Fashionable to hate DSTV

Lino

Lino

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I have DSTV and am enjoying it. A sentence that seems to rile people up in this modern day and age. Be it at work, family, friends, and online forums; don’t you know about Netflix. Words that get uttered the whole time.
Let me give you a bit of background, in the past I had DSTV Premium with an old standard decoder. No PVR, no HD, no extra view just channel hopping. I moved onto TOPTV at a time and boy oh boy there are only so many times I can watch Star Gate SG1 Season 1

Fast track a few years later I moved onto an uncapped DSL line. Which worked great in the beginning. Then I realised I missed my sport, so I tried online streaming which would work half the time. I reached a point of having 2 Chromecast’s, Plex Media Server, Netflix, Hulu and even streamed Sky Satellite Television.

What didn’t I enjoy? The inconsistency, streaming/internet works fine today and dodgy tomorrow. Changing ISP’s hoping that I could stream better on another account, having 3G backup when ADSL line goes down and having to reboot Plex server once in a while; all which being called by an angry wife who can’t watch something.

Fast forward a couple of years I wanted to watch the Fifa World Cup 2014 in full HD. I ended up buying an HD 2U PVR with installation and two weeks later I decided I wanted extra view in my bedroom. So I purchased an Explora Decoder and setup my extra view.

Now if I tell anyone that I am enjoying all my sport in FULL HD without buffering, Catch Up Movies and Series, Boxoffice (occasionally) I get told don’t I know about Netflix. Well yes I do but lets be honest different strokes for different folks. I have come to the conclusion that some people just hate DSTV because it’s the in thing to do. Do I enjoy DSTV, YES I DO and do I enjoy Plex/Netflix YES I DO. So what is the problem?
 
Lino said:
I have DSTV and am enjoying it. A sentence that seems to rile people up in this modern day and age. Be it at work, family, friends, and online forums; don’t you know about Netflix. Words that get uttered the whole time.
Let me give you a bit of background, in the past I had DSTV Premium with an old standard decoder. No PVR, no HD, no extra view just channel hopping. I moved onto TOPTV at a time and boy oh boy there are only so many times I can watch Star Gate SG1 Season 1

Fast track a few years later I moved onto an uncapped DSL line. Which worked great in the beginning. Then I realised I missed my sport, so I tried online streaming which would work half the time. I reached a point of having 2 Chromecast’s, Plex Media Server, Netflix, Hulu and even streamed Sky Satellite Television.

What didn’t I enjoy? The inconsistency, streaming/internet works fine today and dodgy tomorrow. Changing ISP’s hoping that I could stream better on another account, having 3G backup when ADSL line goes down and having to reboot Plex server once in a while; all which being called by an angry wife who can’t watch something.

Fast forward a couple of years I wanted to watch the Fifa World Cup 2014 in full HD. I ended up buying an HD 2U PVR with installation and two weeks later I decided I wanted extra view in my bedroom. So I purchased an Explora Decoder and setup my extra view.

Now if I tell anyone that I am enjoying all my sport in FULL HD without buffering, Catch Up Movies and Series, Boxoffice (occasionally) I get told don’t I know about Netflix. Well yes I do but lets be honest different strokes for different folks. I have come to the conclusion that some people just hate DSTV because it’s the in thing to do. Do I enjoy DSTV, YES I DO and do I enjoy Plex/Netflix YES I DO. So what is the problem?
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+1000
 
No problem if you are happy to pay over R700 a month just for sport, because that is effectively what you are doing.

I'm not going to pay over R700 just for sport, so I have cancelled all my DSTV services.

To each his own.
 
The problem is the price and tons of repeats. The only reason we ( and many others ) pay R665 p/m is for the supersport channels, the rest is junk. It's bloody expensive but what can you do.
 
Sadly for most SA people, our internet is way too crappy to be as consistent as DSTV's broadcast.
 
+1 to OP

As for repeats, DSTV has pretty much every show there is, there is only so much content available so repeats will always happen. Personally I always have plenty to watch, if you can't find something to watch then you spend too much time on the couch and should get out the house

Half my DSTV time is spent watching live sport in HD, the other half is spent watching items on Catch Up, I very seldom watch shows I've had to record

But yes, you are right, its fashionable to hate DSTV as I'm sure you'll see by future posts in this thread
 
Take televised sport out of the equation and maybe you'll understand why DSTV holds absolutely no appeal for me or my family.
 
