Bright House Networks - Legacy → Brighthouse HD vs DirecTV HD, Anyone Had Both?

Longtime DirecTV guy here with Brighthouse internet considering moving my TV service to BH as well.

I've heard mixed things from friends about BH HD quality. Never been impressed with friends picture quality either but that could be their BH boxes or LCD/LED vs my Plasma and not actual BH signal. My setup with DirecTV and my Plasma looks phenomenal. I'm getting TiVo hardware instead of BH boxes if I switch.

Any former DirecTV customers who have switched to Brighthouse and can compare the HD quality? I'm 90% sure I'm switching but would feel better if I could get some solid feedback about HD picture quality on BH vs DirecTV.

Thanks!

I have had both and it all comes to price vs quality of HD. Currently DIRECTV and Verizon FiOS are the Gold Standard in HD and you are going to pay for it. BHN HD is not horrible but it is noticeably lesser quality then DIRECTV. Also BHN is lacking when it comes to regional sports networks and of course doesn't have NFL Sunday Ticket so if you are into sports, expect less.

Do you have a lobby/store near you? I have one in Brandon Florida and they have demo TVs in there. Why not stop by a BHN lobby/store and ask them to let you control the remote and have a look for yourself.

Personally paying 30-40 more a month for the Gold Standard isn't worth it for me.

I've had both over the years and from a quality standpoint, DirecTV was better. Not by a lot, but it was noticeable clearer. That being said, Brighthouse is not bad by any stretch on picture quality.

One of the big separating factors between DTV and BHN was the equipment. BHN has made up some ground in this area with WHDVR and Enhanced DVR. When I was with DTV, the HR-34 (now called Genie) was just released. I was one of the first people to get those boxes (record 5 things at once). It was great, but it came with a lot of bugs. I stayed with DTV for a few years and ended up switching back to BHN to save some $$.

What's your reasoning on switching to Brighthouse for TV? Are you looking to save some money by combining services?

I currently have DirecTV and am very pleased with it in every regard except for two things:

1) the cost
2) rain fade

I have the HR-34 unit and the client boxes that gigahurtz describes above. He's right, it was buggy. But they've really straightened it out with firmware updates. I would have to reboot the main unit sometimes or individual clients to resolve issues. It's been some time since I've had to do any of that.

With all of that being said, I am waiting for BHN to give the Enhanced DVR whole-house capability. When that time comes, I am seriously going to consider switching. I went with DirecTV over BHN for tv service for two reasons when I moved here:

1) access to sports (Sunday Ticket)
2) better DVR solution

Now that BHN has somewhat closed the gap on the equipment side and I have another way to see the sports programming I'd miss with BHN, I don't see much reason to continue paying more for DirecTV.

i currently have both but prefer directv. their picture quality is superior to brighthouse. i have an hr 24 and hr 44 and i love both my boxes. can't say the same thing about the brighthouse box.

as soon as new hd lights up from d14, i'm sayint goodbye to cable.

I figured as much about the quality. I don't watch any sports so that's not an issue. In fact, I just had them remove all the sports channels so I could avoid that stupid RSN fee. I'll have to see if they have a demo office in Orlando.

I have the HR-34 as well. I like the boxes but do miss the TiVo software that I had used for 10+ years before the Genie. The new DirecTV TiVos are neutered and can't do whole home DVR, use the DTV app or access any of the cool stuff that TiVo is doing with Roamio. That's why I'm getting TiVo Roamio. I can get all the same features plus others from TiVo while still saving money by switching to Brighthouse. I have a very thorough spreadsheet analyzing the cost.

My main reason for switching at this point is to save money. I'm just concerned that I'll hate the picture quality but I'm hoping the TiVo hardware can make up some of the difference.

I love DirecTV as well except for two things: the cost and no TiVo (except for their frankensteined new DirecTV TiVo which I don't count). This switch is all about rectifying those two things. But I've been with DirecTV SINCE THE 90's! So I'm kinda terrified of the unknown with cable. But the savings and better hardware are worth trying it out.

I used to have a rock solid dish alignment and almost never lost signal during rain. In fact I watched TV through two of the Hurricanes in 2004 without issue. But they put a new dish in when I got the Genie and the new signal strength is not as good. Still not a huge issue for me, but not perfect.

I don't watch sports so not concerned about losing any of that programming.

Brighthouse's boxes are particularly bad. I don't know how people live with them. What's D14?

With Bright house , everyone pays the RSN fee and the broadcast fee, doesn't matter if you watch sports or not. its $2 for each fee.

Yeah I read that on the website. I was surprised myself that DirecTV let me remove sports channels/RSN fee. Only saved me about $6, but every bit counts.

