Should You Dump Fios for Directv?

[mindgrind]

Rather than continue to complain about FiosTV with their problems of billing, the new DVR and lack of HD- I finally bit the bullet and made the switch. Should you? Well, here is my impressions and comparisons between the two.

Fios pros: great HD & SD picture quality. VOD is finally starting to improve. new DVR picked up some good features and is a tad faster. Reliable with no outages. Easy to have two DVR's... althoug it'll cost ya.

Fios cons: billing nightmares for more of us than there should be (yes, I was one for months), CSR's often clueless, no new HD in near future, no communication to subscribers of what IS coming, new DVR software is B-A-D for the most part. Good luck changing progamming... and good luck that it will be correct on your bill.

DirecTV pros: up to 85 HD channels now with NO hd-lite, DVR is a pleasure to use, billing is clear and changes of programming can be done online anytime. CSR's seem to have a clue of their product and it doesn't take 10 minutes to find out that I have no land-line. Did I mention the 85 HD channels?

DirecTV cons: slow channel changing on DVR, SD pq is a bad as ever (better than cable, worse than fios), a dish on your house, possible outages in a storm, DVR "purchase" is a wopper. VOD (their's is DOD) is still in it's infancy.

Am I happy for the switch? You bet- the biggest con of DTV is the SD pq- but you know what? With 85 channels of HD- and the big channels, not LMN or WeathTV, I don't have much desire to watch th SD channels personally. I was expecting a lot of stretch-o-vision, but most of the channels don't do that and more and more HD stuff keeps showing up- wait until you see some HD stuff on the Sci-Fi channel! Wow! And the single Starz HD channels of Fios pales to the five Starz HD channels on DTV (same with HBO, etc.).

The DVR is great- no lag. It's been a while since I had Tivo, but from what I remember this is better than back when I had it. LOTS of room on the DVR- in fact doing the quick math, I get about 5 times the HD content. Seems like with Fios I was always deciding what to delete before Fios did. Everything about it is so logical.

The cost. It was $300 (ouch) for the HD DVR and the HD receiver with the other sd receivers coming free. This is a lease, not a purchase. Does that hurt? A little until you do some math: I got $50 from the referral (from this forum... PM me if you want the same), a $50 Visa gift card, $20 off per month promo for 12 months ($240), and 3 months free of all their premium movie channels ($42 a month normally). So I'm actually ahead at the end of the day.

Will I switch back when the HD channels finally come on board with Fios? That's a tough one because even when they get them, and let's assume they continue to update the DVR and make it fully functional once again, you still have to deal with the Verizon Corporation. I'll tell you, I was scared every month to check my bill to see what surprises there might be- heaven forbid I change anything. I don't think I want to face that again and there are countless other billing stories you can read about. I sure don't want that, and I'll tell you- I'm still scared after canceling to see what happens- heard one guy get a final bill of $1,300.

In conclusion, this was the right switch for me. If you are happy with the new Fios DVR software, have no billing problems, and don't care about a lot of HD channels, stay with Fios.

 

[jgantert]

I still have a $600 bill after cancelling the Fios TV. It's a real hassle. Good luck with them getting it correct for you! Make sure you keep the UPS Store reciept!!!

-John

 

[mindgrind]

Great, so you're now the second story I've read of with a huge bill after canceling. What was their reasoning for the charge? And I am sure to save the receipt. Did you do their Auto-Pay?

 

[jgantert]

No auto-pay for me. They just said those boxes were not returned. They obviously were. They said they would fix it, they just haven't yet.

 

[mindgrind]

Got it. So what did you switch to and are you glad you did?

 

[Pistol P]

I cancelled immediately after Directv started all their new hd channels. I was sick of it taking them 10-15mins just to figure out who i was because of the fact that i didn't have a landline through them. What a mess. Nobody ever seems to know anything with fios. I kept the internet though. Never gonna have tv through them again unless they seriously get it together. I also hated their guide and dvr.

 

[garlandtxuser]

Rather than continue to complain about FiosTV with their problems of billing, the new DVR and lack of HD- I finally bit the bullet and made the switch. Should you? Well, here is my impressions and comparisons between the two.

Fios pros: great HD & SD picture quality. VOD is finally starting to improve. new DVR picked up some good features and is a tad faster. Reliable with no outages. Easy to have two DVR's... althoug it'll cost ya.

