This Sunday, I stab the Time Warner Cable beast and switch to Direct TV. I am a new member to this site and wanted to contribute with a play by play of my experience switching to Direct TV. I hope this will be helpful for others that are considering making the switch and will know what to expect.
1. 12-30-09: Researched TV options and picked Direct TV.
2. 12-31-09: I went to Direct TV's website and signed up there. It was a VERY easy sign up process and it only took about 10 minutes. They have an instant customer service chat option that helped out a lot. I could not find where to enter my referral number and through the chat the rep gave me the correct link. At the end of the sign up process, you get to pick the day of installation. I was surprised that I only had to wait 3 days and they would do an install on a Sunday! The install is scheduled for 1-3-10.
3. 1-1-10: The installer called at 10am on New Years Day to confirm the install!!! So far the customer service has been great and I am very impressed!
4. 1-3-10: The install is done with VERY mixed feelings. My appointment was for 8am-Noon, but because of the bad weather the installer did not get here until 2:30 which was understandable. I ordered the HD-DVR receiver but all he had was the much older silver HR20 model (is this a big deal, because it really bugs me and may be a deal breaker, am I missing features with this old model?). The installer was very nice and very professional BUT he did not put putty over the hole were the cables from the dish come inside the house. I could see a lot of light coming in through the hole, I am sure cold air and moisture is coming in to the house. He also left cables in the basement hanging down from the ceiling. My signal strength is 90-98 but I swear the dish is pointed right in to my roof so it just has to be an optical illusion as my signal strength looks good, though I only checked 101. On the very positive side, my picture is ten times better then with TWC. I am not exaggerating when I say the SD picture on Direct TV was as good as my HDTV picture with TWC. The Direct TV HD picture has vibrant crisp colors and NO picture artifacts with fast movement. From a picture stand point I am blown away by the improvement!
5. Reserved for future use
1. 12-30-09: Researched TV options and picked Direct TV.
2. 12-31-09: I went to Direct TV's website and signed up there. It was a VERY easy sign up process and it only took about 10 minutes. They have an instant customer service chat option that helped out a lot. I could not find where to enter my referral number and through the chat the rep gave me the correct link. At the end of the sign up process, you get to pick the day of installation. I was surprised that I only had to wait 3 days and they would do an install on a Sunday! The install is scheduled for 1-3-10.
3. 1-1-10: The installer called at 10am on New Years Day to confirm the install!!! So far the customer service has been great and I am very impressed!
4. 1-3-10: The install is done with VERY mixed feelings. My appointment was for 8am-Noon, but because of the bad weather the installer did not get here until 2:30 which was understandable. I ordered the HD-DVR receiver but all he had was the much older silver HR20 model (is this a big deal, because it really bugs me and may be a deal breaker, am I missing features with this old model?). The installer was very nice and very professional BUT he did not put putty over the hole were the cables from the dish come inside the house. I could see a lot of light coming in through the hole, I am sure cold air and moisture is coming in to the house. He also left cables in the basement hanging down from the ceiling. My signal strength is 90-98 but I swear the dish is pointed right in to my roof so it just has to be an optical illusion as my signal strength looks good, though I only checked 101. On the very positive side, my picture is ten times better then with TWC. I am not exaggerating when I say the SD picture on Direct TV was as good as my HDTV picture with TWC. The Direct TV HD picture has vibrant crisp colors and NO picture artifacts with fast movement. From a picture stand point I am blown away by the improvement!
5. Reserved for future use
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However, I find my HR20 does respond a bit faster than my HR23. Hopefully, the next software release will address this problem.
