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| reply to Satch
Re: Time Warner Cable Vs DirecTV quote:
DirecTV loses for one simple reason: their HD channel lineup is utterly pathetic.
Yep it is. You never really notice how much HD you actually watch until you lose a good portion of your HD channels. Last night Dr. Drew featured a local story that has received national attention about a group of kids mysteriously coming down with an unknown illness, now being diagnosed as conversion disorder. However, I had to watch it on cable since ‘the HD leader’ does not carry HLN in HD.
quote:
Have you recieved notice as to when you will be getting the new DTV HD Guide? Some of the features with the cover art for movies and shows are now a part of the new TWC Navigator advanced search in a few TWC markets.
The HD GUI has not made it’s way here yet on the HR-34s at least. I’ve not heard when it’s supposed to be coming but as of right now, I do have the cover art in the guide. Not all shows/movies have the cover art, and personally, it doesn’t do anything for me. I find it annoying clutter. Just like the ads for the premium channels and Direct Cinema. I’ve been playing in all the menus seeing if I can disable the Score Guide prompt whenever I tune to a sports channel. I honestly cannot believe people complain about Navigator when, this current graphical user interface on DirecTV, is one of the worst I’ve ever used on a set top box.
On a scale of 1 to 10 on how pleased I am with DirecTV after a few days, I’d give it a 4. If it wasn’t for the picture quality and the Sabres, it’d be a 0 and I’d be exercising my right to cancel within 30 days. But HD on Time Warner is better than SD on DirecTV, and that’s what it’s coming down to as channels I watch on a regular basis like H2, Investigation Discovery, DIY and Nat Geo Wild are not on ‘the HD leader’.
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2011 Time Warner Cable Forum @ DSLReports Poster Of The Year!
Voted Unanimously on by ChillyCat and Elyria!
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Reviews:
 ·Time Warner Cable
| reply to Steve Mehs
I think who you choose to go with depends on what is most important to the user. If High Def channels are more important than the set top box software or quality of that picture then you will be better off with Time Warner Cable. If set top box software is important or picture quality than you would be better off going with DirecTV | |
| reply to Steve Mehs
Just looking at Steve's graphic above, I don't like how the premium channels are bunched like that. Way too cluttered and busy. I also agree about the issues with the advertising embedded in the banner.
Steve, I would hope that DTV does NOT do what Navigator does, as we both know. The lack of channel field space for 6 channel disgits or numbers where the letters/numbers all bunch together. I hope TWC fixes that part of Navigator
What is Custom 1 (Fav.)
Steve, do you still also have TWC where you are running comparison tests? If not, will you be going back to TWC?
Yes, I have heard that TWC blows away Direct TV for HD contest.
TWC offers better deals/discounts. Hard to get with Direct TV.
TWC VOD is much better.
I don't think Direct TV has Digital Phone or Caller ID on TV like TWC has, which we love, and could not do without!
Weather affects satellite signals and trees. Big plus for TWC here over Direct TV.
Direct TV forces you to have DSL Internet, and that sucks compared to Road Runner.
A plus is the Direct TV customers always get modern boxes. TWC still gives out refurbished receivers to customers. Maybe Direct TV techs put refurb DVR's on the truck, but the DVR's are not as old as TWC in some instances.
More big Direct TV pluses:
Universal Line Up
Universal features and box settings. You don't have to have certain model boxes or wait for Direct TV to update features to get them based on where you live. The exception is waiting for the new HD guide.
Satch | |
| reply to motorola870
Of course the software doesn't effect the picture quality, but why did they have to write a special, dumbed down version of Mystro for NE OH unless they were bandwidth challenged vis a vis most other TWC installations?
As I said, TWC offers more HD than Direct TV, but in NE Ohio, the picture quality is noticeably worse than DTV - and the News/Sports tier is particularly bad...and this is a problem that could certainly be solved with more bandwidth.
