Upgrade without contract extension?

[chgocolt]

I have 3 receivers, 2 HD and SD. I'm planning to replace the TV that has the SD receiver soon and want to upgrade to HD, but I don't want to extend my DirecTV contact. Is there some way to do it? I just got extended a couple months ago when I did the last upgrade to HD, and hate being locked into a contract that gives me no room for negotiation. (Honestly, I would consider a switch to Uverse when it gets to my area.)

 

[harshness]

There's very little chance that you'll avoid a "commitment" extension.

 

[JAG72]

If your contract was just extend a couple of months ago why not just upgrade with a contract again. If it was 2 months ago you are only adding 2 more months to what you have left on your commitment. You could outright buy the equipment from Directv but it might just be as cheap to pay the upgrade fee and any termination charges if you were to leave.

 

[Jkauf55]

My brother switched to Uverse last month and is back with DTV. It sucked A$$ when he got it. Dont know if its the area or the service or both, but it was Horrible!

 

[BlueEos]

I have 3 receivers, 2 HD and SD.

One thing you could do would be to dump the SD receiver (save $5 a month) and run the new HD from one of your present HD receivers. I assume you are using HDMI cabling at the moment so run the new set off the component side.

Actually, it might be easier for you to run the new set off an extended HDMI cable and run the present HD set off the components.

Of course, you will not be able to watch 2 different programs at the same time.

This is how I solved my problem and saved $5 a month at the same time. When I cancelled my SD box, DTV did NOT give me ANY grief about it (I was only 1 month into a 24 month contract.) DTV sent me a prepaid shipping box so it didn't cost me a penny to return the SD box.

I'm using a IR extender (Radio Shack et al.) coupled with an $8 IR remote I bought on eBay. Works great for changing the channels from the other room (about 30' away from the HD receiver).

Longer HDMI and component cabling can be bought at monoprice.com for a very reasonable cost.

 

[chgocolt]

My brother switched to Uverse last month and is back with DTV. It sucked A$$ when he got it. Dont know if its the area or the service or both, but it was Horrible!

Well can you be more specific than "sucked A$$"? Bad channel line up? Bad picture? Bad prices? They won't be ready in my area for about 9 more months. I'm hoping that the arrival of another competitor will help bring down the prices.

DTV has has too many weather disruptions and I don't like to be locked into a contract and a price. It also bugs me that they charge you for the box up front AND collect a monthly lease fee.

 

[RACJ2]

As someone already mentioned, adding an owned receiver will not extend your commitment. If you but from D* or solid signal, it will be several hundred dollars upfront. You can check eBay or Craigs list for someone selling an owned HD receiver or DVR. Although, you would need to verify with D* that its owned and could be activated, prior to buying it.

 

[cfb]

Just be careful when buying an 'owned' unit from ebay or craigslist. Get the receiver ID and call directv and verify with them that its an owned unit and not leased. About 90% of the 'owned' units people are selling are leased and they dont know it. When you try to activate it directv probably wont let you, if they do it'll count as a leased unit and you'll have to buy a new access card. The seller of the box will get charged the full price for the unit when they dont return it. You might also be responsible for any unpaid pay-per-views charged to the box.

Since the cost of a new owned HR box isnt that far off of the cost of the early termination fee, unless you're excited about owning a unit I'd suggest leasing with the contract extension.

As far as Uverse sucking, a lot of people in my area are having a lot of trouble with the installations. I havent heard many complaints about the service once its installed, but it seems the folks putting it in arent very experienced and its taking people 4-6 visits to get it working properly, and even then sometimes its not right.