I am on Directv and it's a tradeoff. I definitely get more channels for less money than my local cable offers. I do get my local stations through Direct, but they are Phoenix, not my actual local town, which I could still get via antenna if I cared enough. Most major cities should have their locals available by now. When I lived in the desert, I was so far out that they gave me LA/NY locals instead, with a special waiver.
Directv's customer service is not great. It's not ridiculous, either, but I do remember some vague low grade ongoing annoyances.
Do you use Tivo? If you do, you can continue as now, with your Directv receiver and the Tivo using the IR blaster to communicate. Alternately, Direct will try to give you its own DVR, which I feel is subpar, but not from direct experience.
I have the DirecTivo, which is no longer supported, but may be again soon with Direct's new ownership. It has several advantages in that it's cheaper, has a dual tuner (so you can record two shows at once and watch a third previously recorded) and is fully integrated. But, being not supported, it has significant disadvantages like, I can't connect it to my network (the hardware is there, just disabled) and therefore it does have a phone line (which currently isn't working, it's grumpy at VOIP, which is another issue entirely, but doesn't actually affect my day to day usage other than a nag message and I have to schedule PPV over the internet instead of through the remote.)
In general, I like Directv, and have been pleased with the product. The only times I've had interference have been when the dish was literally filled with snow, or in very heavy thunderstorms. However, I am in an arid area, so this is not a frequent occurrence for me. Your weather may vary. But I've had it through three moves, and will continue with it.
I do have my internet separate through cable. I don't have any experience with satellite internet, although I probably will at the new house when it's built.
We got local channels when we had DTV. Weather was a huuuuuuuuge issue- specially here in TX.
TWC gives me BBCA and Animal Planet. Huh.
Does anyone get Trio?
No, alas, I think Trio is dead.
I think I had DirecTV in Chicago some years ago. Seemed like the picture went out any time we had weather and sometimes when we didn't (mostly in the middle of Cubs games.) Luckily in LA weather rarely happens.
My folks have had Dish and DirectTV and Comcast in the last few years, and have had the least trouble and the best customer service from DirectTV. Dish was the worst, always going out with the least provocation and terrible service. Comcast was reliable but kept taking away channels they watched and raising rates.
I would have gotten DirectTV just for the NFL Sunday Ticket when I moved into this place, but there's no place to put a dish, too many trees in the way.
Oddly enough, here in the tall Ponderosa pines, I get reception just fine. The installer shifted the dish back on the roof a few feet (which conveniently positioned it to where I can brush it off with a broom from the porch) and managed to point it through the (fifty foot) trees somehow and it's flawless.
eta: And yeah, NHL's Center Ice was a deciding factor for us.
You guys rock! Thanks for all the info.
I have to say--I am a fan of the Aliph Jawbone headset. And I found it online for $40 less than the Best Buy price ($140) so I'm back on my original headset budget (the price of the Motorola).
The first headset I had, though, came with a belt-clip carrying case
and
a loop for a lanyard thingy. Not that I used either for the fully intended purpose, but it showed that the designers were thinking of portability. On the Motorola boom headsets protection has two reasons--preventing damage, and since they turn on when you flip the boom, battery life.
What I want to do is just toss my headset into my purse, but that's totally not working. Googling shows I'm not alone. Sad.
Email question: If I want to add an email account to my email application, what can I search for on said email account's home page to find the server name and all that good stuff? I'm trying to add my school account but the Bruin Online home page isn't making it very easy to find and I'm not sure what to look for.
