I’m about to go postal on Direct TV

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TV is s**t. I have plenty to do on the boat without wasting time on the dreck, the ads and the shouting. Let alone the stupid cost. Hmmm, time to pull the cover off my stern-tie winch and service it...

Just after Xmas I deleted my Facebook account, all the newspapers and news feed things on my computer and found it wasn’t so difficult to not be informed every minute of the day and I sleep better, eat better and get way more done. The only news I got this week was from golf buddies who couldn’t stop talking about Tiger.

If you have time to watch tv, use the monthly money to get a bigger boat!

Now, about that winch...
 
TV is s**t. I have plenty to do on the boat without wasting time on the dreck, the ads and the shouting. Let alone the stupid cost. Hmmm, time to pull the cover off my stern-tie winch and service it...

Just after Xmas I deleted my Facebook account, all the newspapers and news feed things on my computer and found it wasn’t so difficult to not be informed every minute of the day and I sleep better, eat better and get way more done. The only news I got this week was from golf buddies who couldn’t stop talking about Tiger.

If you have time to watch tv, use the monthly money to get a bigger boat!

Now, about that winch...

Sheesh. How do you feel about Christmas? Grinch! ?
 
Definitely Grinch! Although I have no problem with Strange religious rituals...
 

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Count your blessings you weren't dealing with Comcast! I swear they go out of their way to screw around their customers on purpose.
 
Everyone’s experience is different, we had a hard time finding an unlocked WiFi signal that would support video streaming. We also had to upgrade our data plan to keep from bumping into the monthly maximum that one can stream without being throttled down. Then there is the monthly limit on hot spot devices requiring one to plug directly into the tv with an adapter and hdmi cord for much of the month.

The first couple of weeks was great until we used up all the data we were permitted on our “unlimited” plan and we got throttled back to dial-up speeds..... Of course we lost the ability to stream a few days before that since the ceiling for that is only 10gb a month.

Now we have upgraded our KVH to receive Dish and we can alternate between sat TV and streaming to keep within the phone companies data limits. We were a bit annoyed to learn that unlimited data actually has a lot of limits! It doesn’t take long to exceed them if you stream an HD movie or 90min mystery every night.
Had similar issues. DTV wouldn't activate our perfectly good older KVH system, only newer digital version allowed (just bought the boat & previous account was cancelled by PO).
Solution: Firestick with Hulu live. BTW Verizon offers a 16Gb & 24 Gb plan that allows your phone/tablet to work seamlessly in Canada & Mexico with no additional fees for data/ voice to from Canada/US/Mexico. No throttling up to plan limit & unused data rolls over to the next month. The catch is: Verizon doesn't advertise this plan & u can't usually purchase it via their Web site. By phone, their sales agent will work very hard not to sell it to you, and will keep directing you to the unlimited plans which are throttled & don't have the Canada/Mexico feature. If you persist, the 24 Gb plan works great & is reasonably priced -great for looping.
 
They are all terrible but I agree with Todd2 that Comcast is a very special kind of “provider”.

For home we cut the cord and purchased only internet from Comcast (likely switching soon to fiber from another provider). We use YouTubeTV for local and typical cable channels along with NetFlix and Prime for movies and HBO (Mostly for GOT Season 8).

Don’t miss a thing and we managed to reduce our bill by about 60%. This is good as we only watched about 10% of what we paid for from cable.

On the boat we use a cheap HD antenna and picks up a few local channels and a lot of channels that seem to broadcast shows like ‘Welcome Back Cotter’ and ‘Love Boat’. I joke that the boat only allows shows onboard from its childhood (and mine).

As 5G actually happens most of us will get streaming from cellular networks. The big providers know this and are holding on to subscribers as they attempt or maximize revenue until they are irrelevant - I would assume to hold on to their value when they eventually sell the business (and subscribers) to a cellular company.

Gotta love it when you pay monopoly pricing for below public utility customer service.
 
