Groucho

Or use the harddrives to upgrade the DirectTivo.

MEJHarrison

It seems no stretch of the imagination that like everyone else, I'd have to say you can't beat a DirecTivo. After all, I hang out on TV Talk. That's like asking an alcoholic if beer is good.

If it's an impressive endorsement you're after, you'd have to ask my wife. The woman who feels I watch way too much TV (and I'm a lightweight in these waters) would probably divorce me if I ever switched us back to Comcast. And she'd do worse than that if she had to give up her DirecTivo. She watches maybe 3-4 shows on a regular basis and after almost 10 months, she still occasionally tells me how much she loves the Tivo and couldn't do without it.

Tivos are especially good for married people. No more shushing my wife so I don't miss the last 30 seconds of my favorite program.

Nefarious

Yep. It makes watching TV at a friend's/relatives unbearable if they don't have the same service. You'll be grabbing the remote to do a 5 second skip back and you can't...

fujishig

My apartment complex just made me take down my directv, so I'm back to cable. To me, there is no comparison. But I don't have an HDTV, and I do have TIVO.

Although the majority of people on this board will probably vote for DirecTV, you have to realize that most people here watch a LOT of TV. If you watch a lot of channels, the equivalent DirecTV package will most likely be cheaper than the cable package. At least in my area, after the promotional period, digital cable becomes prohibitively expensive, which is probably why every house in my neighborhood has a dish sticking out of it.

The drawbacks of DirecTV:
you'll have a contract for a year that will cost you to break (like I had to)

there might not be local channels available in your area (check the site) This might be the biggest reason why some choose cable over DirecTV

you have to pay extra for every TV you want to watch on. This is true for digital cable as well, but not analog cable

There's an ugly dish on your ceiling (not a bigee to me, but that's the main argument cable companies are using, it seems...)

There's a setup cost (this is usually covered via rebate for new subscribers) and you own your equipment, meaning that you have to buy new stuff when it's outdated


Bottom line, though, if you enjoy TIVO, DirecTIVO is the way to go (I hate using the IR Blaster on my digital cable box). And if you don't have TIVO, what's wrong with you?

BlackCapTen

i'm about to move as well and am thinking about going back to directv. i had switched to cable last year because of an incredible deal but its time to bail.

i'd like to get my local HD channels if i sign up for the hdtv receiver package. i went to the directv website and they offer a local antenna option. do you know if the installer will setup the local antenna as well? does it run thru the directv hdtv receiver?

the house we're moving to has a directv dish on the roof. does both directivo and HDTV service use the newer dish?

thanks if anyone has any info!

Pharoh

I've had a few DirecTivos for a few year now and DirecTV for a couple prior to that. I reccomend the product to everyone I know who might be interested. However, where I live it is near impossible to receive all of the local HD signals ota on a consistent basis, despite the best intentions and equipment. I believe this is true for more than a few individuals, particularly those unable to mount an actual rooftop antenna. Cable, (shudder), may be part of my future.

Groucho

Let that Cable, go, Pharoh!

You make some good points. DirectTV is slowly coming around on HDTV. I have no doubt that, eventually, they will have a full selection of HDTV locals in the future.

Chew

Don't know about the antenna portion of your question, but you'll need a triple LNB oval dish for HD programming.

Josh H

DirectTV, no contest.

I get all the channels I watched on cable and was paying $63 for $29.99 plus tax/fees for 6 months, and then $39.99 plus tax/fees after that. Plus I get Fuse, a music channel that actually plays music videos, which wasn't on my cable.

The picture and sound are better because it's all digital, not just a handful of mostly crap digital channels with the rest analog.

Plus, if you have a phoneline, you can get DirectTivo for $4.95 a month more, which is much better than the cable DVRs or digital cable with TV due to being able to tape two things at once. Unfortunately I only have a cell phone so I had to pass on that.

Groucho

You don't really need a land phone line for DirecTivo. You just need to have access to one for the initial setup. A lot of people take their box to a friend or neighbor's house, set it up, take it back home, and never worry about calling in again.

ChrisHicks

for me it's a tossup. with DTV I have my dual tuner TIVO which Comcast has yet to provide. my cable service when it comes to channels buries DTV however. I have almost 2 times as many pay channels than I do on DTV. I just don't think DTV will ever add this many to their lineup. I have 1 DTIVO box with the Premier package w/ locals and Playboy channel for a total cost of 107.00 while for Comcast I have 1 HD box and 2 Digital boxes with Platinum packages on each plus HS internet for 145.00. if I could combine everything in to 1 complete package it would be great.

