DIRECTV HDTV losing its edge - Rate Hike!
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted January 27th 2006 9:55AM
posted January 27th 2006 9:55AM
At one time DIRECTV was the
undisputed HDTV leader: the first to carry the ever popular HDNet and still the only provider to offer an HD TiVo.
DIRECTV has been pouring all of their resources into offering local HDTV channels and at the same time
letting their national HD lineup
suffer. Many subscribers are less than happy with their HD locals experience. As if
this wasn't enough, subscribers are complaining about the amount of compression that DIRECTV uses on their HD lineup.
Meanwhile DISH Network continues to add more HD channels such as the VOOM channels. After all this
tipping of the HD advantage in DISH's favor DIRECTV now announces a rate hike.
Current subscribers will pay $3 more per month, while new subscribers will pay as much as $4 more per month. To top it all off, DIRECTV claims that the reason for the increase is because they have invested so much money in bringing HD to the viewers.
OUCH!!!!!
I'm a DirecTV subscriber with their HD DVR (well, TiVo) reciever. The main reason I've been with DirecTV for so long is because of their exclusive contract for NFL Sunday Ticket. Even though some other companies offer the NFL Network (which is available on DirecTV), and NFL Highlights on Demand (also available on DirecTV), etc., DirecTV carries "ALL" Sunday afternoon regular season games (CBS and FOX) and up to nine NFL games a week in HD. Plus, NFL Gamemix is a great feature. 8 games on 1 channel, all at the same time. That's a pigskin buffet!!!
However, this news on a rate hike "sucks." No other way to look at it. I wouldn't have minded it so much if they were to add more HD channels or if we all had HD locals (but only a few markets actually have HD locals thru DirecTV).
Additionally, your article states that some DirecTV HD subscribers were complaining about the "amount of compression" that DirecTV uses. I haven't noticed any difference (or any major difference). But I could be wrong. If any of you have any info on this, post it on here.
Bottom line (for me) is that I pissed off about the rate hike. But, I love NFL Sunday Ticket. So, I guess I'll stick with DirecTV. But I sure hope that DirecTV adds more HD channels and features. Otherwise more people will be switching over to Dish Network or Digital Cable (yuck!!!).
When I originally switched to DirecTV from Dish Network about four years ago it was for one reason. HD. DTV was the undisputed champion of HDTV. They had the most channels at the time and had the best technology. SInce then the only thing that has got my interest is the HD Tivo (which I have). The problem I have is that many local sporting events are shown in HD but Comcast is the only carrier that provides them. (FSN and Comcast sports net HD). As much as I have always said that I would never go back to cable, especially Comcast, its beginning to look a whole lot more appealing if DirecTV continues to raise rates and doesn't give me any programming to show for it. I mean they can't even carry TNT or Starz in HD.
As for the compression, I haven't noticed a terrible loss in quality, but then again most of my HD watching is OTA signals.
I too have been considering switch back to the dark side.
right now it just seems to make sense. If I do I will keep my dish and try to buy the sunday ticket.
There are many discussions around the net about DIRECTV's PQ. When the HDTiVo first came out there was a keystroke that would display the current bit rate and resolution of the channel you were watching. Shortly after the complaints started the feature was removed. But some people still have the ability to capture DIRECTV content (google 169time) and report that it hasn't gotten any better.