Dropping Directv for Xfinity X1

[steff3]

Thinking of dropping Dish for the Xfinity X1 triple play. I have three months left and receive all channels except the HBO's etc and pay $116 mo plus another $92 for phone and internet thru AT&T for only 12mb down. I love Dish and their Hopper but have to cut down on our monthly out going $. I can get the Xfinity triple for $89 but am concerned on quality. Anyone in the Sacramento/San Francisco bay area have any input on that? Also, can the X1 attach a external hard drive for additional storage?

 

[klang]

Also, can the X1 attach a external hard drive for additional storage?

Nope. There is supposed to be some sort of Cloud storage coming which might substitute.

Edit: After a little googling I can't find anything to indicate the Cloud Technology will mean more storage.

 

[berck]

A couple of draw backs versus Dish.
1) No pausing of live TV with the additional unit. Plays DVR files just fine until the last five minute. No skipping ahead from that point on.
2) X1 DVR has a much smaller HD inside. We used to be able to store whole seasons of five+ shows with the Hopper. Can't keep more than the latest three or four shows now.
3) I've had more pixelization issues with Comcast, but that maybe a issue with the neighborhood I'm in. They had to install a signal booster at my house to get enough signal.
4) Fewer HD channels. I get HBO, but only two HBO channels in HD. One west feed, and the Latino version.

 

[steff3]

Good info , thank you both....As much as I would like to let my cost I don't want to do so at the cost our quality. I was with Direct for almost 9 years and was forced to go to Dish and haven't been sorry with the exception of cost. Guess I'll stay where I am. Thanks again!

 

[johnml]

My tv's support 1080P. I had it set on my Directv mini genies. When I tried to set the bedroom X1 resolution to 1080P the TV goes dead with a no signal message. I'm certain the TV gets 1080P as the main living room and bedroom TV's are identical with the only difference is size. The installer said they only support 1080i and he said he knew for sure it didn't support 1080P.

Another hing, I lost my cable and Internet for 3 days because the initial installer didn't put a amplifier on the line. Received both for two weeks than went dead. When the repair tech came out to fix, I asked him about the resolution, he was baffled. He didn't know what I was talking about.

 

[berck]

Hmm, I know the DVR unit supports 1080p, but my bedroom unit is a 720p. I haven't tried the secondary unit doing 1080p. It's possible that those units don't really support it yet.

 

[johnml]

My tv's support 1080P. I had it set on my Directv mini genies. When I tried to set the bedroom X1 resolution to 1080P the TV goes dead with a no signal message. I'm certain the TV gets 1080P as the main living room and bedroom TV's are identical with the only difference is size. The installer said they only support 1080i and he said he knew for sure it didn't support 1080P.

Another thing, I lost my cable and Internet for 3 days because the initial installer didn't put a amplifier on the line. Received both for two weeks than went dead. When the repair tech came out to fix, I asked him about the resolution, he was baffled. He didn't know what I was talking about.

 

[johnml]

Also, I'm not trying to set the TV, just the cable boxes. The main X1 supports this but the bedroom X1 clients don't? Doesn't make sense to me.

Can deal with getting less channels than I had with Directv, but this channel lineup is driving me nuts. Wish there was some function to disable the standard channels altogether.

 

[johnml]

I wonder if johnml is trying to set the resolution on the TV instead of on the client receiver. I did check mine and both are set to output 1080P 60. Another possibility, is the TV 720P and won't accept 1080P?

No, just the receiver. The TV's already are set to receive 1080P

 

[johnml]

Just noticed I have to change the resolution everyday. It seems the units reboot every morning and the resolution resets to the basic setting. How can I stop this?

 

[mondaymonday]

Thinking of dropping Dish for the Xfinity X1 triple play. I have three months left and receive all channels except the HBO's etc and pay $116 mo plus another $92 for phone and internet thru AT&T for only 12mb down. I love Dish and their Hopper but have to cut down on our monthly out going $. I can get the Xfinity triple for $89 but am concerned on quality. Anyone in the Sacramento/San Francisco bay area have any input on that? Also, can the X1 attach a external hard drive for additional storage?

The HD picture quality on my X1 is better than my Directv image.

I made the switch from Directv to X1 a week ago. I'd been with Directv for 20 years and was always happy with them. I switched to save money, but I wouldn't have done so if I wasn't satisfied with the quality. I compared the image quality on the HD channels to the same channels on Directv and it is clear (and very surprising to me) that the X1 delivered a better HD image, particularly noticeable on my new 4K television. The interface is far superior to Directv now, thanks to the speech recognition. Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and X1 all have speech recognition now, and Directv is lagging behind. It's a lot nicer to just say "show me romantic comedies", and see a list of shows than using the guide or typing things on Directv. Being able to remotely view shows recorded on your X1 DVR on a mobile device is a nice bonus too, one which I tried with my Directv Genie, but never worked.

