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Satellite TV - DirectTV v Dish - Opinions

buckets said:
is the DirecTV Genie worth getting over the normal HD DVR?
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Without a doubt. One of the most overlooked reasons is that so many shows run early/late by a minute or two these days that the overlap screws up a lot of recordings when you only have 2 tuners. Plus it's nice to be able to extend to additional rooms without having to get more DVR's or big boxes.
 
I have had directv now for 3 weeks. It's incredible. Everything is 100 times better than TWC , especially the genie. It's incredible.
 
oh for real? the genie is like an extra $99. i only have one tv at home though and i was thinking, "why the hell would i pay $99 to record 5 shows at one time?!"
 
DCDeac said:
This is how I've seen it generally play out:

1) Get Fios if you can
2) Get Comcast/Other cable provider for internet, get sucked into deal that combines TV for like $100/month.
3) First half of promotion ends, bill gets jacked up to max acceptable number
4) Second half of promotion ends, bill balloons to crazy town.
5) Call and complain, experience first-hand the horrors of Comcast service. Threaten to leave for DirecTV, listen to them give zero fucks.

--- decision point to either stick with Cable because you also have phone service or can't mount a dish or don't have that many channels/DVR's - or go with DirecTV/Dish ---

6) Get DirecTV and deal with the pain of setting it up, enjoy first year or two of super cheap bills and probably free NFL Ticket. End up with both at pretty much the exact same max acceptable point as step 3.
7) Comcast calls to offer deal from step 2 again. Rinse, repeat. Or stay loyal to DirecTV because at least they treat you nice while they take your money.
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A+ for accuracy on this post, just replace Comcast with TWC and its the same shit. Cable companies are the Devil.
 
buckets said:
oh for real? the genie is like an extra $99. i only have one tv at home though and i was thinking, "why the hell would i pay $99 to record 5 shows at one time?!"
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I think the genie is free for new subscribers.
 
buckets said:
oh for real? the genie is like an extra $99. i only have one tv at home though and i was thinking, "why the hell would i pay $99 to record 5 shows at one time?!"
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Call them up and they'll probably give you Genie for free.
 
PhDeac said:
I think the genie is free for new subscribers.
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nah i just talked to them. $99 or like $10/month if you get a genie and a genie jr. i mean it just doesn't seem worth it unless i'm missing something.
 
buckets said:
nah i just talked to them. $99 or like $10/month if you get a genie and a genie jr. i mean it just doesn't seem worth it unless i'm missing something.
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5 tuners is worth it.
 
5?! maybe i don't watch enough tv, only conflicts i get are with sports
 
That's a pretty damning article.
 
i have directv, but no genie. can somebody explain the genie to me? only benefit is that you can record 5 shows at once? i don't think i've ever even tried to record more than 2 at once. is there any other need for it?

like buckets, i only have one tv.
 
buckets said:
5?! maybe i don't watch enough tv, only conflicts i get are with sports
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Well, here's where it's nice. I think most will agree that recording 2 shows at once is pretty money. What happens a lot these days is you'll tell show A to record at 8pm and it's an hour, then you'll tell show B to record at 9pm and it's an hour. Maybe you're recording a baseball game or something as well throughout. Pretty standard situation. In the background the system assigns priorities to each show.

So show A turns out to be 1 hour and 2 minutes. This could be because it's a longer episode than usual, but typically it's because Networks are trying to trick recorders into grabbing the first minute of the next show to grab new viewers. Shitty cable boxes will often just record from the hour on the dot to the end of the hour and you miss some of the show. Smarter satellite/fios boxes know that the show is longer, but it creates a conflict, and the higher priority will win out and show B will never be recorded. Then you're like what the fuck I have 2 tuners my system is broken and you waste an hour on the phone.

5 tuners basically means you never have to worry about jack. Friend stays for the weekend? Record whatever from the guest bedroom. Movie you like is on one of the 8 HBO channels during prime time? No problem. It's just a solid upgrade for what is effectively a tiny amount of money based on what you're committing to for 2 years of service.

