DirecTV Adds Eleven New HD Channels for Fall

I am so GLAD I switched over to DirecTV from CC. The programming is better, pictures are clearer, sound is great,,,no, better too. I am so glad I made the switch. I am truly looking forward to exercise my HD TV with the new HD stations being launch. Comcast has never solved an issue with sound quality after 1 year. I gave them that long to deal with the headache. No achaches now....all enjoyable DIRECTV. Go get'em DTV.
Thanks for having a valued service to your customers.

"Valued service to your customers"...? How much you want to bet that "Jognog" is really the DirecTV CEO.

Has Direct TV said if the new channels will require the 5 MPEG dish, or will they be available with the 3LNB dish?

I thought all of the new HD channels will be mpeg4 only and will require a new receiver and 5 lnb dish just like for DTV locals.

oh Yes! I wish I were the CEO...but no I am not. Just a little satisfied customer that had no satisfaction from Comcast for over a year. That included 34 days off of work to meet a 'tech', four time they never showed up, constant monitoring on my end ( I felt like the tech), no followup after a visit to tell what they were doing to resolve the issue (it was never resolved), and so on. By the way this problem has been noted by not only other people on my street, but many others as well.
Yes, I love my DirecTV and Customer Service as well.
I wish I were the CEO or even a part on that.

jeeze...

Jognog. Enjoy the few good experiences with Directv customer service because it is absolutely horrible. I switched in part to Dish because of Directv customer service. It turns out that Dish customer service is just as bad, if not worse than Directv. The bottom line is that we tolerate pathetic customer service for a superior product. Right now Dish has the most HD, however it appears that Directv will have more soon. Just how soon though is the question.

I seriously doubt that DirecTV will offer more HD channels than Dish for a number of reasons unless things change drastically in the HD distribution/availability chain. For one thing - Dish still has exclusive rights to the VOOM channels and that represents quite a few channels. And for another - most if not all of the "new" DirecTV channels that are planned are stations (like discovery and some of the movie channels, etc.) that Dish also has agreements with so I'm assuming that when DirecTV gets them Dish will also - unless some of the new birds don't make it up into the sky. Dish has always prided itself in offering the most HD channels in the industry and I don't see them reliquishing that any time soon without a fight.

I actually have both Dish and DirecTV (minimal DirecTV in order to get the YES network - one of the very few personal gripes I have about Charlie Ergen and Dish) and I also have friends with the DirecTV service. I can say, from personal experience, that I consider Dish technical support and service far superior. They aren'y even close in terms of response and othjer issues. For example, the DirecTV installers fraudulently double billed me for equipment I never ordered almost a year after the fact and it took some work from American Express to catch the perpetrators. Another example is a side by side comparison regarding the quality of SD offerings. DirecTV is just plain ugly and Dish is tolerable. And, based on what I've seen, the Dish HD PVRs just blow away the DirecTV PVRs in terms of features and functionality. And don't get me started about which of the two satellite services compresses their signals more. HD-lite has become synonymous with HD-DirecTV.

Yes, I would agree that both DirecTV and Dish are far better options than cable (at least here in suburban NYC) where CableVision defines the term "incompetent." And if you are a rabid sports fan who must have your NFL ticket and several other exclusives, then DirecTV is probably the way to go since you have no choice. But before we start annointing DirecTV the King of All HD Media let's see them get it right at least once.

In a related matter, I understand that FIOS TV from Verizon will soon be active in my neck of the woods (I already have FIOS Internet and it is superb!). The day that this happens I will dump my DirecTV box and get YES from FIOS instead. Then I can see how FIOS fits into the pecking order of TV and HDTV serice providers.

I'm a DirecTV user (reluctantly, as explained above) and certainly not the president of that company nor of the Men's Hair Club.

I thought all of the new HD channels will be mpeg4 only and will require a new receiver and 5 lnb dish just like for DTV locals.

Customer service seems to be a function of the individual you get on the phone that processes your requests and takes time to connect with your "wants" for the various services. I've been with Directv since its infancy and most of my problems with the services were solved when prompted to read the manual or call the convertor manufacturer. Other problems such as storms and other type outages simply wait it out or reset the receiver. Cable I've had since the late '70's and many of the issues had to do with inside or outside wiring problems, which required a tech visit. Trying to schedule these visits is a slight problem when you work 10-12 hours a day. The problems with signals can be frustrating since it may take a week before the problem is resolved. It seems to me that both services require human interactions and patience when dealing with these issues. Both services have improved over the years but "customer service" still depends on that person who will take your issue and do all to resolve it on the first call. I cannot say one service is better than another and I have 2 dedicated theaters. Picture, sound, channel packages and costs are basically the same. I have 22 HD channels from CC and 18 from DirecTV but they both are increasing the choices. Let them improve their schedules for service visits, technologies and then can enjoy our entertainment in our homes.

One of my biggest issues with cable TV (I was a subscriber since the early 70's when it was first offered in my area) was that your house is on a distribution system that also goes to many other residences up and down the line. With Satellite, it's just you linking to the birds in the sky (assuming you have line of sight, of course, or all bets are off.) I was lucky enough to "see" all of Dish's satellites to meet my needs.

And the problem with being on a long link with other cable users is that most of the companies hire independent contractors to do the "repair" work. I would find a marked degradation of signal every couple of weeks (sometimes every couple of days.) A technician finally explained it to me. When a service call is made to anyone on the line it is attended to by someone who is usually getting paid per job. One of the last steps in correcting a problem is to "balance" the line again (I'm not sure what the true technical term is) so that people further down the line won't be affected by the changes made by the current repair. Unfortunately, in an effort to crank out most jobs this important "tuning" (or whatever it's called) step is often left out by a lot of contractors. They can get out of there quicker (one less trip up the pole) and their current customer is satisfied and they move on to the next job. The man I talked to (during one of my many service calls) told me that my poor, variable signal could be corrected and he proceded to trace the line all the way back to where it joins the main trunk - adjusting the signal as he went. He also told me that I would be fine until the next repair was made anywhere on the line. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later I saw a man on a pole in the neighborhood and my signal degraded once again.

The tech I had talked to was candid and I made up my mind then and there to switch to some form of satellite service that didn't rely on the kindness of strangers.

This was almost a decade ago and I've never looked back. I might take a chance (on a small scale with Verizon FIOS TV when offered) to see if the paradigm has changed. I notice more "Cablevision" trucks (rather than independent vans) out there so maybe there is a bit more consistency and monitoring of quality control in today's world. If FIOS corrects this situation they will blow away regular cable in my town and probably in others. A little competition can be a beautiful thing.

We'll see.