Looking to switch to DIRECTV

[slammers2121]

I have been a Dish customer for about 12 years, friends of mine just got DIRECTV and I am now looking into getting it. I have always been happy with the technology that Dish has with their equipment (have the Hopper 3 and 3 4K Joeys now). However, when I look at my friends setup it looks like the picture quality with DIRECTV is so much better than mine. Plus, I just get bored with having the same service for so long! Have a few questions about what setup I would need with DIRECTV.

I have two rooms with 4K TVs and two rooms with normal HD. In looking at DIRECTV equipment I would need the Genie HD DVR(HR54 or later) and 3 of the wired or wireless Genie Mini's? From what I have read the DVR does not do 4K so that would have to go in one of my rooms that is not a 4K TV. Then, the rest of the mini's would go in the other rooms, is that correct? I think you can only watch one 4K programing at a time? I have been watching more and more 4K recently so 4K is important.

Also, what is the best way to order DIRECTV? Just calling them up, online?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mdram]

hr54 will feed max 3 tvs at a time, with one of them being 4k
the only 4k mini is the c61k, it must be wired

the hr54 has 5 tuners
if the minis are active, it has 2 left
turn it on and thats 1 left to record

there is no directv setup that can compete with what you have.

the new hs17, has 7 tuners, and can do 2 4k at a time. it has no video output of its own

 

[Techiefan]

I have been a Dish customer for about 12 years, friends of mine just got DIRECTV and I am now looking into getting it. I have always been happy with the technology that Dish has with their equipment (have the Hopper 3 and 3 4K Joeys now). However, when I look at my friends setup it looks like the picture quality with DIRECTV is so much better than mine. Plus, I just get bored with having the same service for so long! Have a few questions about what setup I would need with DIRECTV.

I have two rooms with 4K TVs and two rooms with normal HD. In looking at DIRECTV equipment I would need the Genie HD DVR(HR54 or later) and 3 of the wired or wireless Genie Mini's? From what I have read the DVR does not do 4K so that would have to go in one of my rooms that is not a 4K TV. Then, the rest of the mini's would go in the other rooms, is that correct? I think you can only watch one 4K programing at a time? I have been watching more and more 4K recently so 4K is important.

Also, what is the best way to order DIRECTV? Just calling them up, online?

Thanks in advance!

I had dish for a few years an loved the interface, speed and clients, but PQ sucked and still sucks, so DirecTV is the place to be for PQ. On the DTV hardware side it's not bad but not great, the new GUI is still in the improvement stage but working it's way to be better with each release. I have the HR54 and put it on the 1080P set, but I really only watch the 4K on my main TV and and media room, so really it's not needed everywhere. Not having one DTV 4k is not a big deal and if it is I suggest requesting the HS-17 which gives you two 4K feeds and once and the ability to have all 4K clients but if you need wireless then it's a mute point anyway, no 4K as said above.

 

[slammers2121]

Thanks for the info mdram and Techiefan.

 

[DR2242]

I had Directv for a long time, mostly because of the NFL Sunday Ticket. In November 2017, I cancelled and went to DISH. Had constant pixelation issues with Directv that went on for months and months and it never got resolved. I had techs here and nothing got fixed. I also saw where other people were complaining about the same thing and some still seem to be having some issues. Having had both I can say the Directv equipment doesn't come close to DISH, I've had zero issues since switching. I don't have any issue with the picture quality whatsoever on my Samsung 4K TV. I don't see any drastic difference in picture quality and I was just at a friends house this past Friday who has Directv. DISH might be a little softer but definitely nothing big enough to sway me in the other direction. I had too many issues with DIRECTV's clients, I didn't care for them at all. It's been nice not having pixelation and glitches with the receivers rebooting and such.

 

[robjlevin]

I have the same set up as you. I've got the HS17 with two 4K TVs with C61Ks and two other TVs with wireless clients. I'm perfectly happy with this set up. The wired 4K clients are every bit as good as any of the old DVRs I've had. The wireless clients are fine for where they are...in an office and a spare bedroom. If you can go wired, do so.

I wouldn't go by a lot of what you'd read here or on any other forum about the HS17. A lot of the issues there were with the original release have been fixed and many of them are complaints about the new user interface which you'll have with the HR54.

All that out of the way, I've read mixed messages as far as new customer installs of HS17 so the best advice is to call DirecTV and find out what they have to offer you.