Opinions on TV service

[deh]

Anyone have any experiences with Satellite TV (I.e. The Dish, more specifically Direct TV)?
I am thinking about changing from cable to Direct TV.

I know someone who has Direct TV and he is happy with it. Claims outages are minimal and quality is good. Says the secret is getting it set up correctly in the first place because it is line of sight.

 

[Izme]

Anyone have any experiences with Satellite TV (I.e. The Dish, more specifically Direct TV)?
I am thinking about changing from cable to Direct TV.

I know someone who has Direct TV and he is happy with it. Claims outages are minimal and quality is good. Says the secret is getting it set up correctly in the first place because it is line of sight.

Deh, I installed it on my parents house easily, Your right it has to line up on the horizon, It's usually low on the S.E. horizon from here anyways and degree of angle is right on the arm of the sattelite dish. You put a compass on the recieving unit that comes out from the middle of the dish and dial it in to the right position in your hand book, leave the sattelite adjustment angles slightly loose until someone is down below to check signal strength, just alittle movement at a time will do when you get it close, than tighten it. It does not have to be 100 %, I dialed my parents in and after 4 years it is still dead on. Make sure you put caulking in the holes prior to bolting the Sattelite to your roof or siding. and tighten it good, check it once a year. They have had very minimal problems and love Direct TV

go for it! It's easy to install and I can do it for a living now if I chose to.

 

[Izme]

Your Direct T.V. package will have a small Compass to use on the Recieving arm of the dish

 

[deh]

Thanks for the info izme.

Yeah my brother did the self install. Direct TV is actually offering a free install right now so they will send a tech out to do it.

So what do your parents think of the service? Is the reception always good? etc

I only ask because I hear different input from this. One person lived in a pretty wooded area and every time the wind blew or it rained it would break up.
Whereas I was told he didn't have the dish high enough and it needed to be above all of the trees to ensure good reception all the time.

 

[dai]

d/load gorbtrack here
http://members.chello.nl/~berry.walda/GorbTrack_EN.htm
it will give you the angles for any satellite from anywhere in the world
buy a cheap sat meter it will buzz when you hit the satellite just peak it to the loudest.

 

[Izme]

Thanks for the info izme.

Yeah my brother did the self install. Direct TV is actually offering a free install right now so they will send a tech out to do it.

So what do your parents think of the service? Is the reception always good? etc

I only ask because I hear different input from this. One person lived in a pretty wooded area and every time the wind blew or it rained it would break up.
Whereas I was told he didn't have the dish high enough and it needed to be above all of the trees to ensure good reception all the time.

you bet Deh!

They absolutely love it! No real problems! They thought that even a rain storm would mess it up and it doesn't for the most part. Very little problems and well worth it to hook it up. And no price hikes almost every time you get a bill. One of the down sides was local news stations, but they now have that too! I highly recommend that anyone gets direct TV. I have digital cable but would go to Sattelite quickly if I owned this house. So all in all my parents give it a high rating and love it! If you get an installer, they use fancy electronics to dial the dish in. Just make sure there is no hidden cost's

 

[deh]

Thanks,
One more question that kind of concerns me.
With cable if say my cable "goes down" I call my cable company and they have to fix the problem (that is as long as I can prove it is not any wiring in my home).
With direct TV I technically own the equipment even though they initially supply you the equipment for free. Correct? So if this is the case and say the Dish or boxes get damaged I would then have to take money out of my pocket to replace the dish or boxes.
Right?

 

[Guyzer]

Love my satellite system. Would never go back to cable. The only time I lose the signal is when a bad storm is passing and that never last long.

 

[Izme]

Thanks,
One more question that kind of concerns me.
With cable if say my cable "goes down" I call my cable company and they have to fix the problem (that is as long as I can prove it is not any wiring in my home).
With direct TV I technically own the equipment even though they initially supply you the equipment for free. Correct? So if this is the case and say the Dish or boxes get damaged I would then have to take money out of my pocket to replace the dish or boxes.
Right?

well that's where it gets tricky and depends on your contract but most likely you would have to pay for it. My folks have had almost no problems, if they do lose the signal it is always at Direct TVs end and fixed shortly. You can dial (line it up) your own sattelite in any time but make sure it is not a problem at Direct TV first and I recommend that you install it to understand it better or at least watch the installer close and get tips. My Dad found an add in the paper for a slightly used reciever and dish in the classifieds and paid a fraction of what it was worth as a back up. So they are happy either way.

 

[lisaa7002]

OHHHH!!! No--- Get Dish network. A lot better channel selection for about the same price. You can usually get a good deal at instalation or free installation. Usually if you sign up a friend they get free instalation, if you want I can check. WE get 8 of the movie channeles in our package (The Movie Channel-W, The Movie Chanel extra-W, Encore W, Action, Westeren, Mystery, True Stories, & The Love Movies Channel) (they are NOT included in any package with Direct tv - except the premium movie packages) It's called "Americas top 180" (Direct tv's big package is 130 I think !) and costs $47 a month. We haven't had any problems except weather related. I had checked into Direct Tv becuse I only got 1 room when we installed, but the # of channels you get is so much better I won't switch!

Like I said, if you want me to give them your name to see if you could get free installation feel free to IM me! Hope you didn't call Direct tv yet!!! lol Lisa

 

[shadowcat]

I like Directv and don't have much of a problem with it except in bad weather, as mentioned before. My fiance particularly likes the sports packages they offer -- he's a huge football fan, both NFL and college. They have one for baseball and hockey, too.

 

[Toddles18]

I had direct tv when I lived with my parents. As was said before the only time we lost service was when there were really hard rain storms, or the mini dish filled with snow. I liked the guide on direct tv a lot better than the guide I have with digital cable now. We are actually considering switching to direct tv so we can get the nfl season ticket.

 

[valley]

we have DishNetwork here since they dont run cable out this far. But for the first 10 years we lived here, we just used an antennae! We got 3 channels.

Satellite dishes are nice but there is one drawback...the weather, like Todd said. Every time it rains really hard, we lose the signal. If we get an ice storm, we lose the signal and Carl has to go out and knock the ice of from the dish (this doesnt happen very often though) Same thing with the snow. In the middle of a blizzard, we lose the signal. But when you cant get cable, its awesome! We pay 24.95 a month for the top 40 channels. We dont have any movie packages, which cost an extra 10 bucks a month (not worth it to us, who rarely watch movies) We also pay an extra 5 bucks to get the major networks and another buck-fifty for the hunting channel per month.

 

[Mulderator]

we have DishNetwork here since they dont run cable out this far. But for the first 10 years we lived here, we just used an antennae! We got 3 channels.

Isn't that all you watch anyway? Disney, Cartoon Network, and the Playboy Channel (after the kids go to bed)!

 

[combsdon]

.....have had the dish about six years (setup myself) and have lost the signal only twice.................