# Back to DirecTV



## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

Well it looks like its back to Directv I guess , no fault of the Tivo as I really did like them pretty well (30 day trail) but DirectV keep crying around giving me more and more and for 2 years versus cable and TiVo it will be several hundred dollars cheaper , plus 3 months HBo , Max , stars , encore and such...and the Sunday ticket for the rest of the season...and a 200 dollar visa gift card (that I have to jump through a few hoops to get but ill do it) ...so , just couldn't really pass that up ....and they are gona come out and install all new equipment , dish and cable...


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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

Budule said:


> Well it looks like its back to Directv I guess , no fault of the Tivo as I really did like them pretty well (30 day trail) but DirectV keep crying around giving me more and more and for 2 years versus cable and TiVo it will be several hundred dollars cheaper , plus 3 months HBo , Max , stars , encore and such...and the Sunday ticket for the rest of the season...and a 200 dollar visa gift card (that I have to jump through a few hoops to get but ill do it) ...so , just couldn't really pass that up ....and they are gona come out and install all new equipment , dish and cable...


Keep in mind, those Directv "deal" prices only last 1 year, then they jack the price way up and you will end up paying quite a bit more that second year and be stuck till the contract ends.

I do agree the startup prices for getting into Tivo are as deterrent, but for me, cheaper overall prices, even in year 2, as many if not more channels, plus no contract, made it worth the switch from Directv to Charter(did so in August). Plus, I own the Tivo boxes and can sell them, if I do decide to go elsewhere, if I can't use them anymore.


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

yes , DTV goes up the second year , that's why I figured both on 2 years , (my suddenlink also goes up after the first year) ...and in my case (suddenlink) I get more channels with DTV , plus I kinda see "owning" the boxes as a minus because of the turn around time to get a replacement plus having to pay the 50 bucks....contract dosent bother me as I haven't gone anywhere since the mid 60's and don't plan on moving...


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

Good luck with your decision. 

As far as it being better to rent the boxes from DTV as opposed to owning a Tivo goes, I have to disagree. The rental fee you are paying DTV is gone forever and when you cancel service you give them the DVR box back! A Tivo with lifetime service has significant resale value.

Depending on how long you keep the Tivo and what you get on resale it could end up only costing you a few $$ a month as opposed to the $15-20'ish you'd be paying DTV (or the cable co)...

Another thing to consider is the ISP speeds. What are you going to get with DTV -v- what the cable co offered? I'd bet the DTV speeds are pretty darn slow unless they've made significant progress since the last time I looked at them..


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

No , I'm keeping the suddenlink internet ...and weather I own the TiVo or genie its still a monthly fee to use it (no way on lifetime) , so once I BUY the TiVo I still have to send them money monthly/yearly....and incure the cost and downtime if the box goes south....and when I had trouble (1st day ) I was pretty disappointed that they didn't have tech support 24/7 like DTV does...plus my cable company is charging me 3.50 a month for the card AND 7.00 a month for their box , even though I don't use it , its "required" for me to get the promo deal they said....bottom line , over a 2 year period its about 500 bucks cheaper with dtv , and , actually , around 700 bucks cheaper if I bundle my AT$T bill in , so, I gotta do that...


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

There is no box rental fee with DirecTV, at least for the first one. After that you pay a fee for additional boxes. With TiVo obsoleting older boxes at an increased clip, I'm not sure the resale value is all that good anymore. (Especially if you have to add $600 for "lifetime service".)


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

stevel said:


> There is no box rental fee with DirecTV, at least for the first one. After that you pay a fee for additional boxes. With TiVo obsoleting older boxes at an increased clip, I'm not sure the resale value is all that good anymore. (Especially if you have to add $600 for "lifetime service".)


This is from the DTV website. Am I missing something?


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## osu1991 (Mar 6, 2015)

Direct now charges for the first receiver for new customers. Current customers may be grandfathered but I haven't checked, so not sure on that

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk


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## crxrocks (Mar 30, 2004)

osu1991 said:


> Direct now charges for the first receiver for new customers. Current customers may be grandfathered but I haven't checked, so not sure on that
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk


Doesn't that fee just roll up the whole house DVR & HD DVR & HD fees into one fee though? Isn't the same price? Not a DTV customer anymore but those are the fees that really drove me crazy and one of the reasons I switched to Comcast. Now I have just one stupid HD TV fee to pay (beyond the TiVO lifetime of course)

Chris


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

Budule said:


> No , I'm keeping the suddenlink internet ...and weather I own the TiVo or genie its still a monthly fee to use it (no way on lifetime) , so once I BUY the TiVo I still have to send them money monthly/yearly....and incure the cost and downtime if the box goes south....and when I had trouble (1st day ) I was pretty disappointed that they didn't have tech support 24/7 like DTV does...plus my cable company is charging me 3.50 a month for the card AND 7.00 a month for their box , even though I don't use it , its "required" for me to get the promo deal they said....bottom line , over a 2 year period its about 500 bucks cheaper with dtv , and , actually , around 700 bucks cheaper if I bundle my AT$T bill in , so, I gotta do that...


Hi, 
To link package discounts to the use of one of their boxes is a violation of FCC regulation. I forget the chapter and verse, but it is in there somewhere.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Minimum cost for one DirecTV DVR service and lease fee if you subscribe today is $21.50. Add $6.50 for each additional. Those high fees are what drove me to drop DirecTV years ago. Break even with my $300 TiVo with lifetime is about a year. 

Sure new subs get great discounts, but in the long run you'll always pay more for satellite. Plus you have to use an antenna to get all your local sub channels. No thanks.