Michael T Hudson

I have had Direct Tv since 98 Tivo since last year and would only go back to cable if I had no choice. Digital cable looks good but the analog stuff at least in Austin looks like crap.

djbrown

The apartment complex doesn't have any federal, legal ground to stand on in this matter either. It's well documented that they can't make you take it down. They can make you move it etc, so maybe that was enough for you to prevent you from sticking with DirecTv. But they can't prevent you from installing one.

You could have suspended your DTV account too, explaining to them that complex made you take down your dish, etc.. and reactivated once the situation was resolved. would save you the cancellation fee.

Groucho

I just don't get the apartment complexes and HOA's demanding that people take their dishes down. They're small, and a hell of a lot more attractive than those huge ugly antennas that are still on top of most dwellings older than 20 years old.

Michael T Hudson

I had one in my condo in 98 and did some research when the HOA was being a pain about it. If I recall the FCC has said if the HOA does not allow it is forcing you to have cable which is illlegal. I would think if the dish was mounted to the apt that could be a problem but I have seen people use poles to get around that. I would fight it if I were you.

MJKTool

It's also more attractive (imo) than these nasty forests some of these people have growing on their balcony's.

Jadzia

Apartments should ban: WIND CHIMES.

I used to live above a lady that had those annoying ass things and it is so windy in Michigan, the constant din drove me crazy. I think they should just use wind chimes to interrogate prisoners, it is pure torture.

das Monkey

I lived in a place that wanted me to take down my antenna because it was an eyesore. I told them if I took it down I'd replace it by covering my balcony with rebel flags and inflammatory propaganda, then assert freedom of expression if they asked me to take it down. We didn't get along too well after that, but my antenna stayed up. I wouldn't have been such a dick, but I couldn't stand the hypocrisy that said my antenna was ugly but those damn windchimes and unkept lawn furniture and dead plants and all the other useless shit people keep on their balconies was somehow acceptable.

das

fujishig

Well, they were in their rights to have me remove the dish... I did install it on the roof, and I live on the first floor of a two story condo. Unfortunately, my balcony faces the wrong direction, and trees block the other side.

I basically installed it because my next door neighbor had one, and there was one in the same complex a little ways away. I got the notice, and immediately went outside, and lo and behold, my neighbor's dish was gone. He had it up for about a year, too. The other dish is still up, but I don't want to ruin someone else's DirecTV viewing just because I can't...

I kept the DirecTIVO and the satellite dish, and DirecTV was very helpful and told me that they'd do an install when I move. As soon as housing prices go down in Southern California (crossing my fingers) I'm done with this rental and back to DirecTV...

Oh, and the complex has tons of ugly antennas all over the roof... the worst part is, that they don't work at all! If I don't get cable, I can't even get a signal because of the hills....

Josh H

Really, you don't need it for the Tivo guide thingy like you do with the standalone Tivo's?

That make's sense. I wondered why it couldn't just use the directTV guide info.

Another question, with the initial set up do you just need to hook it up to a Tv and phoneline, and not directTV? I ask as none of my friends have directTV (apartment issues/directional issues).

MJKTool

Did you ever do anything about it? Complain? Rub out that wind chime thing yourself?

POWERBOMB

I would guess that Cable is only worth it if you get broadband with it. Otherwise, DirecTv is the shizzle.

Jadzia

Thankfully she moved.

tasha99

I had a stand alone Tivo when I had Directv, and had to use an IR Blaster. It messed up about 15-20 percent of the time. Since I switched to cable, I still have to use the IR, but it's only messed up once in over a month . . . Not sure why there's that huge difference, but my stand alone Tivo seems to work much better with digital cable than satellite.

tasha

Jadzia

It depends on your particular cable/satellite box and what the delay times are for the remote. I used to have digital cable and a stand-alone ReplayTV and when I first got it it messed up all the time. I did some research on the net and I found out how to tweak the Replay TV IR settings to match my digital cable box. Once I did that, it got channel changes right 99% of the time. The only times it would mess up is if the cable was acting "slow" for some reason. Still one of the big reasons I wanted DirecTivo was having the integrated box and never having to worry about missed channel changes.