Ordering ppv on DirecTV

8371 Views 15 Replies 4 Participants Last post by tonyd79, Aug 19, 2012

steveT

Discussion Starter · Aug 19, 2012

I switched to DirecTV last month after years with Dish, and I have a very basic question about ordering ppv movies. It makes me feel like an idiot just asking this question, but I haven't been able to find just a clear answer on Direct's website or anywhere else I've searched.

With Dish, there were about 15 high-def channels of just the most recently released movies, those that were in theaters just a few months ago. You just clicked on the channel, and the movie started instantly. You didn't have to wait until the next half-hour start time. They just played. It was my understanding that the first few minutes of all those movies had already been downloaded to your dvr, and after commencing the movie you just picked up the rest from the satellite screen. At least that's what I thought, maybe I was wrong.

My question is, where is the equivalent on DirecTV?? If it's there, I can't find it. I see all the movies around channels 120-200, but with start times on the half-hour or hour. And I know you can download a billion movies through their internet connection. I have the CCK installed, but I live in an area where the max internet speed available is 3Mbps (I get about 2.6Mbps effective), so I really don't want to have to wait a few hours for a movie to download.

Is there anywhere on DirecTV that I can just order an HD movie (recent releases, not 20-year old flicks), and have it start instantly?

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tonyd79

· #4 · Aug 19, 2012

"steveT" said:
I switched to DirecTV last month after years with Dish, and I have a very basic question about ordering ppv movies. It makes me feel like an idiot just asking this question, but I haven't been able to find just a clear answer on Direct's website or anywhere else I've searched.

With Dish, there were about 15 high-def channels of just the most recently released movies, those that were in theaters just a few months ago. You just clicked on the channel, and the movie started instantly. You didn't have to wait until the next half-hour start time. They just played. It was my understanding that the first few minutes of all those movies had already been downloaded to your dvr, and after commencing the movie you just picked up the rest from the satellite screen. At least that's what I thought, maybe I was wrong.

My question is, where is the equivalent on DirecTV?? If it's there, I can't find it. I see all the movies around channels 120-200, but with start times on the half-hour or hour. And I know you can download a billion movies through their internet connection. I have the CCK installed, but I live in an area where the max internet speed available is 3Mbps (I get about 2.6Mbps effective), so I really don't want to have to wait a few hours for a movie to download.

Is there anywhere on DirecTV that I can just order an HD movie (recent releases, not 20-year old flicks), and have it start instantly?

Yes. There are a handful of movies downloaded to your dvr. Anytime you see a green arrow icon, it means the movie is already on your system. By playing it, it makes it available in your playlist.

Also, some of them will show up in the guide below channel 125.

Even with your download speed, you don't have to wait hours if you use download. The speed is limited at the source. The color code of the download arrow will tell you when you can watch. Red means you can't watch uninterrupted. Yellow means you may (usually can). Green means you are good to go.

Try a download to see how fast it is. You don't pay unless you watch and say you are willing to pay.

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tonyd79

· #10 · Aug 19, 2012

"steveT" said:
Would those green arrow icons be in the channel guide for those channels in the 120-200 range? Or somewhere else? So far, I haven't noticed any of those anywhere.

As for downloading, the only thing I've downloaded so far was a 1-hour HD episode of "The Wire" (which is only 4x3, not 16x9), and it took well over an hour to download. I'd asked one of the D* service techs who was working on another problem about this, and he told me that watching anything downloaded before it was completely downloaded, could cause problems...

The tech was 100% wrong. You can watch things before they complete. When you run into problems is when you catch up and then all it does is pause. When you do a download, you know it shows up in the playlist. The arrow next to it tells you if the dvr thinks you can watch uninterrupted. Red means probably not, yellow means maybe, green means probably okay. It is based on the download speed you are getting.

The green right arrow icons show up in the on demand menus. The ones in the guide should show as banner ads between 125 and 126. There are both shortcuts to on demand menus and movies that say Watch Instantly. Right now I have hunger games, twilight and a few others.

How long do you have your dvr? They may not have been pushed to your system yet.

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tonyd79

· #11 · Aug 19, 2012

"banditt76" said:
I think he was talking about in your playlist for the green play symbols. You are basically streaming OnDemand content, just like on YouTube or Netflix. Once you get a large enough buffer your show or movie should not stutter or stop during viewing. The picture quality might depend on your internet speed too. I know it did on DISH with Blockbuster. I only have 3 mbps DSL myself. Darn small town sucks for internet speed.

(I'm not actually in Glendale right now.)

Other than picking 1080p or not, speed has no effect on quality. It is not streaming, it is downloading to your drive and playing it from there. just like a recording except that it is over the Internet.

The watch instantly are sent via satellite in the background.

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tonyd79

· #16 · Aug 19, 2012

"steveT" said:
That's why I'm feeling like an idiot even asking the question, because after having DTV for a few weeks now, I'm still not getting the difference between the OnDemand and DTV Cinema. Guess I was just really used to how Dish did it, where I had that list of recent theatrical releases, and could just start them instantly at any time. We hardly ever watch old movies, only really interested in ppv's for movies we wanted to see, but not bad enough to get our butts out to the theater.

Another stupid question: will there be any difference in picture quality with movies I download from the net, versus those delivered by satellite?

Don't sweat it. The names have changed over the years. You'll get the hang of it.

No picture quality difference. That is assuming no interruptions of service, etc. Well, I have seen better PQ for SD for download than via satellite. But that is because SD is really bad for most channels by satellite. And some movies may be available in 1080p via download but not via satellite.

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