DirecTV Vs. Dish Network- Directv's receivers SUCK

[herkulease]

the DECA is not some box to let you connect just to the internet. that deca allows you to network all your receivers so you don't have to run any extra cat5/6 cables.

If your home is already networked. You don't need deca You just pay 3 bucks a month for whole home dvr. You just won't be "officially" supported. there are plenty of forums to help you.

If you don't want whole home dvr and just want on demand stuff. Plug your internet connection into the network port and you'll be fine. You can use a wireless bridge if you want to.

 

[Fritzo]

just got off the phone with CS. Hopefully they'll have everything straightened out by Sat.

 

[KentState]

Yeah I just looked at the HD DVR and their newest model, the HR24 does indeed have an ethernet plug right on the back. You wouldn't know this because you're apparently still too lazy to look.

I do see this AM21 thing that they say you need, so maybe you live in a strange market and your local channels are not exactly the same as what is normally on there, but they should still have the same shows, etc. save for maybe news shows.

The whole home DVR doesn't work that way. It just isn't as simple as hooking up the dvr's to the internet and away you go. Yes, to get the on-demand downloads you can simply hook it up like you are inferring.

 

[Numenorean]

The whole home DVR doesn't work that way. It just isn't as simple as hooking up the dvr's to the internet and away you go. Yes, to get the on-demand downloads you can simply hook it up like you are inferring.

From what it says they just need to all be on the same network. What's the big problem?

 

[smitbret]

*sigh* you're one of those "I'm smarter 'n this one, watch me bash 'im!" posters, aren't you.

Try to understand this...I'll type slow and break it down into steps:

1- wanted to save money, went to Directv to take advantage of their 1/2 off 1 year special.

OK? With me so far? Great.

2- Called their customer service, told them what I needed, they told me the equipment they had that would do what Dish's 722 receiver would do.

3- Looked online, they listed two receivers with dual tuners. I needed 4 TV's set up, and according to the rep, this would do the trick.

4- With Dish, a two tuner unit will service two TV's. With DTV's new whole home DVR unit (JUST RELEASED), it does not---it only records two shows at once. Their rep did not know this, I did not know this, and apperenetly a lot of other people didn't either.

Still with me? I know this is a lot of reading for you...

5- After that mess was settled, now it turns out for this unit they have to send a special box to you to allow Internet access to the receiver. This was not listed on the order nor on their website, but has since been added. I just got off the phone with CS, and they're sending me this box for free due to the mixup.

6- There's a lot of hoops to jump through for their "flagship" DVR, and Dish has everything built in. Poor.

That's it. This isn't a case of "I pressed the buy button and didn't read anything", this is a case of poor equipment designed to nickel and dime fees out of you.

Yep, they got me too in almost exactly the same way about a year and a half ago. The salesperson KNEW exactly what I wanted (compared to the Dish setup that I had). I verified it two or three times. Not to mention that DirecTV didn't offer my local stations at the time. When I brought up that point, the greasy salesperson told me that I would just pay an additional $50 to the installer and he would do a hardware upgrade that allowed me to receive them. When the installer got here, he looked at me like I was on crack. I went through with the install cuz he showed me how to hook up an external antenna and get it through the receiver. Figured $50 to the installer or $50 for an antenna was pretty much spades. It wasn't until three days later when I tried to rewind a program on my bedroom tv that I realized I had DVR on only one TV. Think DirecTV gave a crap when I called them? Nope. Cost me $460 to break my contract after signing up with DirecTV for one week. Was it worth it to get that slimeball company out of my house? You bet your sweet ass it was. Will I ever consider DirecTV again? Nope. Do I intentionally bad mouth DirecTV at any opportunity? Yep. Do I feel any less resentment today than I did a year and a half ago? Nope. I hope that I hate those fuckers forever.

I realize that Dish has probably done the same thing to someone, somewhere down the line, but that was my experience. Not to mention, when I called Dish up to tell them how badly I had messed up by switching, they reactivated me, upgraded me to the next highest package at no additional charge, waived all fees for DVR, fees for reception of my locals and fees for not having a phone connection. Got Cinemax for $0.01/month and three months of HBO & Showtime. Total cost for America's Top 200, including HD silver, DVR, Locals and all taxes and fees...... $52/month.

Oh yeah, and if I need to set my DVR from my phone, I just go to www.dishnetwork.com with my phone and set it. Who gives a shit about the stupid app.

Fuck you DirecTV.

 

[GeekDrew]

The sales reps at both DirecTV and DISH lie. It's well known. Lesson learned: don't trust a sales guy. EVER. FOR ANY REASON.

I have friends that have DISH, and I have DirecTV. There's no way I'd ever go to DISH -- I absolutely hate their receiver interface, and the way their receivers hook up to the TVs (two TVs to a single receiver) makes me want to murder an engineer.

