Thinking about trying DirecTV

I'm moving into a place downtown in a relatively small city and I'm trying to decide between Comcast and DirecTV. I've never had a good experience with Comcast and between HD cable and internet, they're trying to charge me $80 a month. DirecTV, however, is only $40 a month for HD programming (I'd get the internet from Comcast for $20).

What sorta reception would I be able to expect from a dish on the second (top) floor of a building?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Is that $40 a month just for the service, or does it include the rental fees for the dish? Seems pretty low to be the total cost. As for reception, I have some neighbors in my apartment building who seemed pretty happy using DirecTV dishes on their balconies.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I think it's all inclusive. The catch is the 2-year agreement, which, in most cases, still works out to be cheaper than Comcast if I cancel after one year.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well, I doubt they'd put a dish anywhere you wouldn't get reception less than 99% of the time. That being said; signal quality, number of channels (and HD channels), and presumably customer service are all higher with DirecTV. Your internet will still go up to 50-ish with Comcast after 6 months or whatever.

Personally, I'd recommend seeing when/if FiOS will become available at your complex. Not as many channels as the Satellites, but most of those are useless anyway. FiOS will give you best overall picture quality and internet access, and will be the only provider even remotely capable of sending you 1080p content that wouldn't be compressed into oblivion (like what DirecTV is trying to do with their On-Demand service). If FiOS isn't gonna happen, then DirecTV is still the next best option.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

How are you getting cable from Comcast for only $20 a month? Are you sure that's not a subscriber-only rate? Or not just an introductory rate which they'll jack up after the first three months?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Oh it's only for the first six months. After that point, I'll call them and threaten to change my service to AT&T or something to see if they'll continue the rate. I'm not sure how long I'll be living in this place.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I've been a DirecTv customer since '99. It's been a great TV service. Especially when I lived out in the sticks and it was the only thing available. The only thing I would recommend staying away from is their DVR's. I went through three in less than a year. I finally told them to just send me a regular receiver. At first they tried to give me some crap but once I bitched about it to a manager, he took care of it.

My only regret now is that I'd already paid for ESPN gameplan this year before finding Channel Surfing.net, which streams all of the games that gameplan does.

The installer shouldn't have a problem getting a good signal unless you have other buildings blocking the southern sky.

How ya doing, buddy?