DirecTV's Plans for 2006/2007

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Some of us don't have access to DSL or cable and are suffering with Direcway for $60/mo. I'd give my left arm for 5mbps...particularly if handles secure sites without getting bogged down like satellite internet.
 
Proc said:
The typical consumer might, but that is really a generalization. I have DSL and am completely satisfied with it as are many of my friends and family. The DSL speed isn't cable modem speeds, but its a heckuva lot cheaper.
I had DSL at my old house and got 1.1/370 speeds with almost 100% uptime. I could go months without rebooting my modem.

In my new house with cable, although my speeds are 6.2/750, I went to the trouble of wiring switches so I could reboot my cable modem and router from my desk. It goes down that often.

So I for one would take the slower, more reliable, DSL anyday. YMMV.;)
 
herdfan said:
I had DSL at my old house and got 1.1/370 speeds with almost 100% uptime. I could go months without rebooting my modem.

In my new house with cable, although my speeds are 6.2/750, I went to the trouble of wiring switches so I could reboot my cable modem and router from my desk. It goes down that often.

So I for one would take the slower, more reliable, DSL anyday. YMMV.;)

If your cable modem goes out a lot it could be a sign that the signal is too strong and you need an attenuator on the line. I had that problem. Id call the cable company.
 
about 45mins (or so) in to the DIRECTV Webcast they say that they are going to put up more HD nats in 2006 but did not name them but the BIG roll out will be in 2007.
 
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lou_do said:
LonghornXP, that sounds great. I hope they also can work out something that will allow you Internet access while traveling, or on business. That is my big problem now, with getting Internet service through my cable company is great while at home but a problem while traveling. I have a small web site business and have to be able to upload changes to web site from where ever I am. Now I have to use Bellsouth DSL and I do have dial up access to their service, when in their coverage area, which I have found out is very scattered. I have to keep a second national dial up account, to be able to keep my web sites up to date, while on the road.

Having their service with Nationwide access, would be the ticket for me. Hope their system will allow this.

I thought nobody would ever get the hint but you did. That will be one of their plans to allow a customer to just order high speed internet and unlike current providers customers can have anywhere in the USA full fast broadband internet access using a wimax wireless card inside their notebook. From what I've heard the connection to the network will be done via user ID and password. This will allow customers the ability to connect just once and if you move into another towers range it will auto connect as you would be using the same user ID and password. You can use any wireless cards software or windows xp and set it to log onto the network using a certian user id and password.

Enough about that and they also have plans to allow you to access the contents of your DVRs over the internet in streaming format but DirecTV would only promise uploads speeds using their own Wimax service for that use while another broadband provider might not offer enough upload bandwidth for that. This shouldn't be an issue for FIOS internet customers though or cable internet customers who get lucky enough to have upload speeds of 1Mbps or more.
 
vurbano said:
Back on topic

Will Video on demand reduce the 150 HD national channel capacity?

All satellite delivered VOD would just use two or so channels (SD channels) during the night which the DVR will just record like any channel. It will do this in a loop for the whole week until you have access to everything. After the first download they can do this a couple of nights each week and only 20 or so percent of the content will change. This will use very very little bandwidth if any at all since at worst case they can turn off two PPV channels for the four hours each night for a couple of nights.

The broadband delivered VOD will not even be using the satellites. They will have servers setup and any internet connected computer will select a show and it will start downloading via your internet connection and once enough of the download has been buffered it will start playing it back. I'm hearing that these downloads will require the new MPEG4 DVR boxes as the shows will be in MPEG4 format so they can get DVD quality with a file size of about 700MB for a two or so hour movie. A 5Mbps internet connection can download this size file in about 15-20 minutes and it will only take about 30 or so seconds for enough to be downloaded to start playback. The show once downloaded will stay on the drive for the next 24 hours unless you start another VOD title.
 
LonghornXP said:
I thought nobody would ever get the hint but you did. That will be one of their plans to allow a customer to just order high speed internet and unlike current providers customers can have anywhere in the USA full fast broadband internet access using a wimax wireless card inside their notebook. From what I've heard the connection to the network will be done via user ID and password. This will allow customers the ability to connect just once and if you move into another towers range it will auto connect as you would be using the same user ID and password. You can use any wireless cards software or windows xp and set it to log onto the network using a certian user id and password.

That eases my pain, a little, of having to wait till the end of next year for National HDs. I would definitely be a candidate for that service, just what I need.
 
LonghornXP said:
All satellite delivered VOD would just use two or so channels (SD channels) during the night which the DVR will just record like any channel. It will do this in a loop for the whole week until you have access to everything. After the first download they can do this a couple of nights each week and only 20 or so percent of the content will change. This will use very very little bandwidth if any at all since at worst case they can turn off two PPV channels for the four hours each night for a couple of nights.

The broadband delivered VOD will not even be using the satellites. They will have servers setup and any internet connected computer will select a show and it will start downloading via your internet connection and once enough of the download has been buffered it will start playing it back. I'm hearing that these downloads will require the new MPEG4 DVR boxes as the shows will be in MPEG4 format so they can get DVD quality with a file size of about 700MB for a two or so hour movie. A 5Mbps internet connection can download this size file in about 15-20 minutes and it will only take about 30 or so seconds for enough to be downloaded to start playback. The show once downloaded will stay on the drive for the next 24 hours unless you start another VOD title.

