Need Advice on switching to satellite

1224 Views 11 Replies 9 Participants Last post by sgtstadanko, Oct 15, 2007

sgtstadanko

Discussion Starter · Oct 12, 2007

Hey All,

I am fed up with the price/quality of my cable provider and am considering switching to direcTV. I have 2 series 2 standalone boxes. i have read that directv and tivo sa boxes will work together...i just want to see if there are any gotchas or things I havent considered. right now i do not have an HD television but may get one and a tivohd in the future. will this work as well. i just dont want to get stuck using the crap stock dvr from directv and cannot live w/o my tivos! right now we use the to play music, tivo2go and moving programs from one room to the other. i assume this will all still work as before.

thanks for any advice,
bill

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Tico

· #2 · Oct 12, 2007

sgtstadanko said:
Hey All,

I am fed up with the price/quality of my cable provider and am considering switching to direcTV. I have 2 series 2 standalone boxes. i have read that directv and tivo sa boxes will work together...i just want to see if there are any gotchas or things I havent considered. right now i do not have an HD television but may get one and a tivohd in the future. will this work as well. i just dont want to get stuck using the crap stock dvr from directv and cannot live w/o my tivos! right now we use the to play music, tivo2go and moving programs from one room to the other. i assume this will all still work as before.

thanks for any advice,
bill

First the TivoHD will not work with any Satellite company. It will only work with cable and OTA HD...

DTV and Tivo boxes that are series2 will work fine, you will use an infared dongle for the tivo to change the channels on the Directv boxes, this slows down channel changing some but that is it....

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hiker

· #3 · Oct 12, 2007

See the FAQ here to make sure you get a compatibile DirecTV receiver.

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mick66

· #4 · Oct 12, 2007

If you have a dual tuner S2, you will only be able to use one tuner with the satellite receiver.

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netwrksman

· #5 · Oct 12, 2007

Just make sure you really want Directv since it is a two year contract and they hit you for $300.00 if you cancel early.

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samo

· #6 · Oct 12, 2007

netwrksman said:
Just make sure you really want Directv since it is a two year contract and they hit you for $300.00 if you cancel early.

Wrong. If you get standard receivers, the contract is for one year and early termination cost is $150. Receivers are provided for free, but there is a mirror charge of $5/month for each additional receiver.
Having said that, I would strongly recommend to OP to get at least one DirecTV DVR or, perhaps, get used DirecTivo on ebay. Dual tuners and picture quality of integrated units are well worth getting into 2 year contract. Actually, picture quality on integrated units will be much better than SA TiVo and DVR service fees are only $5.99 a month per account (for as many DVRs as you want). Unless OP has lifetime on his TiVos, integrated DVR receiver is the way to go.

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netwrksman

· #7 · Oct 12, 2007

Correct, with standard receivers is is $150, any of the dvrs you have to pay up front for them and then it is a $300 early term fee, reduced by $12 for each month you have it. Also be aware that rain, snow, clouds, etc. will most likely interfere with the sat signal. Also in the spring or fall their is an issue with the sun causing problems with the directv satellite. I had directv for 6 months with their dvr and cancelled because I could not take the horrible dvr that missed recordings, the dropping out of the picture, and the horrible service.

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monroe

· #8 · Oct 12, 2007

I agree with SAMO, and also would recommend that you simply get on ebay and buy a couple of used DirecTIVO's. They're Standard Definition, but you only pay a SINGLE $5 a month TIVO fee, no matter how many DirecTIVO's you have. Like SAMO mentioned you do pay $5 PER additional receiver you have, but only a single $5 change gives TIVO guide service to all the extra receivers that have TIVO. (A little bit nicer then what TIVO does which is charge you additionally for every TIVO you have.)

So you could grab 3 DirecTIVO's off of ebay for probably around $80 a piece (I got both of mine for about $50 each off of ebay).

Example of monthly charges.

$44.99 DirecTV CHOICE pkg
$5 TIVO service (for ALL 3 of your DirecTIVO's)
$10 ($5 per receiver programming mirror charge)

Total Monthly: approx $59.99

We have a DirecTIVO in our upstairs bedroom, and a Series 2 Sony SVR-3000 w/Lifetime downstairs with Comcast. Because we have high speed internet through Comcast, they give a $10 'package' discount if you add cable TV. We added 'analog basic' for $12, so basically we get basic cable TV to wire to all the other rooms in our house for $2.

