Some DirecTV news The Retention rep told me

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Well, NO FIOS here, and when added up, I would be paying about $45.00 more a Month for a comparable Cable offering, then what I have now. Also, that is using the Cable Companies DVR's. If I went with Tivo, then add the cost of a Series 3 or TivoHD.

So I would be paying $45 + a Month more. That makes great sense.

Also, there is a ONE Year Commitment with the Cable Company.

So I would rather have the extra Year Commitment and save $45 + a Month. As for Directv being old school technology. They are the leader in HD. Read it in any Newspaper or Magazine. And with the New Birds and added HD Channels, it does look like Cable is more "old school".

 

Problem with the new technology on the horizon Abmagab is that it isn't available to most of America.

About the battered wife thing, don't you think it's late in the process now to be calling these channels vaporware? Seriously, it's next week, even *you* must believe it's really happening at this point.

 

I have to laugh every time I read someone say they can't stay with DTV because of the 2 year commitment, then they buy a Tivo and sign up for a 3 year commitment to get the lower price. So now they are locked into cable for 3 years.

 

Ah, but I was happy to lock in to DTV when they were offering TiVo, since I wanted that. But locking in and NOT getting my TiVo? Not so interested. I would happily sign a 3 year with TiVo.

 

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I understand supporting TiVo but at what price?
How much HD programming are you willing to not have available to you that will be available via DirecTV?

Seriously, I give you props for supporting TiVo but have to ask at what point does supporting TiVo result in unhappiness because you are missing content that wound up being more interesting than you may have originally expected.

And at what cost in terms of real $$ spent on monthly subscription fees. See threads in happy hour questioning why customer ABC (not real name) had to cancel cable and go back to DirecTV to keep the discount pricing (triple play type pricing) with cable once the first year with cable was done. If you sign up with cable, take their one year $99 offer for triple play, and then at 1 year + 1 day they almost double the cost of the channels you want, or raise them even more than that, what do you do while you still have another 2 year commitment to TiVo? Pay a lot more money to keep the channels you want, or lose many of those channels, keep a minimal contract and watch very little content on the TiVo boxes that no longer really have much to record??

I've said before, I wish that things between TiVo and DirecTV were different, but I still go with what offerings give me the most programming *that I want to see* at the best price while still offering me a DVR that will reliably record what I want.

Personally, I probably could have done FiOS for my hi-def content before going with the HR20 upgrade from DirecTV and extending my commitment with them, but then I would have had to pay a huge (for me) pot of money for the Series 3 units that were still pretty new, and may have had problems getting the cable cards set up while the installers and techs were learning their ways around that technology. I understand from some others here at TCF that the boxes work very well with FiOS -- if it's available in your area.

With S3 boxes though you also have to be sure that your cable comapny won't be doing the switched digital video route lest you expensive TiVo box become more of a boat anchor than you'd like.

Again though, I wish you the best and hope you get the TV content you want on a platform you want at a price you are happy with over the long haul.

 

The only reason I switched to DIRECTV is because they had TiVos. I know exactly what I channels I can get with each of themthem, and how much each costs, since my brother lives two blocks away and has Comcast. I would not have considered switching to Comcast until the S3, because their PVR reeked. I am not happy with what DIRECTV's line of PVRs offers. Having the TiVo interface is very important to me, and to the wife (and the WAF is clearly important here!).

By dropping the TiVo support, DIRECTV did themselves a disservice, and I will be happy to show them that.

Besides, once the Comcast TiVo gets deployed, that may be a great and lower cost alternative to the S3/TivoHD.

 

I'm going to let things shake down before I even consider a change. I have a HUGE investment in DirecTV (nine receivers, eight of which are "in production" 24/7) and we must have NHL Center Ice (not even sure if Time Warner offers it; it's "no deal" if they don't). To replicate what I have in terms of hardware with cable would cost an astronomical sum, and I couldn't get any resale out of my current equipment.

Plus, the HD content that I want is not mainstream; my top "wants" that aren't already available are:

Hockey
Formula 1
Various automotive-related shows on Spike, DIY and Speed

I know that SpeedHD has been announced, but as with all of these new channels, there has to be HD content behind them. Upconverted SD is NOT what I'm looking for.

So, bottom line, the channels are great, but "show me the content".

Brad

 

I did look at Comcast, and to get roughly the same programming I have now (HBO/Showtime/Extended Cable) would be almost $20/month more. I will check them out again today because I'm just about to call DirecTV and get my HR20

 

Hey thanks for the heads up about the 10% AAA thing Doug, I'm a AAA member and didn't even know they had things like that. Don't see an expiration date on it either, gonna hold onto it for when they (hopefully) put the Seagate external 750 GB HD on sale again.

 

I had the 19th confirmed by another CSR last night. He also said that they will be "similcast", which means they will occupy the same existing channel numbers, but will go to HD if you have the capability and SD if you don't.

I guess we'll find out for sure Wednesday!

 

Question on the line up there:

It shows most channels are to be HD for HR20 or H20 only but on the same channel #. So if you use HR10-250, your channel is SD but if using HR20, it is HD ?

 

Correct.

 

With the HR20 or H20 you will see 2 channels with the same number. The HD and SD version. That is how it works now with HD and SD locals.

 

Mine doesn't have an expiration date on it.

 

DTV is being slippery. They're now calling it a HD Access Fee which will allow DTV to charge extra for HD programming.

Actually I'd say they're being deceptive. The question if customers will be paying more for extra channels.

 

But they have always charged 9.99 for HD channels. How is this different?

 

It's slippery because of the wording of the question.

The question was about costs for an existing HD subscriber. The price is indeed going up, but all existing subscribers will be grandfathered into the old pricing, at least until some other change is made, I suppose.

The HD Access fee of $9.99 will no longer include any channels, and now there'll be an "HD Extra Pack" for $4.99 that includes such things as HDNet, HDNet Movies, Universal HD, MHD, previously part of the HD Access fee, as well as the new MGM HD and Smithsonian HD channels.

So yeah, there's some slight price increases going on, just not, now, for customers who had already subscribed to the prior incarnations of the HD package.