Several months ago my DirecTV HDTV tuner burned out. I had a choice to make, purchase another DirecTV HDTV tuner or switch to Comcast HD. If I had bought another DirecTV tuner, I would likely have bought the HD TiVo at around $1,000. Instead, I opted for the cheaper Comcast HD setup. Why? Well, the hardware was $1,000 cheaper. The service ended up being about $10/month cheaper. Comcast would give me most of my locals in HD (I can’t get them over the air because I’m set between too many hills). It was basically a no-brainer. Still, I had some misgivings about leaving DirecTV.
A posting today on the PVRBlog gave me reason to celebrate. It seems I’m not the only person to have the exact same thoughts. My favorite part about the PVRBlog post is the part about DirecTV changing the encryption and encoding of their signal, meaning if I had purchased the HD TiVo I would have been SOL when they changed. Comcast, on the other hand, can change their encryption/encoding all they want. They’ll still have to send me a new box.
I used to think Comcast was evil as hell. I still think they’re pretty evil, but it’s clear that DirecTV is just plain worse.
Couldn’t agree more. I used to hate the cable provider as their customer service was so bad. Now they are angels compared to DTV’s offering. I can add a 5LNB dish, a non tivo/dvr receiver for 120.00. Or I can get cable and not have to invest in equipment, not have to suffer outages in rain and snow storms and save money on my internet and telephone service as well. No brainer. Which is right up my alley.