johnnymk

My neighbor had two gigantic trees cut down this past week. I now have a clear view of the Southwest sky, which means that I can put a satellite receiver on my roof.

How do you like your service? Is the picture clear? Does the weather affect anything?

LPMiller

I've had DTV for 3 years now. Right now, if you do get it, get it with Tivo. Costs about 5 bucks more a month, but more worth it than I can put in words, especially with the Tivo/Hughes tuners being only 99 bucks right now.

You know where I live, and the only time I totally lose the signal is in weather that forces the family into the basement anyway. In the winter, I do sometimes have to go out and clear off the dish, which isn't a problem for me since it's on a pole in my yard. But if you get snow, you might want to get a snow cover for the dish.

But to be honest, I lose the signal maybe twice a year, tops. Great picture and sound. I dont' have the HDTV setup, because it's still too early to invest in that, IMO.

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cheapie

i have directtv. it rocks. i have the nfl sunday ticket. if this is important to you, you gotta get dtv, nobody else has the contract. i lose signal w/dtv everytime it storms. that kinda sucks. but it's a lot cheaper than my cable.

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raimin

get it for me the picture was better than my cable

also i only was affected by rain fade twice in 3 years

speedracer120

For me I think it would be cheaper to get rid of DishNetwork and just get digital cable from TWC. The PVR rental is cool, but I'd rather buy a Tivo or other similar units. Although the larger selection of international options is good for my family on Dish.

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johnnymk

I checked prices for the basic package without local channels. It appears that Dish TV is $9.00 cheaper than Direct TV: $25 versus $34. All I want is the Discovery Channel and Spike TV.

LPMiller

then pay the extra money and get the DirectTV unit. Trust me on this johnny - tivo is love.

ray

Don't forget that if DirecTV is bought out by News Corp, chances are TIVO will lose the contract with DirecTV so that News Corp can push their own PVR. That's something you may want to keep in mind when purchasing a combo unit.

link to full article regarding news corp and tivo

LPMiller

They'd still have to support the tivo units, they are selling like hotcakes right now because of the price cut.

amnesiac 2.0

The cable company at my new place will be Comcast. I checked their channel listings: No Animal Planet, and a full 40% of their channels are in Spanish or another foreign language.

Look, if I'm going to pay $50 a month for the service, I don't want to have to pay for all my immigrant neighbors' channels. Jeez.

ray

Yes, they are selling like hotcakes, but what if News Corp decides to bundle the "News Corp" PVR with the new DirecTV dishes if/when they acquire them? They can charge the same subscription fee (or maybe less) and provide the same services. Why would they support a competitor's product? I'm not disagreeing, but I'm just kinda throwing out the hypothetical. I am sure TiVO will be around for a while, but if the TV providers themselves start offering their own branded units, then TiVO is going to be in trouble.

LPMiller

Because, according to that article, there are over 200,000 DirectTivo units out there. I don't know too many companies willing to piss off 200,000 people.

ray

I don't think they would necessarily piss off 200,000 people. News Corp could give everybody new dishes with their own branded PVR and charge the same $10/month and make their $2M/month in revenue, instead of allowing TiVo, who would now be a direct competitor, to continue their growth. If you were the president of News Corp and you knew that you could give your subscribers new dishes/pvrs and eat the initial transfer costs, but generate $2M/month in subscriber fees, wouldn't you do it? Or would you allow your competitor to steal that revenue because you didn't want to switch over 200,000 customers? I would give them free dishes/pvrs and then start charging the customers the $10/month. Initial costs will be in the tens of millions, but that revenue will be earned back in 1 year assuming that the subscriber rate does not change at all.