What should I do? [Archive] - SoonerFans.com Message Boards

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 07:58 PM

I was a DirecTV customer for many, many years, and switched to DishNetwork when we moved back to Oklahoma two years ago.

I got this come back offer from DTV that is sounding pretty sweet.

I'm being offered a free HD receiver OR a free DVR receiver, FREE programming for a month, a FREE portable DVD player, and HBO and Showtime for $2/month for 6 months. I'd just have to pay $19 to cover shipping of the receiver.

So I called DISH and asked if they'd be able to offer a free HD receiver. They said they'd give me one for $49.

Supposedly some OKC stations are going to be available in HD within the next month or so, and I'd really like to get an HD receiver.

Would you switch back to DirecTV or pay the $49 for an upgrade and stick with DISH?

Is the HD channel lineup better on one service vs. the other?

Frozen Sooner

11/10/2006, 07:59 PM

Kill their men and let the lamentations of their women lull you to sleep.

That's more general advice, so it may not apply to this situation. But it's always a good answer to "What should I do?"

tbl

11/10/2006, 08:01 PM

I'm facing this situation myself, and I will end up switching back to DirecTV. In about a year or 2, you'll switch back to Dish when they cut their new deals, so do whats best for you now. I can't for the life of me understand why none of the cable/satellite providers provide deals to their existing customers. It's insane that they offer it to new customers but screw over the current customers.

tbl

11/10/2006, 08:01 PM

Dar! Dreaded double post...

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 08:02 PM

Kill their men and let the lamentations of their women lull you to sleep.

That's more general advice, so it may not apply to this situation. But it's always a good answer to "What should I do?"

So you're voting for the take no prisoners approach? :)

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 08:03 PM

Frozen Sooner

11/10/2006, 08:04 PM

No, you can take the women prisoner. How else can you listen to their lamentation?

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 08:07 PM

No, you can take the women prisoner. How else can you listen to their lamentation?

I guess I should've said take no "male" prisoners. :D Keepin' da wimmins should be a given. :texan:

Vaevictis

11/10/2006, 08:15 PM

Do you have to keep women that look like the listeater? If so, I'm not so sure it's a good idea.

soonerboomer93

11/10/2006, 08:19 PM

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 08:40 PM

So you got no deal when you initially signed up?

Or is it just that different options are available now, so you know, they owe you them?

Just curious

I know what you're getting at, but I think he just means that if you've been a customer for a while and get the offer I did, that it shouldn't be too tough to get something similar from your current service.

:confused:

BeetDigger

11/10/2006, 08:47 PM

I have FiOS, and they offer broad band, cable and phone and we save many $ over cable. And, the DVR has HD built in so I basically get HD for free. So, take that you non-FiOS person. :texan:

soonerboomer93

11/10/2006, 09:24 PM

But what if the 49.00 is the same charge that a new customer would pay for signing up?

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 09:26 PM

But what if the 49.00 is the same charge that a new customer would pay for signing up?

I paid that two years ago when I switched to DISH . . . it's not a done deal yet. I'm actually still on the fence about it.

And I got 3 boxes for that price . . . :D

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 09:26 PM

I have FiOS, and they offer broad band, cable and phone and we save many $ over cable. And, the DVR has HD built in so I basically get HD for free. So, take that you non-FiOS person. :texan:

What the heck is FiOS?

We're sorry Verizon doesn't offer FiOS TV service in your area.

BudSooner

11/10/2006, 10:32 PM

The skinny on the DTV stuff-
the New DVR, either in HD or standard def is non Tivo and i'm not sure if they have gotten the bugs ironed out of the standard def receiver-
there have been some hard drive issues with the recorder and ALOT of software problems also. and that has been the biggest complaint.

The HD DVR(H20-700 is the model)which has had complaints about the reception due to the very large(24*30)dish. the dish can only be aligned by an actual DTV tech since it requires special tools and signal meters to capture the absolute best signal from all 5(actually 4, the 5th satellite is not used in this area)now, as far as the regular HD receiver goes..well that is alright and has no problems other than a lack of number of channels, but it too uses the larger dish.

Dish-on the plus side=alot of HD channels since they aquired the now defunct ZOOM satellite service, but on the DVR front..here is where it gets tricky-

Back in June, they had a court order that required them in 90 days to shut down certain model DVR's, this did not pertain to the first 2yr models(they have a little bit different software than the newer models)but the newer models had a technology that was so close to Tivo that the Tivo gang decided to sue Echostar on the basis of copyright infringment based on Tivo's "time warping" technology-in short, Echostar won it's lawsuit and Echostar has..I would assume a stay until it can finalize some details(more like a software downgrade I guess)to keep it's current customers with the newer dvr's.