Fios cons: billing nightmares for more of us than there should be (yes, I was one for months), CSR's often clueless, no new HD in near future, no communication to subscribers of what IS coming, new DVR software is B-A-D for the most part. Good luck changing progamming... and good luck that it will be correct on your bill.

DirecTV pros: up to 85 HD channels now with NO hd-lite, DVR is a pleasure to use, billing is clear and changes of programming can be done online anytime. CSR's seem to have a clue of their product and it doesn't take 10 minutes to find out that I have no land-line. Did I mention the 85 HD channels?

DirecTV cons: slow channel changing on DVR, SD pq is a bad as ever (better than cable, worse than fios), a dish on your house, possible outages in a storm, DVR "purchase" is a wopper. VOD (their's is DOD) is still in it's infancy.

Am I happy for the switch? You bet- the biggest con of DTV is the SD pq- but you know what? With 85 channels of HD- and the big channels, not LMN or WeathTV, I don't have much desire to watch th SD channels personally. I was expecting a lot of stretch-o-vision, but most of the channels don't do that and more and more HD stuff keeps showing up- wait until you see some HD stuff on the Sci-Fi channel! Wow! And the single Starz HD channels of Fios pales to the five Starz HD channels on DTV (same with HBO, etc.).

The DVR is great- no lag. It's been a while since I had Tivo, but from what I remember this is better than back when I had it. LOTS of room on the DVR- in fact doing the quick math, I get about 5 times the HD content. Seems like with Fios I was always deciding what to delete before Fios did. Everything about it is so logical.

The cost. It was $300 (ouch) for the HD DVR and the HD receiver with the other sd receivers coming free. This is a lease, not a purchase. Does that hurt? A little until you do some math: I got $50 from the referral (from this forum... PM me if you want the same), a $50 Visa gift card, $20 off per month promo for 12 months ($240), and 3 months free of all their premium movie channels ($42 a month normally). So I'm actually ahead at the end of the day.

Will I switch back when the HD channels finally come on board with Fios? That's a tough one because even when they get them, and let's assume they continue to update the DVR and make it fully functional once again, you still have to deal with the Verizon Corporation. I'll tell you, I was scared every month to check my bill to see what surprises there might be- heaven forbid I change anything. I don't think I want to face that again and there are countless other billing stories you can read about. I sure don't want that, and I'll tell you- I'm still scared after canceling to see what happens- heard one guy get a final bill of $1,300.

In conclusion, this was the right switch for me. If you are happy with the new Fios DVR software, have no billing problems, and don't care about a lot of HD channels, stay with Fios.

Uhhhh? No HDLite??? I think you should specify where you learned this. I have read that this is not the case. in fact, I do not believe that they have the capability to deliver pure HD or uncompressed HD at all.

While I don't object to people switching for the other problems it is not fair to provide incorrect information. Facts should be looked at before making a decision of this kind. HDLite is an evil that should have never plauged American television and any provider utilizing it, such as Dish and Direct should be hung on the nearest tree for it's introduction.

And if you doubt that Direct utilizes HDLite, just who do you think implemented it in the first place??. Are you telling me that they just threw out the technology they spent all that money developing? Also, when did satellites , and the recievers, gain the ability to stream at data rates large enough to handle pure HD? Last I checked it was never.

 

[mindgrind]

Hop over to the DirecTV forums here and you'll see that with their new satellites up and mpeg4 compression the HD-lite is gone. I have a 60" 1080p tv and believe me, you would tell the difference and you can't between D's hd and Fios.

The HD-lite USED to be the case, but full rez now. You need the newer receivers to get the full resolution in mpeg4 and partly why Tivo doesn't work (besides D's falling out with them years back) because Tivo at this point doesn't decode mpeg4.

 

[garlandtxuser]

Hop over to the DirecTV forums here and you'll see that with their new satellites up and mpeg4 compression the HD-lite is gone. I have a 60" 1080p tv and believe me, you would tell the difference and you can't between D's hd and Fios.

The HD-lite USED to be the case, but full rez now. You need the newer receivers to get the full resolution in mpeg4 and partly why Tivo doesn't work (besides D's falling out with them years back) because Tivo at this point doesn't decode mpeg4.

I don't mean to be a stickler here, but mpeg4 compression, or compression in general, IS HDLite. Any compression of the video signal reduces the overall quality. In order to view the stream, something has to de-compress it back to it's original format. This causes some delay, even if it is very slight, which degrads the picture quality. Fios sends the signal uncompressed for true HD quality, just like over the air signals come into the set.

