Just Switched to D* from E*

[shouchien]

Choice Extra
HD Access
Sport Package
1 HD Receiver (Non-DVR), 1 SD Receiver (Non-DVR)
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Since E* does not provide the YES network, I have to make the switch. That's the only reason I made the switch. I was happy with E* in any othe ways.

Installation was smooth. Some of the HD channels seem having less noise than E*(or maybe it's just my eyes). Both E* and D* provide quality HD channels indeed. YES HD looks AMAZING and among the top of all HD channels qualitywise.(ok, this may be because of my Pioneer )

However, I prefer the channel layout from E* sicne they repeat all HD channels in the 9xxx range. It's non-brainer for me to "scan" all HDs with ease. Also, the D* remote control seems worse quality than E*, cheap feeling.

I do have few questions hoping that someone in this forum can help me with.

1. When can I expect to receive the $18 credit/month for a year? On my second month bill?

2. Do I need to hook up phone line to all receivers. I had to do that for E*, otherwise a $5 extra fee is in place. Does D* have the same fee if you dont phone-line the receivers? I can live without PPV(never use those anyway). I saw some really old threads that I have to do so otherwise the receiver will get disabled due to the sport package subscription.

3. Can someone have a good idea/way how to setup the Favorite list? When I try to search the channels using the Sub Category option(like Movie, Sport, News,....) each category will give me all the channels instead of the channels in my Favorite. Lots of useless channels or channels I can't/dont want to watch.

Thank you for the opinions

 

[jokeworm]

1. When can I expect to receive the $18 credit/month for a year? On my second month bill?

I sent in the online rebate the day after my install - and just got the credit on my second bill ...

2. Do I need to hook up phone line to all receivers.

No - you don't need to - and there is no extra fee if you don't - however - if you can get it hooked up to a Ethernet connection - the amount of "on demand" available - is amazing .. assuming that on-demand is available for your receivers .. ?

3. Can someone have a good idea/way how to setup the Favorite list?

bring up the guide - press yellow .. change fave settings list - then edit .. chose the list you want to edit .. then add/remove channels you want to see/don't want to see and change the name by switching tabs at the top ..

this is how it is done on my HR21... i assume that it would be similar on your version.

enoy.

 

[JClore1950]

What took you so long to make the switch?

 

[shouchien]

I sent in the online rebate the day after my install - and just got the credit on my second bill ...

No - you don't need to - and there is no extra fee if you don't - however - if you can get it hooked up to a Ethernet connection - the amount of "on demand" available - is amazing .. assuming that on-demand is available for your receivers .. ?

bring up the guide - press yellow .. change fave settings list - then edit .. chose the list you want to edit .. then add/remove channels you want to see/don't want to see and change the name by switching tabs at the top ..

this is how it is done on my HR21... i assume that it would be similar on your version.

enoy.

So I still have to do the rebate form even though I signed up the installation online?

Thanks for answering the phone line issue. The reason I dont want to hook up the phone line is there is no easy way for me to connect the line to the receiver. The phone line I have is "only" 50 feet long and it still can not be done. I'll need a line that's at least 60 feet. I'll look into the ethernet you mentioned and see what I can have.

Yeah, it took me a while to finally make the switch. When I bought my house last year, it was in the middle of the baseball season already. It cost too much to sign up for D* just for half season of baseball, considering E* did have a wonderful deal going on at that time, PLUS they did have better/more HD programs. I was paying like $46 a month for a while because of the E* discount (2 receivers and I can hook up 3 TVs). If I was going for the D*, I'd be paying much much more for just half of the baseball season.

And since the E* discount's over, I can finally make the switch. They did offer me another $10 credit for 10 months. I turned it down of course.

Here is another question:
Since I am only interested in YES Yankees baseball(Sport Package), am I able to add/drop the Premium Sport Package when the baseball season is up/over? Will I incur a fee if I do this on a yearly basis?(adding the Package in April and dropping it out in November) Is there any downside of doing so? I saw someone mentioned in the forum that if I change the program in the 2-year committment cycle, the clock will reset?

 

[jokeworm]

So I still have to do the rebate form even though I signed up the installation online?

Yes - i think that you do ... although my online rebate still shows "processing" even though the credit has already been applied to my account for the second month's bill.

https://www.directv.com/rebate

Here is another question:
am I able to add/drop the Premium Sport Package when the baseball season is up/over? Will I incur a fee if I do this on a yearly basis?(adding the Package in April and dropping it out in November)

As far as i can tell the sports package is classified as a "premium" so you should be able to add it and drop it at will without any negative effect on your 2 year commitment ... i was sure that he would charge a fee to downgrade .. but i can't seem to find details on that one .... I'd be interested to hear the answer too.

 

[shouchien]

Yes - i think that you do ... although my online rebate still shows "processing" even though the credit has already been applied to my account for the second month's bill.

https://www.directv.com/rebate



As far as i can tell the sports package is classified as a "premium" so you should be able to add it and drop it at will without any negative effect on your 2 year commitment ... i was sure that he would charge a fee to downgrade .. but i can't seem to find details on that one .... I'd be interested to hear the answer too.

OK, I just did the online rebate thing. Thanks for letting me know. Otherwise I'll be waiting for the $18 credit to kick in for many months down the road and still not knowing why it didn't happen.

Yeah, I searched around the web and failed to find any info about dropping a premium package. Well, as long as it does not shift the 2 year cycle, i can live with a little fee for dropping the package. Come on, I mean the saving by de-selecting the sport package for off-season is like $12*5(or 6) months. Unless they charge $50 or more for dropping a premium package.(that is ridiculous amount of fee, lol) But, wait, does that mean when I call in to drop the 3-month-free Staz&ShowTime movie packages in another 2 months or so, they are going to charge me for that? Did anyone get charge a fee of doing so?

