A Satellite Dummy Asks Some Questions (1 Viewer)

[alan halvorson]

My brother recently bought a Sony SXRD RP and now wants to view HD content. I will pretty soon also. HD via cable is not available to us now and it looks like it won't be available for quite a while, if ever. I can receive local channels with an antenna but because he lives in a valley with hills all around, my brother cannot. That leaves satellite for both of us.

My brother is cheap. Right now he's looking at DirecTV. He's all right with the HD packages but doesn't like the idea of leasing the two standard definition satellite boxes he wants and would rather own the boxes (me too). He feels, as I do, that owning the boxes will save him money over time. He sees these DirecTV satellite boxes sold on Ebay. Can he just get one of these in place of a leased box and, if so, which satellite receiver should he look for? Is there a downside to this plan?

I want to be able to record and so I want an HD DVR. Will the DirecTV HD DVR allow me to edit programs and save the result to disc? Will a TIVO HD PVR allow me to do this?

When DirecTV says it includes local channels, does that mean it will include the channels I'm used to? When I look at its description of local channels, they're nothing that I recognize.

Thanks!

 

[Ed Moxley]

The boxes on eBay are older boxes, and I don't think they work with all the new HD channels DirecTv has now. They have about 80 HD channels now. As to being cheaper, it depends on how you look at it. If you own it, any problems you have with it, is YOUR problem. Leasing means they take care of problems.

 

[JoshRas]

If youre a new customer to DirecTV, I believe they just about always run a promotion that the HD DVR is $199. It is yours. Its not leased, the only thing I lease from them is the regular boxes. You can probably lease a HD receiver(no dvr) from them but I would go the HD DVR route. I also pay $6 month for a protection plan, which covers the dish and HD DVR.

 

[JoshRas]

The local ch's are the ones in your area. The ones you probably looking at are the CBS/ABC East/West channels. Not sure of what customers get those and in which package(i dont receive them in my package). So you get all your local ch's in HD. Except for CW which, in my area at least, is Comcast only in HD. In 4 months, I love it and would never go back to cable.

 

[JoshRas]

one more thing, I am pretty sure Tivo doesnt work with Directv

 

[Robert_J]

The HD Tivo and S3 Tivo are designed to only work with OTA digital and cable. There are no video inputs so they will not work with any of the satellite companies.

-Robert

 

[alan halvorson]

Now that I know what DMA means, I found out that I will get the local channels I've known all my life.

What I am still unclear about is if these DirecTV boxes that can be bought on Ebay will work. My brother has only one HD set so only needs SD boxes for his other televisions. If he bought a used receiver, what about the access card? Are they available from DirecTV for use in used receivers that one might get over Ebay or whereever? The idea of owning over leasing is that over time it's cheaper. There is a ~$5 lease charge per receiver per month. If you keep your satellite service long enough you'll be paying for the receiver multiple times. If the one you own breaks - get another one. That's my brothers reasoning. It ok for him but I think I will stick with the lease arrangement.

Is the service plan worth it?

 

[Doug_H]

You may have some luck at getting them to drop the initial charge for the HD-DVR. They may want a longer initial contract. Give them a call and ask for a supervisor if the initial agent can't authorize it. I had a buddy do this with D* a couple weeks ago.

As far as the monthly lease for the SD boxes, I was paying that with TimeWarner before I switched so there was no change for me.

 

[bigluigi]

Check with DirectTV's competitor, Dish Network. They have an amazing promotion that includes a HD-DVR leased at $6 per month over and above the cost of the programming packages. Also, if you sign up for autopay you get Cinemax free for 2 years. Check it out on their website.

 

[Robert_J]

If you are buying a used receiver, make sure to get the receiver ID and check with D* to make sure that the original owner does not have an account balance. If the seller owes D* money, they will not activate his receiver no matter who "owns" it now.

And you may need to buy an access card also. It depends on the access card that comes with the new receiver and the CSR who takes the call to activate it.

I was an E* subscriber for a year and a week. They only reason I stayed that long was the 1 year contract and cold weather that prevented me from installing my D* dish. I owned the only DVR that was so bad it was part of a class action lawsuit. I bought an HD receiver with the promise of software upgrades. Turns out that they cut corners on the system memory and it wouldn't run the new software.

-Robert

 

[Allan Jayne]

Some satellite HD receivers will not deliver HD except via HDCP compliant HDMI cable to the TV. (You will get the shows in SD.) You will want to check on the box you are getting or the box the satellite company is offering before subscribing.

 

[Robert_J]

Which ones? My D* HR20-100 is connected to my AE900U and delivering full HD from every HD channel I subscribe to.

-Robert

 

[alan halvorson]

The idea of buying a used receiver was to save money on the monthly lease fee. My brother had a long chat with a DirecTV representitive who said - according to my brother, who isn't 100% certain about this - DirecTV will charge the montly lease fee whether you own your receiver or not. Therefore he's holding off on buying a used receiver until this is clarified.