DirecTV:
The promotions make it sound so enticing: motion pictures and events on demand, high picture quality, a variety of channels, and service that rivals cable. Then there’s the tagline: “Friends don’t let friends subscribe to cable.” Let’s just say that after having their service for nearly a year now, I know why so few of my friends and family have DirecTV. The channel selection’s not what it’s cracked up to be, picture quality is merely passable, and the service… well, I’ll let one story stand in for the several I could tell about the nail-biting experience that is DirecTV.
Picture this: The series finale of The Sopranos. Rainy day. At no fewer than three points in the early part of the broadcast, the picture cuts out altogether. I’m one unhappy individual by the time the episode reaches its climactic last scene in Holstein’s (unrelated tip: get the cheeseburger with the fried onions, and then the sundae thingy they do with the coffee ice cream, chocolate sauce, and malt; I can’t remember the name, but I can’t forget the taste). Drop a coin in the jukebox, Steve Perry sings for a bit, and then…
What came next, for me anyway, was a stream of invective that would’ve made a longshoreman blanch. What I would realize later was a brilliant ending was just about wrecked by the fact that I thought the signal had dropped for the, oh, fourth or fifth time. Context is everything. And the time since hasn’t done much to restore DirecTV to good standing. You know those Rube Goldbergian schemes they come up with to explain chaos theory, where a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon and then it rains in Boston as a result? Well, if a squirrel farts in Poughkeepsie, something goes wrong with my DirecTV. If you’re considering satellite in general, and DirecTV in specific, my advice would be: Don’t bother.
Tags: cable TV, DirecTV, Holstein's, satellite television, The Sopranos
April 16th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
My mother had DirecTV, as did another friend. It all boils down to this: it doesn’t work if it’s raining. It’s that simple. My friend said they had supposedly fixed it with new equipment, but it didn’t work for him. They both canceled it.
Now everyone I know uses cable or off the air (OTA) signal. OTA provides a much higher quality HD experience because cable compresses the signal.
The one thing it’s good for is negotiating a cheaper cable rate.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Dude. I lived in Seattle for two years and had DirecTV the whole time and, well, we never really had a problem? Maybe it is a curse to the east coast subscribers only? *shrug*. The only other thing I can say is if you want REALLY shitty cable programming, move to a Naval base in Japan.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I’m very glad it worked out for you, but I’m hearing complaints from people on both coasts. I’m in SoCal, where the rain is light and thunderstorms are nonexistent, and my DTV friends still had problems. They’ve happily switched to cable.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
To top it off, my DSL’s acting up now, too. Between the fact that neither of us uses the house phone all that much, DirecTV sucks, and my DSL seems to be on banker’s hours, I think I’ve had about enough of Verizon altogether. What I saved by bundling, I’ve spent double in Advil.