Which takes me back to my original thought - TWC more Channels, inferior picture. DTV - better picture, fewer channels. No clear winner - just an informed choice to make. | |
| reply to Satch
quote:
Just looking at Steve's graphic above, I don't like how the premium channels are bunched like that. Way too cluttered and busy. I also agree about the issues with the advertising embedded in the banner.
Yep. And there’s one more instance of advertising in the guide. Currently it’s promoting whatever Twilight movie just got put on PPV.
quote:
Steve, I would hope that DTV does NOT do what Navigator does, as we both know. The lack of channel field space for 6 channel disgits or numbers where the letters/numbers all bunch together. I hope TWC fixes that part of Navigator
Thankfully DirecTV doesn’t do that. I have a few minor gripes with the way DirecTV does it, but oh well. I just wish they’d have the channel logos for all the channels. Maybe it’s just me, but by nature I’m an obsessive compulsive freak about this stuff. DirecTV promotes their product as a premium service, and they promote this particular DVR as a premium product, and with that I expect more uniformity.
quote:
What is Custom 1 (Fav.)
That is my Favorites List I have set up. There are four Favorite lists, All Channels, Channels I Receive and two custom lists. Within your list you can filter the guide to only show HD channels, only show sports channels, only show movie channels and so on. I have nearly every channel on the system, but I’ve removed all of the Direct Cinema PPV channels in the 100s, the 15 or so infomercial channels, the test channels, the SD feeds of the sports alternate channels and duplicate channels. I’ll probably end up removing all of the On Demand channels from the guide as I have yet to find much OD content that’s in HD except for the premium movie channels On Demand.
quote:
Steve, do you still also have TWC where you are running comparison tests? If not, will you be going back to TWC?
I have no intentions of dropping my cable service. I have NHL Center Ice with TW so I’d lose out on the remainder of the season since sports season packages are non refundable. Plus I just cannot find it in me, to give up so many HD channels. I know I watch a lot of ESPN, NHL Net, CBS, HBO, Showtime, etc, but I never realized how much I watch the channels that I stated above until I was watching then in SD. Plus DirecTV doesn’t even have all of our locals in HD. And between Time Warner and DirecTV I receive just about all of the 3D content that’s broadcast in the US. DirecTV for N3D, 3Net and ESPN 3D. Time Warner for the free 3D On Demand stuff, HBO 3D and the occasional special event in 3D
quote:
Yes, I have heard that TWC blows away Direct TV for HD contest.
There is no comparison, Time Warner offers many more HD channels, and much more HD content On Demand.
quote:
TWC VOD is much better.
Yep, better selection, more HD. However DirecTVs On Demand channels have a ‘prettier’ UI. But I like how TW groups everything together. You have Kids On Demand for example as a channel, and the content is broken down by individual channel. With DirecTV there’s about 100 On Demand channels.
quote:
I don't think Direct TV has Digital Phone or Caller ID on TV like TWC has, which we love, and could not do without!
No, DirecTV has no phone service but satellite receivers, both Dish and DirecTV, have supported Caller ID on TV for over 10 years, not saying that every satellite receiver had/has this feature as many lower end models did not, but the technology exists. You just have to plug a phone line into the back of the receiver and the info will display on the TV screen when the phone rings. I agree though, this feature is awesome.
quote:
Weather affects satellite signals and trees. Big plus for TWC here over Direct TV.
Believe me, I know. It sucks having to go outside and sweep the dish off, or wait for a storm to pass. And it was my experience in my previous 7+ years with satellite that it’s just not the ‘heaviest of the heavy’ storms that cause signal loss. Obviously I haven’t experienced any weather related issues yet, but I’m interested to see how things go. Due to lower frequencies, Ka is not as immune to rain fade as DBS satellites. I’m interested to see how much sooner I lose 99 and 103 before 101, 110 and 119.
As for trees, funny you mention that. I thought that the installer could just replace my old Phase 3 with the new Slimline, but nope, a tree popped up in the past few years and my collection of satellite dishes on the roof has their line of sight blocked. So the dish had to be installed on the other side of the house.
quote:
Direct TV forces you to have DSL Internet, and that sucks compared to Road Runner.
