There are few things I use absolutely every day. Basically it’s my car, my cell phone, my notebook computer and of course my TV. You have to be happy with your everyday items. There is no doubt about that. You can overspend on a portable DVD player you only take on trips that doesn’t do everything you wish it did easily enough but as soon as your trip is over, who cares.

I’m a television guy, still. I was one of the first DVR proponents I know when I bought the Panasonic Showstopper back in 1998 or so. People ask me today if I had to pick one–TV or Internet–and without hesitation I’d keep my TV. So when I moved out of my apartment and it was time for me to decide between [insert local cable monopoly here] or DIRECTV again I didn’t hesitate to switch. But was it the right move? After all, I use it every day, and if it’s not perfect I’ll know it.

Well, alas, nothing’s perfect in the world of consumer electronics (unless you built it, then you’ll convince yourself it’s perfect). No one designer can anticipate exactly what everyone’s needs (and wants) will be. This is why you end up with countless Internet newsgroups for every product ever made with people posting endless nit-picking gripes about the products because they didn’t foresee that you wanted your MP3 player to toast your bread to a golden brown, not a crusty brown. Truth be told, their opinions are usually valid–when your MP3 doesn’t bookmark a 3 hour audio book when you get off the bus, I’d be pretty upset too.

Well there are a few companies that take these newsgroups for what they are worth–important field research from uber-fans of their products. Fanboyism is rampant out there, but if you weed through it you get a great field study from the people who matter most to research–the ones that overspent, use it every day, and are over-critical of the product. Fanboyism, or perhaps free product research from people you couldn’t hire to be that good? Those companies I’ve had the opportunity to “work with” are few, but one is XM Satellite Radio, and the other is DIRECTV. I’m sure countless other companies do this, but for the sake of this article, we’re obviously focused on DIRECTV.

DIRECTV actually works side-by-side with their newsgroup audience to pre-release features, and all they want in return is feedback–either directly through their feedback avenues, or by posting your gripes to the community for everyone to enjoy.

So what does this all mean for the person considering DIRECTV themselves? Well, you get it all installed, you sign all the commitments, and then you find out the guide requires two button presses to bring up and all the HD and SD channels show up twice in the guide, where are you now? I’ll tell you where, about a month or two from those features being fixed! Now that’s amazing. So, let’s get started.

Your Local Cable Company, Inc. vs. Satellite TV

This is the hardest part for someone who has just paid their cable bill for 15 years and never bothered to check what they are paying for. But, let’s be open minded here. Yes, most people I know aren’t happy with their local cable company. But is this a real gripe, or is it just that old monopolistic “feel” and ever growing rates that makes them feel this way? After all, cable has been around a long time and when it was introduced it allowed you to finally get rid of that huge antenna on the roof. They also, in most parts of the country, have kept up with other growing needs like HD television, Sports Pay-Per-View, high-speed Internet and even digital telephone. So let’s give them credit for leading the way and trying to re-invent themselves right?

Well, unfortunately in my experience they are still taking advantage of the customers. Yes, they are working to stay up on HD, Internet and Phone, but they are doing it the way they always have–with the monopolistic approach. This works most of the time, too, because you don’t have an alternative. DSL doesn’t compare to cable modems, telephone service doesn’t compare to digital telephone service (VOIP) and satellite doesn’t compare to cable TV. Wait a minute, has anyone challenged these lately, or are we still working on 1992 data? Surely something must have changed in 15 years to justify the price hikes, right?

DSL is now 3Mbps in most areas for under $20/month. Fiber-to-premise services blow cable modems out of the water at similar prices to cable’s offerings—sometimes much lower. Third-party VOIP providers do it better than cable operators, and they do it much cheaper, even if they “bundle” it all together.

And finally, satellite TV has put together a package so complete that leaving your cable company behind has never been easier.

Let’s glance at it real quick. Cable used to claim that you can’t get local television stations on satellite TV. That’s not the case anymore, and with distant-network services sometimes DIRECTV was the only way to get services if you lived way outside a local market in fact. What about their claim that you pay extra for those local channels? That hasn’t been true for almost 5 years now. What about the infamous “the dish goes out every time it rains” claim? Well I don’t know about you but my cable goes out a few days a year. Rain-related dish outages, when they do occur, are for mere minutes at a time.

So let’s get into this thing, piece by piece, on why you owe it to yourself to find out what you’re paying for every month from your cable company, and if the grass truly is greener.

How signing a contract saves you money.

Remember this one–”What about all the equipment you need to buy”. Well, neither dish provider sells their equipment anymore, anyway, but when they did they still gave it away for free with a contract. So, what you should be saying is, “wait, I have to sign a contract?”

DIRECTV is more akin to the cellular service provider model. They give you the equipment for free, and in exchange you commit to a service contract, guaranteeing that you will keep the services. Most people shy away from this, but happily re-sign their cell phone contracts every two years. Why? Because maybe this model, as unfortunate as it is, might be better than the “got you by the balls” cable TV monopoly model.

How having multiple TVs in the house adds up–fast.

