Yes It's Worth Screwing A Dish To Your Roof
Written: Jul 30 '03
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Pros: Crystal clear digital picture and sound, more program choices than cable at same price
Cons: Clumsy slow remote, complicated to record shows, no local weather, 12-mo. contract
The Bottom Line: Free equipment..Free installation..Free programming..Compared to cable you can't go wrong.
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| gryphon627's Full Review: RCA DS2122RD Single LNB DIRECTV System |
DirecTV has been recently running a promotion for a free two-room, two-receiver system with no charge for equipment or installation if you commit to 12 months of programming. Although it's hard for us guys to commit to anything, I did; and I'm glad. Here's why.
1. Cable service in the semi-rural area I live in plain sucks. Comcast is overpriced and the picture quality is snowy. The higher channels are worse than the lower, local channels. This looks like trash on the Samsung 27" EDTV we just bought (at the electronics store they clued us in on the DirecTV promo). The programming choices are boring and lack many of the interesting networks other cable carriers provide. Not only that, they seem to NEVER stop raising their rates. Started out with cable three years ago at $32.99 / mo., my bill is now $45.64 (basic) and doesn't show signs of slowing.
2. DirecTV now provides local channels included with what they call "Total Choice" programming. This channel line-up includes all of what cable offers plus many extras (some of my favorites are the Fuel channel and Speed). All this, plus fully digital picture and sound and several "Music Choice" music-only channels of all different types. I was wowed the first evening after installation when I tuned in and caught "Batman and Robin" on TBS..the contrast of the darkness in the backgrounds and the bright and vivid effects was breathtaking.
3. As an incentive for signing the contract as a new customer, DirecTV gives you two months of programming at no charge! Over the course of the contract ($44.99 x 10 = $449 per year, $37.49 per month!) it will be cheaper than cable and much better. Worth trying out for at least a year.
4. The DirecTV installation is painless..after we picked up the equipment at the store, the installers called the SAME NIGHT and our dish was hooked up by the next evening. It took them all of 30 minutes to get the hardware installed and wired up, then they put me on the phone with the DirecTV people, who tried to sell me premium channels, a monthly guide, etc. (which I declined to stay cost effective) and got my billing set up. After that, they stuck around a while and answered all my questions. Very professional and courteous.
5. The DirecTV receivers are handsome in and of themselves, and look right at home in the entertainment centers. They are not at all like the huge, unsightly beat-up cable boxes I'm used to.
6. DirecTV sells insurance for in-home service of equipment outside of the standard warranty. This, I think is overkill; the dish and receiever are not so expensive that you couldn't just pocket the money spent on insurance and buy new equipment if something happens to it.
All these factors makes trying DirecTV a no-brainer. Not that this is all krispy kreme and jewels though. What sucks is:
:( Now I have four different waldos (remotes) to control my A/V system. This may just be a problem that I have because my Satellite, TV, VCR/DVD combo, and audio theater system do not have codes to be compatible with each other. This gets troublesome when I just want to chill out on the couch and watch a movie because I always have to keep up with all four remotes. Ugh!
:( I am used to being able to jump to the Weather Channel and get my local forecast on the 8's. With satellite, there is this annoying little "I" icon (INTERACTIVE) that you have to select and it will give you a bare-bones forecast for, example, tonight and tomorrow. ("Partly Cloudy"). The Weather Channel, instead of showing the local forecast, shows national radar instead during this time. I understand why this is, with it being satellite and all, but it still stinks that you can't get personalized complete local forecast info like on cable.
:( Here's another petty little annoyance. The remote for DirecTV itself is huge and has more buttons than you need. It is not very user friendly and requires you to do finger-stretches to manipulate the buttons correctly. Plus, it is sometimes slow to react and causes you to instinctively repeat mashing the button until it works, which causes too much adjustment when it finally kicks in. Better keep that manual handy because you will need it to memorize and familiarize yourself with the many, many techie little features this system comes with.
:( Also, since the satellite operates on three-digit channel codes, your VCR will not auto-program the channels. To record a show, you first have to go through an intricate set-up menu for a program timer on the DirecTV screen. THEN you must set the VCR on channel 3 and set it to come on at the same time your program timer is set. Confusing? Troublesome? Of course! What's worse, you cannot set your VCR to record a show and then watch something different during that time as on cable. DirecTV MUST be on the same channel that is recording. ACK. I recommend the TIVO option to anyone who has a hectic schedule.
Summary: All in all, even with the small niggles I have been extremely happy with this system and have not at all encountered the problems other people report on losing signal in bad weather.. we have some rotten storms brew up here in the south along the Gulf of Mexico. There have been a couple of doozies here in the last week and I did not lose signal at all during them. Definitely more reliable than on again/ off again cable. I have not had to call the DirecTV people for a problem but they are very courteous when you do contact them. Besides the minor nit-picks, their programming is great, and gets better depending on how much you want to splurge (if you add the sports package and a movie package, you'll never leave the couch again!) There is a dish sticking out of my house on the south side, but besides that one unsightly blemish this is a beautiful thing and it's definitely worth it. That's my $.02, thanks.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 0.00
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Epinions.com ID:
gryphon627
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
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