That is not correct. You can any type of internet connection you want.
quote:
A plus is the Direct TV customers always get modern boxes. TWC still gives out refurbished receivers to customers. Maybe Direct TV techs put refurb DVR's on the truck, but the DVR's are not as old as TWC in some instances.
I’ve exchanged and upgraded a number of boxes over the years for various reasons. I don’t believe I ever got a used one. I always looked at the manufactured date on the sticker of the bottom of the box, and the mfg date has always been within a month or two of the date I brought the box home. Which leads to another Plus for Time Warner, should you need a replacement box, an additional box, a replacement remote, a splitter, a signal amp or what have you, you can just swing by a Time Warner office and take care of business. If my DirecTV remote dies, where’s the nearest DirecTV office I can go to, to exchange it for free?
As for a universal line up, all that means is no matter where in this great nation you live, you'll still have the same crappy HD channel selection as every one else 
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2011 Time Warner Cable Forum @ DSLReports Poster Of The Year!
Voted Unanimously on by ChillyCat and Elyria!
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 djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
kudos:1
 ·Verizon Wireless..
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·VOIPo
·PHONE POWER
| As for a universal line up, all that means is no matter where in this great nation you live, you'll still have the same crappy HD channel selection as every one else
H2, Investigation Discovery, DIY and Nat Geo Wild are not on ‘the HD leader’.
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.
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Jws21
join:2003-05-19
Erie, PA | reply to Steve Mehs
Today I was all ready to jump ship and move to DirecTv, unfortunately the guys could not get a clear line of sight so I guess I'm stuck with TW's pathetic NBA league pass lineup. One hd channel and no dual feeds.... *sigh* | |
| reply to Steve Mehs
Here’s a big fail for DirecTV.
So I'm flipping back and forth between the Rangers/Bruins game and the Devils/Sabres game. I had the Rangers game on for a few minutes then hit the channel up button. Finally what seemed like 10 minutes later the Sabres game tuned in about a second after they tied the game up. I hit the Rewind button to see the goal and it won't go back. No dual live buffers for the HR-34. The worlds most advanced HD DVR. A feature Time Warner’s ‘crappy’ Navigator had for over a year now.
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2011 Time Warner Cable Forum @ DSLReports Poster Of The Year!
Voted Unanimously on by ChillyCat and Elyria!
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4 edits | said by Steve Mehs:I honestly cannot believe people complain about Navigator when, this current graphical user interface on DirecTV, is one of the worst I’ve ever used on a set top box. Well be careful what you wish for, as you (ARE) going to get it...
I've got that HD-GUI & quite frankly, if I could do anything to get the OLD one back, I would!
IMHO, the "improved GUI" is actually harder to read. And if you think you've seen (on-screen) crap, clutter & bloatware now...just wait until you do get the new HD GUI!
Not only that, but regardless of which model receiver you have, it DOES slow down it's basic operations, to an extent. Since you have the newest model, you shouldn't be affected too much...but for poor suckers like me with 1st gen HD DVR's, they CANNOT even do basic functions in a timely matter. (press GUIDE & wait 15 seconds for it to even come up, press LIST & wait 15 seconds to see your recorded shows, press DELETE & wait 15 seconds, etc. - yes, it IS really THAT bad now!)
And the thing that pisses me off about all this is, how DTV LIES & advertises how "lightning fast" their "new HD guide" is. Well, it IT fast - once you get the fricken receiver TO ACTUALLY GET TO THE GUIDE!
Oh yes, the last thing...NONE of the DTV receivers can now do simultanious down-conversion on their SD outputs when you use ANY on-screen graphics. (like to send an SD output to a secondary SDTV, SD recorder, etc.) To see the graphics, you have to switch the receiver to SD mode, make your (on-screen) changes as needed, THEN switch back into HD mode. NEVER heard of this on ANY type of HD box from ANY other provider in the US. The "genius" at DTV that designed this should be hung up & FLOGGED! 
