Directv HD: Any good?

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by I Bleed Blu

You better double check everything their salespeople tell you regarding channels they say you will get like local's in HD and the national feeds in HD; I was flat out lied to and told I would be able to get both and could not get either. Needless to say I canceled immediately after I realized the guy lied to me and switched back to my basic cable w/ HD which is just about as good for a lot less. There still trying to get $300 out of me for canceling. Just be cautious.

yeah i just cancelled my DirecTV today:

(1) signed up for 54.99 package "HD INCLUDED"...got my bill: $84 (yep, the 54.99 is NOT with HD, its $10 extra)
(2) I live in FLA (lots thunderstorms) and salesperson said "no, they won't affect service, only hurricanes"...every bad T-storm knocks out service

[mgonzo2u]

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

Had Dtv a few years back. Was much better than cable THEN. We now have had cable (road runner, mediaone , att broadbad and now its called Comcast). Service is shit. Blocky, blotchy, dropped audio/video. Just pure crap. We are switching to Verizon Fios on the 28. All fiber network brand new - should be nice. 15/15 internet.

Everyone should have FIOS but its very rare around most of the US.

Those that have it, love it.

I would also love to have it but I also hate dealing with Verizon. They are a bunch of mf'rs in billing.

Catch 22

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by MozartMan

HD from satellite sucks because it is HD-Lite.

DirecTV - 1280×1080
Dish - 1440-1080.

I am glad I havd HD from Comcast.

Here is a good article:

Here’s what fake HD video looks like

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=962

Can anyone else confirm that Direct is 1280x1080? I have the HR20 set to Native resolution and when I hit the info button on my remote it shows the source as 1920x1080i (for 1080i broadcasts).

[Mr_Bester]

Originally Posted by schultz

Can anyone else confirm that Direct is 1280x1080? I have the HR20 set to Native resolution and when I hit the info button on my remote it shows the source as 1920x1080i (for 1080i broadcasts).

That article is old, all new channels are either 1920x1080 or 1280x720, the only HD Lite are the old MPeg 2 channels and those will be moving soon.

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by mgonzo2u

Everyone should have FIOS but its very rare around most of the US.

Those that have it, love it.

I would also love to have it but I also hate dealing with Verizon. They are a bunch of mf'rs in billing.

Catch 22

Sadly these days - you have to pick the lesser of the two evils. Comcast just plain sucks. Period. I have Verizon cell service and I will say - I have it WHERE EVER I go. Very rarely do I not get coverage unless I am literally - in the stix somewhere. I am talking in the middle of nowhere. 95% of the time, I have coverage. Of course I curse when a call is dropped or 411 is on the fritz, but I have had other carriers and it was 100 times worse.

As for FIOS.. I just watched them install all the lines in the neighborhood over the past 6-8 months. All that new equipment and fresh new fiber lines - it's gotta be nice! Comcast still uses copper and you know what? Their latest commercials are now telling their customers that they are using an all FIBER network. Umm, since when? I like how they have not mentioned this SINCE Verizon is in town.

Idiots. I get better internet, nice new fiber lines, no signal loss ( we have 5 televisions with DVR HD boxes) and pay about the same every month when installed. I can't complain. I will see how it is. Can't be any worse than the crap we have now!

[Psiweaver]

Yeah the Fios is nice except the boxes for TV suck and are really unreliable.

All of our clients have DirecTV as their primary source. The boxes lock up a fair amount but the picture is far and away better than cable, be it time warner/comcast.

What a lot of our customers did for a long time was have both cable for their local HD's and DirecTV for everything else but most have transitioned over to exclusively DirecTV. In addition Direct is bringing back Tivo branded boxes with tivo menus so that will make a big difference.

[gearyt]

My secret to getting a great picture was to take out of native, set for either 720p or 1080i ( your preference ). Made a great difference, plus did not have to wait for the HD to make up its mind. I have done this for over 14 receivers and works well

[Brian Cash]

yeah i got direct tv not happy with the service at all went to comcast hundred times better

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by gearyt

My secret to getting a great picture was to take out of native, set for either 720p or 1080i ( your preference ). Made a great difference, plus did not have to wait for the HD to make up its mind. I have done this for over 14 receivers and works well

I used to have my set to 1080i, but had heard many times at AVS and dbstalk that setting your receiver to native gave you the best picture. This is due to newer HDTV's being better at converting the signal to THEIR native resolution. For example, with native off and 720p selected, a 1080i broadcast is brought down to 720p and then up to 1080p for a native 1080p TV. Let me know if I am off on this, but I did a lot of research on this. It does suck that it has to make up it's mind though with native on.