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After over 30 years kicked Comcast to the curb. Going on “vacation “ used to be painless snowbirding between NJ and Fl. First NJ starting charging $10 to put our account on vacation. Then FL started doing it. Then they said they needed to put tv and internet on vacation separately for $6 each. Btw their vacation period did not align with our vacation time so you wound up paying 8 months of service to cover the six months present. This year was a new surprise. $10 / m each for tv and internet plus an $11 month government charge plus taxes on all came out to $26.50 per month EACH for NO service in TWO empty houses! Bye bye.
Going mobile hotspot and ota.
 
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Directv was problematic before but since the acquisition by AT&T they've been nightmarish for many. They've been losing huge numbers to all the streaming services. On top of that, their Directv Now has largely been unsuccessful. They are not retaining customers at all. Meanwhile Sling, Hulu and You Tube TV are gaining customers and share. AT&T once again provides mediocre service and buys something and lowers their service quality.
 
TV is s**t. I have plenty to do on the boat without wasting time on the dreck, the ads and the shouting. Let alone the stupid cost. Hmmm, time to pull the cover off my stern-tie winch and service it...

Just after Xmas I deleted my Facebook account, all the newspapers and news feed things on my computer and found it wasn’t so difficult to not be informed every minute of the day and I sleep better, eat better and get way more done. The only news I got this week was from golf buddies who couldn’t stop talking about Tiger.

If you have time to watch tv, use the monthly money to get a bigger boat!

Now, about that winch...

Wow Ken, you are my hero!
(didn't look at this thread before, as it was about TV)
 
Do people still watch TV?
 
Stanley Cup too!

Wifey B: Interestingly, same city representing Canada in the NBA playoffs as NHL.

NHL down to

Columbus
Boston or Toronto
Washington or Carolina
Elmont
Dallas
St. Louis
Colorado
San Jose or Las Vegas

Started with three Canadian teams though as Winnipeg and Calgary were in it.

NBA down to

Milwaukee
Orlando or Toronto
Philadelphia or Brooklyn
Boston
Oakland or Los Angeles
San Antonio or Denver
Portland or Oklahoma City

4 NBA Games tonight. :D
2 NHL

And I'll be watching the NBA. :D
 
I just installed and activated a new intellian i3 satellite antenna with DirecTV .intellian uses a second party activation company. I bought the receiver from them and they activate it my DirecTV account with no problem and no contact from me with DirecTV very easy.
 
I just installed something called, the internet... just joking, we ditched TV for good this year. I know lots of bars that still have them though.
 
I just installed and activated a new intellian i3 satellite antenna with DirecTV .intellian uses a second party activation company. I bought the receiver from them and they activate it my DirecTV account with no problem and no contact from me with DirecTV very easy.

If you have an i3 and you are using DirectTV, then you are only receiving standard definition tv. DirectTV is shutting off standard definition tv over the next year. You will need to pick up a VIP211Z and switch to Dish in the near future.
 
Directv lost 544,000 customers during the first 3 months of this year and Directv Now lost 83,000. That leaves them with 22.4 million and 1.5 million respectively. AT&T must certainly be very proud of themselves.
 
She is who I spoke with last week who told me what receiver I needed to order. I’m going to call her again and talk to her about the whole situation and see what she recommends. She was super nice and helpful.


go to weeknees.com and order your receiver there. Once it arrives and you have it installed, call directv and have them activate it for you. (Thats what I did without any of the problem above (most of which i did not read)
Best

Scott
 
I tried DirectTV Now. I am a fan of streaming TV but not DirectTV Now. Their cloud DVR is unreliable. They were price competitive when I started but raised the price in my 4th month making them over priced. The refused to fix their data base causing me to only receive Houston channels in Seattle. The day I canceled they ran my CRedit card for the next month.

I am going to try Google TV to see if they are any better. For now I am using Dish/Intellian I3.
 
