Is AT&T gutting DIRECTV?

[comp9]

No it's not. As I said above Charter charges $13 DVR for 1 DVR, or $20 for up to 4. I have two DVRs with each service. A HR44 and HR24 with DirecTV and a 201-T and 210-T with Charter.

TV Gold is all normal digital cable channels plus HBO, Showtime, TMC, Starz, StarzEncore and Plex. Up until this past Spring it also included Cinemax and Epix. About 300 channel total, close to 200 of which are HD. It's the equivalent to DirecTV's Premier. No the line ups aren't exactly the same, why would you expect them to be? They share probably 95% of the same channels, including the premiums. Sure Charter doesn't carry gems like the Scientology Channel, but they have all of the PAC12 Networks

Because you said charter was 20 bucks cheaper for equal offerings when they obviously aren’t

 

[rad]

Until Charter/Spectrum offers WHDVR, which ours doesn’t, they are a nonstarter in our house.

 

[EarDemon]

There seems to be a good amount of channels missing from charter that are on Directv. That isn’t counting if the HD lineups are the same

A good amount? Only if you include all of the shopping channels wedged throughout the entire DirecTV line up. It's probably somewhere between 10 - 15 channels. And are you really going to count 30+ out of market RSNs where all pro sports are blacked out and they all show the exact same content?

And what about the about the other way around?

7 PAC12 Networks, MoviePlex, IndePlex, RetroPlex, Hero's and Icons, Military History, Newsy, i24, Cleo, where are those on DirecTV?

Besides the Music Choice channels, there are about 50 SD only channels

 

[EarDemon]

Because you said charter was 20 bucks cheaper for equal offerings when they obviously aren’t

Seriously are you going to nitpick that much? Do you honestly expect two MSOs to have the exact same channel lineup across the board? Core channels are the same, premium channels are the same, total channel count is the same.

If you want to nitpick are really do an apples to apples comparison, throw in Fox Soccer Plus. DirecTV charges $15 a la carte for that, with Charter it's a basic channel. So I guess that means it's actually $35 cheaper, right?

 

[comp9]

Seriously are you going to nitpick that much? Do you honestly expect two MSOs to have the exact same channel lineup across the board? Core channels are the same, premium channels are the same, total channel count is the same.

If you want to nitpick are really do an apples to apples comparison, throw in Fox Soccer Plus. DirecTV charges $15 a la carte for that, with Charter it's a basic channel. So I guess that means it's actually $35 cheaper, right?

To start. I don’t see several national sports channels. BTN and ACC being 2. There is others also but that 20 bucks can be eaten quick. Also since premier includes sports Pak and charter has no equivalent you can take that 15 out and you are down to a 5 dollar difference

 

[EarDemon]

To start. I don’t see several national sports channels. BTN and ACC being 2. There is others also but that 20 bucks can be eaten quick. Also since premier includes sports Pak and charter has no equivalent you can take that 15 out and you are down to a 5 dollar difference

Big Ten Network is channel 382 and is on the list under Digi Tier 2, fourth column lower left about 17 up from the bottom. ACC Network is channel 388 and is not listed because the line up was included in the May bill, before ACC Network launched.

I see you ignored my point about Fox Soccer Plus. I purposely didn't mention it and the Sports Pack at first because to me it's a wash.

Because of the differences in packaging structures there will never be a truly a same apples to apples comparison. You know that, you're just nit picking in an attempt to show DirecTVs superiority to someone who disagrees with you. I have both services, both have their positives and negatives, but you are clearly so deep into DirecTV you fail to see that they are not the end all be all.

So lets say I didn't have Premier, I believe the next one down is Ultimate. What's the cost of Ultimate with all of the premiums minus Epix and minus the Sports Pack? It's hard to tell by the website, but it looks like Ultimate is $135 and includes StarzEncore. If that's true, how much is it to add HBO, Cinemax, Showtime/TMC and Starz to that? Your $15 is the a la carte rate and I would find it hard to believe there is not a bundling discount anymore for premiums. I also fail to see how $15 is worth it for all of the out of market RSNs

 

[comp9]

Big Ten Network is channel 382 and is on the list under Digi Tier 2, fourth column lower left about 17 up from the bottom. ACC Network is channel 388 and is not listed because the line up was included in the May bill, before ACC Network launched.

I see you ignored my point about Fox Soccer Plus. I purposely didn't mention it and the Sports Pack at first because to me it's a wash.

