OT: thinking of switching to Direct TV for NFL Sunday Ticket (comments appreciated)

[brdmaverick]

Satellite prices are cheaper, there is already a dish on my condo, so I'm thinking of switching to direct tv and getting Sunday ticket.

The only thing that concerns me is losing reception with bad weather.

I record the pats games every week and recording quality is a big thing with me.

So I guess what I'm looking for is feedback from satellite users in Massachusetts.

Have you guys had problems with your satellite. Is it worth investing in? Have you had problems with losing a signal. how often?

 

[Alk]

Well, I'm not from Mass (I live in Kansas) but I have been very pleased with my dish. I'm not going to lie, you do lose signal in REALLY bad storms but those times are few and far between. I've had sunday ticket for 3 seasons and have never missed a second of a game due to losing signal.

 

[coltshater]

Satellite prices are cheaper, there is already a dish on my condo, so I'm thinking of switching to direct tv and getting Sunday ticket.

The only thing that concerns me is losing reception with bad weather.

I record the pats games every week and recording quality is a big thing with me.

So I guess what I'm looking for is feedback from satellite users in Massachusetts.

Have you guys had problems with your satellite. Is it worth investing in? Have you had problems with losing a signal. how often?

I have had Direct TV for 4 years. It definately is less money than cable, and if you can believe it, at least as reliable as cable. I would say on average that I lose the signal 2 or 3 times a year. Usually during extremely heavy rainfall, and the situation lasts from a few minutes to up to 1-2 hours.

If you are worried about getting satellite because of this issue, you should relax as it is not nearly the issue that the cable companies would have you believe.

 

[cblesz]

Direct TV sucks

Direct TV sucks. I live in Los Angeles and the only reason I have Direct TV is for Sunday ticket to watch the Pats. When I got an HDTV, I got the games in HD for 2 weeks. Then, Direct TV decides they want to charge extra for NFL games in HD. So, in addition to the ridiculous cost of Sunday ticket, if you want to watch games in HD, you need to pay a lot more.

Direct TV nickels and dimes you to death. There is a monthly fee for HD, for local channels, for each receiver and on and on and on. As soon as their exclusive contract is up with the NFL and I can get the Pats on cable out here, I am done with Direct TV.

 

[Alk]

Direct TV sucks. I live in Los Angeles and the only reason I have Direct TV is for Sunday ticket to watch the Pats. When I got an HDTV, I got the games in HD for 2 weeks. Then, Direct TV decides they want to charge extra for NFL games in HD. So, in addition to the ridiculous cost of Sunday ticket, if you want to watch games in HD, you need to pay a lot more.

Direct TV nickels and dimes you to death. There is a monthly fee for HD, for local channels, for each receiver and on and on and on. As soon as their exclusive contract is up with the NFL and I can get the Pats on cable out here, I am done with Direct TV.

So what you are saying is if you didn't have to have HD, you would be perfectly happy.

 

[BelichickFan]

Direct TV sucks. I live in Los Angeles and the only reason I have Direct TV is for Sunday ticket to watch the Pats. When I got an HDTV, I got the games in HD for 2 weeks. Then, Direct TV decides they want to charge extra for NFL games in HD. So, in addition to the ridiculous cost of Sunday ticket, if you want to watch games in HD, you need to pay a lot more.

Direct TV nickels and dimes you to death. There is a monthly fee for HD, for local channels, for each receiver and on and on and on. As soon as their exclusive contract is up with the NFL and I can get the Pats on cable out here, I am done with Direct TV.

That's all very well and good but if you want the games, you have to get it. Otherwise you can go to a bar and spend a lot more (although it could well be more fun). I love DirecTV but can't comment on the storm thing as we don't have storms often where I live. Regarding the cost, it costs me less for the season than it would cost just to park my car for 8 weeks at Gilette Stadium.

 

[BelichickFan]

DirectTV sucks as bad as you can believe, in my personal experience.

If it's blacked out that's because you have it on you local channel, right ?

I don't understand why people try to chase people away from DirecTV. It rules in a superhuman way to live outside Boston and get every Patriots' game.