[rub]

I had Fios TV and it never worked. I spent most of my time on the phone with their support. I switched to Directv and it rocks. The HD is great. I have the Dual tuner HD DVR receiver in my main room and it is very nice. However, I noticed that I still get the HD channels on my standard receivers in my other rooms. The HD channels don't look very good at all when they come thru the standard receivers because they are not really HD when that happens.

Something similar happened to my parents. They have Comcast. They got an HD tv and upgraded their Comcast to HD. They called me and said they couldn't tell the difference. I stopped by and found out that the cable guy installed a standard def receiver with coax to the tv. I called Comcast and gave em hell. They fixed it a week later and now my parents are happy.

[gearyt]

Originally Posted by schultz

I used to have my set to 1080i, but had heard many times at AVS and dbstalk that setting your receiver to native gave you the best picture. This is due to newer HDTV's being better at converting the signal to THEIR native resolution. For example, with native off and 720p selected, a 1080i broadcast is brought down to 720p and then up to 1080p for a native 1080p TV. Let me know if I am off on this, but I did a lot of research on this. It does suck that it has to make up it's mind though with native on.

sometime research does harm... too many opinions. and some things are subjective. Try it yourself and let me know what YOU think !!

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by gearyt

sometime research does harm... too many opinions. and some things are subjective. Try it yourself and let me know what YOU think !!

It was hard to see a difference. I noticed that, with native off, during sports games, like football, when they show a shot of the stadium, it would pulse. When native is on, it seems to fix this. I leave native on because I assume my TV can do a better job of upscaling than the receiver. Is there a way to test this?

[gearyt]

Originally Posted by schultz

It was hard to see a difference. I noticed that, with native off, during sports games, like football, when they show a shot of the stadium, it would pulse. When native is on, it seems to fix this. I leave native on because I assume my TV can do a better job of upscaling than the receiver. Is there a way to test this?

AH HA !!!

see, here we are, I'm a movie guy, not a sports buff ! And not watching the high speed live stuff I have never seen what you have.. I primarly watch movies ( blu-ray ) and TV series over Sat.

It also could be the differert technologies we use, I am on Plasma

[flynnt]

Originally Posted by gearyt

My secret to getting a great picture was to take out of native, set for either 720p or 1080i ( your preference ). Made a great difference, plus did not have to wait for the HD to make up its mind. I have done this for over 14 receivers and works well

Ah yeah, I remember experimenting with and without native mode. Didn't make a difference. And I also set it to 720p. Again, no difference.

Though the earlier post asking about whether anyone came out to install a new dish is an interesting question. I don't know if they did, I'll have to ask her. I know someone came out to setup the new DVR (since the upgrade required a newer DVR (she previously had the TiVo based DVR)).

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by gearyt

AH HA !!!

see, here we are, I'm a movie guy, not a sports buff ! And not watching the high speed live stuff I have never seen what you have.. I primarly watch movies ( blu-ray ) and TV series over Sat.

It also could be the differert technologies we use, I am on Plasma

What resolution do you set your receiver at and what is your TV's native resolution?

[mgonzo2u]

Originally Posted by flynnt

Ah yeah, I remember experimenting with and without native mode. Didn't make a difference. And I also set it to 720p. Again, no difference.

Though the earlier post asking about whether anyone came out to install a new dish is an interesting question. I don't know if they did, I'll have to ask her. I know someone came out to setup the new DVR (since the upgrade required a newer DVR (she previously had the TiVo based DVR)).

Did they really bring her an HD DVR?

Share the model with us and we can tell you if its new or not.

Also, she needs a 5 LNB dish for the latest HD line up from DTV.

[flynnt]

Originally Posted by mgonzo2u

Did they really bring her an HD DVR?

Share the model with us and we can tell you if its new or not.

Also, she needs a 5 LNB dish for the latest HD line up from DTV.

I'll see if I can get that info from her when she gets back from work tonight and let ya know.

[gearyt]

Originally Posted by schultz

What resolution do you set your receiver at and what is your TV's native resolution?

If I am correct, tv = 1080p I like my receiver at 1080i
hey ... just noticed new smileys

also, if you didn't have the new dish, you wouldn't capture the new HD sat at all. Not bad pic... no pic

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by gearyt

If I am correct, tv = 1080p I like my receiver at 1080i
hey ... just noticed new smileys

also, if you didn't have the new dish, you wouldn't capture the new HD sat at all. Not bad pic... no pic

[key420]

I had comcast before I got on w/ DTV and comcast's regular SD channels were horrible. It might have been the lines, but there was great looking channels, ok looking, and horrible looking channels. DTV HD service has been great for me. I did have trouble w/ billing, but I worked it out w/ their customer service.