 

[charper1]

If I understand correctly ALL services even OTA use codecs which is compression. To what extent may be the difference and as stated above the OLD version was questionable, but the new is equal and in some cases better.

 

[mindgrind]

If I understand correctly ALL services even OTA use codecs which is compression. To what extent may be the difference and as stated above the OLD version was questionable, but the new is equal and in some cases better.

The only HD that isn't compressed is HD DVD and BluRay. You're correct, even OTA is compressed as is Fios, even though their PR machine would like to make it seem the opposite.

From my observations, Fios puts out more bits than Directv, but it's pretty darn close. The only difference I spot on a rare occasion with D* is color-banding, which I'll take any day over the nice little white pixel crawl across the screen with Verizon's new DVR.

 

[rallyr]

Well, this seems pretty standard. When I left Cablevision for Direct TV they tried to hit me for big bucks for unreturned equipment, etc. Eventually it was fixed, but it was painful. Then, 2 years later, when I left Direct TV for Fios, the exact same thing again. It's just the way of the industry.

I hate my Verizon DVR for its unresponsive behavior and for Verizon's crappy TV guide information which is always wrong. On the other hand, it looks the best on my 96" DLP projector, and I absolutely love the multi-room playback features. Each service has its plusses and minuses I guess...

I still have a $600 bill after cancelling the Fios TV. It's a real hassle. Good luck with them getting it correct for you! Make sure you keep the UPS Store reciept!!!

-John

 

[robjlevin]

Interesting write-up. Thanks.

I've decided to switch from FiOS to DTV. I'm actually very happy with FiOS with one exception...no MSG or FSN-NY in HD. I'm in Central NJ and up until now, despite having four choices for TV (FiOS, Patriot Media, Dish and DirecTV) there was no way to get those channels.

DirecTV added them a few weeks ago and after crunching the numbers, despite a bit of hit on upfront costs for the two HD DVRs I ordered, it should even out after about a year. At that point it will be almost the exact same cost.

Install is scheduled for next week so unless FiOS announces the addition of those channels in the next week I'm gone. I'll keep FiOS for internet, though. There's simply no competition.

 

[vurbano]

DirecTV pros: up to 85 HD channels now with NO hd-lite, ....

Horsesh*t. All mpeg2 hd CHANNELS are HDlite and there is NO proof that any of the new mpeg4 channels are 1920x1080i. They could very easily be 1440x1080i.

 

[mindgrind]

Horsesh*t. All mpeg2 hd CHANNELS are HDlite and there is NO proof that any of the new mpeg4 channels are 1920x1080i. They could very easily be 1440x1080i.

Oh, my- such strong language for a stupid argument

From the posts I've read over in the D* forums many claim it is in full 1920x1080i rez. You and others can argue the opposite and the debate can continue, so...

... from my vision, and I'm very picky about PQ, I see no difference in resolution from Directv and Fios. This is based on a Sony A3000 (latest model) 60" television. As I have previously stated, the only difference I can see is slight color banding possibly due to compression that was not as apparent with Fios. Yes, the SD channels are worse, but as I also previously stated- I rarely watch them so I don't care.

To me, including my own opinions, others in the Directv forums believe the PQ is great and a big step up from previous offerings of HD from D*. So am I a fanboy wanting to argue the point? No. I believe I have been honest on both sides of the Fios/D* discussion. If I honestly saw a difference in PQ I would state such. I was merely giving my opinion of what I see and information that I have read. Don't like it or believe it? Fine- I was just trying to help out anyone else sitting on the fence over leaving Fios. You like Fios? Stay- what do I care?

 

[cebbigh]

I've got DTV now and am happy with it but they just put up signs that Verizon is bringing in Fios. My area doesn't have the TV part yet. I suspect that they will take awhile on that. Is it worth it to convert from DSL to Fios for the internet? I probably wouldn't consider the TV part until my contract with DTV is up.

 

[EEJay]

Depending on what kind of speeds you're getting through DSL, you could look into switching. If you're only getting 768k, definitely switch. You'd be happy with just their 5Mb service. I've had it for almost a year and there's no other word for it than solid. Low latency, and no speed slowdowns - if some site can serve you a 5Mb download, you'll get it.

 

[satgirl51]

HD-DVD use MPEG 4 compression so they even use compression????????????????????????????

If compression is done right it looks great, obviously as everyone thinks hd-dvd isn't compressed....

Directv HD is very good now, some people just don't like directv so they will not even give it a chance and thats fine this is America, and we are free to have our own opinions even if they are skewed and untrue.