With DirecTV:

If you're wanting to use their whole-home product, yes, you need the DECA adapter. While the receivers do have RJ45 jacks for network connection, they are designed to be used strictly for internet connectivity, not for streaming video. Some folks have gotten it to work that way, without any problem - and some haven't. DirecTV's position is that if you can get it to work, fine, they'll activate whole-home DVR services on your account, but they'll set an unsupported flag on your account. If you want them to support your whole-home service, you need to have them install the DECA adapters.

Someone mentioned an AM21 -- that is for receiving over-the-air programming (from a broadcast antenna). The vast majority of DirecTV customers don't need it, as local channels are rebroadcast on satellite channels. If you do need an AM21, that's an extra charge for the device (though DirecTV will frequently reduce its price or provide credits to make it free), and you're responsible for the antenna and cabling from the antenna to the AM21.

With the whole-home service, you can have two active HD tuners per HD DVR operating at any time - be it recording something or watching something. On top of that, you can be watching something on the TV connected to that DVR, and additionally streaming something from it to another HD DVR or HD Receiver elsewhere on the DECA network. Each set top box connects to only one TV, but a DVR can provide service to multiple TVs (and that is what they are marketing) because you can access that DVR's functionality from any HD Receiver on the DECA network.

As far as remotely scheduling records, they do have apps, and you can also schedule recordings from the DirecTV website, without any app.

Why do people believe sales agents? :cry;

<edit>
Re-reviewing the thread, and have additional comments:

Also, why do you need an RF remote? IR will work for most people.

For what it's worth - the whole-home DVR service works with any of their recent HD DVRs -- you do not need the latest and greatest DVR to make it work. The main advantage of the latest DVR is just speed - there's no functionality change between them.

 

[GoSharks]

Also, why do you need an RF remote? IR will work for most people.

RF remotes are really nice. Have you ever used one? Great for watching tv under the covers.

 

[dawp]

Also, why do you need an RF remote? IR will work for most people.

No, they wont if the DVR is in another room than where you're watching TV. that's the thing with the dish system I had, the DVR was in the living room and for the bedroom, the RF remote worked perfectly. there was no box in the bedroom.

 

[dabuddha]

Dish can lick my ass. Freaking nickle and dime you to death. My $25 a month plan costs me almost $60 bucks when all is said and done.

 

[GeekDrew]

RF remotes are really nice. Have you ever used one? Great for watching tv under the covers.

I hadn't thought about that particular tv watching position, but it makes sense. And yeah, once upon a time, I had an RF remote - just never found any reason (until now) why IR wouldn't work.

No, they wont if the DVR is in another room than where you're watching TV. that's the thing with the dish system I had, the DVR was in the living room and for the bedroom, the RF remote worked perfectly. there was no box in the bedroom.

I knew about that with DISH, I was referring to DirecTV. With DTV, you control the remote DVR(s) just by using your local HD Receiver (which could be an IR or RF remote). You don't command it remotely w/ an RF remote. And does RF *really* work that well with DISH? I've heard complaints from a lot of people that owned them, saying that they only worked occasionally.

 

[dawp]

I never had any issues when I had it, but it may have been because the dvr was directly above my bed and the signal only had to travel through the floor.

 

[Fritzo]

RF remotes are really nice. Have you ever used one? Great for watching tv under the covers.

Not only that, but my receiver is not in line of site in a couple of rooms.

 

[Fritzo]

I hadn't thought about that particular tv watching position, but it makes sense. And yeah, once upon a time, I had an RF remote - just never found any reason (until now) why IR wouldn't work.



I knew about that with DISH, I was referring to DirecTV. With DTV, you control the remote DVR(s) just by using your local HD Receiver (which could be an IR or RF remote). You don't command it remotely w/ an RF remote. And does RF *really* work that well with DISH? I've heard complaints from a lot of people that owned them, saying that they only worked occasionally.

Sometimes the rf works too well...when my neighbors get new installs they can change my channels until I adjust my remote channel

I called dtv and canceled today...got in under the 24hr window, so no charges.

 

[morkman100]

DECA is just DirecTV's name for MOCA I think. Basically ethernet over coax. Most people don't have ethernet ports near their receivers so they basically assume that everyone requires it. I think it's $50-100 to install (it's a new switch that interfaces with your router). If you have ethernet already there, just tell them you don't need it and then they need to add MRV (mutli-room viewing) to your acct, which is $3 per month I think.

 

[morkman100]

the DECA is not some box to let you connect just to the internet. that deca allows you to network all your receivers so you don't have to run any extra cat5/6 cables.

If your home is already networked. You don't need deca You just pay 3 bucks a month for whole home dvr. You just won't be "officially" supported. there are plenty of forums to help you.

If you don't want whole home dvr and just want on demand stuff. Plug your internet connection into the network port and you'll be fine. You can use a wireless bridge if you want to.

