AtlanticBB/Tivo vs DirectTV

[Goldenhawk]

Looking to cut costs, but not really "cut the cord" yet - our family is too invested in DVR time-shifting and commercial-skipping to want to go straight to Roku or Hulu.

A couple questions.

1) Have any of you abandoned DirecTV in favor of AtlanticBB / Metrocast RECENTLY, and have any stories to share?

2) What are your ACTUAL costs per month for AtlanticBB at what tier? They advertise $59 and $99/month bundled with internet service. What is it after all taxes and fees?

 

[imaref]

I still have Directv as well and love DVRing and skipping commercials. Try this first:

1. Figure out the best deal you can get from ABB
2. Call Directv and ask for retention department. Explain how long you've been with Directv and tell them the offer you have from ABB
3. Directv will most likely give you a great discount for the next year. Then next year, when your discount is ready to expire, call Directv and do the same thing.

I've done this every year for many years. Directv usually offers between $30-$40 off per month to stay. I've had Directv for 23 years. If your package/number of receivers is more than mine they might even offer more than $40 off.

 

[BernieP]

I'm fed up with both. DirecTv was good before it was bought out by AT&T. If you get Dirctv and expect to use the "On Demand" feature, be warned you need a reliable high speed internet connection - which AT&T is just waiting to sell you. Now if you have your phones (cell and land line with AT&T) Directv might work out.

What can I say about St. Mary's Cablevision. Might as well call it that depending on where you live. The older your neighborhood, the crappier your service will probably be. ABB likes to blame the problems on the wiring (old), in your house (but not their wires outside which haven't been updated since forever.

If you are home all day and have the time and energy to fight with them, you can probably get your problems fixed.
If you work, and want to come home and take care of your personal business (emails, bills, etc), then you mat become an unhappy customer.

Lack of competition makes for poor service.

 

[Goldenhawk]

We have fairly decent internet reliability. I guess I'm wondering more how AtlanticBB pricing ACTUALLY works, because all those glorious promises on the website usually don't include all the other fees and add-ons that are required to make up a real bill.

 

[spr1975wshs]

(rounded to nearest $)
$157 "VIP Basic " - TV/Internet/Telephone
$ 61 Taxes, Equipment and Fees

Don't really worry about the cost, or speed as do not do a lot of streaming save when the wife watches something on Amazon Prime via Firestick, sometimes uses Roku.

 

[BernieP]

We have fairly decent internet reliability. I guess I'm wondering more how AtlanticBB pricing ACTUALLY works, because all those glorious promises on the website usually don't include all the other fees and add-ons that are required to make up a real bill.

Look into providing yhour own modem and router if you can. Saves on the rental fees. Also, get a seperate modem and router, that way you can upgrade one, without disturbing the other. Not sure what taxes and other surcharges are and what applies to the internet only.

Be aware that the speed isn't promised, the language is "up to...." . Check to see if there is a minimum level of performance.
There are plently of sites that offer a speed test, that are free.

I'm not inclined to pay out my butt for unreliable service. Problem is, until you are connected you don't know if you have lucked out and have newer wiring or if you are on St. Mary's Cablevision.

ABB isn't going to rewire the entire county to bring it up to current standards.

I was told (by a member of the cable board) that the reason the big names in the industry ( Comcast, Cox and Verizon) didn't even bid on the contract was the cost to them to upgrade the infastructure. They wouldn't come in and hodge podge their system the way ABB has. In talking with ABB service techs, they have similar problems. They using what ever wiring was in place and the equipment still has Metrocast on it as well.

 

[Goldenhawk]

Yep, owned my own router and modem for years. My real question is "is Atlantic/Metrocast better than/comparable to DirectTV, both price and quality."

 

[BernieP]

Yep, owned my own router and modem for years. My real question is "is Atlantic/Metrocast better than/comparable to DirectTV, both price and quality."

Wow, well DTV doesn't bundle internet and phone.
ABB / Metrocrap doesn't offer NHL Center Ice and some of the other sports packages that are licensed to DTV.
What I have seen as far as TV service is
1. ABB Organization of channels is dumb. DTV has local channels on their numbers (i.e. 4 on 4, 7 on 7, etc.)
They also put both the HD and SD on the same #, you can set a default. You can also turn off the showing of duplicsate SD channels
2. ABB seems to be much more expensive for TV than DTV. Very few channels unless you are into the garbage (home shopping etc) channels.
Thinking about it, I believe wiht the package I had with DTV I had more HD channels than I do channels iwth ABB for about the same price, but without the internet. So the "basic" internet and tv package from ABB was the same price as the almost fully loaded DTV.

1. We have an annoying "pulse" with ABB that after 5 attempts they can't seem to get outo f the system. It has to do with some "feature" but that "feature" disrupts the video / audio on the main TV.
2. I think DTV, for the equivalent package, would be cheaper than ABB. DTV has a whole house system simliar to ABB, one DVR but all the rooms have access to the main box. (TiVO is the standard format for the DVR).

I lied, DTV can be bundled with an AT&T cell plan. There are some interesting mobile upgrades wiht that.

But If you want internet too, ugh, I have no idea what saves money,

Oh, DTV has it's problems. Heavy rain / snow and your signal can be interrupted. Customer service seems to have slip[ped under the guidance of AT&T.

 

[David]

Take a look at GoogleTV. Pretty darned nice for $40/mo. All the local channels and DVR. Plus, you can watch it on just about any device. I was all ready to cut the cord with DTV, but when I called them to cancel, they basically matched the price of Google forever (I was a 22 year customer). I took them up on it since I do like the DTV DVR a might better than Google's. I also don't have to worry about losing signal when the cable blips out. With Google, some channels don't allow you to fast forward through commercials, which is a real PITA. It is similar when you are steaming on DTV, the same channels won't allow the FF past commercials. But, that is not an issue if you actually recorded it to your DVR hard disk.

There are several other similar services out there that I trialed that are worth a look. Hulu Live TV w/DVR is pretty decent. Sony Playstation also has a similar service which was pretty impressive. They're all about the same price and I believe they all have a free trial for a week or so. Stay away from Sling. They are owned by Dish and that company is bad news IMO.

You'll need a Chromecast device to stream these to a real TV. Just about anything else that plays video on your Android can also stream to it. About the only thing that doesn't work well is Amazon Prime because they don't want to play ball with Google. You can also stream from the Chrome browser on a PC to a Chromecast device. Pretty sweet. Much better than trying to navigate those klunky menu interfaces in Roku. Just use the app's normal interface on your android. It really is the Smart Remote that I've been waiting for the past 2 decades: Android + Chromecast.

 

[Dakota]

David... did you mean youtube TV?

I know of google play but I didn't think google had a TV service.