Aaron62

I'm officially canceling DirecTV on June 1st to save some more money for a down payment on a house over the next 6 months. It'll save me close to $100/month.

If I could subscribe to like 15 channels for $2.00/each a month for a total of $30, I'd totally pay it (including a DVR).

What would you guys (and girls!) pay, even if you already have cable or satellite?

CptlA

I pay a little over $65 for cable which is discounted with my triple play package. Between my whole family we probably watch about 30-45 channels so we're pretty happy so long as rates do not increase this next year. One thing we've skimped on is movie channels (HBO, Showtime, etc). Too many other networks with free movies and we've also got a Blockbuster movie subscription service too.

DTVuser2009

Steer away from satellite. if you think DTV reception is horrific try a satellite dish. and the 10-15 min wait time between signal losses to get back your TV. i hated missing the last half of stuff when i had Dish plus they NEVER honor their promises. i never did get my supposed 'free DVR upgrade' as advertised.

sweetvtmom

That's funny! I always wondered if people really got there free things they offer. They offer free DVR's and sometimes I have even seen the satellite companies offer free portable dvd players.

I have thought about switching to satellite because my cable/internet is over $100 a month, but I hear horror stories about satellite--especially with the snow that we get in Vermont in the winter--I guess they always lose signal.

I do know I would not pay more than what I pay now for cable.

DTVuser2009

For some it's either OTA or Satellite. i'd take OTA and my Internet TV any day. free and on demand.

Dish and DirecTV all have empty promises. what is offered in the promo may not be what you get. for me they sent out a Dish Van, installed everything and then left as i worked (i was working away from home so i wasn't there for them but they installed it) and realized instead of the DVR receiver, i had a Dish 311 single-tuner. NOT correct. so i called them, had a copy of the agreement and it indeed showed a DVR. so they came back. another Dish 311. AGAIN!

So for a year and a half of dealing with the idiots over the phone, i finally had them figure it out. "ok, we see the problem, you WERE supposed to get a DVR. ok we'll send you a new one for free. all we need is a credit card number" "Credit card #?! what for?"

"because we have to verify the account used to pay Dish Network is valid"

"OK WTH? you get my payments every month from a CHECKING ACCOUNT!?"

"We need a Credit Card before we can send out the DVR"

"But it's free?! and i don't keep credit because i don't like owing money"

"sorry, but them's the brakes" (not an actual quote but you get the idea)

So i was then generously given a friend's DVR receiver, but when i called in to activate it "Sorry, this receiver has a unpaid balance of $7xx dollars we cannot activate it"

"Again, WTH?! the owner is right here i'll let you speak with her"

**mindless arguing with the previous owner over the phone with the rep from India, about how they DID pay the balance and had proof with confirmation **

"Sorry, although we now see this balance was paid off, in full, we still cannot get the system to activate this receiver on the grounds it's obsolete"

"WHAT?! it's no older than that crappy 311s you kept sending me!"

"We only allow NEW activation on HD DVRs. or SD DVRs we sell"

"OK, but this IS a SD DVR"

"It's not new enough to activate; our newer SD DVRs are the only ones that can be re-activated"

"WTH?!"

So i cancelled them. for keeps. they kept trying to sell me a new one when i had a perfectly good one right THERE in my hands. plus needing credit card numbers is BS when you don't have to pay them for the box.

TonyT

The credit card information is so that they can charge your card in case you default on your subscription commitment or just fail to make a payment. Nothing is for free by the way.

I've had Comcast for 2 years now but also watch OTA quite often for HD (especially PBS HD). Pretty happy overall, runs me $75/month with a DVR. As of late, Comcast has added a ton of HD channels (Food Network HD, Spike HD, etc) which is pretty nice.

DTVuser2009

That may be well and good but i was already out of my commitment (had a 2 year and it was the third year i had the service)

Plus they never needed a credit card to subscribe in the first place, the promo was for no credit needed (which was the one thing they did do right)

but credit cards i won't have. they will get you into debt so fast it's not even funny. but to send a DVR with zero shipping made absolutely no sense. they didn't need a credit card to keep sending out the wrong box so i failed to understand why they would need a credit card to send the CORRECT box since that was what was ordered and i didn't need credit to order the service so they definitely had a failure to communicate. they were just trying every excuse to charge money for something i never needed money to get in the first place (with that promo i was supposed to pay $100 to install up to four rooms plus free DVR upgrade. i got everything else but never got the DVR. so they had the money and i kept paying my monthly bills on time but oh well screw Dish Network.)

When i moved to the country the signal was terrible. there was no way the satellite dish would get line of sight and i would have outages which lasted for weeks. even in perfect weather. in fact sometimes i'd get it back during a tornado warning (how?!) but when it passed back to the stupid 'aquiring signal' screen. then i had two LNBFs blow out, then i had one working satellite which meant 1/2 my lineup was gone, then the cable underground they installed went bad, they installed a new one (and charged me a good $50) then it went out the next week, same thing. i was done with them. no way it was worth the extra channels if i couldn't watch one ounce of them without worrying about when/where it's going to go out next. i like to watch TV confidently, not with sweating palms.

Tang

I like that idea a lot, sign me up.

DTVuser2009

I wish i could learn more about this 'FTA Free To Air' satellite but all it looks like to me is illegal hacking into the system plus you have to buy a very expensive receiver and then hook it up to a PC or Mac to download junk. that sounds scammy to me.

If i could get like the locals plus a couple channels of my preference instead of an entire package yea i'd be all for it, bad signal and all. i could put together the remnants of my Dish setup and have it on one satellite in 15 minutes. but then all i got is the stupid preview network.

It'd be fun to find an old Dish box in the thrift store which, like a old SIRIUS radio i got there for $1, would have still an active account on it. you'd be surprised. but i don't like trying all that work to hook it up to find out otherwise. a SIRIUS radio only plugs into your car and that's it. it works or it don't.

I wonder though, why can't satellite companies have a system like SIRIUS? put out a magnet antenna and so long as there's a view of the sky it works.