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

They play around with this charge and that charge , bottom line , in my case (check local listings) for 24 months of TV , if I bundle AT&T ( I will) it will be almost 700 dollars cheaper with DTV versus cable Co plus tivo....not to mention Sunday ticket and 3 months of all the premiums, .....not to mention DTV's service /support seams lightyears ahead of tivos , for one , they are there , always ...second , ive never called them and been told " we're to busy right now to give you tier 2 support. Maybe in 3 to 5 days "...didn't mean to start any debate here , just explaining my future absence. ...


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

mdavej said:


> Minimum cost for one DirecTV DVR service and lease fee if you subscribe today is $21.50. Add $6.50 for each additional. Those high fees are what drove me to drop DirecTV years ago. Break even with my $300 TiVo with lifetime is about a year.
> 
> Sure new subs get great discounts, but in the long run you'll always pay more for satellite. Plus you have to use an antenna to get all your local sub channels. No thanks.


DTV (or any provider for that matter) is not out to save people tons of money. They are a business out to make tons of money. Sure the 1st year of the deal looks sweet but it's after that where the price skyrockets and you either cut back on your package (if you can) or pony up and pay..

$21.50 a month to rent a DVR? NO THANKS!


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

I got the same deal the OP posted and my theory was, since they gave me a $200 visa gift card too, if I cancelled after the first year when the specials are over, it costs $20/remaining month in cancellation fees. I would have one year left so $20 x 12 = $240. So that's only a $40 cost yet I got a year of Free NFL Sunday Ticket Max ($350 value), all those months of free premiums, Premiere Channel Package, free Genie Lite (returnable), free DirecTiVo THR-22 (get to keep according to reports) and a few other credits they threw my way. 

So to me anyway, it was WELL worth it!


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

Appears to be a massive headache to me.. Constantly changing providers, DVR's ect.

Then again, I am OTA only and don't have to deal with that. I guess the constant changing must be worth it to some...


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

raqball said:


> DTV (or any provider for that matter) is not out to save people tons of money. They are a business out to make tons of money. Sure the 1st year of the deal looks sweet but it's after that where the price skyrockets and you either cut back on your package (if you can) or pony up and pay..
> 
> *$21.50 a month to rent a DVR? NO THANKS![/*QUOTE]
> 
> ...


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

Budule said:


> raqball said:
> 
> 
> > DTV (or any provider for that matter) is not out to save people tons of money. They are a business out to make tons of money. Sure the 1st year of the deal looks sweet but it's after that where the price skyrockets and you either cut back on your package (if you can) or pony up and pay..
> ...


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

Well the price tivo charged me was 14.99 , if I could get it free then I would have factored that in as it would have made it a lot closer. ...and this is just as much or more about the cable company, I really did like the tivo, (except for customer support)


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

Budule said:


> Well the price tivo charged me was 14.99 , if I could get it free then I would have factored that in as it would have made it a lot closer. ..


Even so $14.99 is cheaper than $21.50.. As far as only paying for guide data? My Roamio came in a case, has a hard drive, a remote and some other stuff. I assume the same comes with the rental DVR.

A Tivo without lifetime still has some resale value and a Tivo with lifetime has great resale value. The DTV rental has no resale value. At the end of a 2 year contract @ $21.50 a month, you would have paid them $516 and you need to return it.

If you thought you were paying $14.99 to rent guide data from Tivo then what are you paying to rent DTV guide data? Well all things are the same (box, hard drive, remote ect.) so the guide data rental from DTV is $21.50 the way that you referenced it..

As I said, if you are happy then that is all that matters! It's your decision and it's your hard earned money!

I am OTA so it would take a killer deal and I mean a killer deal to get me to pay for DTV, cable, U-Verse or Dish..


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

The Genie (5 tuners versus 4 but no big deal there) and the minis are no out of pocket up front , Roamio 200.00 mini's 150.00 , plus the monthly , so the 21$ gets me the hardware plus the software .... , and at 14.99 a month to TiVo I would have paid them 360.00$ and have nothing , kinda like a rental...ill be happy at the end of 24 months with the savings , actually , I could care less , the wife is the frugal one that pays the bills and her calculator dosent lie , so if she's happy , then I am by default...


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

I dropped DirecTV in 2009 and I was a 12 year subscriber. The company still sends me great offers to sign back up but I never do it. If I hadn't committed so much money for my cord cutting venture, lifetime TiVos, streaming players, antenna, etc. I probably would have but I am making this cord cutting pay off so I am sticking with it.


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

Budule said:


> The Genie (5 tuners versus 4 but no big deal there) and the minis are no out of pocket up front , Roamio 200.00 mini's 150.00 , plus the monthly , so the 21$ gets me the hardware plus the software .... , and at 14.99 a month to TiVo I would have paid them 360.00$ and have nothing , kinda like a rental...ill be happy at the end of 24 months with the savings , actually , I could care less , the wife is the frugal one that pays the bills and her calculator dosent lie , so if she's happy , then I am by default...


The math can be skewed either way it just depends on how you choose look at it. I include resale values when comparing such things. The rental equipment has none and the Tivo gear has some..



Chris Gerhard said:


> I dropped DirecTV in 2009 and I was a 12 year subscriber. The company still sends me great offers to sign back up but I never do it. If I hadn't committed so much money for my cord cutting venture, lifetime TiVos, streaming players, antenna, etc. I probably would have but I am making this cord cutting pay off so I am sticking with it.


I get deal offers all the time as well and even call cable and u-verse every so often to see what they offer. Last month I called cable co and u-verse. Their offerings were similar but nowhere even close to get me to bite.

Right now I pay nothing for TV (OTA), $70 for internet (80 down and 10 up) and $20 for Sling TV. My Roamio with lifetime was a one time non reoccurring expense.

