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Comcast is expensive but has On Demand. A Dish "partner" sold me a package which, it developed, was a pack of lies (I check with Dish itself); this does not make me comfortable. Direct has fewer HD channels.Also none of the folks I spoke to could guarantee 1080p.
Follow Ups:
Tryto seeifyou casn get Verizon Fios. Don't know whether its available at your house, nut it would also include the ability to get digital phone and FIOS internet( know you don't need the Internet you cheap B@#$%^&*> )
DIRECTV is pathetic!They have gone so downhill in the last couple of years. They have gradually raised their rates. They have deleted truly interesting channels like "Trio" and "PBS-U" in favor of phony televangelists and ever-more shopping channels.
GET THIS: DIRECTV is so lame that they now offer (as a premium!!) a station that plays fall-asleep music for your infant!
Murdoch bought Direct TV, probably hence the excessive televangelist and home shopping programming.
...and Direct is upgrading their system to MPEG-4 within weeks. The new HD-DVRs will be made by Samsung, a really good company (I think). Dish has dished me with dishonest sales practices and several outright lies.I'm right back where I started!
Yes, the direct TV box is a problem, however, the Monster HDMI cable is one of the worst HDMI cables in the market.
I had the ISF calibrate my Samung 56" DLP, We feed the HD generator test patterns thru the antenna input of the DIrecTV box, which feeds the TV via the HDMI inputs with a Monster 600 series HDMI cable.When the ISF tech (who happens to be a good friend was done) we checked all of the test patterns and colors with his analyzer..he had to tweak a couple of the color points, but it came out looking great
Correction: Make that Dish Network, not Echo. Sorry.
Comcast's customer service has been well above par. I won't regale you with tales of woe regarding the complete and utter lack of customer service at DirecTV - just take my word for it. They are second only to Restoration Hardware in that department.I've been quite happy with Comcast. On Demand is a great feature. I never had a Tivo but the only issue I've had with the Comcast DVR is the occasional freeze which is easily fixed by hitting the rewind button (no idea why this works).
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A month or so ago (for the World Cup) I upgraded to Comcast HD including the much maligned Comcast DVR. Previously I was a Comcast (non HD) + Tivo customer. It has not been an entirely smooth ride (e.g. I get an occasional freeze on the DVR/HD box - perhaps twice a week, but it recovers better than expected and I haven't missed any program I wanted to record yet.)Tivo's interface and reliability is definitely better than the Comcast DVR, but I like having everything in one box, I love being able to record in HD, and I love the pricing and that I am just renting the box (i.e. if it breaks, just walk in the local store, exchange it).
The thing that I REALLY like is OnDemand - it's almost as good as having Tivo ... almost.
Comcast is not perfect, but it's MUCH better than I expected.
We just moved from Illinois, and from our Comcast service, to an area that doesn't have Comcast. Comcast always answered every phone call within seconds with a real human on the other end of the line. If there was a problem, they came out to repair it within--at the most--a few hours. The quality was excellent. What can I say: move out of a Comcast area and see how desperately much you miss their outstanding service.
s
I called to get Comcast HDTV after being a DirecTV subscriber. They offered me a great deal, told me I was eligiible for all kinds of services, and I scheduled a day off from work to get installation. They showed up, amazingly, and then the installer said there was no cable going to the pole outside my house. I live out in the county and there's no cable. But when I ordered, they said I had service to my house, no problem. Day wasted. Cancelled order. BTW, I had to wait 3 weeks to get them to my house to tell me this. They're just too busy screwing up other customers to let enjoy my new plasma TV.Then I called DirecTV and they said they have all the local channels with HDTV now with their new satellite. I said great, I want to upgrade. Then they said it will be next week. That's today. I scheduled another vacation day to stay home to meet their narrow 8:00-12:00 window for installation. I went out for a couple of minutes to take out the trash while waiting when apparently they called me and left a message I never knew about. At 9:30, two hours after I usually start my work day, they called to tell me that they weren't coming out because they didn't receive the equipment. They never tried calling again. And what they should have done is call the day before so I don't waste my time sitting here waiting for them. No way, not their problem. I lost the day waiting for them and called DirecTV to ask when they were going to install it. They said it was switched to Thursday. Another vacation day for me to sit on my ass waiting for their sorry asses. If they bother to show up.