I've had both and made the switch back to Bright House last year a week before the World Cup. I wanted 2 things.
1) Access to WatchESPN via the mobile app. DirecTV doesn't have that and the sales reps will flat out lie to you and tell you they do. They don't (or didn't as of a few months ago still).
2) Access to GolTV. I'm a big Bundesliga (Baryern Munich specifically). DirecTV didn't have that either.

I was concerned with two things when making the switch.
1) DVR. Bright Houses native ones are bad (really bad)
2) Quality of service.

I decided to go with TiVo for the DVR. Downside with this is cost. It is expensive for the initial first time setup. Here is my current setup.
Two TiVo Roamio Pro @ $450 ea. + $399 lifetime service
Two TiVo Mini v1 @ $149 ea. + $99 lifetime service
One TiVo Mini v2 @ $149 ea. + $0 lifetime service
(right now TiVo is running a special on the new Mini that if you activate it before May (i think, you'll want to confirm that) it's lifetime service is free)

So total one time out of pocket for me was $2,343. With this I now have no equipment rental fees. There is a CarbleCard fee, but it is way lower than DVR and additional tuner rentals. Only $5.95 a month. Each Tuner also allows for recording of up to 6 channels at once, so I can watch or record 12 channels in total. The Hard Drive space for recording is fantastic as well, way past any other service out there at the Roamio Pro level. The whole home is MoCa'd. So I can watch anything I want anywhere. Additionally the TiVo app allows for some transfer of programs to the iPad (which is nice, but I rarely use it).

The quality of the HD is fantastic for my area in Maitland. This however is not the case for where my parents are up in Longwood or where we use to live in Winter Park off of Aloma. Although that was 5 years ago that we lived in Winter Park, maybe things have changed, it was also a cruddy apartment complex.

Here in Maitland the HD has been great, I have had no complaints. Yes, it might be a little less than what you get for perfect signal from DirecTV, but we also had a similar issue with quality after switching to Genie before dropping them all together.

One other pitfall is the getting the CableCard paired with the TiVo. DO NOT call customer service. You will just completely waste your time and be even more frustrated. Come here and post in the Direct Message forum to Gary. He was fantastic! Took about 8 hours, but I did message him at 2am EST... so I don't fault him for that at all. He asked for some information and had it resolved very quickly.

I hope this helps. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any additional questions.

DIRECTV14, new satellite they launched a few months ago for added HD capacity and 4KTV programming.

Thanks for the detailed post. I feel better about switching now. I'm in Winter Park so hopefully my signal is better than yours was years ago. Definitely going with TiVo Pro and lifetime service.

How's the moca setup working out for you? Any lag at all on the TiVo minis? There is a lag on my current DirecTV whole home DVR when streaming from one unit to another. Mostly it just takes a second or so to respond to fast forward, rewind, pause, play commands. But maybe that's just moca? Not a deal breaker, just annoying. Makes it hard to get the timing right when skipping commercials.

the new dtv tivos are basically hr 22 redone with tivo software. and it isn't even current tivo software.

the satellite dtv sent up in december. d15 is sked to be launched in may. directv has already said they are bringing 4 k programming beside new hd.

btw, we have had watch espn, watch abc (which brighthouse doesn't have) for about a month now.

Great to know! It was the final nail for me switching to BH 10 months ago. Missing World Cup matches while at work or elsewhere was not an option. (:

Honestly I can not recall any lag ever. Please don't think it is perfect, but at this point BH would need to raise prices or drop services for me to switch. Which is always a possibility. When I first started DirecTV in 2009, they had GolTV it was dropped a little while later. So nothing is set in stone forever with TV service.

DirecTV could also somehow allow customers to use their own TiVo units, but without that I can not currently imagine switching. 12 channels of recording might be a little bit of overkill, but I love it.

Our MoCa setup was a little bit of a trick. We have a house that was built in '79, so getting cable properly run was a trick. BH tried their best and did fine for the first 8 months. The main two rooms worked perfect, but we just couldn't get the back 4 rooms working. Finally I decided to have it done properly and had every room wired with 1 coaxial and 2 cat6 wires. Since then it's been perfect. Just goes to show if you do something right it makes everything easier. If your setup is already functional then I would bet it will work perfect for you under TiVo.

One item of note.

When I switched from BH to DirecTV in 2009 I recieved One follow up call from BH to see why I had switched and asked them not to call again. They honored that and did not call until I contacted them 10 months ago.

When I switched from DirecTV to BH 10 months ago I recieved 3 calls a week for the first month, despite me asking them to stop calling and take me off their list. Followed by a call every other week for 6 months. Continued by a call once a month for the last several. Oddly enough I just had another call from them on Friday. It's become a running joke at this point.

Yeah, that's what I called the neutered TiVo. Not TiVo hardware, no features. They don't really count.

Honestly even if the lag is just what it is now, I would be okay with it. Would I like to get rid of it when I setup the TiVo moca? Absolutely, but we'll see. Getting very close to switching now.

I'm ready for them to call. I'll just block them after I tell them off.