In practice at my location, the DirecTIVO's picture quality is ALWAYS much nicer then analog cable, and even still noticably nicer then the Digital Cable when we gave that a shot. The previous post about rain fade is true, however here in Salt Lake City, I've never had rain fade problem even in the HEAVIEST of rain storms. SNOW STORMS are another matter however, but still in 5 years I've had maybe 3 days total where I had lost signal due to heavy snow.

One last word of advice if you buy a DirecTIVO off of ebay. When you win the auction but BEFORE you send your payment, have the seller give you the units ID, and you call DirecTV to make sure there are NO back service fee's owed on unit, or else you'll have to pay the back fees to get the unit re-activated onto DirecTV.

Chris

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hiker

· #9 · Oct 12, 2007

A DirecTiVo will not allow the OP as stated
"right now we use the to play music, tivo2go and moving programs from one room to the other"
as those features are not available without some hacking.

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ForrestB

· #10 · Oct 13, 2007

>>Also be aware that rain, snow, clouds, etc. will most likely interfere with the sat signal.

If your dish has a clear view of the satellite and aimed correctly, most of these weather conditions shouldn't affect the picture. I've gotten a perfect picture during heavy thunderstorms and a completely overcast sky.

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fredct

· #11 · Oct 13, 2007

ForrestB said:
>>Also be aware that rain, snow, clouds, etc. will most likely interfere with the sat signal.

If your dish has a clear view of the satellite and aimed correctly, most of these weather conditions shouldn't affect the picture. I've gotten a perfect picture during heavy thunderstorms and a completely overcast sky.

While weather can interfere, I agree with Forrest that that statement is way overdone. I had satellite for 3 years (DTV, but my current apartment does not have a clear view of the southern sky). Extremely heavy rain (red patches on radar) would usually knock it out for 1-10 minutes, but never ever did even regularly heavy rain, any type of snow, and most certainly not clouds, ever cause any problems at all.

Sure, weather doesn't effect cable (usually), but *every single time* I call Comcast they always have a message saying "customers in the ____ area may be experiencing difficulties right now. We are aware of the issues and technicians have been dispatched to resolve the issues as soon as possible."

None have yet effected me, but lets not pretend the other choice is cable that's perfctly reliable. Satellite goes out due to weather (in my experence) for 5 minutes maybe 5 or 6 times a year (maybe 2 or 3 of which while you're actually watching, the others you're sleeping or at work). While cable goes out for half an hour or so once a year (in my experience).

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sgtstadanko

Discussion Starter · #12 · Oct 15, 2007

monroe said:
I agree with SAMO, and also would recommend that you simply get on ebay and buy a couple of used DirecTIVO's. They're Standard Definition, but you only pay a SINGLE $5 a month TIVO fee, no matter how many DirecTIVO's you have. Like SAMO mentioned you do pay $5 PER additional receiver you have, but only a single $5 change gives TIVO guide service to all the extra receivers that have TIVO. (A little bit nicer then what TIVO does which is charge you additionally for every TIVO you have.)

So you could grab 3 DirecTIVO's off of ebay for probably around $80 a piece (I got both of mine for about $50 each off of ebay).

Example of monthly charges.

$44.99 DirecTV CHOICE pkg
$5 TIVO service (for ALL 3 of your DirecTIVO's)
$10 ($5 per receiver programming mirror charge)

Total Monthly: approx $59.99

We have a DirecTIVO in our upstairs bedroom, and a Series 2 Sony SVR-3000 w/Lifetime downstairs with Comcast. Because we have high speed internet through Comcast, they give a $10 'package' discount if you add cable TV. We added 'analog basic' for $12, so basically we get basic cable TV to wire to all the other rooms in our house for $2.

In practice at my location, the DirecTIVO's picture quality is ALWAYS much nicer then analog cable, and even still noticably nicer then the Digital Cable when we gave that a shot. The previous post about rain fade is true, however here in Salt Lake City, I've never had rain fade problem even in the HEAVIEST of rain storms. SNOW STORMS are another matter however, but still in 5 years I've had maybe 3 days total where I had lost signal due to heavy snow.

One last word of advice if you buy a DirecTIVO off of ebay. When you win the auction but BEFORE you send your payment, have the seller give you the units ID, and you call DirecTV to make sure there are NO back service fee's owed on unit, or else you'll have to pay the back fees to get the unit re-activated onto DirecTV.

Chris

Thanks for all the info guys. If thats true then I would be saving money on my tivo subscriptions since I have 2 SA Series 2 boxes on monthly sub. I dont think I would miss the tivo2go to much as I have a mythtv box that can do all that drm free but the wife uses the room 2 room transfer all the time. Can anyone confirm that this is not available?

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