I am moving and was thinking of getting Direct TV instead of Cox. I have never had anything but Cox. My main concern is me losing satellite signal during storms. Like I said, I have never had satellite so I do not know. For those of you that have Direct TV do you like it? What about ATT people? Thanks for your suggestions.

I have Dish and have had DirecTV in the past. I haven't had cable in over 15 years so I cannot comment on Cox specifically. I do lose signal during storms but it usually has to be fairly severe. To overcome this, I simply connected an antenna to another input on my television so I can always get local stations. The HD video quality is pretty good on Dish and I am generally happy with the channel selection and packages available. It can be expensive but I think Cox can be also.

I have DirecTV. I have family that have Dish, so have used Dish to some extent. Personally I think DirecTV is by far the best. Their menus are easy to understand and not cluttered, they have a good channel selection and decent customer service. Every time I use Dish at a relatives house, I am more and more glad I have direcTV.

Regarding storms, they have to be pretty severe (or directly over your house, so to speak) for it to cut out. Normally it's not for long (5-10 mins at most). It can be frustrating (favorite movie is on!!), but life can be lived without 5 minutes of the old idiot box.

I would choose DirecTV again, and I would recommend to a friend.

Echo the comments by SW. I've used DTV and Cox and I've always gone back to DirecTV. Price wise they aren't bad. I really like the instant streaming/on demand selection as well. The only downsize you need a wireless receiver (they can provide it) and have to subscribe to the movie networks that have the programming you want. Otherwise, can't complain. The whole home DVR works pretty well, a little slow at times. You can normally get HD for free either through or promo at sign up or calling them and asking for any promotions that are available on your account.

The other good thing...their customer service is almost all US based. Convergys and West are their main call center contractors. The Moore Call Center handles them, but almost half the DTV agents are home based now and you can tell. It is great calling in and here perfect silence in the background.

And when it does cut out, that's when a 360 or PS3 comes in handy. :-)

I had Cox for many years, from the time they arrived in OKC until about 15 years ago. Their quality and poor customer service drove me away from them shortly after DirecTV became available, and I switched over to DTV. I originally purchased two receivers at Best Buy, but after HD became available, I upgraded and now lease the new receivers from DTV. That was about 2.5 years ago, and I'm no longer on contract, so I investigated AT&T's UVerse bundle to cut down my costs and eliminate the "Searching for signal" that seems to happen every time we have severe weather in the vicinity. I even went so far as to place the order with AT&T, but after discovering the significant wiring changes that would be required, I canceled the order the day before the scheduled installation. Looks like I'll be staying with DTV for a while longer!

My solution to the storm dropout was to add rabbit ears to the kitchen TV, which is a fully digital unit. My big Sony plasma set however dates from 2000 and does not have a digital tuner. We found using a converter on it to be totally inconvenient, so it becomes unusable in storms -- but we can still get warnings, and in addition have a weather radio that brings us the alerts even a bit before the TV stations relay them on.

I was with Cox for a long time, but since 2009 I have been with ATT U Verse. Don't see me going elsewhere anytime soon.

Having had both (Cox for many years), go with DirecTV. The picture quality / signal is the best, the equipment is the best (brand new), the program guide / remote are superior, there are more HD channels (by a large margin), the DVR holds infinitely more programming, and the prices are better. DirecTV is ridiculously better, plus they'll probably give you NFL ticket for free this year if you sign up quick.

I would have never left Cox, but their signal to my neighborhood deteriorated over time, and despite numerous attempts to work it out with them (for about a year), I finally realized they are never going to do anything to improve signal to my neighborhood. I was done with them. And I'm glad, because DirecTV is the bomb.

Go with DirecTV.

guru,

I have cox..... high speed internet, land line and hd cable, was the savings with direct TV that much more significant than with cox ? I suppose you bought comparable services from directTV ?

Thanks for all the input and suggestions. I think I am going with DirectTV. The NFL ticket is what I really want. My main concern was losing signal but sounds to me that is pretty infrequent.

Bellaboo,

I kept my phone and Internet with Cox and dumped the TV portion. I'm saving $40 a month for much better programming and service. I'm actually getting more TV, better quality signal, etc. for less money. There's really no comparison.

I would be careful about doing the DirecTV "bundle," because as a former AT&T DSL consumer, I would never want to go back to that.

guru,

Thanks

Bellaboo,

I would be careful about doing the DirecTV "bundle," because as a former AT&T DSL consumer, I would never want to go back to that.

Sooner,

What problems were you having with the internet through ATT?

I'm doing pretty much the same thing as Guru, except using Vonage for the phone. Which really is the exact same thing, just only paying $12.50/mo instead of the crazy price Cox charges. Both are VOIP services so it really doesn't matter which to go with.

When it works it works. When it doesn't, you'll be on a phone voyage through IP to India, and you will not have service -- for days. AT&T DSL was an unbridled nightmare.

When it comes to internet. I think it depends on who has the better telecommunications infrastructure for a particular area. Cox tv definitely sucks, though.

When it works it works. When it doesn't, you'll be on a phone voyage through IP to India, and you will not have service -- for days. AT&T DSL was an unbridled nightmare.

