DirecTV question

[unimatrixzer0]

  Wolvereen said:

DON'T ORDER IT OFF THE WEBSITE!!!

There are LOADS of stores including COstco that give you the system including DISH, 2-3 receivers, AND Installation all for free! All you have to pay is $40-$50 a month minimum (sometiems even as low as $35) depending on the package you want!

Shop around, you should not have to pay for equipment.

A good friend of mine from church jstu bought the system at Costco yesterday. He only had to pay $50 for the first month (165 channels including local) and got 1 reciever and 1 TIvo/Reciever combo for free. The guy came out and isntalled everything yesterday for free.

Check www.techbargains.com or bensbargains.net for details!

its free off the website except for the tivo

[AgEnTsMiTh]

If you want to order a movie, you can call in or order it online its that simple. again YOU DONT NEED the phone jack to do that.

[unimatrixzer0]

  AgEnTsMiTh said:

If you want to order a movie, you can call in or order it online its that simple. again YOU DONT NEED the phone jack to do that.

oh yeah, forgot about the ordering it online. thanks for the info!

[MLapointe]

Forget about the Dish Network post. Dish Network and DirecTV are about equal. Also both are 100% digital channels not just some like the cable companies (channels below 100). I have 4 total rooms hooked up. Heres what I have.

1 Zenith SAT520 (HDTV box)

1 Hughes HDVR2 which came with my original system.

1 Hughes HDVR2 which I just ordered as an existing subscriber for 115 bucks plus tax including installation using the offer code FFDVR.

1 Philips DSX 5500C box.

I called DirecTV and told them I don't have access to a phone jack on my other rooms and don't want to buy wireless phone jacks and they said they would note my account that I don't need those boxes connected to have my services mirrored. They will do this with any system. You just can't order PPV movies with your remote. You can use wireless phone jacks with all the units but for the DirecTV Tivo boxes make sure the wireless phone jack supports 56K or it will mess up your box.

So the answer is no you don't have to have a phone line connected. You only need it to order PPV movies by remote or to get software updates.

You will pay mirroring fees of 4.99 for each addition box after the first. So three boxes would cost 10 bucks per month and 4 boxes would be 15 bucks and so forth.

Also your DirecTV Tivo for new subscribers includes installation which will include 2 lines run from the dish and/or multiswitch (which is provided) to your DTivo so you can record two shows at the same time while watching another show that you allready recorded. The DVR service fee is 4.99/month for all DirecTV Tivo boxes (not per box but for all you may have) or it is free to total choice premier customers.

I love my DirecTV Tivo. All of the guide data comes from the satellite and not the stupid slow phone jack.

Go for it you will love it. Oh and when you see regular standalone Tivos that have 80 hours and your DirecTV has 35 hours thats the same as the 80 hours SA Tivo. Those 80 hours are the lowest quality where on that 80 hour unit the best quality would only be around 35 to 45 hours. DirecTV Tivos only have one quality level and that is the best because it records the satellite data stream directly to the hard drive unchanged.

To simplify

No you don't have to have a phone line connected. If you need software updates for your DTivo you can use a wireless phone jack that supports 56k.

The DTivo gets its program guide from the satellites and not the phone jack like SA Tivo units.

You pay DirecTV only not Tivo. The service fee for the DVR service is either 4.95/month for all DTivo boxes or its free for total choice premier customers. So if you get total choice plus with locals for 39.99/month and you have two DTivos you would pay the following below.

40.00 - total choice plus with locals

4.99 - mirroring fee for second box

4.95 - DVR service fee

So you would pay about 50 bucks per month plus tax.

Oh and by the way you can order PPV movies online via DirecTVs website so you don't have to use the phone jack. You can also order additional packages like movie channels and sports subscriptions such as the NFL Sunday Ticket via DirecTVs website.

[Endoscient]

Anyway it is better to order Pay-Per View off website because it will let you watch on all TVs in your house instead of just one, which is what happens when you order it off of remote.

Also I have had DirecTV for 1+ years, none of them have ever been plugged in, we didn't call them saying we didn't plug them in (as far as I know).

Also to he guy who said Guides sucks, I disagree. I have used both and think DirecTV is far supieor, for the top 50 thing you can make favorites list.

[unimatrixzer0]

how new are the series 2 tivos?

[Galley_SimRacer]

  unimatrixzer0 said:

how new are the series 2 tivos?

I got mine about six months ago or so. You definitely want to get the TiVo unit. The service sonly $4.95/month, compared to $12.95 per month for people with TiVos running through cable TV boxes.

[Shifty]

I work for a Dish Network Call Center and i can tell you would be better off w/ our DVR units, 60 hours on a 508 DVR and ~NO~ Tivo Fees per month... its a hell of a lot cheaper and Tivos have a higher failure rate than our DVR's!! Get the Top100 and the HBO/Cinemax value pack for only $49.99. cheaper than DirecTV. and also like one already mentioned HDTV is hella cheaper too!! get a HD811 receiver for like $299 and get the HD package for $9.99 ($1 < than Directv)

I can show you how to stack a 311 and a 508 to watch 1 ch and record another, something a tivo cant do unless you buy the Tivo and a Directv receiver. also all dishnetwork products are in house too.. which means that if something goes wrong its easier to call tech support and get it fixed. directv uses 3rd party manufactures and the warrantee's suck a$$!! 1 year w/ dishnet or 90 days w/ directv... also extended warrantees are super cheap... $1.99/month and all is covered (except shipping) how cheap is that? and you can always PM me for help. i can help you get the cheapest stuff and everything fixed w/ out calling in. one last note about tech support, direct uses an outsourced company for tech support. me on the other hand i work for the company straight up, so im always in the know about how to fix stuff and updated weekly on whats going on in the future. try asking a directv tech about HDTV and future upgrades... ask me about the DVR921 HDTV recordable receiver and how to cascade it over 4 tv's...

as for getting service, you can go to radio shack and ask for the FREE DISH promotion.

