switching from Direct TV to twc--los angeles

[Blueletter]

DTV wanted to charge me 400 bucks for a HD DVR and refused to run another coax cable in my wall to use 2 tuners on my dvr, so i am switiching to TWC--they are going to give us a motorola dvr i am told.

is this good? what should i expect? is picture quality good/worse than DTV?

thanks

 

[SPECIES11703]

DTV wanted to charge me 400 bucks for a HD DVR and refused to run another coax cable in my wall to use 2 tuners on my dvr, so i am switiching to TWC--they are going to give us a motorola dvr i am told.

is this good? what should i expect? is picture quality good/worse than DTV?

thanks

I had TWC Los Angeles a year ago with my Directv service. I cancelled Time Warner because of price issues and the crappy Dvr(Motorola) kept freezing on me. I would stay with Directv if I were you!

 

[LonghornXP]

I had TWC Los Angeles a year ago with my Directv service. I cancelled Time Warner because of price issues and the crappy Dvr(Motorola) kept freezing on me. I would stay with Directv if I were you!

This would be my suggestion for you but its your choice. Call TWC and order service from them but make sure they know you want a free install "and" you want to tech to keep your existing satellite wiring in place as you want to keep both services. I've very sure TWC won't have any problem with this at all even if you don't plan to keep both services. Just use the key words you want to continue to keep NFL Sunday Ticket even if you don't order it. This is a great excuse to be able to make a snap choice to switch back to DirecTV with just a phone call.

Once TWC is installed you are on a month to month service so you can cancel service anytime you wish. This will allow you to see the quality of the HDTV and see if you can stand the DVR. The Moto DVR isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be "but" that isn't saying the DVR is good either. It will just depend on if "you" think the few annoying bugs are worth the much lower price of the DVR.

So once your installed for TWC with your existing satellite jacks still in place you can just call DirecTV and ask them to put your account on hold. This will stop all billing for up to six months. If you find you cannot stand TWC for whatever reason just call DirecTV up and put your service off of hold. You shouldn't have needed to unplug your DirecTV boxes at all. If you stay with TWC and within the six months you find out your happy with TWC all you need to do is call DirecTV and cancel your account. If things change in a year after cancelling DirecTV you can always call DirecTV and start your service again with the same hardware you have now.

With all the above said I see no real valid reason to refuse to try TWC before you shell out 400 bucks for an HD DVR. Also the HD DVR should only be 299 for existing customers so even if they make the choice with DirecTV "do not" pay that 400 bucks. Also if you really like DirecTV and don't want to switch you can at the least call DirecTV and ask to speak to somebody in customer retention and they "might" be able to give a huge discount on that HD DVR. I've seen people get the HD DVR upgrade for free (20 bucks S&H customer had to pay though). Even if they didn't get it free I've seen people get it for well under 100 bucks. Just keep in mind that by getting an HD DVR (even at the normal price of 300 bucks) you will be starting a "new" two year contract with a pro-rated cancellation fee. Also if you cancel service at anytime (even well after that two year contract) you still must send back that HD DVR.

Just make sure you understand that you "WILL NOT" own that HD DVR from DirecTV and as such anytime you cancel service you "must" return that box to DirecTV or endup paying well over 400 bucks for not returning it. You are paying an upfront "lease" charge for the box. I just wanted to make sure you are very clear on that issue. Most people think its not a bad deal to pay 300 bucks to "own" the box like was done in the past. In the past you did own the box but not anymore.

 

[clapple]

Not in LA; but have TWC and Dish in Palm Desert. Tell TWC you want an 8300 DVR, not an old 8000. I have no complaints with TWC about PQ, DVR, or service. My only complaint is their not adding any new HD channels! EVER!!!

 

[Blueletter]

thanks for the thoughts. they told me that i would get a motorola box; not sure what model, but it has hdmi, so i guess fairly recent.

the PQ on DTV sucks--grainy, pixillated, on a 32" panasonic CRT!!! i gotta think that twc will be no worse, and i hope better. btw, the dtv dvr (non hdtv) SUCKS!! (the R15)