I've had AT&T DSL for many years. I've had very few problems and never had any major difficulties getting resolutions to any problems which came up. I used to have U-verse until I moved a couple of years ago. It's not availbable where I live now or I would still have it. I just noticed today this update on U-verse which sounds interesting.

http://gigaom.com/video/att-uverse-wireless-receiver/

To each his own... I guess. I have been with Cox for 5 years. I have never had any problems. I can only think of 1 or 2 outages. The first one was from a lightning strike and the other from some body crashing into one of their control boxes. They prorated my bill for the rest of the month for the lightning strike because the service was out for a few days. That particular storm caused all kinds of problems for them and AT&T (I still had AT&T for phone service at the time.) Other then that, I have been pretty happy with it. I just upgraded to whole home DVR and I am impressed with it to say the least.

The main thing I like about Cox Communications. If I want to toss the service all I have to do is pay my bill and turn in the equipment. I don't have to pay a hefty cancellation fee and I don't have a butt ugly dish on my roof. Not to mention, I can upgrade my box anytime I want. I don't have to wait for an installer to come out in a few days. Sure it may cost a little more but, I like having the freedom to adjust my services at anytime and I like the idea I can kill it when I like without penalty.

I just noticed today this update on U-verse which sounds interesting.

http://gigaom.com/video/att-uverse-wireless-receiver/
I'm supposed to get one anytime.

I can upgrade my box anytime I want. I don't have to wait for an installer to come out in a few days. Sure it may cost a little more but, I like having the freedom to adjust my services at anytime and I like the idea I can kill it when I like without penalty.

Before they started offering the box that is needed for whole home DVR, they were using boxes that came out in the early 2000's. Their slow at upgrading to the newest technology.

DTV fan here!

I dropped Cox for Dish in 1997. Dropped Dish for Directv last year.
I still use Cox for Internet and Phone.

The statement that satellite is cheaper than cable is true sometimes, but
in my experience if you load up with movie channels, hd, multiple rooms, dvrs
etc. you might spend significantly more than cable, which would make you think
that it's not as good a value, but you'd be dead wrong. Cox's channel lineup is
a fraction of what a loaded up directv package is, their interface is 1980s, and
quite frankly, if you're scared of losing signal during HARD rain, I'd like to take you
back to my cable days when after every rain, the boxes underground would flood
and we'd be out of cable and internet for a WEEK!!!! If I added up the hours lost
to rain on satellite over the years, I might have lost an hour of TV. Like I say,
it has to be a LOT of rain over a very large area to block the signal.

If you are going to a basic package without a ton of add ons, Satellite might save
you money, but I really do not think savings should be the point of your decision.
Go with Satellite because you want superior picture quality, better audio, a
much higher quality menu system in HD, better DVR options etc and more channels
overall. Go with cable if you value the simplicity of a bundle and don't mind losing
the above. I pay more for Satellite than my dad pays for Cox. He's got 8 movie
channels, I have 40. He's got a spattering of HD channels and I've got dozens,
so savings is relative. If you watch a lot of TV, you will find value in Directv, but
your bill might be the same or more.

The reason I dropped Dish for Directv? Dish has fallen behind in technology.
Directv has a really cool feature called multiroom DVR by which you can have
a twin tuner DVR in the living room, a twin tuner DVR in the bedroom, and a non
DVR receiver in another room. Any TV in the house can access any show on
either DVR. In addition, you can have four shows recording at once, while still being
able to view recorded shows in all three rooms simultaneously, even the same show
in all rooms at the same time. My wife records literally 20 plus shows a day. With
the ability to expand capacity with external hard drives, you can literally have hundreds of shows stored able to be viewed in any or all rooms, even if they were not
recorded in that room. Cox offers whole house DVR now (didn't then), but they won't let you have multiple whole house DVRs, meaning that only one (maybe 2) shows
could be recorded simultaneously. I also don't know if you can expand their capacity easily with external hard drives. They also charge 24.99 per month for the DVR
and 7.49 for non dvr receivers.
On dish, you can record two shows at a time, but you're still tied to that room for
playback. Ultimately, Directv just has a cool feature in multiroom DVR and it will change your TV viewing habits just as the introduction of DVR originally changed
the way everyone watches (on their schedule and commercial free)

Having said that, if Dish had that feature, I'd still have them, I never had issues
with Dish beyond the occasional one, but as stated before, I've had issues with
COX BIG TIME!!!!! Days upon days of outages, even now with Internet occasionally.

One thing I'm sure of is I will never watch TV on cable and I will trade a handful
of hours outage during hard rain to days and days of outages due to failed
equipment on Cox's part, no question about it.......

From what I can see an all inclusive bundle with Cox will run you about 250.00 per month
with one whole house DVRs and two non dvr receivers. Internet and unlimited phone
would be around 120.00 per month. Where Cox gets you and where dish has an advantage
is in franchise fees, taxes, regulatory fees etc. None of this is shown to you before you get
a bill from Cox, so that 250.00 bill will be more like 270.00 which is right in line with what
you could have the full meal deal from Directv for and keep cox for your other stuff.

When it works it works. When it doesn't, you'll be on a phone voyage through IP to India, and you will not have service -- for days. AT&T DSL was an unbridled nightmare.

I absolutely agree with this....but my service is limited on the fringes....Im hoping Cox comes out here soon.