Differences between comcast and Direct Tv.
THere are a couple of differences between comcast and direct tv. Here is a small difference.
Comcast of course uses coaxial cable to reach the customer in the areas they serve. While cable services in the past were somewhat unreliable, the last mile network to every home is actually quite reliable today. On the other hand, Direct TV uses satellite dish technology, which can go out of service during strong storms.
Cable companies like Comcast have also made huge investments in their infrastructure in order to provide video on demand. This is done by holding large amounts of content on centralized servers, just waiting for the customer to access programming at any given time. Direct TV is at a disadvantage here, as their video on demand platform relies on the customer. The subscriber must have their own high speed internet connection in order to access Direct TV on demand.
Now if you are mainly interested in HD content, then here is one place where satellite TV companies like Dish Network have a superior advantage. Direct TV currently offers more than 130 national HD channels, and local HD in over 90 percent of the county. With Comcast, the numbers vary quite a bit because the number of HD channels is dependent on if your particular area has been fully upgraded.
A final consideration is of course the prices that each company is going to charge you. Comcast often bundles their cable TV service along with high speed internet and phone service. These bundles can be a great deal, but the price often rises significantly after the promotion is over. With satellite TV, you can also find discounts for new customers during the first year, then prices revert to the regular price.
Heres a sample of what happened to me when moving from direct tv to comcast cable.
Just an update as to what I ended up doing should anyone want to know in the future. (I'm not trying to bump my post for attention or anything)
So, I decided to drop DTV and go with Comcast. I called DTV on Sunday the 22nd and told them I was going to cancel because I didn't want to pay $200 for the HD-DVR plus $20 for shipment of the reciever and $10 extra/month for HD service when I can get it cheaper with Comcast if I bundle with the their internet.
The DTV rep in their cancellations department offered me $75 off the price of the receiver, but I still found that to be steep, so I said I'd think about it and turned around and called Comcast and ordered their net and HD.
Comcast came out on Tuesday the 24th and installed my HD-DVR and internet. They are coming back out on Thrusday the 26th to rewire 3 of my cable jacks so I get a better signal.
I called DTV last night to cancel and the guy offered me $100 off the HD-DVR, no shipping fee and free HD programming for a year. Needless to say, I hesitated at this offer, but then cancelled anyway. He told me that I can always come back.
Well, I've only had Comcast for 1.5 days and am already wanting to change back to DTV.
To me, DTV's channel lineup makes more sense with how it's arranged, where as Comcast's channels are all willy-nilly and the locals are on completely different channels. I also don't like that I can't program my channels for surfing. If I want to surf, I have to switch between all channels, not just the one's I get or the ones on my favorite list. I can however, hit the "fav" button and it will go to the next favorite channel up but not down. I can also hit the fav button in the guide and see only my favorite channels in the guide. I think this is dumb.
I also started to setup my DVR to record shows and it will only record 1 show at a time. I was told by the tech that only one line has to come in to the reciever and it will split it automatically so I can record 2 shows at once or record one show and watch another. Apparently this is not the case. If I'm wrong and someone can explain this so I can have it tape ER and Private Practice for my wife tomorrow night, I would greatly appreciate it.
So, after they come out and rewire my three jacks for free tomorrow, I am going to call and setup DTV again (as long as I can still get the deal I was offered) and cancel Comcast's TV but I will still keep their internet as it is definately much better than AT&T's DSL.
Heres an interesting piece from yahoo answers.
First off, you will also have to pay additional price for the HD programming and DVR service but it's lumped into a HD/DVR package for like $79 a month I believe. However, you get about 40 more HD channels for the money than you do with Comcast. Plus they are channels you actually watch, including your locals, like ESPN, USA, TNT, Discovery, History, FUEL, TBS, MTV, Cartoon Network, etc etc.
Also, if your dish is installed correctly and has a decent signal strength then it will NOT go out when the wind blows or it's cloudy like these knuckleheads are saying. I've been a subscriber for almost 10 years, live in a T storm area, and I can count on 1 hand the number of times I've lost my signal. It has to be raining EXTREMELY hard, like can't see your hand in front of your face hard, to lose your signal and it comes right back when the rain slacks up in a minute or two.
Thirdly, Comcast customer service is HORRIBLE! I was on hold and cut off for almost 3 hours one night just trying to register a modem and you're lucky if you ever get anyone who speaks English. With DTV I've never been on hold more than a minute and whatever issue I had was resolved in minutes.
