Satellite TV opinions

[Bernzy]

I'm thinking of telling Comcast to take a hike and switch to a satellite dish.
Any opinions on DirecTV vs the Dish Network??

Bernzy

[nightprowler]

i've got directv and now love it. except when the weather is crappy. It took me over a month to get a solid signal, i had the tech's out 3 times before they finally switched out the box and it worked fine. It would always seem to work fine when they were there so there was nothign they could do and as soon as they left i wouldn't have a signal.
but now that the situation is straightend out it has been awesome. they prorated my bill for the time i didn't have service also.
the other night when we had snow i lost my signal for a few hours. my dish is on the roof, i would recomend placing it somewhere you can get to it to clean it off in a snow storm or for easy access with issues.

[MakoMike]

I recently did some reseach on providers. If you have HD and want the a lot of HD programming dish network is the way to go, and it's roughly the same price as direct TV or cox. I'm switching once I buy my new TV.

[teaser]

I have the dish too and it is awesome, 30 HD channels and more coming! Never lost the signal yet due to adverse weather or anything and I have the total package with all the channels available and it still kicks cables a$$. I only keep cable for the internet ... I pulled all the cable tv wires off my house so I only have cable as a bill "NO" signal coming in for the tele's.

Can't beat dish!

[RIJIMMY]

bernzy, I posted someting similar a few years ago and received overwhlming response for Direct TV. I told comcast to screw. We've had Direct TV it for a few years now and have zero complaints. The signal is great, no issues and my RATES have NEVER gone up. I cant comment on the HDTV stuff, Im not that sophisticated.. : )

[Raven]

i have not been satisfied at all... with direct TV every time the clouds get thick the signal gets all busted up. nothing gets thru

like this weekend we had a three inch snow storm...we had all the old tapes out.....and it usually means a trip to block buster.

the thing that pisses me off too is that they want $77.00 bucks
just to come out to your house....

i'm planning on switching to something else. i hate it.

[Slingah]

I have it and it is good most of the year, until the trees are really full in the yard...
MAKE sure you have a direct shot of the southern sky where the dish will be pointing.....if hindered at all...you'll have problems

[Rob Rockcrawler]

Ive had Directv for 6 years now and really like it 99% of the time. I finally had the tech come out to re-allign the dish, i installed it myself. I cant remeber the last time i lost signal, never had a problem with snow, jsut rain so spring can be iffy. My dish is 90' from the house mounted on a pretty small tree about chest high. Pretty much the last place you want a dish. 64.99 a month gets all the basic stuff plus HBO. One thing i like about it is that over the past 6 years the price only went up twice and it was only a couple bucks. IF you go with it i would suggest ya pony up the 5.99 a month for the service plan. Or if you decide to go without it you can order the service plan, have the tech come out and cancel the next month, i just never remembered to cancel it.

[Swimmer]

Direct tv is the balls. Great service, dependable, picture looks like HD but my TV is only HD ready. Comes in great. Hardly ever any interupted service.

[2na]

I have Direct TV at two locations. One is occasionally spotty when there is heavy cloud cover, the other never looses signal. Great picture, great value for the $ (IMO).

Would take it, without any reservations at all, over Comcast. Words cannot describe how bad they suck.

[UserRemoved1]

Raven it's not them it's where your dish is and what it has for a horizon shot. Raise it up, move it clear of trees etc and it will work pisser. I have direct tv and can count on one hand how many times its gone out due to wx, was like that at the old house also. If you get a really strong cell passing thru it can go out for a few minutes but it passes pretty quick.

Originally Posted by Raven

i have not been satisfied at all... with direct TV every time the clouds get thick the signal gets all busted up. nothing gets thru

like this weekend we had a three inch snow storm...we had all the old tapes out.....and it usually means a trip to block buster.

the thing that pisses me off too is that they want $77.00 bucks
just to come out to your house....

i'm planning on switching to something else. i hate it.

[Mike P]

I've had DirecTV for a year. I forgot what they told me my exact signal strength was when they installed it, but it's in the high 90% range. I've only lost signal when a very strong T-storm cell is directly in line with the receiver. Twice in a year, I believe, and for just minutes. Snow doesn't seem to bother it.

Only negative is that I don't get the Providence channels, and I don't get the local conditions portion of the Weather Channel broadcasts.

I also don't get Bourne's local access channel, but I can live without the live feed of the Selectmen's meetings

[Mr. Sandman]

what about internet service? If you keep the cable for internet it is expensive. Sat. internet is not that great esp on upload. I would like more HD but I don't want to pay for both services. I am hoping for phone service for the triple play, I had that with cox when I lived in RI and it was great. I had 3 phone lines, a fax, 3 TV's and internet in every room for 100/mo. It worked great too. That might be because a Cox exec lived in my hood but it was great.

