direct tee vee

[Kali]

does it suck as bad as I think it does?

[elleng]

1. I don't think so.

Just got it about a month ago. Why do you think it sucks?

[Kali]

2. to be fair, I think virtually ALL tee vee sucks

but, I know someone that got this sort of as a gift for someone else and after checking it out the giver is now really pissed they got stuck into a 2 year contract or a $400 get out of it penalty. I had heard it sucked when I was exploring possible internet connections a couple years ago and if I had known the giver was thinking about doing this I would have advised not to.

apparently the movies are all more than 10 years old and about 1/3 of the channels are for shopping/infomercials??? AND they lost some of the local previously available for free on the antenna channels!

(and around here a large number of channels are in Spanish - which to me might not really be a bad thing but for the giftee it isn't really a plus)

[elleng]

9. I've been satisfied,

have to have something as no other type of service available at my cottage, and Loungers largely said it's good,and better than Dish.

Haven't noticed 'shopping' channels, but do look rather selectively. Have seen some good movies I've wanted to see, including Life of Pi and Zero Dark Thirty, so obviously not all old, but am pleased to have caught a couple of 'older' movies I'd missed.

Good they have all 3 local PBS channels, important to me. And sports channels, good for daughter and her guy, who spent Sunday with me watching!

Givers and buyers should, of course, check the terms of their contracts! I got a 2 year, plan to use it at least that long!

[cyberswede]

11. I set up a custom channel list and omitted all the shopping channels

...and FoxNews, and all the religious channels.
It makes perusing the channel guide much more pleasant.

Truth be told, I watch very little TV (I prefer Netflix), but we had to get DirecTV for my hubby's soccer channels ( ). I end up watching PBS, BBC America, TCM, and any Big Bang Theory episodes I run across.

[csziggy]

3. DirecTV and DISH are about the same IMO

I had each for years. Channels available, quality of picture, customer service were all about the same.

I'm now on PrismTV, CenturyLink's internet TV service. The only major difference I find is that the DVR with it seems easier to operate - but I had a early generation DVR with one of the satellite services so it may just be that this is newer.

[Kali]

4. isn't that strange?

they got this THROUGH centurylink - at the same time they got internet through the phone line but not dial up. land line, internet, and direct teevee satellite bundled by centurylink. weirdest set up you ever saw - and in the big city - seems like something I would have to put up with out here if I wanted teevee, and yet no internet through my phone line other than suck ass slow SLOW dial-up.

[csziggy]

8. PrismTV is still only in limited markets

Even here, some neighborhoods without good internet service can't get it. Centurylink does have a deal with DirecTV. They're mad they can't sell me one of their full service bundles - even their techs can't get cell phones to work here at the house. But I have broadband (10mbps) a well as the TV. Total thru put is 25mbps so if the TVs are off, the internet is faster.

But we're close to one of their fiberoptic interchanges - people farther away can't get as good broadband as we have. It's less than ten years since one of their chief engineers told me we'd never get broadband. Times have changed!

Back in the mid 8-s when we first got a modem (300 baud) the telephone line down the dirt road came up out of a mud hole, had a splice wrapped in black plastic and duct tape fastened onto a big stick to keep it up out of the mud. Sometimes someone would take the curve there too wide, wipe out the stick and the splice and we'd have no phone or internet.

[femmocrat]

5. We are satisfied with DirecTV. It sucks less than Comcast did!

What kind of problems are you having with it?

[Kali]

6. the programming seems to be lacking

see my reply to elleng, above

[femmocrat]

7. Oh yes... way too many shopping channels!

I always say, we get 500 channels and there is nothing to watch!

We got it when Comcast cut MSNBC. I hate Comcast.

[elleng]

10. Comcast in the DC area has MSNBC, watching it now!

(at friend's house.)

[Jamaal510]

12. DirecTV doesn't have lips,

therefore it can't suck. J/K

[LeftofObama]

13. See if you can find the Investigation Discovery channel.

It has those real life murder shows like Dateline and 48 Hours Hard Evidence. The good thing is you can pause it for a while and then fast forward through the commercials later.

The first time I ever saw the Investigation Discovery channel I was addicted.

[fizzgig]

15. i love that channel

wish i had it.

[Rambis]

14. I went back tail between legs to DTV

Now I can watch all EPL matches and have them record, not skip to the end, or stop recording all together.

[sammytko]

16. It isn't that DTV sucks, TV programming sucks in general

We have every single channel they offer and there still isn't anything worth watching.

The other person that lives here (lol) has it on almost 24/7, so he must like something.

You can set up your favorites and block all that other stuff. I do occasionally watch Bill Maher and Law and Order if I;m bored.

[NightWatcher]

17. It beats dealing with Comcast