1. I had no hardware cost to get a HD DVR from my cable company, so it's well worth the money. Watching Monday Night Football last night was a joy. As were the NBA playoffs. Sports really sell HD.

Posted at 1:36PM on Sep 12th 2006 by Jon Gales

2. the NFL last night was amazing... you are 100% correct about that Jon.

If NBA league pass is in HD--which i'm told it will be--i'm gonna be very excited/happy.

for sports, there is a lot of content it seems.

Posted at 1:46PM on Sep 12th 2006 by Jason

3. If you want a deal on DTV HD, you gotta call the retention line. I got their brand new HD DVR for free along with the new dish (that will pick up the new MPEG4 HD later this year), and a whole bunch of other freebies. You just gotta ask :)

Yeah, the current lineup of sat HD is lame, and won't get better until later in 2007 when they start launching more MPEG4 channels. Until then, the best HD stuff is in their sports pkgs.

Also, the HD you get from their current sats is MPEG2, which is compressed just like if it came through cable. The best HD is from the old skool UHF bands, just like Dad used to put on the roof. I have an over-the-air feed coming in to my DVR so I get locals in uncompressed HD.

Posted at 3:57PM on Sep 12th 2006 by Flynn

4. I got an HD TV few months ago. I had been a long-time DirecTV customer (used to work there) and wanted to stick with them but I went with cable mainly because Comcast had better HD programming, especially for the sports teams that I follow. In the SF Bay area, Comcast has exclusive HD rights for the SF Giants. The Motorola DVR really sucks but now I can get the Tivo Series 3 if I can convince myself to part with $800 plus the monthly fees. Decisions, decisions.

Posted at 6:04PM on Sep 12th 2006 by Mike

5. I'll take your advice for it. Of course, I'd definitely want to get my money's worth. Who doesn't, right?

Posted at 9:36PM on Sep 12th 2006 by Constance

6. I got DishTV + HD, for 6mos at $32/mo (It's like $43 after that). It's a deal worth taking if you want to try HD. DiscoveryHD and ESPN make it worth it. You also get TNT and HDNet.

Then you buy an antenna and plug it into the Dish box, and you pick up CBS / ABC local in HD.

Low cost. Sports + Discovery. Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD is worth it alone...

Posted at 11:17AM on Sep 14th 2006 by John K

7. Ha! I like the "NOTthisNEXT" tag.

I would not recommend it for different reasons.

Like many people the only reason why I subscribe to DTV is because of the NFL ticket. For me, paying for HD is worthwhile for sports and network TV but my problem is that DirectTV's new DVR is bug ridden. I have paid a lot of money to become a beta tester.

I negotiated $175 off the new HD DVR and they installed it just in time for the first week of football. I felt great going out mountain bike riding on Sunday morning knowing that my New England Patriots were being recorded in glorious High Definition.

When I got back the DVR had crashed and lost my recording.

The issues are well documented over here: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=63122

pete

Posted at 11:54PM on Sep 15th 2006 by Pete

8. HD television is well worth the $10.00 a month! If you are able to watch it!!!!! I just switched to DirectTV, because I was having alot of problems with Dish. In the one week that I have had the DirectTV HD DVR, I have gone through 4 recievers, and have been able to watch 0 mins. of TV. They are coming back out on Wed. with the 5th receiver. Missed all of the Football games on Sunday, missed the Dodgers kickin the Giants butts, and at this rate I figure I will be missing the palyoffs too. Why continue to sell a receiver that they know doesn't work?