Categories: "direct hdtv review", Direct Tv satellite Dish, direct tv versus comcast Tags: "direct tv", comcast cable, Direct tv Dvr
direct tv satellite dish For sale on ebay.
Here are some Direct tv satellite dishes for sale on ebay.
 Satellite Dish and Receiver Direct TV  US $30.00
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 DIRECT TV DIRECTV 3 TRIPLE LNB MULTI SATELLITE DISH DTV US $44.99
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 DISH NETWORK DIRECT TV SATELLITE DISH RV TRUCK MOUNT US $60.00
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 Direct TV Direc Directv Multi Satellite Triple Dish US $19.99
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 New Satellite Signal Finder for HDTV TV DIRECT TV Dish US $1.59
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Categories: "direct hdtv review", "plasma broaband hdtv", Direct Tv satellite Dish Tags: "direct tv", Direct tv Dvr, direct tv satellite dish for sale on ebay
Direct Tv On Demand Review Compared To Cable.
Heres a nice review of how Direct Tv on demand Compares To Cable. Must read.
Direct TV will officially launch their on-demand service in the second quarter, so technically is should be out by the end of this month. How will the product compare with the true video-on-demand (VOD) products provided by cable TV companies like Comcast?
A window to look through is the beta testing that has been going on with Direct TV "On-Demand." Ongoing testing by users has been happening since August 2007, and reviews have been split fairly even on the service. Some customer's have found the video-on-demand service to be a great enhancement, while others have disappointed in the service so far.
The original on-demand service that is available from cable operators like Comcast and Time Warner offer the customer the flexibility to pick their remote control and watch shows at their convenience. In some ways on-demand is like a TiVo or a digital video recorder, the end user has control on when they want to view the program. The difference with on-demand however, is that the cable company holds the programming for you rather than the customer recording it on their own device. A centralized group of servers holds the programming for cable customers to access via a programming menu.
Cable companies have thus made the claim that they have more high-definition programming. That claim is debatable, as they are measuring their HD by the number of programs available, not the number of channels. For example, Comcast's Project Infinity HD rollout promises 1000 HD choices by the end of 2008. Cable companies have thus promoted this instead of the actual number of HD channels they have. While Direct TV currently has the lead with 95 national HD channels, cable companies have between 20-60 channels depending on the company and region.
So how will Direct TV compete in the on-demand arena? The company has put into play two different delivery methods in order to reach their customers with this service.
The first method uses the end-users DVR and their high-speed internet connection. The customer connects to their broadband provider, generally cable or DSL. The customers download speed must be faster than 750 kbps, and should be higher to really use the service effectively. Content is downloaded to the DVR, and then the programming can be accessed from there.
The primary obstacle here is that it is not really true Video-On-Demand. If a Direct TV customer wants to watch an "on-demand" program, he has wait for some of the content to download to the DVR before being able to start watching. Some beta testers have reported download times for an entire movie to be between one and four hours based on the customer's connection speed.
The second method Direct TV has formulated involves sending movies and other content directly to the customers DVR. The content would then be stored for subscribers where they can access it at a later time. This method certainly solves the download issues previously referenced, but brings up the issue of how much pushed content will customers accept on their DVR?
While DVR's generally have capacity to hold around 50 hours of HD or 350 hours of standard definition content, that is nowhere near the thousands of hours of programming available via cable. Transmitting the content to the DVR will use up the capacity, and customers are will be very protective of their DVR space. Most Direct TV customers would rather use the space for content they have decided to record, not what Direct TV wants them to watch.
So will Direct TV succeed in matching cable TV's on-demand offerings? Certainly time will give us a better answer. Having to wait to receive what is considered "on-demand" content will not make most Direct TV customers happy.
There seems to be a very clear consensus on the fact that people hate Direct Tv but we shall see what happens. Hope you enjoy.
Categories: "broadband hdtv", "direct hdtv review", "hdtv reviews" Tags: "direct tv hd dvr system ", "direct tv", Direct Tv On Demand Review, Direct Tv Review
Heres an interesting video of how to Program DirecTV remote with Xbox 360
how to program your Program DirecTV remote with Xbox 360
Categories: "broadband hdtv", "direct hdtv review", "hdtv reviews", "plasma broaband hdtv" Tags: "direct tv", "hdtvs"