Whether it’s your cable company, or DIRECTV, you’re going to pay for every TV you want to watch digital services on. It just so happens that ALL of DIRECTV’s services are digital so you’ll need a box on each TV. Here’s where you get lost in thinking that you’ll just hook cable up and get it cheaper, though. You’re not paying for every box you have with DIRECTV up-front, but you are paying $5/mo. for each additional box as a “lease mirroring fee”. Cable, while you can keep on hooking up boxes without a mirroring fee, remember you’re paying up to $8 or $10 a month for each box. So, now you’ll have to forego those boxes in the kids room and the basement and just stick to channels 2-72 because you wanted to save some money.

Well, funny thing is, that bill shows up and it’s still over $100/month. What’s the deal with that? Might as well shell out the $5/month and watch what you want in the bedroom after all, don’t ya think? As a bonus, maybe you can even record something in the living room and watch it in the bedroom. Wouldn’t that be nice. I’d pay $5/month for that.

But my cable company has HD channels too, ya know.

Yes, I know. I watch nothing but HD channels. Truth is, cable companies are doing a decent job of keeping up with HD channels for the most part actually—especially local networks. DIRECTV is just doing better, that’s all.

With cable companies you have to use the wiring that’s been in your home for 20 years sometimes, and even if you don’t have wiring that’s 20 years old in your home, someone they are supporting does. This limits bandwidth as there is only so much room in those wires for all that data. And now, it has to share it with the phone services and cable modems, too. When DIRECTV needs more bandwidth, they just launch another satellite and the entire country gets the benefit immediately. This is how they can offer 84 HD channels, and local channels in HD in over 75% of the country without expensive infrastructure upgrades (which is what Verizon FIOS is in the middle of right now).

And while we’re at it, what is with this tuning to channels in the 1800s to watch HD versions of the same channels? With DIRECTV, you tune to the channel, and if it’s an HD channel, it’s just in HD. How novel an idea, huh?

Embracing technology vs. implementing it to stay afloat

Cable television does have some neat advantages since they use a two-way data network—like on-demand programming. And while DIRECTV has already rolled out their on-demand services using your internet provider, they are behind cable in this regard. But at what cost has on-demand affected their other services?

With cable’s latest attempts to keep up they have leveraged this new technology in a very unfortunate way. They’ve introduced something called “switched digital video” or SDV. What is it? Well on simple terms it lets them save bandwidth by only sending the channels you are currently watching to your set-top box. What this means for the tech-savvy consumer, though, is you can no longer use your Digital Cable Ready (DCR) TV, TiVO and Media Center DVRs that use CableCards to record TV. This has rolled out in a few cities, and you know it’s not too far behind across the country as they try and keep up with satellite’s bandwidth advantage and force more people into that $8-10 rental fee.

It’s worth noting that DIRECTV’s flagship DVRs also allow you share content with your computer using standard Microsoft Windows Connect protocols so maybe you can get on-demand programming on your cable companies set-top box, but you can’t do nearly as much advanced media activities as you can with DIRECTV. As a disclaimer, though, I don’t use these features myself as I’m a Windows Media Center guy myself and use XBOX360s for this functionality so I can’t comment on the specifics but it’s only a matter of time with this platform they have on-demand rivaling content streamed live.

This brings me to my final, very impressive, DIRECTV announcement on the order of “embracing technology” keeping in mind my Windows Media Center setup.

DIRECTV is set to introduce digital tuners for use with Windows Media Center PCs. You may recall a little announcement from the cable guys a few years back regarding CableCard tuners for Windows Media Center PCs, which would have allowed DVRing on the Media Center platform of digital cable TV content—including HD. Well, not only did that take forever to get off the ground (people are still working out the kinks) but now with SDV, all of a sudden they are useless before they get off the ground. It’s sad what monopolistic thinking with do to curb technological enhancements. And so, I have an antenna on my roof again thanks to cable’s “technological advancements”. Something seems a little backwards about that.

That’s all well and good, but what about just watching TV

Channel Selection

The channels (with the exception of national HD availability) are similar. DIRECTV’s are all digital and always have been, even the standard-definition stuff. Depending on where you are in the country, most of the popular channels on cable are still analog. Some places do employ “digital simulcast” technology, though, when you use a set-top box. Although typically this just puts more strain on their ever-cramped bandwidth and lowers the quality even more–sometimes worse than the analog counterparts. And of course, don’t think of using your CableCard device with it, either.

The music channels are essentially the same, although for my money DIRECTV’s offering of XM Satellite Radio channels over Music Choice is a nice benefit that’s a personal preference.

Local channels are usually similar; although cable companies do tend to be able to offer a few specialty channels that are cable-only. For example, here in Albany, NY “Capital News 9” is an all-local-news channel and “TW Sports” carries local high-school and college sports. As for HD, thanks to a federal mandate cable companies carry all local channels in HD if they are available. You can bet without the mandate, they’d have found a way to charge you for them but fortunately this is a score one for the consumer, and score one for the cable companies at the same time. So essentially the “local advantage” is still alive and well in cable TV land and it’s not going away anytime soon.