I like D*s new plans and all, and I don't want to be a party-pooper, but frankly, if you have an HD DVR MPEG4 box, why would you want to download the show in SD? VOD of Battlestar Galactica or other cable shows not available immediately in HD, now that would get me excited. A pretty slick way to get around the fact that not all cable channels are in HD yet, and won't be for awhile. Even beyond 2007. I guess this would be too much for a 5MPS connection, but all the more reason to have faster connection speeds. Or at least plans for higher speeds. I can't imagine that D* hasn't thought of growing the service to account for HD.
 
more info on the best customers program,
how to get in to that program:
the sub has to pay over $100 a month,pay on time and that is all they said about the best customers program.

and the hearts you saw on the PDF you can't see the CSR can only see your hearts rating.
 
I am in that program.. has not gotten me much so far, other than they say .. I see you are one of our best customers.. lol... the biggest question mark i see now is how much is all this fancy crap going to cost us..lol
 
What ??

Also I've just got word that the rental plans for the HD DVR boxes will work as follows.

A low risk customer with a good credit score won't have to pay the 250 dollar upfront fee for the HD DVR with a two year agreement while a high risk low credit customer will be required to pay 250 bucks upfront and also have a two year agreement. This 250 dollar charge will be a deposit and you will have to call and they will do a credit check once you order which will decide if you pay it or not. I think the general rule of thumb will be if your credit score is good enough to buy a house it will be good enough to not pay the deposit.

I hope this helps you all out a whole bunch.[/QUOTE]

I still don't get this -- I thought if you currently have a HR10-250 (which I do) the new HD DVR would be exchanged at a "nominal" fee (whatever that means). I have been I DTV customer since 08/2003 and I am considered "one of their best customers". $250 is not what I would consider a "nominal" fee.
 
jim tressler said:
I am in that program.. has not gotten me much so far, other than they say .. I see you are one of our best customers.. lol... the biggest question mark i see now is how much is all this fancy crap going to cost us..lol
Actually, I got one of the gold cards with the special number to call, and I was very pleased. I have used it twice: the first time I had to wade through some menus and the rep even asked me how long I had waited. She told me that soon the number would funnel me directly to a rep. And the second time it did. I had to enter my phone number since my account it tied to my secondary number and I called from my primary, but other than that, I got straight in.

So if being a 11 year, $100+/mo. customer gets that continued, I'll be happy.:D
 
I still don't get this -- I thought if you currently have a HR10-250 (which I do) the new HD DVR would be exchanged at a "nominal" fee (whatever that means). I have been I DTV customer since 08/2003 and I am considered "one of their best customers". $250 is not what I would consider a "nominal" fee.[/QUOTE]

Existing customers with an HD Tivo will get a free or low cost swapout like was always planned.

We are talking about customers who don't have an HD Tivo along with new DirecTV customers. These customers can get an HD DVR with no upfront costs only if they have good credit. If not they would require a deposit of 250 bucks. I'm also hearing that if you must pay the deposit this deposit would cover your accounts boxes and last I heard is that if you wanted three HD DVR boxes your deposit would still only be 250 bucks total and not per box. Now IMO I think my contact is wrong about this as I can't believe it wouldn't be per box but than again it wouldn't suprise me.
 
herdfan said:
Actually, I got one of the gold cards with the special number to call, and I was very pleased. I have used it twice: the first time I had to wade through some menus and the rep even asked me how long I had waited. She told me that soon the number would funnel me directly to a rep. And the second time it did. I had to enter my phone number since my account it tied to my secondary number and I called from my primary, but other than that, I got straight in.

So if being a 11 year, $100+/mo. customer gets that continued, I'll be happy.:D

A good customer is one who pays 100+ per month, has a good history with DirecTV and has been a DirecTV customer for at least 6 months. To even have a chance to reach five hearts you must meet above guidelines for at least one full year. To get five hearts the customer cannot how a history of being a pain by always calling in to complain about this and that. They will not however have a problem if a customer calls in when problems do occur or if they request channels or if they call to say they would like something improved. What they are looking for is a pattern of chronic complaining and not just complaining. In simple terms a pain in the arse customers. Those chronic complaining customers who meet the above guidelines will only get three hearts instead of five hearts.

They consider their best customer they can get to be one who does say their concerns and requests but isn't a chronic complainer. Also being an NFL Sunday Ticket subscriber for one full season will bump you to four hearts even if you have a somewhat lower bill than 100. Also a person with a bill over 100 with a good history who gets NFL Sunday Ticket and has been a customer for six total months or during the three months of NFL if they became a customer just before football will be put into the five hearts section right away. Also keep in mind that if a customer drops NFL Sunday Ticket or drops services to dip their bill or doesn't pay a bill on time or becomes a pain can have hearts dropped like flies.

So in simple terms once you reach five hearts you can lose those hearts as they don't stay forever.
 
jake14mw said:
Longhorn, with this HDTivo "swapout", would we have to give them back our HDTivo?

If you want a free swapout they have the right to take it with them but I'm not aware of any HD box customers having their boxes taken away yet. This is a tough one because I can't promise that they won't as they can but I can say that they don't seem to want to take them with them.
 
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To wait for new hd dvr, or not?

DirecTV pixilation problem

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