Satellite vs. Cable TV

michw · #1 06-03-2007, 07:32 PM

After using the same 19" CRT I've had since high school (12+ years) I finally upgraded my home entertainment system. New 1080P TV, high def DVD, elite Xbox, and I'm loving every minute of it.

The latest UFC pay-per-view was only offered in SD by Comcast, while being offered in both SD and HD by DirectTV. This is a huge selling point for me now that I'm in the HD world. I called Comcast to bitch about this and they weren't able to tell me when they'll be offering any pay-per-view events in HD. For the past 2 years I've purchased every major UFC and Pride event and am thinking of making the switch to DirectTV, solely based on them offering UFC in HD.

I've done a little research and have read things about terrible customer service, service outages during inclement weather, satellite mounting problems, etc. But...if they offer UFC events in HD maybe all those problems would be worth it?

Anyone have DirectTV? What's been your experience?

PerDoom · #2 06-03-2007, 07:42 PM

I had DirectTV for around 5 years and never had a problem. Customer service is ok, and my reception almost never went out unless it was raining or snowing A LOT. Just make sure that you have a clear view of the sky and everything should be fine.

Uglyowl · #3 06-03-2007, 08:34 PM

Check out www.avsforum.com, they have a bunch of TV geeks there.

jjp · #4 06-04-2007, 04:45 PM

GO for Directv. When they launch their satellite, they will put up a ton more HD channels than anyone else. Probably in the fall they will add them.

I love HD.

AggroFish · #5 06-04-2007, 04:54 PM

If you have a PC laying around throw in a twinhan Sat card in it + my theater + a few easily founds files (al7bar.tk + f2atv.com) and presto all dish network wide open. Everything from dish streams in MpegII making it easy to save files to your HD.

suzzer99 · #6 06-04-2007, 05:10 PM

Football package.

/story for me

wonderwes · #7 06-04-2007, 09:31 PM

Fall 2007 DirectTV will roll out their new HD lineup. It will be over 100 channels. It will be the most HD content out there. Besides, I hate cable companies.

nsdjoe · #8 06-05-2007, 11:57 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Fall 2007 DirectTV will roll out their new HD lineup. It will be over 100 channels. It will be the most HD content out there. Besides, I hate cable companies.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know for sure, but I imagine Comcast (and cable companies in general) will at least attempt to stay competitive re: # of available HD channels.

Felix_Nietzsche · #9 06-04-2007, 10:24 PM

Every heavy rain storm my satellite gets knocked out during the heavy raining for about 30 minutes untill the storm lets up. Something to consider.

If this occurs during tomorrow's season finale of "The Sheild", I will destroy my dish.
http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/orig...ield/main.html

Sluss · #10 06-05-2007, 06:17 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Every heavy rain storm my satellite gets knocked out during the heavy raining for about 30 minutes untill the storm lets up. Something to consider.

If this occurs during tomorrow's season finale of "The Sheild", I will destroy my dish.
http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/orig...ield/main.html

[/ QUOTE ]

If this is happening to you your dish probably is not properly installed. I had this problem for a few months. A wind storm had knocked my dish slightly out of alighnment. I adjusted it and with the exception of two heavy electrical storms (where it went out for 3 and 7 minutes) I have not had one outage in the last two years, heavy snowstorms, rainstorms and all.