(Edited to Add)
Other Genie benefits over the older DVR - 1 TB storage versus 500GB and picture-in-picture. Maybe a little quicker response time, but basically it's the bigger drive and the 5 tuners.
 
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buckets said:
nah i just talked to them. $99 or like $10/month if you get a genie and a genie jr. i mean it just doesn't seem worth it unless i'm missing something.
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Yeah. I get some crazy DirecTV deal through Verizon because they're blocked from installing FIOS in my neighborhood. It wasn't worth it for 2 TVs, but we're adding two more by the end of the year, so it may be worth it.
 
DCDeac said:
Well, here's where it's nice. I think most will agree that recording 2 shows at once is pretty money. What happens a lot these days is you'll tell show A to record at 8pm and it's an hour, then you'll tell show B to record at 9pm and it's an hour. Maybe you're recording a baseball game or something as well throughout. Pretty standard situation. In the background the system assigns priorities to each show.

So show A turns out to be 1 hour and 2 minutes. This could be because it's a longer episode than usual, but typically it's because Networks are trying to trick recorders into grabbing the first minute of the next show to grab new viewers. Shitty cable boxes will often just record from the hour on the dot to the end of the hour and you miss some of the show. Smarter satellite/fios boxes know that the show is longer, but it creates a conflict, and the higher priority will win out and show B will never be recorded. Then you're like what the fuck I have 2 tuners my system is broken and you waste an hour on the phone.

5 tuners basically means you never have to worry about jack. Friend stays for the weekend? Record whatever from the guest bedroom. Movie you like is on one of the 8 HBO channels during prime time? No problem. It's just a solid upgrade for what is effectively a tiny amount of money based on what you're committing to for 2 years of service.
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This would come in most handy on Thursdays in the Fall and on the weekends. I assume with five tuners, you can flip back and forth between five games and still rewind to catch anything you may have missed. On Thursdays, you can watch ESPN, NFLN, and record 3 prime time shows.
 
PhDeac said:
This would come in most handy on Thursdays in the Fall and on the weekends. I assume with five tuners, you can flip back and forth between five games and still rewind to catch anything you may have missed. On Thursdays, you can watch ESPN, NFLN, and record 3 prime time shows.
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Yeah, when you set something to record then switch to the channel it's on live, a little alert pops up and you can just press a button to start over from the beginning or to back up to wherever you want.

Also, if you happen to have a new fancy Samsung, the Genie can interface directly to it via RVU so no extender needed. You just run coax to it and you're good in HD. A couple Blu Ray players also support RVU I think.

Then there's the DirecTV iPad App. It is ridiculous. You can watch a ton of stuff live or streamed, and you can run the whole DVR from your iPad while it pops up reviews and extra info about whatever is trending. Badass.
 
DCDeac said:
Then there's the DirecTV iPad App. It is ridiculous. You can watch a ton of stuff live or streamed, and you can run the whole DVR from your iPad while it pops up reviews and extra info about whatever is trending. Badass.
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The only thing I have a problem with as a DirecTV subscriber is access to my recorded shows. I should be able to watch them anywhere without having the box that lets me preload them. Can't Dish people watch anywhere?
 
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bym051d said:
The only thing I have a problem with as a DirecTV subscriber is access to my recorded shows. I should be able to watch them anywhere without having the box that lets me preload them. Can't Dish people watch anywhere?
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That's not up to DirecTV, they have to work it out with the content providers because you're accessing content over the net. I think Dish has a partnership with Slingbox so they use your broadband connection to placeshift just like if you bought a slingbox. I haven't seen that in action so I can't really comment, although you could get the same experience by just getting a Slingbox with whatever provider you have.

I use DirecTV2PC to watch stuff on my DVR on a computer, but it has to be local network and it's a little clunky. Plus it only works on Windows, which sucks.
 
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