Here's a forum for satellite related questions, and some good advice on the
Directv vs Dish equipment/pricing.

http://www.dbstalk.com/index.php

My advice, stick with Dish IF you like what you have already, if you can get the HD upgrade..dude, jump on it.
If'n you want the dvr, just ask the people at Dish if they have a dvr that will not be impacted by the court order....if you can get hold of somebody that understands the situation.

Boarder

11/10/2006, 10:37 PM

I have heard that I am going to have to change out all of my Directv stuff soon because it won't work. Is this true?

SoonerBorn68

11/10/2006, 10:52 PM

I've got 4 DirecTV receivers on my account. 3 for the house & one for me out on the road. I went to pay the bill online today & thought I'd take a look at the upgrade offers. I've been wanting a DVR since I typically miss several shows I like to watch. With the package I have & already having a TiVo at the house all I would have to do is pay $99 for the DVR since I'm already paying 4.99 a month for the 4th receiver & the additional TiVo charge.

The guy I worked with on the last job had a DirecTV DVR. It isn't as good as the TiVo but it works well enough for what I want it to do.

soonerboomer93

11/10/2006, 10:53 PM

There's actually alot on the legal front regarding Dish and Tivo. Dish has also filed a lawsuit against Tivo for copyright infringement.

booomer

11/10/2006, 10:57 PM

Can't you get high def right now via an antenna? I don't live in the OKC area, but in my area the locals aren't broadcasting over dish in high def yet, but we can receive high def thru the air for those same channels.

tbl

11/10/2006, 11:10 PM

So you got no deal when you initially signed up?

Or is it just that different options are available now, so you know, they owe you them?

Just curious
We've been through this before. I got the original single tuner DVR when it first came out from Dish, and they've upgraded more than a couple of times since then so that the dual tuner is now the standard. I can only watch what I'm recording, and every DVR on the market now is dual tuner.

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 11:45 PM

Sooner_Bob

11/10/2006, 11:47 PM

My advice, stick with Dish IF you like what you have already, if you can get the HD upgrade..dude, jump on it.

The DISH HD upgrade for $49?

Frozen Sooner

11/10/2006, 11:58 PM

My tv doesn't have a built-in HD receiver . . .

I'm pretty sure that Dish has a DVR that includes an OTA HD Tuner.

BudSooner

11/11/2006, 08:04 AM

I'm pretty sure that Dish has a DVR that includes an OTA HD Tuner.

You would be correct sir-
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/dishhd/receivers/vip622dvr/index.shtml

The DISH HD upgrade for $49?
Yep.

Sooner_Bob

11/11/2006, 10:26 AM

You would be correct sir-
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/dishhd/receivers/vip622dvr/index.shtml

A lease upgrade for $199? Man . . . I wonder if they'd come off of that any? :confused:

mrowl

11/11/2006, 10:30 AM

I have heard that I am going to have to change out all of my Directv stuff soon because it won't work. Is this true?

not for another year at least.

Unless you want to receive your HD locals through the DTV. You have to switch now.

As soon as my contract is up with DTV, I am getting Fios with the new TIVO series 3.

DirecTV lost my business when they stopped offering Tivo.

Sooner_Bob

11/11/2006, 11:12 AM

At this point HD is probably a little more important to me than a DVR . . . but who knows.

The minute I make the switch something better will come along.

BeetDigger

11/11/2006, 11:24 AM

What the heck is FiOS?

Its fiber optic to the curb. They dug up our alley and ran it a few months back. They then lit the fiber recently and started marketing bundled services.

Not to get all technical and stuff, but fiber optics allows larger bandwidth and a lot more flexibility in what services can be offered. It also allows for descrete bandwidth, versus shared bandwidth in cable. I think that they currently offer around 75 HD channels. It's all digital, so you HAVE to have one of their boxes to get reception. Their boxes are 3.99 a month with the HD version 9.99 a month. DVR is 9.99 a month, but it includes the HD receiver. So, I get HD for free with the DVR.

jk the sooner fan

11/11/2006, 11:29 AM

i have FiOS and love it

mrowl

11/11/2006, 11:55 AM

Its fiber optic to the curb.

actually its fiber to the house, then cat 6? I didn't look very close at what twisted pair they ran...