DIRECTV typically doesn’t carry smaller market’s CW or myTV network channels in HD yet either (they do carry their standard definition versions however) and sometimes even PBS is missing in HD as well. They have commited to providing nationwide expansion of PBS networks, though, and in some cases you can even get CW or myTV from other cities if you market doesn’t have one thanks to “neighboring local channels”

You can always check what is offered at your exact address by visiting http://www.directv.com/locals to find what local channels you’d be offered–in both HD and SD. You can also visit this special page to determine what local sports networks DIRECTV would provide for you as well.

As for nationally-available networks thanks to the highly-publicized NFL Network vs. Cable Companies debacle this year (and last year, too) we are all well aware that while the cable companies hold back channels from consumers while they feed us the, “we’re working to make sure our customers get the best deal…”, DIRECTV continues to offer said networks without issue. And at the end of the day, the customer doesn’t care about contract negotiations; they care that they can watch the game. This is becoming all to common a practice with these guys, too.

Sports Pay-Per-View used to sway to the cable guys, too (with the exception of DIRECTV’s strong-hold on NFL Sunday Ticket) but DIRECTV has taken charge and offers the best sports pay-per-view by far, now. All of their channels are dedicated so the annoying hockey vs. MLB issue is a thing of the past. They offer HD games that cable just can’t offer, and they do it cheaper than the cable guys can to boot. This is just no contest here, I’m paying $219 this year for MLB Extra Innings with the “Super Fan” package and that includes HD games, Game Mix (8 games on 1 screen) and a dedicated baseball talk channel called “Strike Zone”. DIRECTV also already guaranteed carriage of MLB’s new baseball channel in 2009 as well. The SD only package is $169 with DIRECTV this year, and I paid over $200 with cable last year for shared channels with NHL (which was OK by me actually as I love hockey too) and zero HD channels. On top of all this, their digital feeds looked atrocious last year (worse than the year before even) and no doubt it’s a by-product of their ever-famous bandwidth issues. Maybe they’ll move the package to SDV soon so CableCard customers can lose that, too.

Speaking of sports, DIRECTVs HD offering for local sports networks is outstanding as well. This comes from their need to carry these channels in HD anyway for their sports pay-per-view packages so you benefit from your local RSN in HD because they carry them for out-of-market PPV anyway. For example, in New York alone they carry YES-HD, Sports Net NY, FSN-NY and MSG all in HD. Another nice bonus DIRECTV has always done well in is RSN-alternates, where your local cable company will only carry ESPN and ESPN2, DIRECTV will put ESPN alternates online when multiple games are available to you. They’ll extend this courtesy for local RSNs as well, showing Devils, Rangers and Islanders games on FSN-NY-alternate and MSG-alternate feeds as well in the Albany area.

Premium channels are highly dependent on what your local cable company decides to provide but where DIRECTV loses out is on-demand premiums. On-demand is typically useless, commercial-laden, out-of-date material but in the case of on-demand premiums that’s not usually the case. DIRECTV does, however, offer a much more extensive PPV offering with many more HD versions that any cable company (ahem, bandwidth) so if you watch movies, DIRECTV is a clear winner—if you watch premium channel series, cable is probably a better choice for now until DIRECTV can go national with their on-demand services, at which point we’ll have to evaluate their content partners.

Finally, with HD content, hands down DIRECTV takes the cake here. 94 national networks (all of them useful, too, unlike some other players in the satellite TV arena) and local HD networks in 75% of the country and most of the time, they are hard to beat the picture quality. From a technical standpoint all of DIRECTV’s new MPEG-4 digital video (most of the HD content) is far and away superior to cable’s HD content and even rivals over-the-air HD. And don’t forget if you want to watch channel 6 in HD, you go to channel 6, not 1806. Bonus.

Pricing

Once it comes time to compare prices, and I’m not talking any incentives here—both guys undercut like crazy for 6 months or a year—it does get a little closer to judge. Of course you can talk about inherent value, etc., but I’m talking the raw numbers here. Both guys are gonna make it tough to compare, and I’m not going to be able to help you much here as so many cable companies package stuff differently to help hide the numbers but you’re not alone.

Pull out that last cable bill, look at the bottom line, then price out a DIRECTV alternative and you’ll quickly see that 9 out of 10 times you’re going to save $5-10 minimum and sometimes much more if you do things like ditch cable internet for DSL or if you already pay for premium channels and DVRs which tend to be quite a bit more expensive with cable companies as well ($10/mo vs. $5/mo. here for example for DVRing). $10/mo. is $120/year, or $180 over the length of an 18-month contract and take into account that’s before the incentives you’ll get as a new customer and it’ll be very competitive. Gone are the days of satellite TV being the “premium priced” alternative to cable TV.

One thing is for sure, it’s worth doing the research to see because it’s not 2004 anymore and while you were writing out that check every month, a company has been working to try and get your business and stumbled on a very appealing offering in the process.