Common problems with DirectTV?

[Mark4583]

Im about to move into a new home in a week or so and my only choices are DirectTV, Dish and Comcast cable.
Ive heard that Comcast isnt a very popular cable company.
So I will more that likely go with DirectTV.
Are there many problems with these systems? Ive heard peaple say that the dish gets out of position often and yoy need to pay for a service to come and fix it.
Il need a 2 room set up, one with HD and other non HD, are the recivers that they offer with the packages decent or should Ilook to purchase a better one?
Any input is appriciated,
If the dish is installed on the home itself, has anyone had any trouble with dammage to the home from high winds?
Thanks

[Smokey]

You really should not have any problem with dish installation as long as dish is pretty secure. They are not that heavy.

Best advice would be to tell the dish installer to install it so it will be easy accessible by the user. Or better yet, to put pn ground on a poll. This way if dish get out of alignment (which really shouldn’t if it is secure), the home owner themselves can realign it with a pair of pliers.

Receiver comes with a signal strength meter, and if get out of alignment, you can pretty much get it back in position with out calling out an installer. But as long as it is tightly secures, you shouldn’t have any problem with wind damage or realignment issues.

I installed my own dish and may be after three years, only had to realign it once and that was due to an ice storm. Also make sure your installer ground the dish.

Good luck.

[mlsstl]

I've had DirecTV for about five years and it has been a much better experience than what I had with our local cable provider (not Comcast.) I've not had any problems with antenna alignment but then our dish is mounted to a brick wall. My one suggestion would be to make sure the installer choses a stable spot for dish installation. Installers are generally subcontractors (not DirecTV employees) and they can be a bit on the lazy side if you let them.

Note that antenna alignment for the HD channels is much more demanding than for standard broadcast. I considered installing my own antenna when we upgraded to HD last year but went through the installation instructions first. The built in signal strength meter in the receiver is not adequate for proper HD alignment; you need a separate, special meter. Have a pro do it.

That said, I've NEVER had a dish go out of alignment.

As for equipment, I've had no problems with the equipment they've provided. I currently have on HD DVR, one Tivo DVR (standard definition) and one standard def receiver.

[bubbagump]

I've had DirecTV since about 1995 at two different locations. I've never had a problem with dish alignment or anything else that I can think of. I did the installation myself in both cases. It's pretty painless but if they'll install for free, I'd have them do it. I'd advise reviewing the installation with them first though. An installation at a neighbors house was a real hack job. Make absolutely sure they ground the dish properly. Check with your local city to find out what they require. Another neighbors house did not have the dish properly grounded. The dish was hit by lightning resulting in about 8K in damage to the wiring and appliances in the house. The only real downside to satellite (and a very annoying one) is that the service is often disrupted by heavy storms. You won't have this problem with cable or Fios. Having said all this, if I had to do it over again at this point in time, I'd go with Fios from Verizon. You didn't mention this as one of your choices. Check to see if it's available. In addition to amazing internet speed, you can bundle television and phone which may save you some money. Cable has gotten a lot better over the years thanks mostly to brutal competition from Satellite and now Fios. Because competition is high, you have options. Check prices, bundling, incentives,hardware, programming and installation charges. I'd also check with neighbors to see what their opinions are of the local choices.

[jjp735i]

I've had Direct TV for 4 years now and have never had the dish go out of alignment. When I do lose the signal it's only when it's very very very overcast. I think the longest I've lost it was 45 minutes. I would never go back to cable or get Verizon FIOS. Direct TV picture is always crystal clear and you can't beat the all digital audio. As far as I know Direct TV does the install for Free. They did mine for Free.

jjp

[Rich-n-Texas]

I never ever ever lose the signal due to the weather with FIOS. That's because it's in the ground. When I had D*TV, I'd lose the signal during a moderate downpour. I'll never go back to D*TV.

[emaidel]

I've had DirecTV now for about 6 years. I much prefer it to cable, and really like the XM broadcasts too. One caveat however: if you have a problem which needs the assistance of a live human being, DirecTV falls on its a$$ and makes you want to pull your hair out.

When I moved from Colorado to South Carolina last July, I contacted DirecTV to discontinue the service in my old home, and gave them a date to install service in my new home. Then, upon realizing that Atlas Van Lines had hopelessly screwed up my move, I called DirecTV to change the installation date as my household possessions were going to be delivered several weeks later than promised.

That's not exactly rocket science, but the cretinous morons at DirecTV acted as if it were. After three phone calls (being placed on hold for 45, then 25 and then 35 minutes on each!) all I got was some idiot saying, "I don't know how to do that."

I resolved the issue by going on line, and got a very apologetic phone call, and all was rescheduled. The installation was faulty, as I had requested an HD DVR, and didn't get one, so they had to come back. Then, as if that weren't enough, I received a bill for the service after it had been disconnected in Colorado!

I'm really good at writing nasty letters, and so one went off to "the president of" DirecTV, and I got results, including a month's free service. It wasn't worth the hassle, though.