If the cable co, dish, u-verse or directTv want me to bite they have to offer similar internet speed and a TV package for close to what I pay now which is $90 with all taxes included. U-Verse last I checked was going to be $115 after taxes and only offered 24 down for internet. The cable co was at $111 with tax for TV, cable card and the same internet speed I have now. I was close to biting on the cable offering but that is still $20 more a month and I'd watch the same channels as i do now. I don't need or want 250 channels of which I'd never watch 220 of them so I passed on both offerings.

If they came in at $100 with the same internet speed I have now I might consider it...


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

raqball said:


> The math can be skewed either way it just depends on how you choose look at it. I include resale values when comparing such things. The rental equipment has none and the Tivo gear has some..
> 
> I get deal offers all the time as well and even call cable and u-verse every so often to see what they offer. Last month I called cable co and u-verse. Their offerings were similar but nowhere even close to get me to bite.
> 
> ...


boys that the truth , I think my DTV package is 145 channels ....15 are probably shopping , 10 are religious and so on, probably only 10 for sures ...networks and fx might be it really......and again , suddenlink is a big part of this expense , higher package price , cablecard fee , and receiver fee even though I don't need their receiver....too many hills for me to get anything OTA I'm afraid...


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## davefred99 (Oct 31, 2004)

I am doing just the opposite as the OP. Trying to get rid of DirecTV before they hit me with there 2nd year increases. In my case I get $41 in first year concessions. The First three months I got all the Movie channels and barely ever watched them. At the time I signed up with DTV I really had limited choices because I also had no way to get internet accept from Verizon Wireless @$60 month and only 10gb of data streaming was out and My OTA was limited to a few Low Power Translators which did cover the big 4 networks but all in SD Quality.
8 months later I was able to get DSL internet from Frontier and decided to get a TIVO Basic on the Summer Close Out deal for $299 lifetime. I already owned a TIvo Mini form a few years ago so I paid the $49 to get it switched to Lifetime too.
I am building up to the day I become a full on Cord Cutter mostly because I refuse to pay the full on Price for Cable/DTV and because I am retiring and want to stretch my limited entertainment budget as much as possible without giving up to much.
So far its been a little more difficult than I originally anticipated but mostly I have just had to change some of my expectations. I have 4 months to put my plan in action so I can work through most of it.
Good luck to the OP but I would wager he will re think this as time passes.


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

davefred99 said:


> I am doing just the opposite as the OP. Trying to get rid of DirecTV before they hit me with there 2nd year increases. In my case I get $41 in first year concessions. The First three months I got all the Movie channels and barely ever watched them. At the time I signed up with DTV I really had limited choices because I also had no way to get internet accept from Verizon Wireless @$60 month and only 10gb of data streaming was out and My OTA was limited to a few Low Power Translators which did cover the big 4 networks but all in SD Quality.
> 8 months later I was able to get DSL internet from Frontier and decided to get a TIVO Basic on the Summer Close Out deal for $299 lifetime. I already owned a TIvo Mini form a few years ago so I paid the $49 to get it switched to Lifetime too.
> I am building up to the day I become a full on Cord Cutter mostly because I refuse to pay the full on Price for Cable/DTV and because I am retiring and want to stretch my limited entertainment budget as much as possible without giving up to much.
> So far its been a little more difficult than I originally anticipated but mostly I have just had to change some of my expectations. I have 4 months to put my plan in action so I can work through most of it.
> Good luck to the OP but I would wager *he will re think this as time passes*.


not much to rethink , stay with cable / TiVo and pay more or go back to directv and pay less ...I cant get ANYTHING OTA so cord cutting is out for me , wifey really not liking TiVo much this evening anyway as she has watched 3 of her shows and it cut everyone short ...she mad..."DirectV never did that " she _almost _yells...and again , my cable co is the main reason that this is costing more than it should/does with directv...I mean I guess I could return these tivos and get some ebay ones with the lifetime and get the cost closer but my call to support when it was only 12 hours old and giving me an error code kinda sealed it for me ...


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

I understand where you're coming from. I was in the exact same situation years ago. But the fact remains, in the long run, satellite costs more than Tivo with lifetime, period. That $21.50 (which was $31.50 in 2014) adds up. And as your promos run out, the package prices get higher and higher, as do all the other fees. That's why I have Tivo today instead of satellite, which I had on and off for about 12 years (and really liked, BTW).

You will enjoy DirecTV immensely the first few years, as I did, thanks to the low price, great support, great hardware, Sunday Ticket and, most of all, WAF. But in the end, it's a premium service at ultimately premium prices.

I agree that you made the best decision for now. Just realize, to keep it affordable, you'll have to make another change in 2 years. Dish is also a great service, so you should try them next. I also had that service for years and was pleased with it.


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

HarperVision said:


> I got the same deal the OP posted and my theory was, since they gave me a $200 visa gift card too, if I cancelled after the first year when the specials are over, it costs $20/remaining month in cancellation fees. I would have one year left so $20 x 12 = $240. So that's only a $40 cost yet I got a year of Free NFL Sunday Ticket Max ($350 value), all those months of free premiums, Premiere Channel Package, free Genie Lite (returnable), free DirecTiVo THR-22 (get to keep according to reports) and a few other credits they threw my way.
> 
> So to me anyway, it was WELL worth it!


Your TiVo Guy is probably rolling over in his grave


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

I just priced out DirecTV with one receiver for my area. I went with the low end Choice package and only connecting one TV.. I also removed the movie channels (you get 3 free months) as I'm not interested in them even at 3 months free..

Price for the package (months 1-12) $33.62 + $21.50 for the DVR = $55.12
Price for the package (months 13-24) $74.62 + $21.50 for the DVR = $96.12

Total cost for 2 years of service = $1814.88 (averages out to $75.62 per month)

That 2 year average is pretty high considering I went with a low end TV package, only one connected TV and I'd have to return the DVR at the end of the 2 year contract..