Yeah, they probably won't officially support it without their own equipment since they have no control over your whole ethernet wiring and/or networking gear. They don't want to have to fix someone's router issue.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

DECA is just DirecTV's name for MOCA I think. Basically ethernet over coax. Most people don't have ethernet ports near their receivers so they basically assume that everyone requires it. I think it's $50-100 to install (it's a new switch that interfaces with your router). If you have ethernet already there, just tell them you don't need it and then they need to add MRV (mutli-room viewing) to your acct, which is $3 per month I think.

It's more like $199 for the switch and installation. At least, that's what I recall them quoting me when I wanted to enable WHDVR (even though I already had ethernet and was in the beta test for a year). The hidden cost of that install is that it also means an automatic contract extension as well for at least 1 year. If you have the the ethernet cables, go that route. No contract extension is required. If you don't have ethernet I've read that many have had success with powerline adapters.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I just switched from Dish to Direct, and wow was I mislead.

With Dish, you have a two tuner DVR, and it lets you hook up to two TV's, and you can watch recordings on either TV.

With Directv, you have a two tuner DVR, but it can only hook up to ONE TV (despite having two tuners), and you need to hook up an extra box in each room where you want service, and they charge you $5/pop. Then on top of that it's an extra $25 each for RF remotes- which Dish included for free.

I really got mislead on the sales line, and now I feel like I got screwed

You were misled by the lack of your own research. I bet you could have gotten a lot of info from folks over at DBStalk. Also, isn't there a backout period? I'm pretty sure there is.

 

[Fritzo]

You were misled by the lack of your own research. I bet you could have gotten a lot of info from folks over at DBStalk. Also, isn't there a backout period? I'm pretty sure there is.

Their whole home DVR just came out of beta, and there's not a lot of info on it...and if you call a company asking about their products, you'd think you'd get the right answers.

When I called back about their mistakes in the systems capabilities I got a lot of "Oh really? Huh! I didn't realize that" responses. My sales team at work would be taken off the phones if they had product knowledge like that.

Anyway, you had 24 hours to back out, and I called then at the 18 hour mark, so I'm off the hook.

Now took wait for Google TV on Dish Network

 

[GeekDrew]

DECA is just DirecTV's name for MOCA I think. Basically ethernet over coax. Most people don't have ethernet ports near their receivers so they basically assume that everyone requires it. I think it's $50-100 to install (it's a new switch that interfaces with your router). If you have ethernet already there, just tell them you don't need it and then they need to add MRV (mutli-room viewing) to your acct, which is $3 per month I think.

You can do that, but it will be unsupported, and some people can't get that to reliably work. I already had multiple Ethernet drops near my receivers, but I'm using DECA.

 

[GeekDrew]

Their whole home DVR just came out of beta, and there's not a lot of info on it...and if you call a company asking about their products, you'd think you'd get the right answers.

When I called back about their mistakes in the systems capabilities I got a lot of "Oh really? Huh! I didn't realize that" responses. My sales team at work would be taken off the phones if they had product knowledge like that.

Sales folks that know what they're talking about? Surely you jest. I've yet to meet any sales guys that can accurately represent the product. In any market.

 

[Modelworks]

The biggest issue for me with directv receivers is the cpu is underpowered. They designed the receiver before Dish did theirs and as a result used a much slower cpu. Playback and feature wise they both are about the same. You will notice the difference on directv though in the menus and guide.

Directv has an app on their site called directv2pc that will let you watch whatever is on the home DVR on other pc in the home. No you cannot save the content on the pc, it is fully drm protected so it is watch only.

RF remote, both direct and dish ship with them. Most people don't realize that the remote they have for direct is probably already RF , it just isn't enabled by default. If the model of your remote in the upper left corner is RC24, RC32RF, RC34, RC64R, or RC64RB then it is both IR & RF.

Instructions for enabling it are here:
http://www.directv.com/learn/pdf/Remote_Controls/DIRECTVRC64RforWeb.pdf

 

[GeekDrew]

The biggest issue for me with directv receivers is the cpu is underpowered. They designed the receiver before Dish did theirs and as a result used a much slower cpu. Playback and feature wise they both are about the same. You will notice the difference on directv though in the menus and guide.

Do you still think that this is the case for the HR-24? I bought one immediately after they were released, and it absolutely flies -- no lag at all.

 

[Anubis]

threads like this are not helping me think about moving to sat

 

[Fritzo]

threads like this are not helping me think about moving to sat

Dish Network is probably the best TV provider I've ever worked with. I wouldn't worry with them.

 

[GeekDrew]

Dish Network is probably the best TV provider I've ever worked with. I wouldn't worry with them.

Inversely, DirecTV is by far the best TV provider I've ever worked with. I wouldn't worry with them.