Got DirecTV, love it

“Now that we have moved to the country, we are on a road that isn't serviced by the cable company (Comcast). It comes within a half mile of our house in both directions, but not our section. Got DirecTV installed on Friday, and I'm sorry I didn't get it sooner! Great clarity (all channels are digital, unlike 'digital' service from Comcast), lots more channels, and a similar rate. Free equipment and installation in the deal I got, too. Cool.

But, like I said in the header, I'll miss my broadband internet service. Can't get DSL either. Back to dial-up until wireless broadband comes (2-3 years, hopefully).

Anyway, my 2 cents on DirecTV.”

“Yep, I'm pretty happy with my MiniDish too.

I have the same problem with dialup speeds. Thinking of going back to cable just to get cable internet.”

“Have you looked into satellite internet access? It has gotten a heck of a lot better than it used to be. I don't have any hard numbers though.”

“Direct has a sat connect for internet.

I don't have it, but my neighbor swears by it.”

“$600 for electronics
$60/month fee

I'll pass.”

“Comcast are complete bastards”

“Yikes!
No kidding.”

“They have a promo to give you the equipment, but the $60 bucks a month goes to $75 for a year. That is why I passed.

So, at home, I still have dial up with about 14K in speed. Just a matter of time until that $75 seems cheap enough.”

“Yeah, those rates for the DirecWay (internet) service drove me away too. You can't even use the standard DirecTV dish, you need to upgrade to an eliptical dish. And the speeds are still way slower than DSL - and magnitudes slower than cable.

SS - if you have access to cable, you can get just the internet service. Costs a little more when it isn't bundled with the TV service, but still cheaper and faster than DSL or satellite.”

“I was going to get the internet only cable but the cable TV jerks wanted $75 to 'install' it.
My house is wired for cable and the jerks only have to turn it on with a few key clicks.
I said no thanks.
May have to bite my tongue. ;-)”

“Verizon recently launched wireless broadband in 2 cities for a test trial. Other companies are getting ready to roll out too. Prices are still high and speeds a little slow, but within a few years it will become mainstream. The whole supply-and-demand curve thing.”

“Anybody encounter any problems with their DirecTV service? Comcast loves to trash dish service in their ads, but I take most of it as spin. Any reality there?”

“My brother has it and the only issues he has is that you lose signal during heavy rain.”

“Last night a big very dark rainstorm interruped my service for about 15 minutes.
The sat signal is impacted by heavy rain clouds.

My cable service used to go out for days. The jerks might credit me $1 on my bill.”

“Heavy rain is only problem I have and then it is usually only 10 minutes or less.

I put a passive amp on the longest runs (four receivers) and it helped quite a bit. They were going out too often when it rained, now it takes a monsoon to block it.”

“chili - when you say you installed a passive amp, I assume you mean a pole-mounted amp? I may need to look into getting one. My run from pole to where it is split for the 5 receivers is around 200 feet. From there it can go from 10 to 50 more feet. Certainly way above the 150 feet maximum I see mentioned online. Signal is very strong when I use the receiver's utilities to check it - in clear weather. Now you have me worried about a light shower! :-(

What amp did you buy? Web link?”

“I just set up cable service for my new home with Comcast. It's even more expensive than my old place for the exact same package - just under $52 with no movie channels! I planned to upgrade to digital cable when Circuit City starts selling it (better deal) but I might have to look into a dish. This is robbery.

My new neighborhood is basically an unbroken canopy of trees. Will the dish work where you can't see the sky?”

“Violin, you have to check the location of the satellite for your location. If you cannot see that position through the trees, then no, you won't get satellite TV. Many times, a satellite may still be positioned so that you can see it. I'm plunked in the middle of the woods with hardly any clearing at all around the house. Satellite TV wouldn't work for me unless I could position the dish to look straight out the driveway and over the trees on the other side of the road. Cable is just fine for me as I'd get the broadband service anyway.”

“Nope. Gotta see the southern sky. Here in MD, my dish is pointed about 1/3 of the way up from the horizon. Those satellites are in geosyncronous orbit - 22,000 miles above the equator. Try walking your property with a compass, maybe even some of your neighbor's property, too (if they might be nice enough to let you put up a pole).”

“It sounds like I’m stuck with cable. I’m so glad they deregulated rates and left us in the hands of a monopoly. I was paying $20 per month 8 years ago for the same thing.”

“vio - You must have a clear view of the sky. The web sites will have a calculater to tell you what azimuth to the sat is required for your location.”

“techtrek, I put in an inline amplifier (passive, not requiring a power source).

On a run over 250 feet I would certainly think about putting in a powered amp.

You can get either at radio shack. Passive amp is about 10 or 12 bucks and will has an input and output inline port.”

“Thanks. I might be able to find a spot of sky over the garden area if I can get the dish up high enough.

Does it recieve HDTV broadcasts?”

“Violin, Direct is going to HDTV. Unless I am mistaken it requires a dish with multiple transponders.”

“vio - I mounted a dish on a tall post at my parents house due to problems similar to yours. I walked around with compass and a homemade inclinometer till I found an openning to the sat.
It's pretty easy to do.”

“I've had SAT TV for the past ten yrs and have had an awesome experience with it. It rarely goes out...just like you guys said...during very heavy rain which normally doesn't last long.

I got all the equipment free from DishNetwork and did the installation myself. All I had to do was sign up for 6 months and it was all free...two receivers and the dish, wiring, etc.

They do offer internet access on the dish but it's TOO expensive and I still have to pay an ISP for service in addition to the SAT TV/Internet service. Oh well, I live in the country on the top of a mountain with a killer view...what cha gonna do ?”

“Thanks for all the input, everyone.

I just checked it out, and chili is right, you need a different dish for HDTV. Great, now when I upgrade my TV I need to upgrade my receiver and dish and service (more expensive package). Won't be for a while so I guess I can't b!tch too much.”