I don't know HDTV will ever look in my house, if it ever gets here, but I do know that these two companies can kiss my ass. At their prices, they are pathetic. What next, the shitty Dish Network assholes?
DishNetwork wont be any better, I ordered my HD set-up and waited weeks before someone gave me a call for a date....I ended up calling them for a date for hookup. They scheduled me, so I took a day off work too, two days later they called me to re-schedule....they ended up re-scheduling me 7 YES SEVEN times before I just said FORGET IT.Apparently everyone is on the squeeze to cut labor costs, its not equiptment, so they cut people and justify it by saying you waiting an extra week is worth it to the company to save the money on an extra head.
I called up Dishnetwork on a Wednesday night; they brought a new satellite out SUnday afternoon for the install. (granted they were a a couple of hours late).
I just upgraded to the Dishnetwork MPEG4 HD receiver so I could get ESPN2 HD and the local channels in HD (My OTA reception has been pretty mediocre). I now have HDNET, Discovery HD, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, ShoHD, HBOHD, TNDHD, occasion special HD broadcasting (Mavericks in HD), most of the old VOOM HD channels (inc. several movie channels, and European Premier league Futbol in HD). I may add STARZHD soon and hoping PBS HD becomes available fairly soon.After exposure to HDnet, Standard definition broadcasts have become almost unwatchable on a 110" screen.
Unfortunately, each provider is more interested in signing new customers than making the old ones happy. So I sign up for the service and then change at the end. I get the best deal from the other provider because I am a "new customer" and so on and so forth. I don't see any great difference. When I switched to Dish Network, I thought their receivers for HD and DVR were better but the TiVo was certainly hard to give up. Probably by the time I am ready to go back to Direct TV, the HD TiVo will be much better.
I called DTV a month ago, and was told yes, sort of. Had to ask 3 times (because they kept giving vague, non answers), but they finally admitted their DVRs no longer come with Tivo ("but their's is even better"). I then asked how I can get a Directv unit w/TiVo and was told I couldn't.So I called Tivo, and they told me the same thing.
I know I can go to some mod companies (like one in Los Angeles where I live) and get the combo box. But it won't be from DirecTv. WHich I why I was curious about your comment.
I checked the link below for Direct TV and it seems to mention TiVo and the "season pass" which makes TiVo somewhat unique.
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I had TiVo with Direct TV and my wife loved it. I wanted to upgrade to HD DVR. It would have cost well over $1,000 with Direct TV which wasn't offering anything for existing customers. With Dish Network it was about $250 with great discounts for the programming because I was a new customer. Additionally, the Dish Network DVRs were much better than Direct TVs. I remember sitting there waiting whilst the little TiVo tv symbol rocked back and forth on standard def for about a minute if you asked the TiVo to do anything. The Dish Network HD DVR is much faster although not perfect. And even though the Dish Network DVR approximates it, the season pass is the best thing going.I think Direct TV has caught up and the new generation will probably be good. However, as a new customer, you will get a great deal. Probably because they outsource the sales and encourage new customers. Helping old customers probably doesn't make anything to the sales folks.
The benefit is that every two years or so, you can make a great new deal. The downside is the day wasted waiting for installation.
z
Kind of courious myself.
Comcast probably offers the most HD channels, You can check with your local provider, and ask if you can just get an HD package, without buying the works.Several points of interest:
If you get comcast, they have to give you your local HD channels, apon request, either free or a minimal fee for the cable box(if your set has QAM tuner, no box needed).
If you don't have one, you can get an OTA antenna-in most metropolitan areas, you'll pick up a dozen or so digital/HD channels-the picture will be better than any of the options listed in the title.
There is no 1080p broadcasting.
Jack
and I agree they don’t have that much HD channels available to choose from. In addition sometimes their so-called HD channel is really a basic digital feed broadcast of course it’s a much better resolution than the standard TV has.I changed over to our local digital TV provider called Shaw TV last year. I couldn’t be more happier with 9 HD channels to choose from including the Movie Central, PBS, ESPN and the CBC just to name a few which is a true HD broadcast. For an $80.00/month including the high-speed internet as part of the bundle I couldn’t really passed it up.
I know that you know that I lived in Calgary ‘thought that I might as well pass this information to you just in case if you’re thinking about immigrating here to retire in the future.
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