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We are getting ready to move and have been considering going from cable tv to satellite. Cost wise it would be initially cheaper to go with satellite but the biggest reason we are interested is because of the whole house DVR with DirectTV. We would get two receivers with whole house DVR. Over the 2 year contract for DirectTV and cable internet we'd pay about $140 per month. For similar channels and internet but with one TIVO HD and one DVR from cable company we are paying about $160 per month.
We aren't really unhappy with the cable tv service but not happy either. We do have some issues with streaming at times as well as fuzzy pictures. They put a booster on which has really helped, our issues went from a regular problem to the rare annoyance. My very limited experience with satellite tv was when my parents tried it about 15 years ago and every time it rained they'd get a blue screen and "searching for signal" message. Is that still an issue?
Does anyone use the whole house DVR and are you happy with it? How does their DVR compare with TIVO? We hate the DVR from the cable company but haven't wanted to take the plunge on a second TIVO.
We are getting ready to move and have been considering going from cable tv to satellite. Cost wise it would be initially cheaper to go with satellite but the biggest reason we are interested is because of the whole house DVR with DirectTV. We would get two receivers with whole house DVR. Over the 2 year contract for DirectTV and cable internet we'd pay about $140 per month. For similar channels and internet but with one TIVO HD and one DVR from cable company we are paying about $160 per month.
We aren't really unhappy with the cable tv service but not happy either. We do have some issues with streaming at times as well as fuzzy pictures. They put a booster on which has really helped, our issues went from a regular problem to the rare annoyance. My very limited experience with satellite tv was when my parents tried it about 15 years ago and every time it rained they'd get a blue screen and "searching for signal" message. Is that still an issue?
Does anyone use the whole house DVR and are you happy with it? How does their DVR compare with TIVO? We hate the DVR from the cable company but haven't wanted to take the plunge on a second TIVO.
I have directv, and live in Florida, where it rains every afternoon in the summer.
The "searching for signal" screen seldom lasts more than 10 minutes for an average thunderstorm, as they are fast-moving.
The worst is when there is a tropical storm, but I have a weather radio for that.
Hope that helps for that portion of your question, I have high-speed internet through the phone company, no cable out where I live.
Your cable is fuzzy because the cable companies have to compress everything more and more and more to fit more into their pipeline. Satellite doesn't have this problem.
We have cable internet and whole home service DVR service from DirecTV. Haven't used the newest stand-alone Tivo's, but the DirecTV DVRs are now (after a few years of updates) much better than the old Tivo's made specifically for DirecTV. Overall we are very pleased with the DVR's and whole home service. We only lose signal on some really bad storms, a few times a year, and usually only a few minutes at a time. The standard definition channels are on a satellite that is a little easier to reach, so sometimes switching from the high def version of the channel to the standard def version allows you to still get a signal.
Your cable is fuzzy because the cable companies have to compress everything more and more and more to fit more into their pipeline. Satellite doesn't have this problem.
unless you have a c-band dish with a digicipher decrypting receiver, you are also getting a compressed signal.
i admit cable is worse, but from what i've seen lately, directv and dish network aren't far behind.
i cut my sat off a couple years ago but was watching an HD satellite channel at a friends house the other day and couldn't believe how much more compression they're using now. It looked terrible compared to what i get on my antenna.
I use rabbit ears and cable internet from Cox (I hate their guts) for 24.99 per month. 1000 Mbps, 250 Mbps up. Hulu is great. Netflix is cool too. Bloomberg is free at Bloomberg - Business & Financial News, Breaking News Headlines, I only use Skype for phone. Dislike the long list of taxes on the LL bill immensely, and don't miss it one bit.
We did away with the landline years ago and use cell phones only now. We currently have both Hulu and Netflix too. I'd like to eliminate at least one but it's hard to argue the price when my SO actually uses them both, Hulu for tv programming and Netflix for movies. It really is crazy to think of what we pay for tv considering how much we actually watch...
Glad to hear that losing signal isn't that much of an issue anymore. I can handle a few minutes (or more even) during a bad storm, but if I can't watch tv every time it starts to drizzle then I'll stick with cable. Great to know that the whole house DVR works well too as it's the biggest factor that has us leaning that way at this point.
Does anyone use the whole house DVR and are you happy with it? How does their DVR compare with TIVO? We hate the DVR from the cable company but haven't wanted to take the plunge on a second TIVO.
We have DirecTv and use Comcast as our internet provider.
We lose satellite signal during thunderstorms and when it rains or snows heavily. In the past 6 months, we've lost the signal about 4 times. It can be annoying if it causes you to miss part or all of a favorite show.
As for the whole house DVR - we have this as well. We have three boxes - the main TV room, the living room and bedroom. The TV in the BR is not HD so we do not have the ability to watch DVR'd shows on that TV as it has just the standard box. The DVR is hooked up to the main tv room but we can watch DVR'd shows in the LR because of whole house DVR. We can only record on the main tv. So if there are three shows we want to DVR, we can only DVR two of them. Or we have to go to the LR to watch one show on the small tv, while the other two are recording on the main TV.
Not a huge deal, but if DH wants to watch the game but I'm recording Desperate Housewives and Army Wives - he has to watch the game on the small tv in the LR. It's not ideal for us.
We'll be switching soon so that we can record shows on both TVs. What I would suggest is that your recorder be hooked up to a TV that is not your main TV. Maybe it's your secondary TV. This way, if there are three shows on at the same time - two can be recorded on your secondary TV and you can watch one on the main TV.
I've thought about making the switch a few times, but the cable bundle TV,phone,internet is cheaper than if I just got satellite TV, cable internet and ditched the phone. The whole house DVR looked interesting, but it only works on the HD boxes, which are quite pricey if you need more than the one HD receiver and one HD DVR that they give you.
Also, we use OnDemand a lot and the DirecTV OnDemand is nowhere near the content and ease of use as the cable companies. You can also only get OnDemand content on the HD DVR box and that must be hooked to your internet connection. With everything available on OnDemand and the fact I can use it from any box, we find we only use the one DVR we have occasionally, rendering the whole house DVR thing kind of pointless.
Check if U-Verse is available in your area, it's much better than either Directv or Comcast.
I can't wait to ditch Directv this summer (finally our 2 year jail term will be up). Aside from upping their rate so much, our box doesn't work properly but they won't fix it unless we either pay $99 or sign up for a 2 year maintenance contract. I also won't miss having to pay extra for channels I got in my standard package with U-Verse.
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