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

snerd said:


> Your TiVo Guy is probably rolling over in his grave


Nah, I still have the TiVo system as the main core of my system. I integrate DirecTV into it using a modulator.


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

raqball said:


> I just priced out DirecTV with one receiver for my area. I went with the low end Choice package and only connecting one TV.. I also removed the movie channels (you get 3 free months) as I'm not interested in them even at 3 months free..
> 
> Price for the package (months 1-12) $33.62 + $21.50 for the DVR = $55.12
> Price for the package (months 13-24) $74.62 + $21.50 for the DVR = $96.12
> ...


your months 1-12 is the same as mine , 55 , but your months 13 24 is WAY higher , mine only jumps 20 to 75 for the second year , and with the AT&T bundle 10 more dollars would come off that , so 65...... anyway , the DTV guy just left and the New genie is a freaking BEAST compared to the old one , just night and day difference ...and hopefully it wont cut all the shows short like the Tivo seemed to do for some reason...

My price also includes 2 minis for a total of 3 TV's...


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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

Budule said:


> your months 1-12 is the same as mine , 55 , but your months 13 24 is WAY higher , mine only jumps 20 to 75 for the second year , and with the AT&T bundle 10 more dollars would come off that , so 65...... anyway , the DTV guy just left and the New genie is a freaking BEAST compared to the old one , just night and day difference ...and hopefully it wont cut all the shows short like the Tivo seemed to do for some reason...


I was going to mention to make sure he gives you a HR44(or 54) and not a HR34. The HR34's are a dog these days. Sounds like you got an HR44.


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## raqball (Feb 23, 2015)

Budule said:


> your months 1-12 is the same as mine , 55 , but your months 13 24 is WAY higher , mine only jumps 20 to 75 for the second year , and with the AT&T bundle 10 more dollars would come off that , so 65...... anyway , the DTV guy just left and the New genie is a freaking BEAST compared to the old one , just night and day difference ...and *hopefully it wont cut all the shows short like the Tivo seemed to do for some reason...*


Appears that for some odd reason you are only here to bash Tivo..

Mine has never, not once, cut a recording short.. I'm not saying it won't happen it just has not yet. As a matter of fact, it's been 100% trouble free and my call to Tivo to transfer the Amazon lifetime deal into my account took all of 5 whopping minutes..

I don't know anything about DTV and I priced it out on their website. I can't have satellite because I live in a condo. For me it's cable or u-verse and both would have been a better deal in my case as they included internet for not much more than the DTV pricing came out to..

To each their own.. Enjoy your new service! :up:


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

raqball said:


> *Appears that for some odd reason you are only here to bash Tivo..
> *
> Mine has never, not once, cut a recording short.. I'm not saying it won't happen it just has not yet. As a matter of fact, it's been 100% trouble free and my call to Tivo to transfer the Amazon lifetime deal into my account took all of 5 whopping minutes..
> 
> ...


I'm not here to bash TiVo , and SEVERAL times I mentioned I did like it but for the extra expense which I also said was mostly my cable co to blame ...and my wife watched 3 recordings last nite as I told her we would lose them "Life in pieces" , "Big Bang" and "Madam Secertary" ....every single one of them was cut short by a minute or so cutting off the "punchline" on one and the "next weeks episode" on the others...if stating my experience is bashing , then so be it....now I will without question bash their tech support when I called them (after having to wait till they "open" ) with a 12 hour old Roamio that has an error code and am told I need "Tier 2 support" and "those guys are really busy and it will be 3 to 5 days before they will get to you" no defending that imo....I have never even checked on DTV's internet and don't see anyway it could be any good , way to much ping time for gaming I would think...


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Budule said:


> I'm not here to bash TiVo , and SEVERAL times I mentioned I did like it but for the extra expense which I also said was mostly my cable co to blame ...and my wife watched 3 recordings last nite as I told her we would lose them "Life in pieces" , "Big Bang" and "Madam Secertary" ....every single one of them was cut short by a minute or so cutting off the "punchline" on one and the "next weeks episode" on the others...if stating my experience is bashing , then so be it....now I will without question bash their tech support when I called them (after having to wait till they "open" ) with a 12 hour old Roamio that has an error code and am told I need "Tier 2 support" and "those guys are really busy and it will be 3 to 5 days before they will get to you" no defending that imo....I have never even checked on DTV's internet and don't see anyway it could be any good , way to much ping time for gaming I would think...


It was reported by TiVo Margret that there was an issue with their server's time sync that caused those clippings. FWIW, that's the first time I have ever seen that, and I've been with TiVo since the very first Philips 14 hr unit in jan 2000.


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## sar840t2 (Mar 1, 2003)

Chuck_IV said:


> I was going to mention to make sure he gives you a HR44(or 54) and not a HR34. The HR34's are a dog these days. Sounds like you got an HR44.


The uncertainty over whether you'd get a crappy box or a good box, and whether the installer was some guy with magnetic DirecTV stickers on his beat-up truck or an employee was what drove me away from DirecTV (with my "owned" DirecTiVos) to Comcast and TiVo when I was looking to enter the 21st century with HD just under 4 years ago.

I don't think I'd ever want to go back to having a dish bolted to my roof, but I'm hoping DirecTV will eventually come up with a DVR that allows me to 'record' over the internet (so I'm not hostage to Comcast's VOD expiring shows). Hey, I can hope, right?

TiVo has priced themselves above my pain point with the new Roamio all-in pricing, so I'm less inclined to do that equipment upgrade I was planning (I'm kicking myself for not taking advantage of the summer sale).

