DIrect TV vs. Comcast
- Thread starter Nastycrow
- Start date
Comcast is expensive as f---. Service is fine as far as cable going out, I've never had a show just go blank. But their biggest downfall is price, and their customer service, from my experience, is s---. I don't know direct tv's prices but I know their cheaper. And the only reason I don't have it is because I'd have to pay for the baseball package to get most of my Phillies games.
I had Direct tv before i bought my house. I now have Cox cable. The problems i had with Direct tv is this; because its satellite tv anytime there are inclimate weather conditions i would get blue screens/frozen picture. If the wind blows too hard, if its a monsoon rain, etc then the picture would become pixelated.
Also, with the satellite feed it was delayed several seconds more than standard cable. I would be watching a game & be talking to a buddy on the phone who is watching the same game and they would make a comment about a play that just happened & 5 seconds later i would see what he was talking about.
Outside of that Direct tv was aiight.
I have DirecTV and have had pretty much no problems with it. We've had several strong windstorms and my satellite dishes have only been knocked out of alignment once. The next day I called to schedule an appointment to get it fixed expecting to wait a day or two, the guys were here 2 hours later and fixed it within 15mins. Customer service at DirecTV is top notch.
I will talk for hours on end about how much I love Direct TV.....i haven't had a problem with the weather affecting anything since i upgraded dishes to the HD/DVR. I've got a 99.8% signal at all times, which i'm told by the technician that set it up is awesome....may have something to do with being on top of the hill in Union City NJ, but whatever it is, its awesome. Among the things i love about it at the top are the following:
Customer Service....pure awesome....they are incredibly helpful and i've even had a technician help restore my picture over the phone when a UFC event was about to start before i upgraded.
DVR Menu/Channel Menu.......its so easy to use....programs that are recording sit at the top of the playlist until they're done recording and you can organize it a number of ways. a-z, by date, etc. The grouping of the channels is done well also....HD channels are listed right where the standard def channels are.....with comcast you have ur HD channels in the 700's for some reason and it doesn't automatically tune there.....also DTV has the most HD channels.
also about the DVR.....Direct TV lets you record and keep PPV events like UFC...Comcast will not let you do that.
Remote Functionality......so many different things you can do with the remote that are one touch functions that Comcast simply doesn't offer.....you can customize 9 quick tune channels (i have ESPN 1 and 2, Spike, Comedy Central, NatGeo,etc.), there is the Scoreguide which is brilliant (basically anytime you're on a sports channel the option for scoreguide will appear....select the button and you get the scores for ALL the recently finished and currently played sports games). there is a button that you can press that brings up a list of the last 5 visited channels you were on which is great btwn commercials.
seriously....i could go on for hours. i've never enjoyed television as much as i have been since the 2 years i've had Direct TV.
I'm another huge fan of DirecTV. Have been with them seven years. Weather problems are actually very few and far between as long as you have clear line of site -- if you have trees in the way or something that's a whole different story but a properly mounted dish there are only 1-2 times per year where the weather is so bad it knocks out the signal and usually it's only for a few seconds. Those times I just hop online and download whatever later.
NFL package, if you're an NFL fan, is an extremely popular reason to go DTV. They're the only ones who carry it and will be for quite some time. having all your buddies over to watch every game you could want is awesome on weekends.
Their customer service is top notch, unlike every single cable company i've ever experienced (and I've experienced most over the years).
-P
Everyone likes to hate on Comcast, but honestly I don't think I've ever had a problem with them. I play a lot of PC games online, so I love the Comcast internet.. I have always had problems with verizon internet, they one time told me i had a 1 and 1/2 month wait to get service installed in my area... basically saying they did not want my service IMO. Comcast has on demand which is great, i watch most of my shows on there (esp if you have the premium channels it's great because you can watch every premium channel show on demand whenever you want.) I do hate comcast phone service.. i actually took the battery out the last time I had it, so this time i told them i do not want it anymore, and got rid of their phone service and go with just my cell (and my wifes.) I have the NFL network bundle which is pretty dirt cheap, (I love nfl red zone) and all the premium channels, so I never run out of things to watch on there. I recently bought a 55" LED, and the HD service for Comcast has been very good. Lots of channels and very good quality... the only problem I have had with it so far is twice in 4 months I had to reset my cable box by unplugging it because the HD channels were not lined up correctly with the screen (causing me to miss scoreboards and top of ppls heads on shows.)
In my experience comcast has been hassle free with customer service and contracts. I have rarely had to have a tech come out for any reason but when I did, I had no problem. I fixed most issues myself or with a simple phone call. Awhile back I had an issue where I had to move... The move was unavoidable and they did not offer comcast where I was moving to, so I called and explained and they waived my cancellation fee (which was over $500) and said they look forward to me signing up again if I ever got into a new area where they had service. I am a customer again because of this.
Performify said:
I'm another huge fan of DirecTV. Have been with them seven years. Weather problems are actually very few and far between as long as you have clear line of site -- if you have trees in the way or something that's a whole different story but a properly mounted dish there are only 1-2 times per year where the weather is so bad it knocks out the signal and usually it's only for a few seconds. Those times I just hop online and download whatever later.
NFL package, if you're an NFL fan, is an extremely popular reason to go DTV. They're the only ones who carry it and will be for quite some time. having all your buddies over to watch every game you could want is awesome on weekends.
Their customer service is top notch, unlike every single cable company i've ever experienced (and I've experienced most over the years).
-P
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Agreed on everything. I used to live in the Midwest and never had a problem with service during snowstorms or anything like that. The occasional thunderstorm would give me a problem once in awhile.(max 2x a year typically) Customer service is top notch as well.
I recently moved and am stuck with Cox Cable for the time being and I miss DTV a lot!
Fiber obtic tv and DTV are the best out there, imo.
I have DirecTV and like it a lot. But I do agree with PHX about the weather thing. I've noticed that it only knocks out my HD signal, but you can switch it in your settings and still get the SD versions of the HD channels. The only other service I've had was Charter cable, and their customer service is the worst thing I've ever had to deal with.
rhino78 said:
Thanks for all of the advice. I wish I could get uverse, but I can't. It looks like we might go with comcast due to Direct TV wanting a 2 year contract. I live near the beach and we get afternoon showers all the time and that has me worried about the dish.
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Comcast automatically renews you i believe though....look into it.....i really don't think afternoon showers are going to give you any issues.....good luck with your decision tho.
Gutter said:
ez215 said:
Does direct tv have any kind of on demand? Or is on demand strictly comcast?
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if you have the DVR/HD box you can send an internet cable through your the box and get DTV On Demand.
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Confirmed. You have to hook your box up to the internet with a physical cable, but they have EXTENSIVE on demand once you do, most of it in HD.