BeetDigger

11/11/2006, 12:34 PM

actually its fiber to the house, then cat 6? I didn't look very close at what twisted pair they ran...

True, but in the investment world fiber to the curb meant a fiber optic connection for the home. Important since that will encourage companies to invent things that use more bandwidth, entertainment companies to provide more content for that bandwidth and cause all of this to fill the long distance pipes that have had tons of unused bandwidth since the dot com bust. It's like the highways being eight lane autobahns while all of us had only one car and that car was a Yugo.

Sooner_Bob

11/11/2006, 12:39 PM

. . . and that car was a Yugo.

I wish my car got Yugo-type gas mileage. ;)

Frozen Sooner

11/11/2006, 12:41 PM

I would be really happy if they'd run fiber to the curb here. The majority of the network in Anchorage is fiber now and they're working on getting it to the individual addresses. I want some OnDemand service.

Sooner_Bob

12/9/2006, 11:03 AM

So I finally got around to checking with the local installers about upgrading our current DishNetwork system with one new HD receiver. The $49 dishin' it up upgrade sounds great, but they told me that only includes one hour of labor and that the installation normally takes 2.5, so I'm looking at about $125 total for the upgrade.

Not exactly what I was expecting. That DirecTV offer is looking better and better. :D

slickdawg

12/9/2006, 11:13 AM

slickdawg

12/9/2006, 11:15 AM

DISH has more HD channels than DTV, but with that said, as soon as the cable company gets us wired up, I'm dumping DISH, neither are worth it to us.

Sooner_Bob

12/9/2006, 11:30 AM

I really like satellite TV, but I'm seriously considering checking into something local myself.

PhilTLL

12/9/2006, 11:40 AM

I can't for the life of me understand why none of the cable/satellite providers provide deals to their existing customers. It's insane that they offer it to new customers but screw over the current customers.

Er...capitalism? There's not really a need to ply a preexisting/satisfied customer with sales. Call them up and threaten to cancel and then see what happens.

Sooner_Bob

12/9/2006, 12:01 PM

Er...capitalism? There's not really a need to ply a preexisting/satisfied customer with sales. Call them up and threaten to cancel and then see what happens.

Pretty much nothing. :D

BudSooner

12/9/2006, 08:45 PM

DISH has more HD channels than DTV, but with that said, as soon as the cable company gets us wired up, I'm dumping DISH, neither are worth it to us.

The only downside to Cable HD is if you have cable internet, once the companies start offering more and more HD channels..that's going to eat into the bandwidth.
But how much is unknown, obviously its going to make an impact on speeds.

tbl

12/9/2006, 10:59 PM

Pretty much nothing. :D
Therein lies the insanity of it. It doesn't make sense to me that they do it this way, but they have no problem letting somebody just walk away instead of working with them. It's not like we're asking them to do something that the competition is doing. They do it themselves, but it's only to bring people in. **** on the people that have been customers for 4 years. Crazy...

Sooner_Bob

12/12/2006, 09:31 PM

The only downside to Cable HD is if you have cable internet, once the companies start offering more and more HD channels..that's going to eat into the bandwidth.
But how much is unknown, obviously its going to make an impact on speeds.

I think I'm already seeing some of the impact. It has been kinda noticeable since Cox sold out to Sudden Link.

Norm In Norman

12/12/2006, 10:47 PM

Ok Bob, if you switch to DirecTV you need to make sure that the receivers are mpeg4 compatible. All of the companies are going to mpeg4 and if you are stuck with an mpeg2 receiver then you are SOL when they ONLY broadcast with mpeg4. You'll get to upgrade again. There are a ton of dish people that paid $600-700 for a DVR at the first of the year just to find out that it is totally obsolete now because Dish upgraded to mpeg4. I think DTV is doing the same thing.

If you are looking just at hi-def content, dish has a ton more. Dish doesn't broadcast OKC hi def channels yet BUT their receivers have an OTA tuner built in (at least the DVR [622?] does - probably the non-dvr hd receivers [211?] do to), so you can pick up the locals with an antenna. Both of those receivers are mpeg4. From what I hear, the DVR is sort of neat because you can output it's signal to other SD TVs in your house and they can watch recorded content or live TV content while you watch whatever on your main TV. If I ever upgrade I will probably get rid of one of my receivers and have the DVR output to that TV, seeing that I rarely watch more than two tvs at once.

I will say that I've seen boarder's DirecTV hardware and it blows away my current hardware (dish 811). I dunno about the new stuff though. I'd upgrade now myself if it wasn't going to cost me very much.