MSU Red Cedar Message Board

Comcast used to piss me off a lot, but it seems like they've made serious strides to improve customer service in the last couple years. I'd go with the cheapest option.

I had Comcast for several years, then switched to DirecTV. Overall, I much prefer DirecTV, but there are a couple of things I miss from Comcast. First, the local channels are not HD. I can pick up most of my locals with rabbit ears, though, so that's how I watch them when I want to. Can't record them in HD on my DVR, though. Second, if you're a Weather Channel watcher, the Comcast local forecast is much better than the DTV local forecast, which often isn't local at all.

Maybe Comcast has improved its DVRs, but when I had it, their DVR absolutely sucked. The DTV DVR was (and might still be) significantly better. Easier and much more precise control when skipping forward or back. Holds a lot more content, too.

As for dropped signals, it does happen during strong rain or snow storms, but seldom lasts long. Cable may not go out at those times, but cable goes out plenty of other times.

I would never go back to Comcast.

If its just for on demand, you can run a ethernet cable from your router to the ethernet port on the back of the receiver.

If you hate Comcast you're going to wanna kill yourself w charter....had it for 3 years and hated it, tv always just freezes, Internet goes out consistently, there on demand nevvvverrrr works and they do nothing to fix your issues when you call...good luck to u if you choose charter

I have DirecTV and I hate it. Expensive and I lose signal often, sometimes for no reason.

then you have a fault in your system somewhere and you need to get it resolved.

At my expense for their crappy install. Their customer service is garbage.

My local channels in Detroit area are HD.

You must have had other issues that had already weakened your signal, like a poorly-aligned dish or a neighbor's tree partially in the way. (I've had both problems develop in the past, and they can easily be discovered by checking your signal strength in clear weather.)

I had to remove the snow from my DTV antenna once in February (as was mentioned earlier, one of those heavy, wet snows that sticks to everything) and maybe 2 or 3 times a year I'll lose signal during a heavy T-storm when the majority of the storm is passing just south of me. It's not the clouds and rain directly overhead that block your signal, but the ones to your south and southwest that are in between you and the satellite. The outages are only for about 2-15 minutes, the length of time your typical heavy storm takes to pass through.

Even where I've had access to cable, I have stayed with DTV. Although right now they are having a little contract renewal dispute with Tribune-owned stations (WGN, Fox17 in GR) so that we aren't getting those channels until they come to a new agreement--but those disputes happen between all the various carriers and broadcasters periodically.

I have directv for my tv programming and uverse internet for my network. The best of all worlds.

When I move next, I will purchase a home with DirecTV (tv) and Uverse/FIOS (internet) in mind...

It says I can get triple elite level internet with Uverse. No idea if that's true. I would think 6mb would be fine for my needs.

I have Directv and will never go back. I don't lose single very often. It has happened once in the past year. I guess it depends where you live... (I live in Michigan)

I use the iPad as the remote all the time. It's nice to quickly flip through the channels and search with out using the number pad on the remote. If I am watching a game and want to see who else is playing, I don't have to put the current channel into the tiny box in the top left of the screen in order to search for extra games. You can also have access to everything you have on your DVR too. This is really nice because the one major downfall of Directv is the loading times it takes to move channels or look at your DVR. On the iPad everything is instant.

Comcast in my neighborhood is absolute hell in regards to signal quality. All the lines are buried and they run right along the backyard property line, which is VERY wet almost year round. So our neighborhood (at least on our end of it) is almost exclusively either Dish, DirecTV, or Uverse. I have had DirecTV in the Lansing area for over 10 years running and very rarely lose signal.

As others have noted, usually during a heavy thunderstorm that is either directly overhead and raining like a Florida deluge with rain drops that will knock you out, or if the storm is just south of us and has storm cloud tops high enough to enter the line of sight between the dish and the satellite. Outages are usually on 5 minutes or less.

As for winter, I have a dish heater installed on the dish and when we are expecting a large snow, I simply plug the heater in and never have a problem. I had an ice storm one time that iced up the LNB set that sits out on the end of the arm in front of the dish and is not heated, but that is a rarity.

Oh, and one other bit of advice. If you go with DirecTV, go with DirecTV and NOT a third party seller. Almost every nightmare story I hear from people that had DirecTV and didn't like it, were signed up via third party sellers and not directly thru DirecTV. Bad dish alignments, shoddy installations, and extra charges that were not stated up front are just a few of the things to beware of when going with a 3rd party.