What took me so long?

[rprice54]

Well, yesterday we made the jump from E* to D*. For a long time, E* was just cheaper for our setup- we could run two rooms of the DVR without any additional fees. We got in one their early HD only packages and saved some cash.

Then they took away a few channels. Then the receiver died. Then it died again. Then it died again, and then they took away more channels. The "retention specialist" made zero effort to keep our business. he told me D* would cost more, I told him he was wrong. I asked for a different box, for a different package, and he said "no."

I had always heard the dish DVRs were better equip, and I may be comparing an old 622 to the new HR24 I just got, but wow. I feel like I just moved from a kids toy to a cutting edge DVR. This thing is way faster and overall feels more polished. I will say the DVR on Dish was very intuitive and easier to use, but once I found where different things are I'm happy. I will miss the PIP built into the Dish boxes, though.

I do like that my H24 has wall mounting screw holes on the bottom, it will be installed behind my next flatscreen for a nice/clean install. I already have a little tray where the Wii is installed behind the TV.

No questions here, really. Just a happy switcher welcoming myself to the club. I'm getting about twice as many channels (that I will actually watch) for the same money with better equipment. Hopefully better reliability too...

 

[jaj1701]

Congrats on the move.

Something was making me "want" to sign up for E* over D*, I think a lot of it being the 922. I was going to have to do things like getting their basic 211 receivers and adding ext. hard drives just to get the costs inline.

Then, I did the logical thing and signed up for D* with the HD for life, 2nd yr 14/mo discount, and the BING and Best Buy rebates making the decisions to sign up EXTREMELY easy.

24hr in and everything is great!

ENJOY!

 

[Mr Tony]

congrats on coming to the "good side"

Been with D* for 4+ months now and LOVE it

 

[Harley3971]

Welcome. I just made the switch on 6/26, couldn't be happier. Love the equipment and the service. Can't wait for the E* return boxes to get here.

 

[tigerfan33]

Mine being installed as I type. Two HR24 and a H24. Basically the same setup I had with Dish but all equipment was free and will be cheaper in the short and long run. The HR24 is what made me came back. Iwould have never thought a dvr would make me switch back to Direct. LOL

 

[stonecold]

Also that the D* form is at least twice as good as the E* forum.

 

[tvropro]

So far my Direct experience has been good. It's only been a week and a half so far, but from the install on a good experience. I would never give Charlie Ergen of Dish one penny for what he did to c band and 4DTV.

 

[tigerfan33]

Also that the D* form is at least twice as good as the E* forum.

I have noticed more people in the Direct forum than in the past. I have a feeling numbers will get bigger and bigger.

 

[ryotgz]

Also that the D* form is at least twice as good as the E* forum.

That and the general mood seems better. Not as much thread crapping by some bitter Dish customers

 

[SpaethCo]

I have noticed more people in the Direct forum than in the past. I have a feeling numbers will get bigger and bigger.

The way DirecTV matched Dish's "Free HD for Life" campaign and is throwing money around, I have to agree.

I've been considering switching for a while now to get full-time HD RSNs, but after I calculated out the savings it pushed me to get on the ball.

(from my post in the E* forum):

I was going to wait until after the E*15 launch to see what Dish was going to do with HD RSNs (if anything), but the discounts right now are huge:

Credits
---------
$24/mo (months 1-12) New sub credit (months 13-24 = $14/mo)
$5/mo (months 1-12) Credit for submitting rebate online
$10/mo (life?) HD free for Life credit
$10/mo (months 1-10) Refer-a-friend credit
$5/mo (life?) First receiver lease credit


Charges
-----------
$63.99 Choice Xtra
$10 HD Access
$10 Receiver lease fees (2 x HR24 DVRs)
$7 DVR fee
$3 MRV fee
$4.99 HD Extra pack (really like Palladia)

So for almost the whole first year my $98.98 bill is offset by $54 in credits. In year 2 that goes to $29/mo in credits, then $15/mo in credits perpetually after that. So $44.98, $69.98, $83.98 respective bills.

With Dish I was on AT250 with HD & Platinum (which became just Platinum with HD Free for Life) and a single 722. So my costs were:

$64.99 AT250
$10 HD Platinum (really like Palladia)
$6 DVR Fee

So I'm leaving an $80.99 bill for a bill that will be $83.98 in a couple years. (or comparable after they both do their lock-step price increases) For the next 24 months, however, the savings almost make me question D*'s business model.

So I moved up from a single receiver to a pair of HR24s, I get Fox Sports North in full-time HD, I'll be able to get Center Ice with more HD games, and I save nearly 50% over what I was paying with E* for almost the whole first year.

DirecTV's deep discount strategy definitely worked on getting me to switch, but they're giving out new subs a much better deal than I was expecting.

 

[jaj1701]

The way DirecTV matched Dish's "Free HD for Life" campaign and is throwing money around, I have to agree.

I've been considering switching for a while now to get full-time HD RSNs, but after I calculated out the savings it pushed me to get on the ball.


So I moved up from a single receiver to a pair of HR24s, I get Fox Sports North in full-time HD, I'll be able to get Center Ice with more HD games, and I save nearly 50% over what I was paying with E* for almost the whole first year.

DirecTV's deep discount strategy definitely worked on getting me to switch, but they're giving out new subs a much better deal than I was expecting.

Hello up there from down in Rochester. Basically the same logic I used. Gopher in Hockey is 100% HD this year....I couldn't trust DISH to always air it in HD. Same with the out of networks, as I'll probably do Sports Pack to watch out of area games.