Because of the differences in packaging structures there will never be a truly a same apples to apples comparison. You know that, you're just nit picking in an attempt to show DirecTVs superiority to someone who disagrees with you. I have both services, both have their positives and negatives, but you are clearly so deep into DirecTV you fail to see that they are not the end all be all.

So lets say I didn't have Premier, I believe the next one down is Ultimate. What's the cost of Ultimate with all of the premiums minus Epix and minus the Sports Pack? It's hard to tell by the website, but it looks like Ultimate is $135 and includes StarzEncore. If that's true, how much is it to add HBO, Cinemax, Showtime/TMC and Starz to that? Your $15 is the a la carte rate and I would find it hard to believe there is not a bundling discount anymore for premiums. I also fail to see how $15 is worth it for all of the out of market RSNs

And you are doing the same with Spectrum. So round and round we will go

 

[EarDemon]

Yes, and no. You just can't stand the fact that in some circumstances, Spectrum is considerably less expensive than DirecTV for an equivalent set of services. They may not be and are not in all, but it's the DirecTV faithful that refuse to admit that.

I will counter everyone of your points, because you know that I am correct. I posted my statements from both services, with as equal service levels as possible and the evidence is clear.

Still no comment on Fox Soccer Channel? Still no pricing info on Ultimate+HBO/MAX/SHO/STZ?

There are situations where DirecTV is cheaper than Charter. Charter's basic package is a rip off. Charter has no 4K nor do they offer Whole House DVR. DirecTV carries two channels I wish I could get on cable, Sportsman's Channel and One America News. Sportsman Channel was part of my old Time Warner package. I'm not married to my TV providers like you appear to be, just pointing out that your blind devotion is overshadowing reality.

Another example that you will probably find fault with is price increases. So last year DirecTV's Premier had a $8 price increase, and the year prior to that I think it had a $5 increase, and before that another increase. I've been on Spectrum Pricing (SPP) since it was first offered in my area in March of 2016. Last month was the first increase I had on the core TV package in 3 1/2 years. From March 2016 to Oct 2019 TV Gold was $105. 3 1/2 years without a price increase on a TV package, when was the last time DirecTV did that?

 

[Jimbo]

Looks like the Ultimate package is $84.95 ...
I thought the $135 was way high.

All DIRECTV offers require 24-mo. TV agreement. $19.95 ACTIVATION, EARLY TERMINATION FEE OF $20/MO. FOR EACH MONTH REMAINING ON AGMT., EQUIPMENT NON-RETURN & ADD’L FEES APPLY.Price incl. TV Pkg., monthly service and equip. fees for 1 HD DVR & is after $5/mo. AutoPay & Paperless bill discount for 12 mo. New approved residential customers only (equipment lease req’d). Credit card req’d (except MA & PA). Restr’s apply.
PopularityA-Z

• Local Channels
  Available in 99% of USA

 

[Claude Greiner]

Partially. As you know, there is no Regional Sports Fee on Charter, and cable is the one thing in NY State that is not taxed. Comcast I believe has one, along with a Broadcast fee, but the total of the two is probably what Charter charges for their Broadcast fee now as Its quite high now. Franchises fees are a percentage of the TV portion of the TV, since I have a fairly expensive TV package, my franchise fee is around $8.

I sell 1000 Comcast activations per month. $22 is a very good estimate for most areas.

I have seen the fees as high as $32 in Chicago

 

[longhorn23]

You can doubt all you want. Attached is a screen shot of my DirecTV bill and the TV portion of my Spectrum bill showing the difference. For the service levels, the only difference between the two services of the Whole House DVR on DirecTV. If DVR Fees are your sticking point, I'll counter that with programming. DirecTV essentially charges $172 (Premier + Extra) what Charter (Gold + Cinemax) charges $123 for.

Charter
TV Gold - $112.49
Cinemax - $9.99 (including it even though I have it free for a year)
Two Receivers - $15.98
DVR Fee - $19.99
Broadcast TV Surcharge - $13.50
FCC Fee - $0.06
Franchise Fee - $8.37
TOTAL = $180.38

DirecTV
Premier - $166.99
Movies Extra Pack - $4.99
Additional Receiver - $7.00
DVR Fee - $10.00
Whole House DVR Fee - $3.00
Regional Sports Surcharge - $8.49
County Tax - $0.95
State Tax - $0.80
TOTAL = $202.22

Difference of $ 21.84 in favor of Charter.

(Intentionally not including Epix since I don't have it on DirecTV, and all providers charge $6 for it, so it would cancel out)

how were you getting premier for 166? I used to pay 188 for premier. And recently they accidentally canceled my service when making a change. When they readded service, premier went up to 196! I feel like I’m getting ripped off because even new customers pay 189 for premier after the first year discounts expire.

