Direct TV vs. Cable?

[rjohnstone]

We have cable both here and having used a friend's DSL and DirecTV, I'm willing to keep paying a bit more for cable.

Any bad weather at all, even just a heavy rain, would knock out the satellite signal. Cable works no matter what's happening outside.

DSL is fine for webpages, but if you do any heavy downloading, you'll appreciate the faster speeds of cable. On sites that can offer the bandwidth, I get downloads over 1MB/s with Comcast's boost thingy. It doubles your speed for the first bit of large downloads, so I get 12Mbps (1.5MB/s) for a bit then it backs down to 6Mbps (750KB/s). Compared to DSL's standard 1.5Mbps (187.5KB/s) there is no contest.

That's why you need to get VDSL if it's available.
No sharing bandwidth with your neighbors either.
3 to 6 Mbps downloads AND uploads.
The thing I hate about cable is if it goes out, you lose both the TV and internet access.

[buzzsaww]

Residential fiber here 100Mb/s bi-directional plus TV $50 a month

Anyway I would get DirectTV over Dish, they use Mpeg1 compression which is why the picture is better. They have MLB and MLB locked up for the near future. Guide/menu thing works a lot better. Dish offers a completely satellite net solution and I bet Direct does too if you ask them. Otherwise I would get VDSL and look into what kind of programming is available maybe you won't need a dish at all.

Cable sucks, let me jump on your node and steal all your passwords. They charge too much and had a lot of problems in Colorado at least(comcast). Random hour or two or three long outages couple times a month, was very unreliable for me. Their CS is terrible!

[Firebird V]

Fios is the way to go if you can get it. We have Direct TV for 7 years now and have moved once with it. It is good but I have family that did the fios deal and it is sweet.

[ABSOLUT CHARVEL]

i have 7 rooms with TV and thought about getting dish, but dont you have to get boxes for each tv? i think they give you up to 4, not sure if you get dinged for any extra ...

[Shawn Lutz]

Newc, it has nothing to do with weak system and it wouldn't matter where you live. All KU or KA band satellites signals are affected by heavy rain...called rainfade.

I've have DirecTV and it rarely goes out due to weather, it has to be a pretty heavy rain for it to go out. A bigger size dish helps, the oval jobbies will hold a signal in rain better than the smaller 18inch antennas.

I have ATT (formerly SBC) DSL and I average 1.3 Mbps

[emperor_black]

we dont have a clear view of the southern sky in our apartment and cant get any form of satellite tv. Direct tv is a form of satellite tv right?

[rjohnstone]

Direct tv is a form of satellite tv right?

Yep

[emperor_black]

Yep

[missionguitars1]

to be honest I've had a lot of problem with the Direct TV DVR box since I switched 3 months ago.

DirecTV's DVR boxes are notoriously horrible, I went through 3 of them in a 6 month period before they gave me a refurbished older one. No problems since...

I have cable internet, although it's $50 a month. I live a bit away from a "node", so DSL service in our area sucks. If you are close to said "node", though, I'd give DSL a shot as it's a helluva lot cheaper...

[Venomboy]

I have DirecTV with a DirecTivo and I love it. Best interface ever. My parents have Dish Network with their DVR. Worst interface ever.

[rjohnstone]

Worst interface is the new DirecTV DVR's.
They suck monkey balls and you can't get Tivo branded boxes from them anymore.

[Drsracing]

Direct tv here

Its tv so whatever

[fr0sty]

I have DirecTV with a DirecTivo and I love it. Best interface ever. My parents have Dish Network with their DVR. Worst interface ever.

Same here. I don't think dtv sells their tivo boxes anymore, right?

[Phantom Hawk]

I forgot to mention the biggest reason I have DirecTV. NFL Sunday Ticket. Being a fan of a team not near my market makes the Ticket a must have...

exactly the reason I have it !

[jcs21]

I have both Directv and cable. I've had Directv since 2000, only for the NFL Sunday ticket, otherwise I would stick to cable.