[Mike P]

Comcast gets about 45 bucks a month for internet-only cable.

You can bundle DirecTV with Verizon, if you can live with DSL instead of cable for broadband service--or if DSL is available in your area.

[macojoe]

I had direct TV for 2 years and only lost signal one time when the dish got froze in a ice storm.
I get more breaking up with Comcast dig, then with the dish!

But your right Internet for Cable goes to $60 when you don't have cable!

I switched back cause I have now got Comcast TV, Phone, Internet for $99 a month + taxes.

But I won't think twice about going back to Version when they get the new Fios here, my friend has it in Middleboro and says its faster then anything else he has ever used and its only $45 a month. And I am sure Version will package things up nice when they have it every were!

[rockyroady]

FTA - Free To Air......friend has it. roughly 1000 channels.......2 satellites. $300 for equipment. Anyone familiar with it?

[Slingah]

Originally Posted by rockyroady

FTA - Free To Air......friend has it. roughly 1000 channels.......2 satellites. $300 for equipment. Anyone familiar with it?

no....do tell

[rockyroady]

I'm not very familiar with it. Basically buy the equipment, dish and receiver, guy I now spent $300 for a good dual-satelite receiver and dish. Dish mount is equiped with a motor, automatically moves dish between sats. Once set up it pulls in channels from around the world, stuff from Europe Canada U.S., even Al Jazeira(sp). Every movie channel as well as the PPV ones. Because system is based on getting channels FREE, receiver has built in computer od sorts, so that when code is scrambled by signal sender he simply goes to his computer and gets the new satelite code from one of many on-line FTA sites, enters it into receiver via remote - done in 2-3 minutes, but every few days this is necessary. I would get it but the # of channels is overwhelming, with two kids in the house the likelyhood of something inappropriate being seen is too high. He set it up in Oct. last year, so if cable is $50/mo, it has already paid for itself.

[Raider Ronnie]

I had Direct tv, but they couldn't get a good southern sight mounting the dish on my house because of all the trees I have.
So the brilliant installer mounted the dish on a piece of 1x4 mounted to my fence !!! ( I wasn't home when he installed it)
When it worked (no wind or weather problems) it was awesome,
but that wasn't too often. and I had it shut off,but still have the dish mounted though.
The amount of channels was quite overwhelming also, plus a lot of channels I don't want my kids watching.
I may take down some fence (it needs some repair anyway) early spring before they start to but, and drop a few trees and give the dish another try, but this time the dish will me mounted to the house !

[Bob Thomas]

I have the same feelings about DirectTV as everyone else..I LOVE IT!

Dumped the cable co (Charter) after an electrician friend said the NEWLY INSTALLED wiring and splitters CHARTER installed were done wrong and would have eventually caused a fire. Had it...along with other probs dumped them.

I've got Direct Tv mounted on the roof. Very strong signals and very clear channels. Much better. Only lost it once for about 1 minute after a real bad t-storm moved in. Hail, lightening etc. After 1 minute, it was back.

Remember this, however....if you rely on the weather channel, you will NOT get your local on the 8's like before. No local weather unless you get the local package then it's just the main channels.

Where I live, we get some hum dingers of storms and used to watch the weather channel during them...now, it's a no go. Small sacrafice, however, for me

Directv -

[Mr. Sandman]

Bob,
What do you do for internet service?

[pmueller]

Had satellite about ten years ago. They have resolved some of the issues that I had with them
- only one TV per receiver ( has been fixed so I'm told)
- relied on the weather channel back in the day for local weather ( now you can get it anywhere. on satellite you'ld get these regional pics)
The quality was awesome. Had an old lousy TV hooked up to the dish, the resolution was better than my good TV.
My suggestion if your p----ed at cable, take a real good look at what your getting before you leap.

[Mr. Sandman]

How many TV's can you hang on a single reveiver and dish? Can they be watching different channels at the same time? I had dsl and left for cable the speed was much faster with cable.

[Mike P]

I have two TVs running off my dish. Separate box for each--no extra charge.

[Bernzy]

I finally pulled the trigger and got the Dish Network. So far, so good.
I cut my Comcast bill in half. Outstanding picture and I get NESN so I can watch my beloved Red Sox as well as the outdoor shows they offer.
I gotta keep in touch with my New England roots.

BTW, 2 tv's off of 1 receiver.

Thanks for all the input.

Bernzy

[pmueller]

Can you say "Chahlie Moorha"