There are four Favorite lists, All Channels, Channels I Receive and two custom lists.
Due to lower frequencies, Ka is not as immune to rain fade as DBS satellites. I’m interested to see how much sooner I lose 99 and 103 before 101, 110 and 119.
And in my market, our locals are ONLY broadcast in Ka band...so switching to the SD version of a channel (like you can on the national channels) when it's raining, is NOT an option for us.
No dual live buffers for the HR-34. The worlds most advanced HD DVR.
To flip back to the first tuner, just press DOWN again...& each time you want to flip tuners.
Do be aware that DLB turns off after 2 hours of non-use. (ie: non-user interaction)
BTW, in case there's any doubt...I'm SO fed up with my 2 slow-as-shit HD DVR's since the "wonderful, new HD-GUI" upgrade I DIDN'T want or ask for, as well as the paltry HD lineup, I'm going to be switching to either DISH or Comcast as my "primary" TV service; haven't decided which is the lesser of 2 evils. But if I could get a Time-Warner HD lineup like you guys have, I'd go there in a heartbeat! | |
| Dishrich,
Can you elaborate on the new GUI update and the problems you had with it? TWC is also rolling out a cloud-based new search feature for its Navigator Guide, and it is in select markets now. Anything good about the new Direct TV Guide? Steve, I wonder when you are getting it?
Satch | |
| reply to Steve Mehs
The one constant I see in this thread is that competition is good. There's enough choice out there that there's something for everyone.
For me, I'm more than willing to put up with the slow channel changes to get every hockey game on Center Ice in HD on DirecTV. If I were a big time channel surfer, I'd go nuts.
I'll pretty much take quality over quantity any day and I don't really have any need for some of the channels mentioned in this thread.
BTW, if you really want to get in on the latest and "greatest" as far as the DTV software, you can always join the cutting edge program. | |
 trparkyApple... YUMPremium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
kudos:1
·Time Warner Cable
·Time Warner VOIP
·AT&T U-Verse
| I had DirecTV a couple of years ago in Cleveland, OH.
Every time it even hinted at raining, I'm not even talking about it actually raining, out went the satellite signal. I'd go outside, put my hand up and feel the air... that's right, not a drop of rain. Look to the southern sky, see some dark clouds. Dark clouds! So wait... a couple of dark clouds in the southern sky is enough to make my signal drop? Bullshit.
And I tried multiple times in calling DirecTV in having them come out and have them realign my dish because I felt it wasn't aligned properly. The installer must've spent maybe two minutes in aiming the dish. No fine tuning, no checking one signal with a meter and then checking another to dial-in the absolute precise aim of the dish. None of that. They told me that since it worked 50% of the time that I'd have to pay for them to come out and realign the dish. That's when I told them to take their crap and I canceled my service.
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Tom
Boycott AT&T uVerse! | Tom's Android Blog | Droid Charge TweakStock by dwitherell | |
np23
join:2005-10-28
united state | reply to Steve Mehs
said by Steve Mehs:Here’s a big fail for DirecTV.
So I'm flipping back and forth between the Rangers/Bruins game and the Devils/Sabres game. I had the Rangers game on for a few minutes then hit the channel up button. Finally what seemed like 10 minutes later the Sabres game tuned in about a second after they tied the game up. I hit the Rewind button to see the goal and it won't go back. No dual live buffers for the HR-34. The worlds most advanced HD DVR. A feature Time Warner’s ‘crappy’ Navigator had for over a year now.
It has DLB. It also has PIP. To activate DLB just press Down twice. Set each tuner to a channel and swap between tuners. Each buffer is 90 minutes. | |
| reply to Satch
said by Satch:Dishrich,
Can you elaborate on the new GUI update and the problems you had with it? TWC is also rolling out a cloud-based new search feature for its Navigator Guide, and it is in select markets now. Anything good about the new Direct TV Guide? Steve, I wonder when you are getting it?
