HI everyone, i have done LOTS of research and its really hard to make my final decision on to go with directv or comcast for tv. I have comcast for internet and don't plan to change that anytime soon.
I'm going to get an whole home dvr type solution. I've seen some pretty good demos of comcast x1 system on youtube:
Unfortunately there are no good demos of genie system that i can find but from my reasearch it seems like directv genie is a pretty good system (better than cost but not quite as good as dish hopper).
So far with directv
Pros: 1. Supposedly better video quality because the use of mpeg4 compression. In real life how much better than comcast is to undetermined. 2. Awesome hd channel lineup 3. Like their service protection plan that gives you new equipment every other year. 4. Whole home dvr system is very good. 5. Ability to pause/rewind/fast-forward live tv in other other rooms that use the genie mini. 6. It seems like there is a slight price advantage of extra rooms ($6 vs comcast $10). 7. I like how direct bundles their HD channels and SD channels on the same channel. 8. Instillation is free 9. Bigger 1TB hard drive and apparently much easier to upgrade by just plugging in an external drive. Don't know how big of drive it supports though. 10. No taxes for a phone i won't use. 11. DVR & Extra boxes are smaller.
Cons: 1. Have to have a dish. I absolutely refuse to mount the dish to my roof or in any way to my house unless its non-destructive. I don't mind if when you remove the dish it doesn't leave any damage. 2. I had directv like 6 years ago and if i mount it on a pole will it be a lot less stable. I didn't have any more issues last time unless there was a MAJOR storm. They can brace it to my house in the corner just as long as its easily removed and wont' damage my siding. 3. There might be a slight price disadvantage to comcast since i will be bundling my services. 4. From what i can tell after the promotional period directv with all the movie packages will be about $150 a month. 5. This one is a big negative for directv. I called and asked if there is any type of trial period so that if your not happy with the system you could send it back and they told me no there is not. Every month your with them its reduced by $20 but if you decide 5 days after they install it that you don't want it because of issues you have with the system or anything like that you will have to pay the full ETF. 6. Two year agreement. 7. On-demand seems worse than comcast 8. They will have to end up running a lot more wires probably because is no wired currently for directv.
Comcast: Pros 1. With the package i'm looking at i will get upgraded internet from 50mbps to 105 mbps included in the cost. 2. HD lineup is i think a lot more competive then it used to be. It didn't seem bad at all. 3. On-Demand system seems better. 4. 1 year contract 5. Their 260+ package is pretty complete and includes all movie channels. 6. They will end up probably running less wires because i already have it partially wired up for cable.
Cons: 1. Have to get their phone system (triple play) to get their x1 system which i really don't need or want. 2. Will end up charging about $100 for install. 3. Might end up having increased taxes because they bundle phone which again i will not use. 4. Supposedly inferior HD signals because of the use of mpeg2 compared to mpeg4. Again i don't know how much worse comcast will be then directv. 5. Won't be able to pause/rewind/fast-foward live tv in spare bedroom unless you perform the workaround and record what your watching. 6. Smaller 500GB hard drive though your supposed to get a 500gb of additional cloud storage with new software upgrade.
As you can tell i've compiled a pretty thorough list. Would love some advice. I can tell you customer service of all of them suck ....
I currently have DirecTv with a Genie & mini client set up. The equipment and program package is the best that I've had. I can't comment on the Comcast Xfinity because it is not a choice in my area.
Well guys after over a week i decided to go with Directv. It was a hard decision in the end but the taxes i would have to pay on the phone that i wouldn't end up using was the final factor that made me lean towards dtv. I decided to get the premier package with the genie whole home dvr system. Its going to be installed this saturday
4. Supposedly inferior HD signals because of the use of mpeg2 compared to mpeg4. Again i don't know how much worse comcast will be then directv.
This is quite a wrong statement. The quality isn't any better or worse in mpeg2 or mpeg4, they are just different methods of compression.
The difference between mpeg4 and mpeg2 is that with mpeg4 you can have a higher quality using the SAME bandwidth. However, the satellite transponders on DirecTV satellites equal out to be about 7-8 Mbps per HD channel, while a TWC technician told me once that their HD channels are the equivalent of roughly 12-15 Mbps.
Now while cable systems are compressed using MPEG2, it doesn't say ANYTHING about the actual quality of the HD channel. They have a "lesser" form of encryption, but they have more bandwidth for a HD channel, so it equals out to be roughly the same. Quality on cable CAN be better depending on situations, but on average DirecTV is considered the best HD quality of all providers.
You may have to just have to accept a mount attached to your house. It's not the end of the world, everything can be fixed and repainted, and does not diminish the value of your house.
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