DirecTV Rant

[Bonnewagon]

I live in NYC which has loads of OTA channels. Everyone I know has some sort of expensive cable/dish/whatever service. When I go visit I thumb through the channels and I always come to the same conclusion: WTF are you paying for? Local channels that are free OTA anyway and a couple others you actually watch? Sheesh. I get about a hundred channels free OTA with a digital booster antenna and converter box. FREE!

 

[L92 OLDS]

I pulled the plug many years ago. Cable programming is a joke and all the commercials drive me crazy. We pay $50 for high speed internet (90 Mbps) and stream Prime Video / Amazon / Youtube / ABC / NBC etc. etc. with a 4K Apple TV box. The Apple TV box is one of the best investments I've made. We tried Firestick, Google Chrome both of which were disappointments. We pull in 20 + local network stations using an HDTV array in the attic (2 directional mast antenna's and 1 powered omni directional for UHF stations). We never regret getting rid of cable....

 

[oldsofb]

I feel your DTV pain brother. I've noticed a change for the worse in hardware after the 2008 "crash".

I was the every two years upgrade guy (I would always threaten a DISH move due to price or channel selection etc.) Been doing that for two decades. I always had to sweet talk someone, because there was nothing wrong with my receivers.

After 2008 every receiver has melted down twice by now (I have 4). They rushed out the Genie to compete with the DISH "Hopper" and the first gen was C-R-A-P!! I think after 2008 they went cheap on vendors for their hardware. The "Whole Home" has never quite worked 100%. It's just been a slow spiral down on service with the same spiral up on price.

I want FiOS bad, but they aren't in my county. Get that! My COUNTY!! The whole county is FiOS dark with no plans on expansion

The wife and I have been off and on talking about walking away from any service. We already have Prime and Netflix. We may just add Hulu and call it a day.

Hutch

 

[pagrunt]

Pay TV is one of the biggest rip offs we all pay for. All long term customers are the cash cows that have to pay for all the "rewards", intro service price cuts for new customers, give aways on top of the "rewards". Lose channels during contracting channels operators cause they want $XXXX & the cable/sat providers want $XXXX with both parties blaiming each other. I have Dish (enslaved to their bill for over 17 years) & PURCHASED my equiptment but yet when we needed a new receiver they took mine leaving me with one of theirs. We cut services just to pay more for less. If it wasn't for the Jr. Mechanics cartoons I'd dump it. I miss the days loaded service with locals was under $50.

 

[fleming442]

Hutch, which county are you in? I'm Frederick which will get a F105 double play on new construction- no dice on video, Cumcast has that locked down with the county gubment, and won't come down my road (stops at each end). Too far from the C.O. for DSL, no CATV, and cell caps all point to the West Virginia state flower.
The wife is going to be a hard sell on unplugging, then I have to explain it to the 10 yr old.

UPDATE: Good news! Talked to Tom the satellite guy, and he says he can fix it. Just have to see when I can get him there. He also said that I'm ahead of the game with the Genie system and it doesn't need internet to work. He also confirmed that it won't work with my LNB, so I need to see if they sent me one.

 

[oldsofb]

Hutch, which county are you in?

St Mary's. I guess the Amish are afraid of fiber optics

 

[GP403]

Last year September we finally ditched our garbage local telco for internet. Got an LTE modem and an unlimited SIM card for it. Best move I ever made. It was a bit sketchy (the sim card arrived in a plain envelope taped to an index card with nothing else!) but for $60/mo I get LTE up to 40Mbps+ and no problems. Regularly pull 400-450GB of data in a month. Unfortunately the company I use isn't selling new cards(!) but spend some time researching and you'll probably find another service. Here's the modem:

Amazon.com: NETGEAR 4G LTE Modem – Instant Broadband Connection | Works with AT&T and Alternate Carriers (LB1120): Computers & Accessories

Buy NETGEAR 4G LTE Modem - Instant Broadband Connection | Works with AT&T and Alternate Carriers (LB1120): Modems - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

amzn.to

Plug that into your router just like a DSL or Cable modem.

Now, as for DirecTV, we bought into their DirecTV now service a while back when it was just starting. $40/mo for almost all the channels.... then they started the usual crap. "oh your plan doesn't exist any more so if you change it will go up $$ for less channels." "now YOUR cost is going up for your grandfathered plan!!" went from $45 to like $70 and that was it. No more of that.

But yeah, Apple TV, netflix, amazon, youtube, etc. etc. and I'm good. Actually have an OTA home-built DVR that does a fair job, but its getting a bit long in the tooth. If it craps out I'll probably go Amazon ReCast.

 

[fleming442]

Tom the satellite guy just left. Got whacked for $300 which I am going to try to get reimbursed. Spent another half hour on the phone to get my channel package straightened out. The bastids are only giving me $30 off for 3 months for my inconvenience. I'm not done shaking that tree yet. Time to start digging for Director contacts and let some nastygram emails fly.
GP403, can you send me some more info on the SIM cards? I assume they're being peddled on ePay? Or, do I have to get on the darkweb?

 

[pagrunt]

I just saw on the local CBS station (KDKA) that Direct TV is "working" a new deal so CBS is already started to get their Diretct TV viewers to start hounding them not to drop CBS channels.