Satch
Saw your response in the posts above, Dishrich. Thank you!
Satch | |
| reply to trparky
I never even got that far with it. I had everything all set up for installation in 2010, my date came and I sat here all day long waiting. Finally I called around 5pm that evening to see if they were coming out and the installer told me and I quote "Its too cloudy today and I cant get a good signal so I'm going to have to reschedule" and I thought what? So youre telling me when its cloudy I cant watch TV? Well after that happened 2 times I just cancelled and never got it. This was in 2010. Now fast forward to 2012. I got really interested in the new 5 tuner Media Center DVR they have now so I called them to set something up. Immediately problems started popping up. After many many phone calls I found out that someone in Pennsylvania is using my SS# on their account. Filed a fraud report with Directv then 2 weeks later I get a letter telling me that they have verified that this is my account and my service. OK seriously? I've never lived there or had Directv. After several more phone calls they have opened another fraud investigation on my SS# which I pretty much expect the same outcome.
Directv has been nothing but a complete nightmare for me and I've never even had their service at my house. I keep looking at how TWC keeps jumping thru hoops to keep me and my business and they always leave me impressed. | |
 RacerbobPremium
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY | If someone is Pa. is using your social security number, I would be calling law enforcement, not DirecTV , to investigate. I remain totally happy with DirecTV here. The install went great and the service is steady. Yes, there has been a little rain fade, but nothing in a very long time. This winter has been warm, rainy and very cloudy up here and the service has been working fine with excellent picture quality.
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DirecTV is pretty neat. If you want a referral ask me. | |
| said by Racerbob:If someone is Pa. is using your social security number, I would be calling law enforcement, not DirecTV , to investigate. I remain totally happy with DirecTV here. The install went great and the service is steady. Yes, there has been a little rain fade, but nothing in a very long time. This winter has been warm, rainy and very cloudy up here and the service has been working fine with excellent picture quality.
I dont think anyone is actually using my SS# in Pennsylvania, I think Directv just has their records screwed up. I have gotten so many different stories from them over this issue, and several different letters as well. Theres nothing on my credit report about it either so I think Directv just has their wires crossed somewhere. The whole thing just left a really bad taste in my mouth about them. | |
| Steve summed it up best, the Direct TV HD picture is a lot better than the Time Warner HD picture. To me, this is the game breaker along with MSG-HD, HD-Net, HD-Movie Net, WGN-HD, NFL Network-HD and Red Zone. | |
RacerbobPremium
join:2001-06-24
Webster, NY | said by Rick4769 :Steve summed it up best, the Direct TV HD picture is a lot better than the Time Warner HD picture.
Yes, I agree there. I don't know if a lot better is the correct description, but it is better. Our (my wife and myself) untrained eyes noticed a difference the day it was installed here. On the other hand, I was at my parents the other night watching HD from Time Warner on their set and it looked fine...very nice in fact.
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DirecTV is pretty neat. If you want a referral ask me. | |
| reply to np23
said by np23:said by Steve Mehs:Here’s a big fail for DirecTV.
So I'm flipping back and forth between the Rangers/Bruins game and the Devils/Sabres game. I had the Rangers game on for a few minutes then hit the channel up button. Finally what seemed like 10 minutes later the Sabres game tuned in about a second after they tied the game up. I hit the Rewind button to see the goal and it won't go back. No dual live buffers for the HR-34. The worlds most advanced HD DVR. A feature Time Warner’s ‘crappy’ Navigator had for over a year now.
It has DLB. It also has PIP. To activate DLB just press Down twice. Set each tuner to a channel and swap between tuners. Each buffer is 90 minutes. Wow, that is pretty retarded. I like it better with TW, where you just tune to a channel and then you know tune to another channel. Thanks for the info though, even with DLB, the firmware on this box just blows.
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2011 Time Warner Cable Forum @ DSLReports Poster Of The Year!
Voted Unanimously on by ChillyCat and Elyria!
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