OT: Direct TV, pros and cons | The Boneyard

OT: Direct TV, pros and cons

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Improviser

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I currently have Frontier for home phone, internet, and cable. Bill is ridiculous at about $258.

I went to the AT&T store to buy a new cell phone and the rep was pushing for a trial of Direct TV with a package including home phone, and internet with the TV package. He said the switch would save me close to $100 a month. And, he says Frontier won't be upgrading its systems to be supporting TV in the near future and isn't taking new TV customers.

Still, I am not sure of the reliability of Direct TV. Not sure if the phone tech support is reliable or how wifi would hold up, or the quality of the picture on TV or the quality and reliability of the transmission on my computer.

Right now, Frontier with Eero and its phone support and techs who came to my house for phone and TV and wifi computer issues, has been very good.

If anyone has switched from Frontier to Direct TV, what is your take on the reliability of Direct TV?

At this point in my life, reliability and dependability and predictability mean more than saving money.

As always, I look forward to a treasure trove on information from the BY.
 
After several years with DirecTV, I was pleased with the channels they offer. Watch out, if something goes wrong. The repair workers who came did not know what the H_ll they were doing. I finally had to drop them.
 
Ditto on repair techs. They will try and charge you. One great feature is you can go online to add or remove channels or packages.
 
When we had it a decade ago every time there was a thunderstorm, the picture froze..........not sure if they have fixed that technical issue over the years but it was a dealbreaker for us.....
 
Had directtv for 20+ years. Finally cut the cord for you tube tv once they lost the NFL package.
Pros: Crystal clear feed at all times.
Instant feedback from remote
Easy to use guide and quick searching
Great channel choice and 4k choices
Cons: no nfl package anymore
If the signal goes, and it did once or twice for me over the years, the quality
of tech that may show up to fix it is. questionable, usually an outside. contractor, and will take a few days to. come out.
Price skyrocketed over the years and they charge monthly for each. equipment piece.
Limited dvr space.

Youtube TV:
$80 is top tier package
Good channel choice
Long load times
Unresponsive remote
Guide is clunky and not easy to locate or discover stuff.
Unlimited dvr.
 
Streaming is the present and future DirectTV won’t be around in 3-5 years. That’s probably why the salesperson was pushing it.
 
I have had DirectTV for over 20 years and do not have issues. They now have it so that if the signal goes out due to a storm it auotmajically offers a streaming option and switches back when the signal is restored. Been offered many ”opportunities“ to change but why do so. It works for me.
 
IllinoisHuskie said:
I have had DirectTV for over 20 years and do not have issues. They now have it so that if the signal goes out due to a storm it auotmajically offers a streaming option and switches back when the signal is restored. Been offered many ”opportunities“ to change but why do so. It works for me.
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Why don't they just stream all the time? Why do they still need the satellite? For people who don't have the internet?
 
I have been a DirecTV guy for… almost 30 years, my first experience was just stealing it back in the day, those little boxes where you could cook the cards and then get local channels from Albuquerque …

Now that I’m an adult I’ve been with them forever, it’s ridiculous when they raise the prices, but they are weak - just say you are cancelling and they lace you.

Cannot imagine ever having another service - another nice touch is that if you have regular DirecTV you can use the app… VERY HELPFUL on the road or in a storm.
 
Improviser said:
I currently have Frontier for home phone, internet, and cable. Bill is ridiculous at about $258.

I went to the AT&T store to buy a new cell phone and the rep was pushing for a trial of Direct TV with a package including home phone, and internet with the TV package. He said the switch would save me close to $100 a month. And, he says Frontier won't be upgrading its systems to be supporting TV in the near future and isn't taking new TV customers.

Still, I am not sure of the reliability of Direct TV. Not sure if the phone tech support is reliable or how wifi would hold up, or the quality of the picture on TV or the quality and reliability of the transmission on my computer.

Right now, Frontier with Eero and its phone support and techs who came to my house for phone and TV and wifi computer issues, has been very good.

If anyone has switched from Frontier to Direct TV, what is your take on the reliability of Direct TV?

At this point in my life, reliability and dependability and predictability mean more than saving money.

As always, I look forward to a treasure trove on information from the BY.
Expand ...
reliability is not a concern unless you have significant trees near where placed, where wind and rain could impact the tree to block,

heavy thunderstorms sometimes affect reception, but in the 31 yrs. I have had, it only affected a few times.

there are other concerns IMO, cost and customer support (they have been better recently but still taking a LOOOONNNNGGGG time for you to explain the issue and get to the right person, if it is anything other than a quick connection fix)

Next comes your viewing needs, if you have several TVs 3-10 (cost creeps up on you), and if you are a sports junkie who wants to watch and record several channels back to back, DTV Fits the bill., recording is nice with WHOLE HOME option where you share a central large hard drive to store several recordings and can reference on any receiver including your phone
 
Used to have it. Every time it was hard rain or storm, the signal was gone. It would break up or freeze.
Also, we had the original remote they gave to use. 10 years later something aside from the battery went in it. They wanted to charge between 30 and 40 dollars for a replacement remote. I got the same one in Walmart for $14.99. I still bought a different one for $9.99 and it worked fine for Direct TV, the Blu-Ray player, the TV and a stereo.
Anyways, we switched to cable (Breezeline) and we get the same channels, high speed internet and phone for what we were paying just for DirecTV's tv service.
 