I tried DirectTV Now. I am a fan of streaming TV but not DirectTV Now. Their cloud DVR is unreliable. They were price competitive when I started but raised the price in my 4th month making them over priced. The refused to fix their data base causing me to only receive Houston channels in Seattle. The day I canceled they ran my CRedit card for the next month.

I am going to try Google TV to see if they are any better. For now I am using Dish/Intellian I3.

Just because it's something we like to do, we have tested most of the streaming services. Based our views on our viewing habits which is a lot of sports and then a few other channels like A&E.

Sling is pretty solid with a decent selection of channels. However, they're really short when it comes to local channels and regular network television.

Directv Now has become pricey to get the sports channels you want. Like others they've not made deals to have A&E, Lifetime and other associated networks. Also, they cloud and dvr service is the poorest of all.

Vue also lacks the A&E and certain other Disney properties. Their DVR only saves for 28 days. Their streaming quality may be the best, but if you're looking for regional sports you're forced up a level too.

Hulu is probably the simplest and most straightforward for all but requires an upgrade to get more DVR and to be able to fast forward. They have the best selection of channels in their cheapest plan of anyone, however. We did experience one problem on only one channel though and they could not correct it. The audio and video would get out of sync. First place you'd notice was closed captions but then you'd see it worsen in other ways.

You Tube TV. Again no A&E or that group of channels, but overall quality very good and unlimited DVR space plus great on demand.

Philo. Ok, they're small time compared to the others, but an interesting group of channels starting with A&E and others that the other streamers don't carry. Picture might not be as sharp but overall their system works very well.

Cable companies are losing lots of customers to streamers. Their way of fighting back is giving better deals on packaging and raising prices on internet only. Of course you need high speed internet to use streamers. And that's why we still have Directv on the boat, because while cruising the cost of internet is greater than any savings.

We do still have cable and satellite at home (along with some streaming) but for the vast majority of people, I'd say streaming is the answer. If it were not for the number of tv's and for business purposes of keeping up, then we'd definitely be using a streaming service or two.
 
While aboard, we just use antenna for broadcast tv and then use sat radio so we can listen to games while aboard. We also download shows we want to watch at home and then binge watch on rain days. Understand it is not ideal for you live a boards.
 
High speed internet and streaming services will only improve in the next year or two. However more programmers are starting to offer stand alone streaming offerings so we will have to pay for each or go through a aggregator (DTV Now, Sling etc). Fun
 
High speed internet and streaming services will only improve in the next year or two. However more programmers are starting to offer stand alone streaming offerings so we will have to pay for each or go through a aggregator (DTV Now, Sling etc). Fun

The problem is we're still limited in high speed internet providers in our homes. Now, that may change but more than a year or two out for most locations.
 
I remember years ago when everyone had a tv antenna on their roof or rabbit ears covered with aluminum foil, then huge dishes, then small dishes and now tv antennas on the roofs again but they've advanced some and are much smaller now, that’s advancement for yah.
 
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Directv Now has become pricey to get the sports channels you want. Like others they've not made deals to have A&E, Lifetime and other associated networks. Also, they cloud and dvr service is the poorest of all.

A friend of mine on Facebook posted the other day that her NFL network on direct tv no longer works. She was not very happy about that.

Football is my main motivator for getting sat TV/cable on the boat. I don’t want to deal with buffering or weak internet signals. And I’d like to not be land bound during football season.

Another annoying thing with Direct tv....last season I purchased the NFL Sunday ticket. It was like $300. What they don’t tell you is that only one mobile device can be logged in at a time. If we had stayed with Direct tv, I would not purchase it again. It wasn’t worth it.

The switch to Dish was super easy and my monthly bill is about $70 cheaper per month. I ordered the receiver for the boat and now we just need to get it all installed.
 
I just installed and activated a new intellian i3 satellite antenna with DirecTV .intellian uses a second party activation company. I bought the receiver from them and they activate it my DirecTV account with no problem and no contact from me with DirecTV very easy.

No less than 4 people at Direct tv told me they cannot activate a 3rd party receiver regardless of who’s doing the activation.
 

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