As for money, I was paying about $110/mo for Directv (for three rooms) with no premium channels and $70/mo for Comcast Blast Internet service, for a total of about $185/mo, and now am paying about $130/mo for the Premier TV package ( also in three rooms ), bundled together with Comcast Internet, and they also upgraded my internet service from 75Mbits/Sec to 105MBits/Sec. My speed tests actually show I'm getting 120mbits per second. The Premier programming package gives me every channel that Comcast offers.

When canceling Directv service after 20 years, they counter-offered a bit of a discount plus 4 months free of Showtime. Directv doesn't offer internet service in my area or they said they could've bundled that for me.

So all in all, this was an easy decision - better picture quality, more channels, voice recognition, more modern interface, at conservatively $50/mo less cost.

 

[mondaymonday]

Just FYI, I don't know about older X1 boxes, but with the X1 system I had installed last week I am able to pause live TV in all rooms.

 

[klang]

Just FYI, I don't know about older X1 boxes, but with the X1 system I had installed last week I am able to pause live TV in all rooms.

The newer client boxes enabled this. Much improved over the previous boxes. A word of warning though, while the client is powered up it ties up a tuner on the X1.

 

[mondaymonday]

The newer client boxes enabled this. Much improved over the previous boxes. A word of warning though, while the client is powered up it ties up a tuner on the X1.

I suppose you are saying that there would then be one less program you could simultaneously record while there is a paused live TV on one of the boxes?
If that's true, then if you were already recording the maximum number of simultaneous shows at a given moment (I think it is 5) you would be unable to pause live TV until at least one of the tuners stopped recording.

 

[klang]

I suppose you are saying that there would then be one less program you could simultaneously record while there is a paused live TV on one of the boxes?
If that's true, then if you were already recording the maximum number of simultaneous shows at a given moment (I think it is 5) you would be unable to pause live TV until at least one of the tuners stopped recording.

Yes. I originally didn't have my two client boxes set to go to sleep when not in use. I discovered the problem one night when trying to record three programs while watching a fourth. With two tuners tied to the clients I ran out of tuners.

Fortunately I don't need the clients active most of the time so it hasn't been an issue since.

 

[mondaymonday]

One of the more interesting effects of the new X1 boxes is that, as I stated in an earlier post, the image quality on the X1 is noticeably superior to the image quality I was receiving on my Directv Genie system, when viewed on a new 4K television set.
I first compared the images against Directv on my family room set - a 6 year old 58 inch Samsung Plasma TV - and it was very close, with a slight edge perhaps to the X1. But when comparing the images in another room where I have a 65 inch 4K Sony LCD, the X1 image is showing better color rendition - richer, with a wider range of colors - and the HD image itself looks sharper.
I'm interested to see if other people are experiencing this also.

 

[mondaymonday]

Yes. I originally didn't have my two client boxes set to go to sleep when not in use. I discovered the problem one night when trying to record three programs while watching a fourth. With two tuners tied to the clients I ran out of tuners.

Fortunately I don't need the clients active most of the time so it hasn't been an issue since.

Funny GIF!
I don't have my two client boxes set to go to sleep when not in use. I'll try that experiment. You are saying that I can only record 3 programs on the X1 DVR if the other two boxes are currently on?

 

[klang]

Funny GIF!
I don't have my two client boxes set to go to sleep when not in use. I'll try that experiment. You are saying that I can only record 3 programs on the X1 DVR if the other two boxes are currently on?

If you are a recent install you probably actually have six tuners. You can find out for sure in the diagnostics screens. Mine showed five the last time I checked. Newer models are supposed to have six after a firmware update.

 

[Bruce]

I'm interested to see if other people are experiencing this also.

I always have had fond memories of DirecTV's HD picture because when I left Dish the HD was so much better, Dish was just too soft looking, but when I left D* to go to Comcast I always thought the HD quality was close and maybe equal.

I do find it sad that the best HD kind off Broadcast Picture we get is over the Internet, real 1080P ( and now 4K) from Netflix, Vudu and Amazon, don't know what Hulu is sending out ( I think 720P) but it is looking pretty also.

 

[teachsac]

I had Direct, went to X1 for 2 years and then back to D* for almost the past 2 years. At least in my area, I've found the picture to be better on Comcast. I will be going back to Xfinity, and I might even pay off the early termination fee for the few months I have left. I never worry when people say D* or E* have more HBO, Starz, etc. because Xfinity has everything available On Demand. Xfinity's on demand for the major networks is way better, also. I will actually save a lot of money going back to Xfinity, also.