Posted at 5:13PM on Oct 3rd 2006 by Dave

9. Have had direct tv for a year. Have the directivo box and am very happy with it. I recently ordered the new hd dvr box from direct tv with 4 free months of hd programming. I honestly only wanted it for the sports packages though. I have sunday ticket but they dont tell you that hd is not included in the hd package....you have to subscribe to the sports fan package which is an additional 99$ for the season to view sunday ticket games in HD. It has been almost a month since I ordered and I havent recieved a hd dvr box yet. After my original order they said I would have to wait 2 weeks for a tech to come out with my new box and dish (5LNB Oval). They showed up after 2 weeks and informed me that they dont have any boxes left....so I would need to re-schedule. So basically DTV is taking orders for hd dvr's that they dont have in stock. They scheduled me for a tech to come out a weel later to install the new hd dvr box and the dish. However, now the tech installs the dish on the roof and attempts to setup my new hd dvr reciever.....it doesnt work! The card reader on the inside is defective and wont read any cards. So you guessed it....I have to wait even longer to have HD. 300.00 for the reciever and was charged additional for setup fee. I havent been able to make a judgement on the new reciever yet because i cant get one in my house. ;) Just to make matters worse...theb tech left my house after telling me the bad news about the new reciever but failed to setup the new dish properly......only one of my 4 recievers were working when he left because of a botched setup. So I had to call them back to setup a time for this to be corrected. They have been out 3 times so far and all i have is a bill from direct tv for services that suck. When I call direct tv all they do is apologize for the iconvenience but give me nothing in return. Only a new date for an install which is usually weeks away.

Posted at 8:17PM on Oct 20th 2006 by Lew

10. Had Direct HDTV installed 7 days ago. Am extremely disappointed. Had Adelphia Cable, soon to be Comcast, and even though it was SD, the pictures on my new Sony LCD XBR2 were better than on Direct. Can't see what all the good talk was about for Direct other than cost. My signal is abysmal, have digital blocks. I was really looking forward to all the channels being broadcast in Digital but cannot see the benefit that I thought I was going to get. Now I will do battle with Direct, I want it removed yesterday. I'll go back to my antenna if I have to.

Posted at 9:16PM on Nov 9th 2006 by greg

11. Comcast doesn't seem that bad after my experience with trying to get installation of direct tv from contractors out of Philadelphia. Waiting since Oct.2006, here it is November 7,2006. Took off work two different days and waited and waited,called one time installer lost too late but did want to get up on roof at 8:00p.m (too late);promised by direct tv wigs that would be put in between hours 8:00a.m.-12:00, rained and installer called me and said he was wet,behind due to rains and didn't want to bring mud in house and he said I would have to reschedule.Again addressed the problem for 3rd time and was told to reschedule, no way lost enough money in already waiting for other scheduled days. Direct tv just didn't push the issue, sad,they lost another prospective client. Nothing good to stay about DIRECT TV....

Posted at 7:40AM on Nov 10th 2006 by linda bonaventure

12. Picked up my HD DirectTV DVR from circuit city today... Had it up and running in about half an hour...

I still have the 3 LNB dish, so I still need to finish upgrading a bit. Picture is AWSUME.

The remote isnt running the volume on my Sony reciever yet, and I cant seem to get OTA HD off even though my antenna is hooked up (still scratching my head on that) but, I expect to get that fixed in a day or so... Other 'issue' I had a coax run back to my bedroom so I could use my old directivo back there without needing to buy another one. Now I need to get a 45ft HDMI cable :)

Posted at 8:57PM on Nov 13th 2006 by Flores

13. Well I ordered Direct TV HD last week and was told they would call within 72 hours with a install date! Well one week later after getting the RUN AROUND I get told they have no dishes fot the roof and maybe in January they might have! I spend $3500 for a Sony HD LCD TV and then can not get HD from Direct TV, I might check out Comcast as least they have the HD equipment to install in my house in Antioch, Illinois!

Posted at 7:23PM on Dec 8th 2006 by Kenneth Schemmel

14. Just had the DirecTV HD DVR installed and the picture flat out sucks from the HDMI cable. Looks better in component but not what it should be. Called DirecTV and they have know for a while that there are micro chip issues with the HDMI connection. The signal causes green lines to appear on my TV and my TV turns completely black before a picture appears. Called them and they stated they have known about the problem since January and there is a software download coming to correct his. My problem is they have known about this and I purchased my HD DVR just one week ago. It was installed 3/6/07. I called their customer service and was told they knew about the problems with this unit. My problem is they knew and are still selling the unit but not at $300, but $200, and require your credit card to purchase before they install. They are selling a lemon and I am concerned that my 56" Samsung DLP could be ruined by the bad signal. I am filing a complaint about them to the BBB, they knew this receiver is having micro chip problems and are still selling it. They try to appease you by offering free months of Showtime or Encore give me a break!. This is a sham to the consumer and you out there that have been cheated should file complaints also.

