Brendan’s Blog

Everyone has different television viewing habits and preferences. Some don’t have a TV at all and there are times that seems appealing. My viewing habits can be summarized as follows:

• I don’t watch TV every day.
• I only watch TV using a DVR
• I only watch pre-recorded shows (except occasional sports.)
• I usually skip commercials and sometimes even boring content within a program.
• Most of my TV watching is late, when the kids are asleep.

Until recently I had been a DirecTV customer for over ten years. Their service was consistent, reliable, and reasonably priced. That changed when I decided to upgrade our primary TV to an HDTV set.

Several months ago I purchased a 42″ HDTV set from Costco. I chose Costco because they provide a 90 day return policy (in case I was not happy) and an excellent price.

None of my DirecTV receivers supported HDTV content, so I called to inquire about an upgrade. I was quoted an unreasonable (in my mind) cost for a new HDTV DVR box, with two additional unreasonable conditions:

1. I wouldn’t own the box. Even though I would need to pay hundreds of dollars for the new box, I would have to return it with no refund if I decided to leave DirecTV.
2. A 2 year term agreement. Like cellular companies, DirecTV wanted to lock me into their service exclusively for the next two years.

I called ComCast (my local cable provider) and ordered service from them. They promptly installed an HDTV DVR and lots of high-definition content with no one-time charges, and a lower monthly cost than DirecTV. Unfortunately I found ComCast’s TV service to be unreliable. Over the course of two months we logged a half-dozen service calls. Channels would dissapear from my line-up, the On-Demand service would quit working, and the picture quality would sometimes degrade to where it was unwatchable. Many technicians came out, but none could fix the problem which was “upstream”‘ somewhere.

I then checked out DishNetwork. Dish provided a dual-tuner HDTV DVR (ViP 622) for my primary set, and a standard dual-tuner DVR (DVR625) for our second TV. I ordered Dish through a reseller instead of directly ordering it from Dish. The reseller allowed me to specify which DVR boxes I wanted and had a promotion for discounted premium channels.

Installation was $49 (which the reseller offered to waive in exchange for a long-term contract.) Installation required two dishes on my roof. One provides all of the standard definition content, the other provides VOOM HDTV content. The installer did a great job concealing the cables running down my house, and patching the wires into my existing wiring.

A couple months later I am very satisfied with Dish. Like DirecTV their service is consistent, reliable, and reasonably priced. There is lots of HDTV content (currently more than either ComCast or DirecTV offer in my area.) The DVR interface/remote is very easy to use and even includes the 30 second commercial skip feature I had to reprogram every time my old Tivo lost power.

Update: Last weekend a storm damaged something and caused one of our two TVs to stop working.  I called Dish support and did basic troubleshooting over the phone.  It was quickly determined that my “switch” was bad.  A service technician was dispatched and showed up on Tuesday.  They replaced the dish LNB which has the multi-switch integrated.  This fixed the problem.  No charge to me for the visit.  Not bad.

One of the things that both my wife and I do on the Internet is shop. I tend to buy consumer electronics, she tends to buy clothes for our daughters. We both have found techniques that work for us. I can only speak for me, so if you’re looking for how/where to buy clothes, this article isn’t going to help you much.

1. Look for product reviews. Before a purchase, I use Google to find product reviews of the items I am interested in. A simple search such as “review netgear wpn824” will locate several useful sites.
2. Check the manufacturer’s web site. Frequently it will contain feature overviews, suggested retail pricing, information about a newer models/versions, and perhaps even an electronic copy of the user guide.
3. Compare prices. Once I have selected a specific product to buy, I use two web sites to look for price comparisons. The first is http://shopper.cnet.com/ which specializes in consumer electronics and frequenty includes product ratings and review. The second is http://www.pricegrabber.com which has a wider variety of items, but doesn’t contain product reviews. Both sites allow you to compare total price after shipping by entering your zip code.
4. Purchase with a Credit Card. I make nearly all of my on-line purchases with an American Express charge card. The credit card adds several types of protections such as a purchase protection, return protection, extended warranty, fraud protection, and dispute resolution. While debit cards or PayPal may provide some of these features, I prefer the convenience and features of my American Express card. Your preferences may vary of course, as credit cards are not for everyone.
5. Use Low-Cost Shipping. If you really need a product quickly, you are often best-off buying it at a store. The premium cost of overnight or two-day shipping is rarely worth the cost to me. So what if the new CD/Book/Mouse gets here in 5 days instead of 2. I’ve obviously lived just fine without it so far…. what’s an extra three days?
6. Consider Used. People tend to either love or hate eBay. I have purchased many used items so far, and only gotten ripped off once (on an original XBox.) Usually new products are more expensive (after shipping) on eBay than they are at other places, but used products can be much cheaper. If you are buying CDs, movies, or books consider using Half.com. I have had nothing but great experiences here.
7. Check for rebates and coupons. I have found that the Hot Deals forum at FatWallet.com has great information on some items. I frequently perform a search here for my item before I buy it elsewhere.