 

[coltshater]

Have the black-out rules changed? How can somebody in Mass even get Pats games on DirectTV?

The Pats games are blacked out on Sunday Ticket in MA, but the games are available on the local channels, so why does it matter? Are there parts of MA where the Pats games aren't on the local channels, and are also being blacked out on Direct tv? That would be a problem.

 

[coltshater]

What is with you guys? Did you read the original post? It sounds like he wants DirectTV to get better reception of the games. If he lives in Mass then the games will be blacked out, at least that is what I think.

Don't you think this defeats the purpose of the Sunday ticket, to pay for the games and have every last one of them BLACKED OUT? He wants better reception of the games and will not get any reception at all but will pay $765.

I'm not going to respond to any more comments on this thread, this is so obvious, I don't even no what else to say.

HE WON"T GET THE GAMES IF THEY ARE BLACKED OUT! PERIOD!

I get all of my local channels as part of my Direct TV service. It doesn't matter if the games are on the local channels or the Sunday ticket.

 

[DeanPatsFan]

Direct TV sucks. I live in Los Angeles and the only reason I have Direct TV is for Sunday ticket to watch the Pats. When I got an HDTV, I got the games in HD for 2 weeks. Then, Direct TV decides they want to charge extra for NFL games in HD. So, in addition to the ridiculous cost of Sunday ticket, if you want to watch games in HD, you need to pay a lot more.

Direct TV nickels and dimes you to death. There is a monthly fee for HD, for local channels, for each receiver and on and on and on. As soon as their exclusive contract is up with the NFL and I can get the Pats on cable out here, I am done with Direct TV.

100% true. I've had DirecTV since 1998 and they use to have cable beat. No more. They do nickel and dime you to death. New subscribers can't even own their receiver anymore, DTV leases it to you monthly. Yet another way to bleed 5 more bucks from subscribers monthly.

Other than Sunday Ticket, Dish Network smokes DirecTV.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

COLTSHATER:

I'm gonna remove the prior post since I didn't realize local channels on DirectTV are not blacked out! The local channels are a very new feature to DirectTV, put in after I cancelled it.

So basically, I just removed my threads about the black-out. If you get all your games on local TV, then you don't need the Sunday Ticket at all for Pats games, just DirectTV's local channel package. You can get the NFL Network in a general package and the Local Channel Package for about $50 a month maybe.

The Sunday Ticket will black-out all your local Pats games, which is why you don't need the Sunday Ticket unless you want to watch games that are not covered on your local stations. Personally, I don't think you will miss any decent match-ups by not having the Sunday Ticket, if your local channel carries all the Pats games.

 

[QuiGon]

1. I have had DirecTV for only 1 season and already don't know how I ever lived without it.

2. I have had DirecTV for 18 months and lost service only once for an extended period of time (meaning more than 5 minutes) and that was during a very bad thunderstorm.

3. As others pointed out, HD Sunday Tickets costs extra. But most important of all (and the thing that pissed me off the most)...

4. If high definition is important to you, you should be aware that you can not and will not be able to watch locally broadcast games in high definition on DirecTV. DirecTV doesn't have local stations (or NESN) in HD. I don't know where you live, but if you live in the Boston area that means you can't ever watch the Patriots in HD (unless they are on ESPN). You can't watch whatever game of the week is on Fox in HD. It also means you can't watch the playoffs in HD and yes you can't watch the Super bowl in HD (unless you do what I did and get Comcast Cable in addition to DirecTV Sunday Ticket).

 

[BelichickFan]

Other than Sunday Ticket, Dish Network smokes DirecTV.

OK. What's your point ? Sunday Ticket is God's gift to football fans so there is no "other than Sunday Ticket".

How about "Other than providing warmth, the Sun is worthless" ?

 

[godef]

Satellite prices are cheaper, there is already a dish on my condo, so I'm thinking of switching to direct tv and getting Sunday ticket.

The only thing that concerns me is losing reception with bad weather.

I record the pats games every week and recording quality is a big thing with me.