 

[Juan]

Then you know they cram the maximimum amount of music without any care for quality

I wasn't going to respond, but I will say I've spent countless hours in recording studios where music has been recorded and mastered for vinyl and CD. I know the whole process, I've watched and heard the lathe cut the lacquer master, I've A/B compared vinyl and CD from the same recording, etc. I've played the raw master lacquer masters on my home turntable. I'm more tuned in to the recording business than you could possibly imagine so you don't need to "fill me in" on the subject. I've also set up a playback room with my personal stereo equipment for DirecTV to A/B different audio compression settings on the uplink transport, which resulted in the best compromise for sound and data rates.

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Juan]

So mp3 is not compression? Better investigate further

How MP3 Files Work

The MP3 format is a compression system for music. The goal of using MP3 is to compress a CD-quality song by a factor of 10 to 14 without noticeably affecting the CD-quality sound. With MP3, a 32-megabyte song on a CD compresses down to about 3 MB. This lets you download a song much more quickly, and store hundreds of songs on your computer's hard disk.

Music on CDs is sampled at 44 KHz 16 bit, and stored on the CD without compression.

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[Juan]

So why did comcast develop an ap for roku and firetv that allows you to watch cable tv with an interactive guide on a secondary tv?..only available on wifi

I think MVPDs realize at this point that there's no stopping the rising tide of streaming services. Consumers want them and are buying them. So they may as well make it easy for their cable TV customers to supplement their own service with the streaming apps they want, and hopefully get a cut of those app's subscription revenues too. If an MVPD forces customers to switch inputs to a Roku/Apple TV/Fire TV to watch Netflix, etc., they just risk the consumer using their own cable box less and less, which is NOT a good thing. If they incorporate streaming services into their own box, they can control the overall UI/UX, gather user data, and encourage consumption of their own TV service.

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[ncted]

So mp3 is not compression? Better investigate further

How MP3 Files Work

The MP3 format is a compression system for music. The goal of using MP3 is to compress a CD-quality song by a factor of 10 to 14 without noticeably affecting the CD-quality sound. With MP3, a 32-megabyte song on a CD compresses down to about 3 MB. This lets you download a song much more quickly, and store hundreds of songs on your computer's hard disk.


Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

I think you will find they wrote CDs are uncompressed, not MP3s. This is pretty clear in the post you quoted which was in response to your post stating:

There is only so much memory available on a cd...so music has to be compressed...

Compression is different from sampling rate. What was sampled to create the CD is not compressed. That doesn't mean it contains 100% of the information in an analog recording, but even the human ear/brain combo has an effective sampling rate.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

How bout doing a little research before you post?

Then you know they cram the maximimum amount of music without any care for quality

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Juan]

This is my actual point...when you convert analog to digital...first step is to pass the analog signal through a high pass and low pass filter...this removes the frequencies that the human ear can not hear and its supposidly a waste to convert them to digital....on an old fashioned analog record from the 70s and early 80s..these signals were retransmitted...to an audio file with a high end stereo in the 70s they can feel these frequencies in the form of heat...to anyone raised on digital recordings..cds seem much clearer...and they are..but to someone used to records ..something is missing....thats the only point I wanted to make... but for people who think music isn't compressed on a CD..i just give my sympathies to

How bout doing a little research before you post?

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Inclined Orbit]

Apparently you haven't done your research yet. Please tell us how many award winning songs you have recorded or mixed? How much time have you spent in recording studios with both analog and digital? Have you ever compared vinyl to CD? I suspect not.

This is my actual point...when you convert analog to digital...first step is to pass the analog signal through a high pass and low pass filter...this removes the frequencies that the human ear can not hear and its supposidly a waste to convert them to digital....on an old fashioned analog record from the 70s and early 80s..these signals were retransmitted...to an audio file with a high end stereo in the 70s they can feel these frequencies in the form of heat...to anyone raised on digital recordings..cds seem much clearer...and they are..but to someone used to records ..something is missing....thats the only point I wanted to make... but for people who think music isn't compressed on a CD..i just give my sympathies to

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[Juan]

I am not talking digital...just analog...from way back when...i never said digital was worse that analog...just that they cut off frequencies that old records had...nothing to get in a huff about...you can do alot more with a digital signal than with analog

Apparently you haven't done your research yet. Please tell us how many award winning songs you have recorded or mixed? How much time have you spent in recording studios with both analog and digital? Have you ever compared vinyl to CD? I suspect not.

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[CSM]

Funny how these posts turn into something different.