 

[chazcbh]

OK, I just did the online rebate thing. Thanks for letting me know. Otherwise I'll be waiting for the $18 credit to kick in for many months down the road and still not knowing why it didn't happen.

Yeah, I searched around the web and failed to find any info about dropping a premium package. Well, as long as it does not shift the 2 year cycle, i can live with a little fee for dropping the package. Come on, I mean the saving by de-selecting the sport package for off-season is like $12*5(or 6) months. Unless they charge $50 or more for dropping a premium package.(that is ridiculous amount of fee, lol) But, wait, does that mean when I call in to drop the 3-month-free Staz&ShowTime movie packages in another 2 months or so, they are going to charge me for that? Did anyone get charge a fee of doing so?

There are no fees to add and drop the sport packages. You don't even need to call them, you can do it online if you set up you account online. It is very easy. You may even be able to drop you free Starz & Showtime online.

 

[shouchien]

There are no fees to add and drop the sport packages. You don't even need to call them, you can do it online if you set up you account online. It is very easy. You may even be able to drop you free Starz & Showtime online.

Thank you, CHAZCBH. That is good to hear.

 

[atp1313]

The Sports Pack (or any premium channel package) has no downgrade fee UNLESS you drop the package within 30 days of adding it. And in that case, the fee is $10.

Since you are looking to drop it during non-baseball months, you should not see any fees for turning it off.

 

[jokeworm]

The Sports Pack (or any premium channel package) has no downgrade fee UNLESS you drop the package within 30 days of adding it. And in that case, the fee is $10.

Since you are looking to drop it during non-baseball months, you should not see any fees for turning it off.

that's fair .. thanks for the clarification.

 

[shouchien]

The Sports Pack (or any premium channel package) has no downgrade fee UNLESS you drop the package within 30 days of adding it. And in that case, the fee is $10.

Since you are looking to drop it during non-baseball months, you should not see any fees for turning it off.

Thanks again for the clarification.
Now, this is totally worth the switch from E*.
But dont get me wrong. I love E* too.

 

[cariera]

Since I am only interested in YES Yankees baseball(Sport Package), am I able to add/drop the Premium Sport Package when the baseball season is up/over?

Is it even necessary to have the Sports Pack? You may get YES as your RSN. What is your zip code? Check out this page:

Local Regional Sports Network Information

It seems very unlikely, or improbable (but still possible) that you would need to sub to the Sports Pack to view games on YES.

If you get YES as your RSN, you would save that $12 year round.

 

[shouchien]

Is it even necessary to have the Sports Pack? You may get YES as your RSN. What is your zip code? Check out this page:

Local Regional Sports Network Information

It seems very unlikely, or improbable (but still possible) that you would need to sub to the Sports Pack to view games on YES.

If you get YES as your RSN, you would save that $12 year round.

Wait a minute here. Let me get this straight.

My zip is 06484. I believe it's in the NY territory.
And according to that link, I have quite a few RSNs including YES!
Does that mean I won't need the Sport Package in order to watch YES?

So I can still watch YES even if I do not live in this region? Let say I live in California, I CAN still have YES by subscribing the premium Sport Package?

Can someone explain this? I am kind of confused of the whole RSN thing.

 

[chazcbh]

Wait a minute here. Let me get this straight.

My zip is 06484. I believe it's in the NY territory.
And according to that link, I have quite a few RSNs including YES!
Does that mean I won't need the Sport Package in order to watch YES?

So I can still watch YES even if I do not live in this region? Let say I live in California, I CAN still have YES by subscribing the premium Sport Package?

Can someone explain this? I am kind of confused of the whole RSN thing.

If is says YES is part of your RSN you will have YES and Yankee games without the sports pack. With the sports pack if you don't live in the YES RSN you will get all the RSN's but the games will be blacked out unless you have the MLB package.

 

[shouchien]

If is says YES is part of your RSN you will have YES and Yankee games without the sports pack. With the sports pack if you don't live in the YES RSN you will get all the RSN's but the games will be blacked out unless you have the MLB package.

Let me rephrase.

Appearingly, zip 06484 does have YES(i will call to confirm before I do anything stupid again). So I guess I am the biggest sucker in the world then, trying to pay something for free things.

I CAN get YES if I live in California by subscribing to the MLB EXTRA INNINGS ($200 a season), no need to subscribe Sport Package.

What does Sport Package do then?

 

[chazcbh]

Let me rephrase.

Appearingly, zip 06484 does have YES(i will call to confirm before I do anything stupid again). So I guess I am the biggest sucker in the world then, trying to pay something for free things.

I CAN get YES if I live in California by subscribing to the MLB EXTRA INNINGS ($200 a season), no need to subscribe Sport Package.

What does Sport Package do then?

It lets you watch all the RSN's you get to see all the local sports shows and stuff like that. Thats about it. I like in NY and sometimes watch the sports shows in the Chicago area

 

[shouchien]

It lets you watch all the RSN's you get to see all the local sports shows and stuff like that. Thats about it. I like in NY and sometimes watch the sports shows in the Chicago area

So I guess I will drop the Sport Package then since I only watch Yankees' games. Again, I will call to confirm before doing anything stupid again. Also, guess I need to wait a minimum of one month before I do so.

chazcbh, cariera, jokeworm, and atp1313, thanks for all the help!!:up


Ouch, Wife's going to kill me for over-paying $10+ .........FOR NOTHING!!

 

[cariera]

Ouch, Wife's going to kill me for over-paying $10+ .........FOR NOTHING!!

The conversation should go something like this:

"Honey, I just found out how I can save us over $120 a year on our Directv bill and still get those Yankee games..."