Mike


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## Budule (Oct 25, 2015)

sar840t2 said:


> *The uncertainty over whether you'd"S get a crappy box or a good box, and whether the installer was some guy with magnetic DirecTV stickers on his beat-up truck or an employee was what drove me away from DirecTV *(with my "owned" DirecTiVos) to Comcast and TiVo when I was looking to enter the 21st century with HD just under 4 years ago.
> 
> I don't think I'd ever want to go back to having a dish bolted to my roof, but I'm hoping DirecTV will eventually come up with a DVR that allows me to 'record' over the internet (so I'm not hostage to Comcast's VOD expiring shows). Hey, I can hope, right?
> 
> ...


when I talked to them I made her write on the reconnect order " no contractors and no hr34"....made that clear...guy calls me to say he is on the way , I asked was he a directv tech , nope contractor....ehh, ill be watching closely anyway , I can live with that...I ask " yo , did I get the new 54 (probably not) or just a 44 ?" ..."no sir , all I have available to me are 34's "....I say "your kidding right ? its on the order , no contractors , NO 34's !!! Ialso tell him no offense , I just had bad luck in the past and had to redo every damn thing) anyway , I tell him just turn around , no use to come , call them on your end a say I refused install , no hard feelings...5 minutes later I get a call from a Directv tech that is on his way with a 44....after chit chatting with him I guess 54's are just not happening on this end of the country but the 44 is lightyears ahead of the 34 that I had , and was the reason I dropped them in the first place....all is good now as the wifey is setting up her season passes and I can enjoy the sweet sounds of silence again...


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## cp2k (Mar 16, 2004)

HarperVision said:


> Nah, I still have the TiVo system as the main core of my system. I integrate DirecTV into it using a modulator.


HarperVision would you please share how you integrated the Modulator into your system? I have an opportunity to pick up a ZeeVee Pro610 at a pretty good price and would like to do the same thing... using my TiVo to do manual recordings off the DirecTV box for import using TiVo Desktop.


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## wizwor (Dec 18, 2013)

Budule said:


> Well it looks like its back to Directv I guess , no fault of the Tivo as I really did like them pretty well (30 day trail) but DirectV keep crying around giving me more and more and for 2 years versus cable and TiVo it will be several hundred dollars cheaper , plus 3 months HBo , Max , stars , encore and such...and the Sunday ticket for the rest of the season...and a 200 dollar visa gift card (that I have to jump through a few hoops to get but ill do it) ...so , just couldn't really pass that up ....and they are gona come out and install all new equipment , dish and cable...


One of the reasons I put up an antenna was to have leverage in negotiating cable/satellite contracts. I get the calls, but free is tough to beat. Someday, maybe.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

SO when will tivo fix the time sync? mike&molly ,blackish and ,life in pieces, all cut off short! and i even had my tivo pro set to record an extra minute but it stops recording after 29 minutes!!!


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## jhermit (Dec 18, 2015)

Budule said:


> when I talked to them I made her write on the reconnect order " no contractors and no hr34"....made that clear...guy calls me to say he is on the way , I asked was he a directv tech , nope contractor....ehh, ill be watching closely anyway , I can live with that...I ask " yo , did I get the new 54 (probably not) or just a 44 ?" ..."no sir , all I have available to me are 34's "....I say "your kidding right ? its on the order , no contractors , NO 34's !!! Ialso tell him no offense , I just had bad luck in the past and had to redo every damn thing) anyway , I tell him just turn around , no use to come , call them on your end a say I refused install , no hard feelings...5 minutes later I get a call from a Directv tech that is on his way with a 44....after chit chatting with him I guess 54's are just not happening on this end of the country but the 44 is lightyears ahead of the 34 that I had , and was the reason I dropped them in the first place....all is good now as the wifey is setting up her season passes and I can enjoy the sweet sounds of silence again...


Good move on demanding the >HR34. I just left DirecTv over the damn HR34. That thing takes up to 45 seconds to respond to remote control presses. Customer support refused to give me a 44, so I went to cancel. During the cancel "consultation" they offered me a 44 and threw their underwear at me, but at that point we were too in love with the Tivo interface and after a family meeting where my kids threatened to trade me for a Tivo, I decided to decline the DirecTv offer. The family just really likes having Hulu, NetFlix, Amazon, Vudu and YouTube in one box and the Tivo interface.

In any event, my point is that if they would not give me an HR54 when they were trying to throw anything at me to stop me from cancelling, I do not think they are quite available... :up::up:


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Suddenlink's prices must be insane if DirecTV is cheaper... That being said, DirecTV is clearly the better TV service, it's just so expensive, and no TiVo. It's even worse if your cable company jacks up the internet rate when you don't have TV with them...


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

No matter what a DirecTV CSR tells you, you can't require any particular box (and can't specify "no contractors" either.) You'll get what they have on the truck. If you want a particular box you have to order it from a reseller such as Weaknees or SolidSignal. It will still be a lease.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

stevel said:


> No matter what a DirecTV CSR tells you, you can't require any particular box (and can't specify "no contractors" either.) You'll get what they have on the truck. If you want a particular box you have to order it from a reseller such as Weaknees or SolidSignal. It will still be a lease.


That's an interesting concept so you buy a hopped up 6TB HR54 from Weaknees for $950 and after a few years decide to cancel Direct TV - do they expect you to give them your HR54?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

atmuscarella said:


> That's an interesting concept so you buy a hopped up 6TB HR54 from Weaknees for $950 and after a few years decide to cancel Direct TV - do they expect you to give them your HR54?