Also hate to pay what they are charging but what can we do? DSTV provides what Netflix simply can't and it's out of the box. If there's a problem I don't have to deal in fixing it.
 
I downgrade my dstv to the cheapest option most of the time, I bump it up to premium though when important sport is on.
So after the TDF is done it will be going back to basic again for a while.
 
Wow so many replies on a Sunday night :-)

I am paying almost R800 a month in total excluding my occasional Boxoffice movie. Am I happy about it? No if I could watch it for half the cost I would be happier. However paying same price for crappie Internet is just as bad.

No I don't only watch sport, with Catch Up on a Explora there is more than enough decent content. A lot of repeats, watch the alternatives and you'll see its the same world wide.

For now DSTV mostly just works. Btw there are shoes one can't easily download. Looking at ITV content
 
I think they are charging a bit too much, The R500 mark was 'n happy spot for me, but we have XtraView so effectly we pay half half which is doable. I now have two Exploras and I have never enjoyed DSTV more. I don't have to worry about scrambling to download series and with the Explora, 3-4 Episodes are kept, so I don't miss stuff anymore.

One of the other main reasons I enjoy DSTV is that they do the work for me, finding new series to watch. I don't have time to scout the internet for new stuff showing and then download and try and download and try until I find something, so for the most part, the series they air are pretty decent stuff, so I can comfortably start watching a new series when I see one on catchup and about 80% of the time I end up liking it.
 
Jola said:
???

So who fixes your DSTV problems ?

I had lots of those, most never got resolved. Some were still outstanding when I cancelled.
Click to expand...
So what problems did you have? Only ones I can think of are alignment and something wrong with your machine. First one you can still call MC to send out an installer to fix it.
 
I'm ok with DSTV, Explora is cool, sport is great, Disney Jnr for little one is good, rest is ****e. I hate MultiChoice though.
 
Swa said:
So what problems did you have? Only ones I can think of are alignment and something wrong with your machine. First one you can still call MC to send out an installer to fix it.
Click to expand...

Accounts issues. They were never able to get their debit orders to work correctly.

Could also never get self-service to work.

My account seemed to be screwed up in their system and they did not know how to fix it.

Probably because it was a very old account.
 
werfie said:
I think they are charging a bit too much, The R500 mark was 'n happy spot for me, but we have XtraView so effectly we pay half half which is doable. I now have two Exploras and I have never enjoyed DSTV more. I don't have to worry about scrambling to download series and with the Explora, 3-4 Episodes are kept, so I don't miss stuff anymore.

One of the other main reasons I enjoy DSTV is that they do the work for me, finding new series to watch. I don't have time to scout the internet for new stuff showing and then download and try and download and try until I find something, so for the most part, the series they air are pretty decent stuff, so I can comfortably start watching a new series when I see one on catchup and about 80% of the time I end up liking it.
Click to expand...

Netflix fixes both your download problem and your content discovery problem. It will actually recommend stuff to you based on your tastes.
 
Chevron said:
Netflix fixes both your download problem and your content discovery problem. It will actually recommend stuff to you based on your tastes.
Click to expand...

I also have issues with my ADSL line, I have a 10mbps line but get 1mbps on some days. Plus the other decoder is used by the parentals. After a year and a half they still struggle with their cell phones, so tech stuff really won't fair that well...

So if Netflix is so easy and cheap, what would it take for me to get it (Even if it is in addition to DSTV)?
 
werfie said:
I also have issues with my ADSL line, I have a 10mbps line but get 1mbps on some days. Plus the other decoder is used by the parentals. After a year and a half they still struggle with their cell phones, so tech stuff really won't fair that well...

So if Netflix is so easy and cheap, what would it take for me to get it (Even if it is in addition to DSTV)?
Click to expand...

The only thing you really need is Unotelly. So $5 for that and $8 for Netflix. So R130 altogether.

Check the Netlfix link in my sig for more.

Are you on Afrihost?
 
I canned my DSTV in Nov 2012 if favour of Netflix and Plex.
Come FIFA 2014 I reactivated the whole Xtraview premium package. Tomorrow I call and can it again.
Been an interesting exercise. Through the entire world cup, both decoders have remained on the FIFA HD channel. No-one in my family of 5 bothers to watch anything on Dstv. Outside of the football, the TV gets switched to the Roku and the norm continues.

Will keep the hardware setup though. Handy to be able to temp activate it for sports we are interested in and just can it again when done.
 
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