castle Pines: lease, neighborhood, purchase)

[GoodbyeSoCal]

We are moving to Stapleton from San Diego in about 3 weeks and are starting to set up utilities. Any suggestions on Direct TV (Qwest) vs. cable (Comcast)? I'm worried about the Direct TV dish in "poor" weather conditions, I don't want to be stuck inside on a stormy day and not have TV because our dish can't get signal. Any experiences would be helpful. Thank you.

[Fuzz]

In 5 years of having DirecTV, I don't think I ever lost signal due to weather. The key is to make sure the dish is firmly in place, so that it doesn't get knocked around by the wind. Even with the recent snowstorm we had that dumped about 3 feet of snow up here recently, I never lost signal once.

[Charles]

Personal choice: I prefer plain old analog. You can split it to anywhere for free. You don't need a leased box (what a rip) for every TV. You can rapidly change channels (I can literally tell within 0.3 seconds if I want to watch that channel). With digital the refresh seems like one long second. With directv, half the time you select a channel you get "channel not purchased" message and there is no easy way to filter out the channels that are unavailable.

I hate directv.

I have directv (because adelphia isn't available yet) and it never went out in last years super blizzards.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Charles

Personal choice: I prefer plain old analog. You can split it to anywhere for free. You don't need a leased box (what a rip) for every TV.

You can also split the DirecTV cable just like a Comcast cable. You'll still have to control it through the single box (same for DTV and CC), but you can create as many lines as you want. I split my DTV signal to input into my PC for instance.

You can rapidly change channels (I can literally tell within 0.3 seconds if I want to watch that channel). With digital the refresh seems like one long second.

With DTV, I don't need to change the channel to find out what's on -- I can just call up the guide on-screen and then change the channel if I want to.

I've had a really bad experience with Comcast when we lived in Chicago. With DTV, it's been nothing but pleasant.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Charles

there is no easy way to filter out the channels that are unavailable.

Not true. You can set Channels You Receive and Favorite Channels for 2 sets of custom channel lists.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Charles

With digital the refresh seems like one long second.

This is true -- but this is a digital effect, not a DirecTV effect -- you'll get the same delay if you purchase Comcast digital (which it seems like you almost need to do to get anything besides basic/local channels nowadays anyway).

[pdth]

We've had DirecTV for several years. We've lost service for very short periods during thunderstorms, or when snow has built up too thick on the antenna. But Comcast in our neighborhood (Castle Pines North) has outages lasting days. Comcast is also a lot more expensive for comparable service. So overall the TV service is better with DirecTV.

Also, internet service is far better with Qwest DSL than with Comcast. People I know with Comcast internet have been very frustrated. We have Qwest, and it has been flawless.

[Noahma]

I prefer dish network myself. We have no problems in the snow, usualy if the dish fills up with snow, we just go out and brush it off (make sure to have it mounted within broom reach)

I love my comcast access. In order to get qwest's top speeds you have to be near a DSL hub. Although with Comcast cable for your provider the more people in your area with it, the slower it tends to get, although I have had no problems whatsoever.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Not true. You can set Channels You Receive and Favorite Channels for 2 sets of custom channel lists.

How do you do this? Is this a one button operation? That is, is there a way to toggle a setting to only list channels I receive (easy), or do I have to manually add each channel I receive (or manually delete or remove each channel I don't receive) to some sort of memory or list (a bit of an initial hassle, but would seem to solve my problem)?

You can direct message if you want...thanks.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

With DTV, I don't need to change the channel to find out what's on -- I can just call up the guide on-screen and then change the channel if I want to..

This still takes a long time. You have to open the guide then read each line. And often you can't tell from the few words in the guide's desciption what is on or what type of show it is. With the analog rapid view I can go through the whole channel lineup in about a minute. I know what you are talking about but I find it to be too many click-view-read-process words-decide-click-view-read-process words-decide, etc. With analog, when there is a commercial I can get to another channel temporarily within a couple of seconds. If I use the guide, by the time I find something, the commercial is over on the previous channel. I know this sounds lame, but I hardly ever watch TV and when I do I watch it in periods of minutes rather than hours. If I want to watch ten minutes of TV and I have digital, I will spend too much time reading guides. With analog I will find something and be able to transition to something else in seconds.

Weak analogy: You can tell what time it is faster by looking at an analog (hands) clock than by a digital clock (numbers). There is an extra processing step in your brain with the latter.