Yep. 6th sentence below:

https://www.weaknees.com/cart/HR54-DIRECTV-Genie-Home-Media-Center-HD-DVR-6TB-HR44.html

And last sentence here:

https://www.weaknees.com/dtv_faq.php#q61

You can buy owned equipment a few places, like from DirecTV employees now and then, but even then, you still have to pay "lease" fees. No way to avoid those fees. That's one of the major reasons I have Tivo. I've owned DirecTV DVRs in the past, and they have always been a nightmare convincing DirecTV they're owned and keeping the owned status on their books. If I sneezed, they'd change my DVR back to leased. Not worth the trouble or expense.

I can't fathom any benefit to owning DirecTV equipment other than avoiding the ETF and getting exactly the model you want. Seems like a very poor use of money to me.


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## bonscott87 (Oct 3, 2000)

Tivo Bolt is $300, $150/yr of service, first year of service is included so the cost of the hardware is really only $150. I paid Charter around $20 a month for their really crappy DVR, DirecTV is more expensive then that. I'll make up the $150 hardware cost in just over a year. The balking at the Tivo service cost never made much sense to me.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

I haven't read the entire thread so I skipped past the Tivo bashing and miscellaneous arguments. Being a former DirecTV subscriber, all I can say is, good luck with your decision. I don't have any major beefs with DirecTV as they do offer a good product, until there's bad weather. With the blizzard we had this past weekend I would have been in a TV blackout for at least 36 hours. Comcast used to be just as bad, but I haven't had them as a TV provider in almost two decades. One of the major reasons I dropped DirecTV and switched to FIOS was that it allowed me to keep using Tivos. The DirecTV HD DVR that had just come out was problematic and I just didn't like the idea of being locked into a 2-year agreement with hardware that was inferior. Their DVRs have been vastly improved, but I don't regret making the switch to FIOS one bit.


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

jhermit said:


> Customer support refused to give me a 44, so I went to cancel. During the cancel "consultation" they offered me a 44 and threw their underwear at me, but at that point we were too in love with the Tivo interface and after a family meeting where my kids threatened to trade me for a Tivo, I decided to decline the DirecTv offer. The family just really likes having Hulu, NetFlix, Amazon, Vudu and YouTube in one box and the Tivo interface.


In my case, I got miffed with how pricey DirecTv had become, so called them up, talked to retention, and got crap offers so I started my transition to Verizon+TiVo. Once I got to the point of cancelling with them, then they finally wanted to talk about making me a competitive deal.

Way too late...


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

mr.unnatural said:


> I haven't read the entire thread so I skipped past the Tivo bashing and miscellaneous arguments. Being a former DirecTV subscriber, all I can say is, good luck with your decision. I don't have any major beefs with DirecTV as they do offer a good product, until there's bad weather. With the blizzard we had this past weekend I would have been in a TV blackout for at least 36 hours. Comcast used to be just as bad, but I haven't had them as a TV provider in almost two decades. One of the major reasons I dropped DirecTV and switched to FIOS was that it allowed me to keep using Tivos. The DirecTV HD DVR that had just come out was problematic and I just didn't like the idea of being locked into a 2-year agreement with hardware that was inferior. Their DVRs have been vastly improved, but I don't regret making the switch to FIOS one bit.


If you would have been without tv for 36 hours for the snowstorm, your dish was poorly placed as it would get buried in a drift. I never lost signal in a snow storm in my 20 years with directv.


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## Imageek2 (Aug 12, 2002)

I am just boxing up our HR34 to send back. We put our service on hold for six months while we tried TiVo OTA + streaming. When I called to cancel I told them I was leaving because I was tired of paying a $10 HD fee, and because I was tired of paying for ESPN. Interestingly they told me they had a package that didn't include ESPN, no mention of dropping the HD fee


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> If you would have been without tv for 36 hours for the snowstorm, your dish was poorly placed as it would get buried in a drift. I never lost signal in a snow storm in my 20 years with directv.


I can imagine some installers putting the dish on the roof with a 3' pole thinking, "it never snows that much here" while not accounting for drifts.

Ice storms are different. You will lose signal for a while. Which is why you need a super soaker with hot water.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

BobCamp1 said:


> I can imagine some installers putting the dish on the roof with a 3' pole thinking, "it never snows that much here" while not accounting for drifts.
> 
> Ice storms are different. You will lose signal for a while. Which is why you need a super soaker with hot water.


Better yet, a dish heater. Golden.


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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

jonw747 said:


> In my case, I got miffed with how pricey DirecTv had become, so called them up, talked to retention, and got crap offers so I started my transition to Verizon+TiVo. Once I got to the point of cancelling with them, then they finally wanted to talk about making me a competitive deal.
> 
> Way too late...


The problem is that the CSRs sometime talk out their you know what to try and keep you.

When I cancelled, this lady threw everything at me and gave me a price that was lower than what we would have been paying with Charter's triple play. I was extremely skeptical and asked her to detail the pricing in an email, so I would have it documented if they tried to screw me.

I received an email about an hour later and it was some generic email about something else we discussed. When I called back the next day, the retention lady couldn't come close to the prices the first lady said because some of what the first lady was quoting was only 3 month pricing.

So the first lady was blowing smoke(just like the CSR who said they wouldn't put the person above under contract... on the equipment, you can decline the install until they bring the equipment you want, so there is a way.

At the end of the day, for me, Directv couldn't really come close to the Charter cable pricing.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

TonyD79 said:


> If you would have been without tv for 36 hours for the snowstorm, your dish was poorly placed as it would get buried in a drift. I never lost signal in a snow storm in my 20 years with directv.


My dish was attached to my chimney with clear line of sight and no obstructions and was optimized for best reception and signal strength. It was never buried in a snow drift due to its location. I even had an oversized dish with a Grundig LNB with higher gain than the stock LNB. This is going back about over a 10-year span ending about 8 or 9 years ago before the new dishes were being used to receive the newer HD satellites.