Just signed up with Frontier, 1 gig plus YouTube tv. $110 dollars for the next year. $300 less than our last Cox bill.
 
I have Spectrum $250/month with everything. Phone, internet and 3 TVs ( > 200 channels).
 
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I've had DirectTV Stream since it was introduced in 2017, run it thru AppleTV. I'm grandfathered into a plan everything except premium (HBO, ETC). every sports channel I want (all ESPNs, SNY, MSGs, Etc) less than $100 a month. Of course, it started at $35/month. Recently they gave me unlimited DVR, and the app works gr8 on my phone or tablet. Hate AT&T, but this is a winner
 
I'll chime in with the long time DirecTV customers. I've had it 1990 or so. I've never had issues with poor picture quality, so I've never had to deal with customer service for that. For a sports fan, it's really hard to beat (cept for Sunday Ticket which I never subscribe to anyhow). Yeah, it's definitely more expensive than other options these days..

The Genie dvr is really a huge step up from the previous dvr solution. One central box that can record up to 7 or 8 streams at once. You can have wired (via coax) remote receivers or wireless for places in your house that man not have a dedicated cable. Heck - want to take a TV outside, grab a wireless remote receiver and go outside.

There are a few free 4k channels which are pretty cool. Got to watch a couple UConn games in 4k, a bunch of football games and some interesting science/nature stuff which is fun from time to time.

Add streaming on demand over the Internet and it pretty much does it all.

It's costly, but I have no interest in switching to anything else.
 
Improviser said:
I currently have Frontier for home phone, internet, and cable. Bill is ridiculous at about $258.

I went to the AT&T store to buy a new cell phone and the rep was pushing for a trial of Direct TV with a package including home phone, and internet with the TV package. He said the switch would save me close to $100 a month. And, he says Frontier won't be upgrading its systems to be supporting TV in the near future and isn't taking new TV customers.

Still, I am not sure of the reliability of Direct TV. Not sure if the phone tech support is reliable or how wifi would hold up, or the quality of the picture on TV or the quality and reliability of the transmission on my computer.

Right now, Frontier with Eero and its phone support and techs who came to my house for phone and TV and wifi computer issues, has been very good.

If anyone has switched from Frontier to Direct TV, what is your take on the reliability of Direct TV?

At this point in my life, reliability and dependability and predictability mean more than saving money.

As always, I look forward to a treasure trove on information from the BY.
Expand ...
I’ve had AT&T Direct TV for years .
Those Promo’s usually have a time limit
so check the dates and the real price when it up.
You can normally negotiate a new promo by saying I’m leaving. If there is an equipment installation usually there is a minimum time required before the exit fee is waved
i have a package that includes FS1
Which I can access from my phone my Ipad by not my MAC . .My wife conplains there is nothing to watch .i really don’t watch a lot of TV . So I was thinking of adding a streaming service like Apple , YouTube , Netflix . any ideas .
 
uconnfan68 said:
The satellite is for people way off the normal cable access.
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We use Direct TV in Vermont. Cable is literally not an option. One day I’ll have the time to loans all the apps and remember all my passwords from CT and save the money, but between playing golf one weekend and doing that ….

Direct TV works fine. Yes, it’s not as reliable as cable in CT, and yes, on the rare occasions you need servicing you have to wait, but it’s fine.
 
Improviser said:
I currently have Frontier for home phone, internet, and cable. Bill is ridiculous at about $258.

I went to the AT&T store to buy a new cell phone and the rep was pushing for a trial of Direct TV with a package including home phone, and internet with the TV package. He said the switch would save me close to $100 a month. And, he says Frontier won't be upgrading its systems to be supporting TV in the near future and isn't taking new TV customers.

Still, I am not sure of the reliability of Direct TV. Not sure if the phone tech support is reliable or how wifi would hold up, or the quality of the picture on TV or the quality and reliability of the transmission on my computer.

Right now, Frontier with Eero and its phone support and techs who came to my house for phone and TV and wifi computer issues, has been very good.

If anyone has switched from Frontier to Direct TV, what is your take on the reliability of Direct TV?

At this point in my life, reliability and dependability and predictability mean more than saving money.

As always, I look forward to a treasure trove on information from the BY.
Expand ...
Are you based in CT? If so, you might be able to do what I did. I dropped Frontier for cable and internet, and picked up fiber internet from Go Net Speed ($50/month) and YouTubeTV ($76/month). The customer service for GNS has been great so far (I dreaded calling Frontier). Youtubetv gives you live local channels, and you can watch it from anywhere via the app. I haven’t missed Frontier one bit.
 
Scott2Tate said:
Are you based in CT? If so, you might be able to do what I did. I dropped Frontier for cable and internet, and picked up fiber internet from Go Net Speed ($50/month) and YouTubeTV ($76/month). The customer service for GNS has been great so far (I dreaded calling Frontier). Youtubetv gives you live local channels, and you can watch it from anywhere via the app. I haven’t missed Frontier one bit.
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I am based in CT.

Do you have a landline? That is a necessary item for me. Your plan sounds reasonable, but a standalone landline would add to that figure. Though, all 3 together would be less than I am currently paying.

I have a Samsung Smart TV so I would guess that would support the YouTube channel.
 

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