Posted at 9:00AM on Mar 7th 2007 by Marion

15. I would highly recommend ANYTHING over Direct TV. I am in the process of taking the Direct Tv Authorized Dealer to court. In the area I live Dish Network and Comcast both have satellite/cable internet. I called Direct Tv to inquire if they did as well. I was told yes they did, I gave him my cell number and told him I didn't have a home phone and that I wasn't that interested in tv, just internet. Well day of installation I find out that they don't have internet service, just some agreement with Earthlink for dial-up if you have a home phone and they could not give me the price I was quoted either. I called Customer Service, but due to a holiday approaching was told that someone would call me in 72 hours, but they would take care of the problem. All I wanted was my money back and to return the equipment. No one ever called me back and I got the run around everytime I called. I got through to someone 1 1/2 weeks later only to be told that the guy who lied to me when he sold me the service no longer worked there so I was out of luck. I could pay $300 minimum to have them take their equipment back. I have had one headache after another and they are definitely not worth it

Posted at 2:15PM on Mar 15th 2007 by Lindsay

16. im on my 3rd HD DVR reciever from direct tv... still get terrible reception. tech support keeps sending tech guys here who keep telling me there is a problem with the recievers. i have had DTV for 10 years and i may have no choice but to cancel service.
Awful... Awful... Awful

Posted at 1:13PM on Mar 20th 2007 by mike

17. I got direct tv in January and had the service people out seven times. Had the HD box changed 3 times and finally I gave up and switched to Dish because of the problems with a scrambled picture. I still got a bill from Direct TV of $285 for cancelled service. Is there any legal action that anyone has tried because of this problem. I can see a class action lawsuit on the horizon

Posted at 12:40AM on Mar 29th 2007 by Len

18. I had D* upgrade from SD to HD this winter, 3 months ago, without warning me that one of my trees in the SW would block one of their HD sats, even after I asked the installer about it. Now I've lost some of my channels after the leaves have sprouted and they say cut the tree down (or trim it). Should I not be offered a refund, since their product does not fully meet its specs. because of a faulty installation?

Posted at 10:10PM on Mar 29th 2007 by Alan

19. I have been a DTV user for 2 years and started upgrading to HD service 8 weeks ago. I found the HD Receiver ($100) worked fine and the HD picture quality was good but when I added the HD Plus DVR Direct TV was out of them and the installation was scheduled 5 weeks into the future. I subsequently bought the DVR at Circuit City ($300) and was told there was a $100 rebate. I called DTV to install it and was told the rebate was only for new customers. After arguing and getting transferred to someone with some supposed ability to correct the problem they finally gave me a $5.00 per month discount on the HD service for 6 months.

This DTV supervisor also told me that a new model of the DVR was coming out August ’07 and it would be much better. I asked him if it was free as he was replacing a brand new DVR (but one with problems) that I paid $300 for and all I got was silence.

I paid a DTV installer to bootleg the installation in 2 days for ($30).

DTV better start taking better care of their loyal base customers who continue to pay them $120 and up per month. We should all complain to the BBB if they do not give us this corrected version for no cost. To do otherwise they are really ripping us off if we let them.

Posted at 9:53PM on Apr 5th 2007 by Dennis

20. I have 2 rca dr435rh recievers that have started frequently loosing programing due to dtv changing their system. they are saying that it is the reciever's fault, but i have had this checked out and this is not the case.
Direct tv does not have a replacement for this reciever without upgradeing to HD tv as these units have s vidio and optical audio etc. dtv is forceing me to change providers or purchase at my expense hd recievers inorder
to take advantage of my home theater surround sound system
also i cannot depend on recording any channels due to the frequent loss of programing.

Posted at 11:52AM on Apr 10th 2007 by richard watts