Buy a $300 DirecTV HD DVR, or switch to Comcast or Dish?

Question

We got a HD TV for Christmas. We have been customers of DirecTV for 7 years. We have 2 DirecTV receivers with TiVos, that we love, and one DirecTV DVR that we hate.

Now that we have the HD TV we need to switch one of the DVRs for an HD DVR. If we stay with DirecTV, we will have to pay $300 for it, & it will be a DirecTV DVR, not a TiVo. I was also not happy that they would not give us a deal despite being a faithful customer for 7 years.

We are deciding if we should stay w/ DirecTV or switch to Dish or Comcast.

Dish DVRs can't do what TiVos can: they won't allow you to watch 1 show while recording another (even a VCR can do that!), & they can't record 2 shows at once on 1 TV.

Comcast: I have used the HD DVR before at a friend's house and they haven't experienced problems with it. It has the features I like in a DVR. But so many people hate Comcast that I'm nervous to use it.

Anyone have any opinions on this? DVR quality/features is as important at the monthly fee.

Answer 1

I would switch to Dish. I switched from Directv because Dish is giving away a very high quality DVR for free.

And whoever told you they can't record 1 program while watching another was sorely mistaken or they did not have a DVR. or theyhad a very early model when DVRs were relatively new.

With the VIP722 which I have, that comes with their system, you can indeed record 1 program while watching another at the same time. In fact I can record 2 programs and watch 1 while that program is also being DVRd. The dish DVR gets very good reviews and is rated better than Directvs

I can record an HD program and record SD programming at the same time while watching an SD program or I can watch the HD program which is being recorded, incase my wife is working and she wants to watch it later. I can record HD while watching SD.

There are a lot of options available with the new Dish VIP722. In fact I can record up to 4 different SD programs at one time If I want to watch a show during that time I do though, hoever, have to watch one of those recorded shows.

I like DIsh HD so far. DO I likeDish Network as a whole? I don't know yet, but their DVR is quite nice in my opinion.

It has 2 tuners in it. You can set it up as a 2 zone unit so you have different programs on 2 tvs in different locations or a single zone unit for one TV and use the PIP function

You can not however record an HD program while watching another HD program. HD programming uses up a lot of bandwidth. It is very demanding on recourses. But not every channel is HD so it really is not that big of a deal.

I dont think any of the DVRs can actually record more than one HD program at a time(at least not the ones packaged in systems from Dish or Directv).

The higher end Tivo brand DVRs maybe. But their best is around $800.

The Dish HD unfortunately is 10 bucks more a month. Right now it is free for 6 months then it goes up to 20 bucks a month, in a sense it is 10 bucks a month for one year. SO for one year it will cost the same as directv.  

After that it might be more who knows you can always threated to downgrade your package or cancle your subscription. You just have to speak to someone in customer retention.

Answer 2

It depends on how many HD channels you want.  Directv has more than anyone else right now.  The $300 is a pretty good deal considering its like 100 channels of HD.  The HD DVR lets you record up to 200 hrs of standard def or 50 hrs of mpeg 4 HD recordings.  If you really dont want to pay the upgrade cost, you could just get the regular HD receiver for $99, but its really worth the extra $200 for the HD DVR.

Answer 3

I would go cable. Cable will always have free service calls, and swap your DVR once it gets old. Customer service is there and as far as HD, Directv and Dish can say that they have all they want. The problem is that they only have a 720 signal, and not the true 1080i or 1080p. The 1080 is the true HD.