If you've never lost a signal then you've never had a storm as severe as the ones we've had. I've lost the signal on numerous occasions and the blizzard conditions we had over the weekend were far worse than ones we've had in the past. I play pool in a league several nights a week and the bar where I play has DirecTV. They lose the satellite signal quite often during heavy rains. The thing is, you don't have to be right in the storm for it to affect your signal. It can be anywhere between your location and the horizon in the direction of the satellites. Signal loss with DirecTV and Dish is a fact of life, whether its affected you personally or not. If it hasn't then consider yourself among an elite minority.

My local Costco has DirecTV reps that greet you as you walk past their display. They're always trying to sell me on DirecTV until I mention rain fade. They have nothing more to say about it other than wishing me a nice day. They have never denied that it exists, nor can they do so without lying.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Weather never affected my DirecTV much where I live, mostly brief outages during heavy rain. No big deal. What did make me leave DirecTV was the spiraling costs. When I left, a DVR was essentially $25, plus $7 for each additional box, then a $90 mid-tier programming package on top of that. 

With cable, my equivalent programming package is far less, and my fees are only $2 for my single cable card, a savings of about $70/month total over satellite. I also had Dish for a while. They averaged about $10 less than DirecTV for the same stuff, but still way more than I'm willing to pay for TV.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

mdavej said:


> I can't fathom any benefit to owning DirecTV equipment other than avoiding the ETF and getting exactly the model you want. Seems like a very poor use of money to me.


Maybe a high-end custom install?



TonyD79 said:


> If you would have been without tv for 36 hours for the snowstorm, your dish was poorly placed as it would get buried in a drift. I never lost signal in a snow storm in my 20 years with directv.


Yup. The guy who used to sit next to me at work used to have DirecTV, and he watching the news off his dish during one of the big hurricanes, looking out at a river/ Long Island Sound with 100mph winds coming in and hitting the house his apartment was in.



mr.unnatural said:


> My dish was attached to my chimney with clear line of sight and no obstructions and was optimized for best reception and signal strength.


Maybe you'll get regular blip-outs for a few minutes during heavy rain in Florida or Texas, but in places like New England, they are rock solid. More reliable than most cable providers, and if you have tanks of propane and a standby generator, you can be completely without utilities, and still watch TV during a hurricane or blizzard. Add in a phone with LTE, and you've got intarwebz.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

Chuck_IV said:


> I was going to mention to make sure he gives you a HR44(or 54) and not a HR34. The HR34's are a dog these days. Sounds like you got an HR44.


The HR34s were dogs from day 1.

People assumed they would eventually be fixed, like it took the HR20's about 2 years of firmware to get fixed - but that has never happened with the HR34 (and the HR44 has its own issues as well).


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

Bigg said:


> Yup. The guy who used to sit next to me at work used to have DirecTV, and he watching the news off his dish during one of the big hurricanes, looking out at a river/ Long Island Sound with 100mph winds coming in and hitting the house his apartment was in.


Interesting as the actually dish is blown off the J Mount between 70 and 80 MPH.

Just ask anyone who was in South Florida during Hurricane Wilma, the last Hurricane to hit Florida.

Took 6+ weeks to get enough Dishes into South Florida for replacements.



Bigg said:


> Add in a phone with LTE, and you've got intarwebz.


Of course, as those in Florida found out, the generators at the Cell Sites only have enough diesel on hand for 12 hours at most after they lose power.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

mr.unnatural said:


> If you've never lost a signal then you've never had a storm as severe as the ones we've had.


Nope. Except when I had a tree droop because of rain (that tree eventually caused me to turn off DirecTV), I have never had more than a few minutes drop out because of a rain storm heading my way. Once it got here, signal came back. Never, never, never had snow knock out my dish and I went through Snowmaggedon and the Snowpocalypse in the same week.

I can put up with a few minutes down time versus the days I have had with Fios since I got it when storms mess up ONTs or modems. However, that tree has grown and I cannot trim it (I don't own it), so I am off DirecTV. I would go back in a heartbeat if they ever take the tree down.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

mr.unnatural said:


> My dish was attached to my chimney with clear line of sight and no obstructions and was optimized for best reception and signal strength. It was never buried in a snow drift due to its location. I even had an oversized dish with a Grundig LNB with higher gain than the stock LNB. This is going back about over a 10-year span ending about 8 or 9 years ago before the new dishes were being used to receive the newer HD satellites.
> 
> If you've never lost a signal then you've never had a storm as severe as the ones we've had. I've lost the signal on numerous occasions and the blizzard conditions we had over the weekend were far worse than ones we've had in the past. I play pool in a league several nights a week and the bar where I play has DirecTV. They lose the satellite signal quite often during heavy rains. The thing is, you don't have to be right in the storm for it to affect your signal. It can be anywhere between your location and the horizon in the direction of the satellites. Signal loss with DirecTV and Dish is a fact of life, whether its affected you personally or not. If it hasn't then consider yourself among an elite minority.
> 
> My local Costco has DirecTV reps that greet you as you walk past their display. They're always trying to sell me on DirecTV until I mention rain fade. They have nothing more to say about it other than wishing me a nice day. They have never denied that it exists, nor can they do so without lying.


So you never had DirecTV during the Ka HD transmissions. Signal issues alot worse now.

However, quite frankly, I am shocked you had that much trouble on the Ku Band back then.

I do not recall anything close to what you are describing - compared to the Ka losses today.

Hopefully that will be solved very soon - and given an article I I saw about Jet Blue's tech upgrades yesterday, I am sure it most certainly will.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

TonyD79 said:


> I can put up with a few minutes down time versus the days I have had with Fios since I got it when storms mess up ONTs or modems. However, that tree has grown and I cannot trim it (I don't own it), so I am off DirecTV. I would go back in a heartbeat if they ever take the tree down.


