From: Tracy
Subject: [workmom] Consolidated info re: DirecTV
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 21:45:39 -0500

Hi, For anyone interested, here is the info I received regarding DirectTV.  

Regards, Tracy Levine

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We've had Direct TV for about 8 years now. And I just invested more
money in it for the first time -- I upgraded my main receiver to a
"Tivo" box -- took out the old receiver and put it in my bedroom. We
now have no cable and 3 tvs on direct tv.

The pros:
--I can't say this because of any official comparison, but monthly
  charges for comparable service seems much less expensive to me. I
  used to have basic cable only in my bedroom -- it was not cheap and
  you get very little in terms of channels. For real packages with
  sports and movie channels it gets very expensive quickly.

--I pay a few extra dollars a month and get the West Coast feeds of all
  the networks in addition to our local affiliates. What does this mean?
  More sports -- east and west coast games without buying the NFL or MLB
  packages. And a second chance at primetime programming that begins at
  11pm. I am never available to watch tv between 8 and 10 because
  that's my time with the kids. At midnight West Wing comes on for a
  replay!

--I've been lucky and have always been able to find some installation
  "sale." I never paid much, if anything, for it except when I just did
  this Tivo upgrade. I think that cost me about $100, but they were in
  my house for a while moving receivers around. When I moved, they moved
  me for free to keep me as a customer.

The cons:
--When it's very rainy or windy your service is less reliable. Usually
  we see no interruption, but we have definitely lost the signal for as
  long as 10 minutes during a driving rain.

--You can't get it bundled with internet service. Since comcast is
  still the only game in town for the cable modem, I get 2 bills a month
  and no discounts. That's too bad.

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We've had DirectTV for about a year now and have been happy with it. I
don't remember who the installing company was but we purchased it when
they were offering 3 free boxes with free satellite dish. We pay about
$65 a month for basic service with HBO and 3 boxes. I think the first
box is free and then it's $4.99 per box/month to have service in each
additional box. I'm not sure how much they charge now to purchase each
additional box, but that (along with the extra $4.99/month per box for
service) is the "hidden cost" with DirectTV.

We had Comcast previously and were paying a little more for Basic +HBO.
With DirecTV we get a lot more "basic" channels and we haven't had many
outages at all. Only a few times has the wind knocked out our service
and it always comes back within a few minutes.