So I guess what I'm looking for is feedback from satellite users in Massachusetts.

Have you guys had problems with your satellite. Is it worth investing in? Have you had problems with losing a signal. how often?

My DirecTV has been great. It's been more reliable than Comcast was, that's for sure. I've only expereinced reception problems during heavy rain/wind storms. And I've produced some terrific DVD copies of games from the TiVO unit.

Beware: it's impossible to listen to Gil and Gino during live broadcasts because there is a several second delay, at least on local TV. I don't get Sunday Ticket, so that may be another story.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Belichick Fan: If you live in the Boston area, or where all the Pats games are locally televised, you will get zero Pats games on the Sunday Ticket due to the local black-out policy. So in that case, if Dishnetwork also carries local channels, and you only want to watch the locally televised match-ups, then Sunday Ticket has no value.

You may want to try to get the NFL channel, of course, so you can see all the nice things that Rod Woodson has to say about the Pats.

 

[QuiGon]

Direct TV nickels and dimes you to death.

And cable doesn't..?

There is a monthly fee for HD, for local channels, for each receiver and on and on and on. As soon as their exclusive contract is up with the NFL and I can get the Pats on cable out here, I am done with Direct TV.

If you think you are going to get rid of monthly fees for HD and for each receiver and on and on when you go back to cable, then you're in for a big surprise.

 

[BelichickFan]

Belichick Fan: If you live in the Boston area, or where all the Pats games are locally televised, you will get zero Pats games on the Sunday Ticket. So in that case, if Dishnetwork also carries local channels, and you only want to watch the locally televised match-ups, then Sunday Ticket has no value.

You may want to try to get the NFL channel, of course, so you can see all the nice things that Rod Woodson has to say about the Pats.

Admittedly the question was from someone in Mass so the answer is a little different than for me in CA. However, I would still get it. Once the Patriots' game is over I can watch any other game I want and there's nothing like the Pats' bye week or MNF or SNF weeks when I can just pick the games I want all day. Sunday Ticket isn't cheap but it's still just a little over $10 a week which I think is worth it even without the Patriots' games.

Again, though, it's not as clear cut if you live in Mass and get the games anyway. I was responding more to the anti DirecTV crowd than the actual question asked.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Godef: If you live in the local Pats viewing area, Sunday Ticket will not show any of your Pats games due to black-out policy. Also, the local reporters are never broadcast on Sunday Ticket. They have national media meatheads, many of whom really like the Colts. Not many of whom really care about the Pats.

 

[PatsFanInEaglesLand]

Direct TV sucks. I live in Los Angeles and the only reason I have Direct TV is for Sunday ticket to watch the Pats. When I got an HDTV, I got the games in HD for 2 weeks. Then, Direct TV decides they want to charge extra for NFL games in HD. So, in addition to the ridiculous cost of Sunday ticket, if you want to watch games in HD, you need to pay a lot more.

Direct TV nickels and dimes you to death. There is a monthly fee for HD, for local channels, for each receiver and on and on and on. As soon as their exclusive contract is up with the NFL and I can get the Pats on cable out here, I am done with Direct TV.

Directv has Sunday Ticket until 2011

If you would of asked here or checked around you could of found out that you could of got the SuperFan add-on package for free, and this year also.

For anyone who is interested, Boston loacal HD channels(and NESN begining 7/1) are now available or Directv(need a newer dish & receiver, but they will give and install it for you for free)

 

[DeanPatsFan]

OK. What's your point ? Sunday Ticket is God's gift to football fans so there is no "other than Sunday Ticket".

How about "Other than providing warmth, the Sun is worthless" ?

My point is, if you want HD content, go with Dish. They carry 4 times the HD content DTV does, and are constantly adding to their lineup. DTV has grown VERY stale.

If you're willing to bend over and grab your ankles for Sunday Ticket then go ahead. I had it for 8 years but told DTV to stick up their @ss when they decided to charge an extra 100 dollars to see games in HD when I was already a subscriber to their HD package. And I've managed to survive without it.