Storms should have zero affect on either your ONT or modem. The signal is transmitted via fiber optic right up to your ONT and should be completely unaffected by the weather. The only time I've ever lost signal with FIOS is during a very brief power outage. LOL, good luck getting any trees cut down in Columbia. The Columbia Association would have your nuts in a vice and haul you off to the nearest courtroom for defiling their sacred community. If it weren't for changes in the law, they'd never have allowed you to put up a dish in the first place.



SomeRandomIdiot said:


> So you never had DirecTV during the Ka HD transmissions. Signal issues alot worse now.


I suspected as much considering how much more difficult it is to get a dish aligned with the new satellites. I actually have a newer dish out in my shed and I had purchased a satellite meter to align it, but then FIOS came along and I jumped on it right away and dropped DirecTV. There are just too many limiting factors with DirecTV that I no longer have to deal with, like the ability to record programs using my own DVR or HTPC instead of their equipment. I'd have to pay a premium price for internet if I had DirecTV because cable providers give you a discount for bundling their services. It's the one thing DirecTV can't offer. I don't miss DirecTV one bit.



> However, quite frankly, I am shocked you had that much trouble on the Ku Band back then.


It didn't happen all that often and the conditions had to be quite extreme. If it was a widespread storm between the dish and the horizon to the southwest then the signal strength would be severely compromised. It was just damn annoying when it did happen.



> I do not recall anything close to what you are describing - compared to the Ka losses today.


I see signal losses occurring much more frequently when I'm playing pool at a local sports bar and there's any heavy weather in the area. They lose the satellite signal all the time. Every time it happens I remind myself just how lucky I am to be on FIOS.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

mr.unnatural said:


> Storms should have zero affect on either your ONT or modem. The signal is transmitted via fiber optic right up to your ONT and should be completely unaffected by the weather. The only time I've ever lost signal with FIOS is during a very brief power outage. LOL, good luck getting any trees cut down in Columbia. The Columbia Association would have your nuts in a vice and haul you off to the nearest courtroom for defiling their sacred community. If it weren't for changes in the law, they'd never have allowed you to put up a dish in the first place.


Have not had a single weather-related outage with FiOS in five years. Even during Hurricane Sandy and the many snowstorms we've had. We lost power, but once we had the generator running, FiOS was still up and running. It is the most reliable service I've ever had.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> So you never had DirecTV during the Ka HD transmissions. Signal issues alot worse now.
> 
> However, quite frankly, I am shocked you had that much trouble on the Ku Band back then.
> 
> ...


I had DirecTV in the south back before HD. We lost signal with every thunderstorm. When it rains down there, it pours. It doesn't come down in buckets, it comes down in Olympic-sized pools. The signal would go out 2 minutes before the heavy rain came. We had lots of rain outs, some would last 30 minutes.

I also had DirecTV in a lake effect snow city with HD. The thunderstorms weren't as bad, but we'd still lose signal the majority of the time. We'd also occasionally lose it while it was snowing very heavily (2"/hr).

Based on what others have said in other forums, my experience was typical.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

sangs said:


> Have not had a single weather-related outage with FiOS in five years. Even during Hurricane Sandy and the many snowstorms we've had. We lost power, but once we had the generator running, FiOS was still up and running. It is the most reliable service I've ever had.


This, except I've had FIOS for over 8 years with no outages that weren't power-related.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> Interesting as the actually dish is blown off the J Mount between 70 and 80 MPH.


Well actually, the specification requirement for DirecTV dishes is to have the two stabilizer bars installed, so that they are 100mph survivable, and 50mph operable, BUT as my co-worker found out, they work fine at higher wind speeds. Of course they will come flying off if they are attached to an inadequate structure.

Anything more than a quick blip-out on occasion is an improperly installed dish. Unfortunately, a lot of dishes are improperly installed.



> Of course, as those in Florida found out, the generators at the Cell Sites only have enough diesel on hand for 12 hours at most after they lose power.


Once the hurricane is over they should have fueling contracts to refill them. That's still sort of pathetic all considering. Ours are a mix of propane and diesel, either way, its pretty easy to store quite a bit of fuel on site to keep things running.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Bigg said:


> Anything more than a quick blip-out on occasion is an improperly installed dish. Unfortunately, a lot of dishes are improperly installed.


Setting up a dish for Ka reception is a very fine and exact process and the signal is highly prone to dropouts if there's severe weather in the form of heavy precipitation. The dishes are larger than the original models and could be subject to some dropouts in heavy wind conditions. But, as you say, they do require the installation of braces to keep them secure and properly aligned. I believe the dishes have to be fine tuned using adjustment screws on the mounts once you get them roughly aligned. You used to be able to align the older dishes by using the signal strength meter on the DirecTV receivers, but the Ka dish requires the use of a handheld signal strength meter for accurate alignment.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

mr.unnatural said:


> Setting up a dish for Ka reception is a very fine and exact process and the signal is highly prone to dropouts if there's severe weather in the form of heavy precipitation. The dishes are larger than the original models and could be subject to some dropouts in heavy wind conditions. But, as you say, they do require the installation of braces to keep them secure and properly aligned. I believe the dishes have to be fine tuned using adjustment screws on the mounts once you get them roughly aligned. You used to be able to align the older dishes by using the signal strength meter on the DirecTV receivers, but the Ka dish requires the use of a handheld signal strength meter for accurate alignment.


They're more stable than the old dishes, because yes, they have a larger surface area that is subject to wind loading, BUT the two braces add more strength than you gain in load.

Yeah, they have to be dithered, is the correct term I believe, and it's pretty hard to do it correctly.


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