Long story, but the summary is that our new construction house won't have Comcast because of yet another berkeley up by the builder/realtor. We may be able to get it later, but for the immediate future, we're SOL. That may or may not be a good thing, as Comcast rapes you without lube. So now I'm left to look at satellite for my TV/internet at home. Never had one before, always had Comcast.
The satellite companies seem to do a good job hiding their actual prices. They show promotional rates like "Only $29.99/month for the first 12 months". But then it says it requires a 24 month commitment and doesn't show you anywhere what the other 12 months cost. For those who have DirecTV or Dish, what are your costs? How do you like it? How reliable is the service? My wife and I watch very little TV, we're just too damn busy. Our kids use it some, but not as much as most other kids...we keep them very busy. The channels we use most are: The ESPN networks, Fox Sports networks (1 and 2...well, if Comcast had 2), NBC Sports Network, NFL network, HGTV, the kids channels (Nick, Cartoon Network, etc...), then the channels the WWE are on, as my boys are huge wrestling fans. We use the DVR with Comcast frequently, so we need that type service too. How is their internet service, as we use that a lot...both for personal and the kids homework.
I pay $79 total for DirecTV tv service only, 1 HD DVR box and 1 non-HD standard box.
No internet service through them (I use Comcast), although I've heard that satellite internet is pretty junk in terms of reliability. Your mileage may vary, however, as that's just word of mouth.
My main reasons for DirecTV over comcast are- I can still get TV during power outages, and I can use it while camping with a portable dish. Good to keep the wife and kid entertained on rainy days...
Satellite internet is The Worst Evar. Specifically DirectPC/HughesNet. RUN AWAY!!! Go with cell based if you have to.
I'm not familiar with DirectPC or HughesNet, or what cell based is. I'm really looking at DirecTV or Dish, as they're the viable options I have...though I think Verizon Fios may be too.
golfduke,
What channel package do you have? How do you watch TV during power outages? Is the $79/month your regular rate or the promotion?
I have the 1 step above the barebones basic package. No HBO or movie channels, but I do get NBCsports and such.
I am well out of promotions, haha. I've been with them for 5 years now, so that should just be standard rate. I'm typically not one to barter or negotiate.
Also a word of caution- I had a little tryst with Fairpoint fiber optic internet for about 6 months and had nothing but issues, interruptions, and general headaches. We got in a big fight because they blamed the hardwiring in the house and I didn't believe them. I switched to comcast and am having absolutely zero issues.
So stay away from Fairpoint, even if it's your only option.
Are you close enough to town to get point to point wireless? Range is usually @10 miles line of sight. If not, then you will probably have better luck with DSL through the phone company than satellite. Of course you will probably have to get a phone line too, whether you want it or not.
My direct tv is @80/mo with a couple of premium channels and my DSL/phone I never use is @$75/mo for decent speed.
If you do go direct tv do one of us a solid and let us refer you. Save both you and whoever you pick $10/mo for 10 months. My brothers inlaws do some sort of taking turns cancelling their service and signing back up deal to keep each of them getting referral discounts and have their payments down to @$30/mo but it seems like too much hassle to me.
I enjoyed direct TV. They sure liked to keep me happy.
Can't speak to the internet side of the quest, but I've had both Dish and (currently) Directv. Both were/are fine in terms of reliability - they drop when a big thunderhead blows through, but only for 10-15 minutes. Otherwise the only interruption I've had was when there was enough snow on the roof to cover the dish.
In terms of programming, however, Dish blows goats. They kept dropping channels without explanation (and without cutting prices). I understand that every provider has issues with programming contracts from time to time, but Dish was ridiculous. Haven't seen nearly as many such annoyances with Directv, but they have a much larger subscriber base and thus more leverage with programmers.
You can also look at the bundling deals - when I went over to Directv they had a deal with Verizon to lump landline phone service into the deal that ended up saving a few bucks over separate billing.
02Pilot wrote:
Can't speak to the internet side of the quest, but I've had both Dish and (currently) Directv. Both were/are fine in terms of reliability - they drop when a big thunderhead blows through, but only for 10-15 minutes. Otherwise the only interruption I've had was when there was enough snow on the roof to cover the dish.
In terms of programming, however, Dish blows goats. They kept dropping channels without explanation (and without cutting prices). I understand that every provider has issues with programming contracts from time to time, but Dish was ridiculous. Haven't seen nearly as many such annoyances with Directv, but they have a much larger subscriber base and thus more leverage with programmers.
You can also look at the bundling deals - when I went over to Directv they had a deal with Verizon to lump landline phone service into the deal that ended up saving a few bucks over separate billing.
I've been a happy Dish customer for years. Whatever channels they have dropped haven't been the ones that I watch. Rain fade can be an issue, but if it happens I switch to my antenna (which fully integrates into my DVR) until it passes.
I can't speak to satellite internet, though. I'm getting raped by those shiny happy people at Comcast for that. Best thing I can say about it is that it's fast.
Even if you get past the reliability issues (I used Wild Blue Satellite internet early in it's rollout), the biggest problem with satellite is that the rolling bandwidth limits before they throttle you back to dial-up speeds have been around 350 - 400 Mb in any 24 hour period. You won't be streaming anything on that, much less downloading the updates most operating systems require.
We're now using a wireless broadband setup --speedconnect.com, if you want to do some reasearch, most certainly not available in all areas. No rolling bandwidth limits, but the seem to have a hard time keeping their capacity ahead of demand. It just barely supports streaming some evenings.
DirecTV itself is pretty great, though I'm spending too much money on it-- I'm now pushing $120/month after a recent equipment upgrade. Their whole home DVR service is pretty snazzy though!
We have DirecTV, and Exede satellite internet.
I think our DTV package is the same one that golfduke is using, 1 step above the lowest package and additional movies or sports channels. I am pretty sure our bill is close to his, maybe $10-15 more because we have 1 HD DVR, and 1 of the newer Genie HD DVR's with an additional "sattelite" box in the master bedroom.
No complaints with DirecTV, its awesome, we very very rarely experience any outages. Like maybe once or twice a year and only for a short period of time.
The satellite internet...well...its our only option. We have poor cell reception at the house so cell based internet isnt really in the cards.
I believe its around $50 or $60 a month. 10gb data cap. After you hit it they throttle your internet speeds. Still works, but think dialup speed. If you search the internet, literally everyone that cares to take the time to complain on a forum insists that they overestimate your data usage, by a lot. I am sure they do too, we got capped last month.
If you get a service like this, forget doing anything with streaming video. it will work but you will hit your cap fast. also avoid large downloads and such. Works well enough that I can play xbox live occasionally and it seems doing that doesnt use a lot of data.
Forgive my estimating of costs...these 2 particular bills are ones my wife makes sure get paid each month.
At least with DirecTV if you ask they will tell you what your after promotion price will be. If not ask for a supervisor. If you live in an at&t centurylink or Verizon dsl area then you can get bundled with internet through them. If you can't get DSL then go 4G for internet. Exede (wild blue) recently added capacity but they still throttle you drastically after you hit it. Even though they have unlimited usage during off peak. Expect average DSL on down and big dialup low DSL speeds on up. If you're interested in direct hit me up.
This is very relevant to my intetests as I just moved from a major metropolitan area (Tampa) to the middle of BFE (southern Idaho). The house I am renting has 4(!) satelite antennas on the roof and is completely wired for sat TV. I have never had sat TV or internet. I was paying $40/month for 40mb internet in Tampa (Brighthouse). What can I get that is close to that speed/price? I'm a sat newb.
