Okay so I have paid $15 for Basic Cable for as long as I can remember because I just could not justify shelling out absurd amounts of money for channels I wil never watch. But I have a 5 year old who I would like to give more exposure to with regard to educational channels other than PBS which comes with Basic Cable. I have started looking at updgrading my cable to Standard with TWC which costs around $55 a month or switching to Direct TV which will cost about the same money but gives many more channels. I have always heard bad things about Direct TV and weather affecting the reception but I also realize technology changes daily. Anyone here had experience with both? Or can anyone provide any input. Really what we are looking for is regular channels nothing super fancy but we do want Discovery, Animal Planet, National Geographic, and Disney Channels. THese seem to be offered in the Standard Time Warner Package and the Choice Plus Direct TV package. The other thing I am confused by with Direct TV is thier "leased" boxes. Do we need one for each TV and they convienently leave off the cost of the "lease" so anyone with Direct TV I would appreciate any feedback. BTW - Discovery channel is for me - I am addicate to the show the Deadliest Catch I watch wherever anyone gets that channel since I do not LOL!!!! Thanks everyone.
We have had both, we currently have TWC. The only issue we had with DirectTV was of course those NC Thunderstorms. If it starts POURING, fogettaboutit. With DirectTV you can purchase your own boxes, but there is still some kind of fee to use them IIRC? With TWC you can have just one box (or no box), and the other TVs can just run off the cable. With DirectTV you do not have a box physically in that room - but it is actually getting it's signal from another box in your home - so say you have a box in your room and one in your gameroom. You would have to tune that channel in on the box in your bedroom. (and yes, then you would have to watch the same channel) to watch it in your gameroom. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Whatever happened to the Travel Channel? Anybody know? They replaced it with Noggin (yet another kid's channel).
Direct TV has a "family channel plan". Comes with Playhouse Disney, Noggin, Sprout, NickJr, PBS (for the kids), a few others, local network channels and HGTV, DYI (for me). I believe it is $29.99 month. Look for promotions. We got it for $19.99 a month for a year because we had been a previous customer. The down side is you have to commit for a year. When we explored this vs. TWC it was a better deal.
we have had both, but are currently with TWC. We have the digital package downstairs with the 'box' (which allows Pay-per-view, high def channels and a gazillion more channels including all the movies if desired). The rest of the house (bedrooms) just have the 'basic' cable( 77 channels I believe, which includes Discovery, History, Noggin, Nick, Disney, and many others) and it works great for us. It runs us about $60 bucks a month, unless we use pay-per-view, which we do alot for Family Movie's. Never had a problem with them at all.
I've had DTV for years with no probs, but since I upgraded to the new dish/receiver for more HD channels, I've had a lot of problems holding a signal when it's windy, raining, etc. You have to hit more satellites with the new dish, but I went from 8-9 HD channels to 50-60. :cheers:
I have had Direct TV for more than 12 years now. I'm one of their original customers. Its great !! Clear digital picture and a lot of channels. I have not upgraded to HD yet but will soon. Weather does not effect it as much as it used to. Only if you have really heavy rain that is directly in the path of the signal you will lose the picture for a few minutes.
Had Direct TV at the other house and if a cloud came up, you had better DVR'd some things to watch or you'd be sitting there looking at each other. We have TWC now and sometimes when the people are talking, what they are saying doesn't match what comes out of their mouth. What a racket. :boxing:
If you are into HDTV then Direct is definitely the way to go. Downside is like Cleo says, every time a storm comes in you lose the signal.
I appreciate all the responses, I am still a little unclear on the whole receiver thing. If I am watching Discovery Channel in my main room does this mean the misses could not watch HGTV in our bedroom?
Has to have a different receiver for each room you want to watch tv in. Like ours, we have a regular receiver in the living room, and a DV-R receiver in our bedroom.
The statement above is one possible setup - you can have multiple TV's receiving their signal from the same receiver. In that case each of those TV's must be watching the same channel as the channel is selected by the receiver, not the TV. Unless you never plan to use both TV's at the same time, this is not a good setup obviously. You can also have an individual receiver for each TV. This is what we have. Each TV can be watching a different channel as it has its own receiver. If you have more that one receiver for the same DirecTV account, you will be charged an additional $4.95 per month. There is also an upcharge for HD service if you get that. My experience with service loss during weather is that if you have a storm directly on top of you, you will likely lose the signal during the worst period of the storm. Sometimes this is rather annoying. However, I prefer DirecTV to TWC. Some of my reasons are not based on technology, but on customer service. IMHO, TWC provides some of the worst customer service in the business. Granted that I have not had TWC service for many years now, so things may have improved, but I have no motivation to try again. To answer a question in another post, DirecTV does have Bravo.
Okay (light bulb going on) so if I "lease" a regular receiver form them for thier monthly fee and put that in our bedroom and then "buy" a DVR Receiver that they sell as well and put that in the main room then I can watch my show there while the misses watches her show in the bedroom, correct?
Save the 40-50 bucks extra a month and put your kid outside or take him/her to a park, zoo, etc. You can get a zoo membership, which gives you free admission to many locations (including Ft Fisher Aquarium), for around $100 a year. Parks are virtually free and most museums are too. A TV doesn't provide an education, it's a babysitter, especially for kids. I personally love watching the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and the other science channels, but 90% of the information is above and beyond what a child can comprehend. All you'll get is "look at the pretty bear mommy". Television shortens kids attention spans and makes them materialistic. My son's 3 and watches very little television (maybe 2 - 3 hours a month, if that). He doesn't like any of the tv show characters or "trains with faces" as he calls them. He knows who they are, but could care less about them. He'd rather sit down for hours and draw, build things with his toys or play outside. My nephew's the same age, watches all of the shows and wants every Thomas train there is and cries when he can't have it. He can't sit still for more than about 5 minutes. I've seen it in so many other children as well. I'm sorry for the rant or if this upsets anyone, but I'm tired of people using a TV as a babysitter. Spend time with your kid, he/she's not going to be a wierdo because they don't have all the popular toys. Anyways.... *stepping down from soapbox* As for the TWC vs DirecTV question, I've had both and I've been happier with DirecTV. It's only gone out a couple times in the last year and that was due to a severe thunderstorm. I can't remember anything about a "lease" charge, but I haven't looked at my bill in a while. A friend of mine has the HD package and loves it. TWC went out so many times and their customer service was horrible. I wouldn't recommend them.
Not sure how the lease and buy thing works....we got both of ours at the same time but the kids can watch the Suite Life of Zack and Cody in the living room, and i can watch House Hunt...er My House is Wort.....um...Good Eat..er no.......sports! on the tv in the bedroom. So the answer to your question is...yes.
Don't worry our child is not a couch vegetable. We have a zoo and aquarium membership and he gets out more than he is in just thought we would give him a few more options not to mention I really like Discovery Channel so it is for me too