The Discounts were amazing. Come on a 2nd year rebate, the matching of the HD for life, then for me the Best Buy TV rebate was huge too. I'd been wanting D* for a LONG time (two years plus of only local channels), and this seemed like the perfect storm and made the decision VERY easy for me.

If I would have signed up for DISH, there would have been so many compromises so that I could have afforded it. Most major purchases, I have at least a bit of buyers remorse, especially with a 2 year commit. NOT EVEN CLOSE THIS TIME.

Congrats to you and the OP......welcome to DirecTV! (like I'm some type of damn ambassador after my 24hrs of service).

 

[tigerfan33]

Install went well. Nice guy but had to come here to get some REAL answers. Absolutely blown away by the HR24. The RF works better than my 622. Called Dish to cancel as soon as everything was working properly. They asked if I would reconsider and threw some kind of credit at me. I said no thanks and then he asked if I realized how much my Direct bill would be my second year. (Damn Charlie at least do your homework if your going to use this!!). Even my third year I will be saving $15 if Dish billing stays the same. I can't see a BIG difference in pq. I think both are really good. All my sat readings are mid 90s to 100. Will be interesting on rain fade as I had pretty good luck with Dish.

 

[stonecold]

What funny is for some people especially ones that been with dish for quite some time now they have a couple of vip series recievers and there bill is way high compared to dtv. dish wins on package price but looses every else .

 

[wicked]

What funny is for some people especially ones that been with dish for quite some time now they have a couple of vip series recievers and there bill is way high compared to dtv. dish wins on package price but looses every else .

You looked sharp today on UFC..

BTW I agree with you..

 

[blts]

Congrats on the move.

Something was making me "want" to sign up for E* over D*, I think a lot of it being the 922. I was going to have to do things like getting their basic 211 receivers and adding ext. hard drives just to get the costs inline.

Then, I did the logical thing and signed up for D* with the HD for life, 2nd yr 14/mo discount, and the BING and Best Buy rebates making the decisions to sign up EXTREMELY easy.

24hr in and everything is great!

ENJOY!

How did you get the $14 2nd year discount? Is it just for certain area's? I'm getting ready to switch too but I will have to add dish during the baseball season for just their superstation package so I can still watch some of the Met's games when they are on WPIX. Dish is coming out to upgrade my system this week (I figured I should get something out of them before I leave) and then I will be switching to Direct. I wish I could drop Dish completley but there is no other way to watch the Mets when they are on a local channel with Direct.

 

[Mr Tony]

I wish I could drop Dish completley but there is no other way to watch the Mets when they are on a local channel with Direct

last I checked they were on the RSN Alt channels (the WPIX games)

 

[jaj1701]

How did you get the $14 2nd year discount? Is it just for certain area's? I'm getting ready to switch too but I will have to add dish during the baseball season for just their superstation package so I can still watch some of the Met's games when they are on WPIX. Dish is coming out to upgrade my system this week (I figured I should get something out of them before I leave) and then I will be switching to Direct. I wish I could drop Dish completley but there is no other way to watch the Mets when they are on a local channel with Direct.

Unfortunately, yes, it is regional.

If you look at my "what did you get for promotions" thread, you'll see about 50% of the people that responded that recently signed up for directv got the 2nd year.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/218763-poll-discounts-promos-did-you-get.html

 

[rprice54]

I didn't get the second year discount (regional) , but a friend of mine works for a national retailer for D* and he was able to swing an additional $5/mo and a $150 gift card. Now I just need to find a deal on the Sunday Ticket!!!

I finally got the internet working as well, and I finally got some time to play with the new equipment. So far, the only hiccup has been with recorded shows and the Dolby Digital stream to my Onkyo 3007 receiver. About every 10 min or so there's a very slight drop in the audio. I kind of knew this was coming, from avsforums.com, it seems to be a known incompatibility between the D* equip and the receiver. I changed the audio to PCM and the problem goes away, most of the stuff we're watching is stereo anyways, I can turn on the 5.1 when I need it I guess. It doesn't happen live, only on recorded videos. I guess it's how the stream is recorded and processed off the hard drive. Who knows if it will affect VOD, I'm guessing it will.

But the HR24 is very fast and responsive, the PQ seems to be great, and the overall interface is much better than what I'm used to.

 

[jaj1701]

I didn't get the second year discount (regional) , but a friend of mine works for a national retailer for D* and he was able to swing an additional $5/mo and a $150 gift card. Now I just need to find a deal on the Sunday Ticket!!!

I finally got the internet working as well, and I finally got some time to play with the new equipment. So far, the only hiccup has been with recorded shows and the Dolby Digital stream to my Onkyo 3007 receiver. About every 10 min or so there's a very slight drop in the audio. I kind of knew this was coming, from avsforums.com, it seems to be a known incompatibility between the D* equip and the receiver. I changed the audio to PCM and the problem goes away, most of the stuff we're watching is stereo anyways, I can turn on the 5.1 when I need it I guess. It doesn't happen live, only on recorded videos. I guess it's how the stream is recorded and processed off the hard drive. Who knows if it will affect VOD, I'm guessing it will.

But the HR24 is very fast and responsive, the PQ seems to be great, and the overall interface is much better than what I'm used to.

That's cool. I didn't know local resellers had add'l monthly discounts they could offer. Was that extra $5 for a year? The $150 certainly was nice. Sounds like you did very well. Congrats.