Cameron's Thoughts

DirecTV has been offering local channels now for the last couple weeks and it is a very nice service to have. It does have it's plus and minus's though. For one thing, we don't get all the same channels that are available on cable. This is due to laws that the satellite services have to follow, so they can only offer channels in my market. So I can only get Lansing stations. This means that I can get ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. There is also a Lansing UPN station, but there are not on the service. DirecTV is required to provide the channel if the channel wants to be rebroadcast. Apparently they do not. I have tried contacting them over e-mail, but never got a response. We also don't get the WB, but for that I don't really care.
One thing that is real nice though, digital local channels. You can't get this with an antenna, and the cable companies don't have this. Actually, on cable, the local channel range always seems to have a lot of static and ghosting. Now I have crystal clear channels and they can record right along side all my other shows on the Tivo.

DirecTV's 7S satellite is going to be launching on May 4th, which will soon be bringing local channels to a number of area's, including the Lansing, MI area where I am located in. This is good news. More info can be found at the Sea Launch website.

Yea, it's been a while since I posted. I got the DirecTV with Tivo installed on Monday. As you can see, I have been a bit busy with it, and it is cutting into my computer time. The only reason I am posting right now is because it is slow as hell at work. It was kind of cool actually because earlier we were so slow they let over half of the tech support staff on break to go outside and play some football and Frisbee. Very strange to just let everyone stop working and go outside. We were all worried that when we came back to work, there would be a huge amount of calls on hold, but there were none. I actually didn't have a call for about five minutes once I came back.
Anyhow, back to the subject. The installers were pretty late on Monday. They said they would be there between 9 and 11. 12:30, almost 1 they finally show. I was supposed to get this installed first thing since the installation didn't take place on Friday like it was supposed to. Plus they told me the installation was going to be real quick. I was already assuming it would take about an hour, but after they said that, I thought it would be even quicker. Two and a half hours was what they meant by quick.
But, it's all in, I have DirecTV in the bedroom, and the DirecTV in the living room with the Tivo receiver. I will have to give a more detailed opinion later since during the time of writing this we got a bit busier at work, and now it's about time for me to go home.

The satellite system is sitting in my living room. Still in the box. And I can't open the box, so it is driving me nuts. Only the installer can open it, otherwise my warranty is void or something. Something came up yesterday, so the installer rescheduled. I'm not all that happy. I guess they are not coming back until Monday. And yesterday at work was a LONG day. Not only was I excited about coming home to my new TV setup, but I was hardly on the phone. I was only taking call 45% of the night. The rest of the time I was just sitting there. Not usually a bad thing, but yesterday it only made things go by even longer than necessary.

I have went and ordered a DirectTV/Tivo combo unit. It is being delivered today, and the installer is even going to come out and install it the same day. It's a 35 hour unit. The Tivo's with the DirecTV reciever built in are probably the nicest one's you can get. If you add a regular Tivo to a digital cable box, or to a satellite system, the receivers get the digital video that is already compressed and converts it to analog to go to the TV. But then it goes into the Tivo and is converted back into digital and is recompressed. Then it goes right back out as an analog signal to the TV. The degrades the signal. Plus, a digital cable box can only output a single channel at a time, so there is no way for the Tivo to record anything while you are watching TV.
The DirecTV/Tivo combo unit receives the digital signal from the satellite and stores it as is on the hard drive. So all recorded shows are the exact same quality as any other show your would watch. Plus, the unit has two satellite inputs, so that means that youcan watch one show while another is recording, record two different shows at the same time, and even record two shows while watching a previously recorded show.
All I can say is I am pretty excited about getting this installed. Plus, Nickcole and I decided that we will get HBO again. Right now we have no movie channels. I love Curb Your Enthusiasm and can't wait to watch it on a regular basis.
I also have to say that so far I am pretty impressed with the service I have recieved. I ordered this on Monday, and on Tuesday the unit was already on the UPS truck, and on Wednesday the installer was setting up an appointment to install on Thursday afternoon, only hours after UPS drops the dish off.
If anyone is in the market for a Tivo, you can get one for free right now at Rapid Satellite . That's where I got mine. You get the free Tivo, dish, installation. You also get a free gift after like three months. Mostly some crappy stuff, but there is a DVD player, so I am going to get that. I had to pay a little though, since I also got a second receiver for another TV and I got the multi satellite dish. That is required to get local channels in some area's (like mine in the upcoming months). It is also required for Spanish programming and HDTV. There are a few smaller niche channels that also require that satellite. Probably a good idea to get since newer stuff will be put on the newer satellites that only that dish can pick up.
But, it's a pretty good deal either way. Have to go to work now, hope the day goes by quick since I can't wait to get home.

Recently I have been thinking about getting a DirecTV system. I currently have a basic cable package and looking at what DTV has to offer, I can get a ton more channels for the same price. And all digital. I was using digital cable a little while back, but I had to cut back on that to save some money. I do miss it a little. Plus, right now, you can get a system with a 40 hour TiVo built-in for only $50. DirecTV only charges $5 a month for the TiVo service too. Usually it is more (I think $13). TiVo is something I know I will want to have eventually, and the DirecTV setup is the way to go. It has multiple tuners so you can record while watching TV, or record two shows at once. Not something you can do with digital cable. You might notice that I have a little ad to the side of my main page. I added that for two reasons. One, to help support this site. It doesn't run for free. But, secondly, it's a real good deal, and I want to pass this on to others.