FREE DISH INFO

This one comes w/ a DVR 510 which has 100 hours of recording time and a $4.99 DVR fee, the lesser models dont, but its worth it

since you get 40 hours more free. and you get 3 months free of Top100 Value Pak $150 value.

Seriously PM and i'll answer all your questions.

BTW also our DVR units DO NOT dumb down video and audio like tivo to get more time.

Our hardware MPEG2 encoder/decoder runs at realtime and doesnt compress as much

and you wont hardly notice the difference. so you get the max time w/ max quality as advertised!!

[unimatrixzer0]

ordered my directv package on sunday so I think I'm commited to the years serivce already

dish seems like a good service. how come more people dont use it? for every 1 dishnetwork dish I see in my area I see about 6 more directv dishes.

  Quote

BTW also our DVR units DO NOT dumb down video and audio like tivo to get more time.

Our hardware MPEG2 encoder/decoder runs at realtime and doesnt compress as much

and you wont hardly notice the difference. so you get the max time w/ max quality as advertised!!

series 2 tivo's are like that aren't they?

[Bizkit]

Wow man. You sure do like your job. And thanks for telling everyone that I can't do my job, ass.

By the by, if Dish Network's customer service is so great, then how come DirecTV won the JD Power and Associates award for customer service for the 2nd year in a row, but maybe they just don't know what they are talking about.

[Shifty]

we did beat directv in customer service by several points, you all got us on current customer promotions, right before the final cut on the testing is when direct rolled out with the 4 free months of the Total Premium Choice w/ 2 receiver system. before that we rolled out w/ 3 free months of the Top100 Value Pack for a couple of our promotions.

I didnt want to hint that you were an "ass" i give respect to ALL tech support people. I know as well as you do that we have a tough job talking to old people, drunks, ignorant asses and irrate punks. i give props to direct for beating us. i do not have any faith in dishnet since our upper management is as retarded a 1000 monkeys w/ mental retardation at 1000 broken typewriters.

[unimatrixzer0]

Another DirecTV question,...

what happens when you order a system with more than 3 receivers? say 4 or 5? do they install more than a single dish? can the dish handle that many receivers and possibly an hdtv receiver in the future?

I ordered my package online, a 2 free room package, my installation date is this thursday. i plan to call tomorrow to see if its still possible to change my order to a 3 free room setup and maybe adding a 4th receiver. anyone know off hand if its possible?

thanks

[unimatrixzer0]

grrrrrr, I call in and ask if i can upgrade my order to include more receivers and they tell me i have to cancel my whole order, losing my installation date, and start over. I was expecting better service than that. I'm ****ed off because I don't see why they can't just update my current order.

[MLapointe]

Yes I feel your pain. Once you place an order they have to send it to a local installation company in your area since DirecTV is national and mistakes can happen when you do too many changes. I can tell you this much I have seen the Dish PVR and the software and interface aren't anywhere close to the Tivo software. So since the fee is now 5 bucks per month for Dish it is now the same price. So your DirecTV DVR service fee will be 5 bucks per month for all DirecTV DVRs on your account. Whether you have 1 or 3 its still 5 bucks per month. Also if you get Total Choice Premier than the 5 buck DVR service fee is waived.

Also DirecTV DVRs don't compress your recordings. The DirecTV DVR records the stream from the satellite to your hard drive unchanged. So your 35 hour DVR is the same as a regular Tivo 80 hour unit. The 80 hour unit records at best quality around 35 hours or 80 hours at worst quality which is around analog cable quality. The DirecTV DVR has only one quality and thats the best since it records it unchanged.

Oh and with a Triple LNB dish you have the ability to have four seperate rooms with an HDTV/Tivo combo DirecTV box with each having 2 lines via a 5x8 multiswitch.

So each of the 4 rooms can have access to all HDTV channels as well as the ability to be able to record two different shows at the same time in all rooms. So you could record 8 different 1 hour HDTV shows that are all on at the same time if you wanted too . Oh and the DirecTV HDTV/Tivo box isn't available yet but I'll be first in line to buy one. I'm hoping they will have a slot for me to add a firewire jack at a later date so I could archive my programming to my DVHS deck now or most lilely to back up onto HDDVD whenever they come out.

[unimatrixzer0]

I'm a little ****ed off. I figured the installer would have been a little more professional. They place where he hooked up my tivo he just drilled a hole and was going to put glue in the gaps. I mean wtf? I don't see why he couldn't put in one of those 2 coax wall plate things. Now I can to go out to radio shack or something and pick one up and install it myself some how.

[unimatrixzer0]

I'm just thinking though if this had been a rich neighborhood or something, i doubt the installer would have dared doing such a ghetto job of running the cable to my tivo. I mean he wanted to seal the hole on the inside with the same adhesive he used on the outside. Who would want a bunch of cables coming out of a hole in their room, verse a professional installation with some kind of wall plate.

[unimatrixzer0]

hmm, I'm a bit disappointed. I was expecting better quality from satellite, since its all digital. In some cases my basic cable was better. The satellite video comes in a bit pixelated/noise even though my signal is 98-100 when the guy set up my satellite yesterday. How's the video for the rest of you Directv subscribers? I wonder if digital cable is any better. I would've gotten digital cable except I figured since my basic channels often had vertical line noise thats whats to say the digital channels weren't the same. I hope Directv HDTV is better.