Satellite vs. cable

[POLARA500]

I'm seriously thinking of switching from cable to satellite. My questions are how reliable is the satellite reception and will the weather effect the signal (cloud cover, snow)? Is there any maintenance required? What pitfalls should I look out for.

TIA

 

[blanquitoman1984]

Since I don't know you location I can't tell you much, but personally the only problem that I have had is wind, because my dish was blown down, tech's fault. Other than that rain does not affect it at all. Those are the only two forces of nature that I personally have to deal with.

 

[TomT223]

As a brand new satelite owner I have not experienced the stormy blackout yet but I can say the picture is better and it has many more features for the same amount of money. The trick is to have a back-up OTA antenna. My cable used to go out during storms also so I'm not missing anything. So far I'm loving it.

 

[POLARA500]

Thanks for the information. I'm located in Ct. north of Danbury. Excuse my ignorance but what's an OTA attenna?

 

[drummerguy]

In my experience, weather has rarely affected my satellite reception. It has to be raining about as hard as it can around here or the cloud cover has to be about as thick as it can be for me to lose reception. Happens maybe once or twice a year, then reception comes back as soon as the rain or cloud cover lightens up a bit. Back when I had Comcast, my cable would go out very frequently and would be out for hours, and I'd never know why. At least when satellite reception goes out because of weather, I know the reason, and I know it'll come back pretty soon.

Never had a problem with snow.

 

[GregE]

OTA antenna is an antenna you put up to pick up your local channels that are broadcasting Over The Air. I put one in my attic and hooked it up to my E* receiver so I can record 3 shows at the same time, 2 via satellite and 1 via OTA.

 

[DirtyTurbin]

Here in Michigan if you get a good thunderstorm it goes out until the storm passes. Rain and snow no issues. Make sure you treat your installer well and be specific with what you want and you should have no problems.

 

[drdroo]

Same here. Severe t-storm or severe rain it might go out for (literally) a few minutes, but overall it is a non-issue.

When I had cable and it went out, the outage was measured in hours. I can't even add up all of the minutes in a year that my sat goes out and come up with an hour, let alone several hours.

Course, there's no trees or anything for half a mile here.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

I'm seriously thinking of switching from cable to satellite. My questions are how reliable is the satellite reception and will the weather effect the signal (cloud cover, snow)? Is there any maintenance required? What pitfalls should I look out for.

TIA

We had some pretty hard rain storms with thunder, lightning, and fog earlier this week in Indiana. I didn't lose any channels at all, even those on the weaker 129 satellite.

Like others have said, it takes a very strong thunderstorm to knock out reception, and then it's usually for 5 or 10 minutes tops. My cable would go out a few times a year for hours at a time.

 

[geekboy2000]

I left Comcast cable back in August. It's been just over 90 days since I switched, and I have no regrets. In my case, it was all about reliability/outages, and customer service. I've also since switched to FIOS for my internet, for the same reason. It was hard to for me to finally make the decision to leave them, because bundling of services and incentives to stay, had Comcast's price well below what I'm paying now. But, with T-Mobile for phone service (cell), and TV and internet split as it is, it'll take a global disaster to interrupt all three services. But, alas, I'm rambling. I'm totally satisfied with the picture/receiver/service I get from Dish. We've had just a few heavy rains, but so far, I've had no problems. It remains to be seen how it'll perform in a snowstorm. My experience with Dish's customer service has been . . eh. Unfortunately though, that's the way of the world these days. My hope is I won't need to deal with them nearly as often as I had to contact Comcast. To summarize though, I'm glad I made the move, and wouldn't ever go back to cable.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

My hope is I won't need to deal with them nearly as often as I had to contact Comcast.

Good point... I had Comcast's number memorized after dialing it so much for different service and picture problems. I couldn't tell you the number for Dish or my installer. I think I had to call once when I screwed up my 622 after playing around in the setup menus.

 

[drdroo]

My CS experiences with Dish have been really good.. But, obviously, my ones with T-mobile are better.

There's less reason to call Dish ultimately than there is to call the cable co. I don't really have to call Dish to tell them there's a line down in the middle of the road at 3 in the morning, for instance.

A friend of mine has a nasty hum through his stereo due to Comcast NJ. They've come back several times and have yet to do anything about it. They've pretty much said they can't fix it. This is with digital cable even, thats the hell of it.

 

[GNASH]

I left Comcast cable back in August. It's been just over 90 days since I switched, and I have no regrets. In my case, it was all about reliability/outages, and customer service. I've also since switched to FIOS for my internet, for the same reason. It was hard to for me to finally make the decision to leave them, because bundling of services and incentives to stay, had Comcast's price well below what I'm paying now. But, with T-Mobile for phone service (cell), and TV and internet split as it is, it'll take a global disaster to interrupt all three services. But, alas, I'm rambling. I'm totally satisfied with the picture/receiver/service I get from Dish. We've had just a few heavy rains, but so far, I've had no problems. It remains to be seen how it'll perform in a snowstorm. My experience with Dish's customer service has been . . eh. Unfortunately though, that's the way of the world these days. My hope is I won't need to deal with them nearly as often as I had to contact Comcast. To summarize though, I'm glad I made the move, and wouldn't ever go back to cable.

We have had dish for over 9 years now. We live in Michigan (close enough to Lake Michigan that we do get "Lake effect" snow). Rarely do we have problems with weather causing an outage. If it is a very powerful storm (regardless of what kind-Rain, Thunder, Snow) we will lose signal for a few minutes, usually less than 15 minutes, enough time for the storms to pass. We have maybe 5 or so times per year where a storm knocks out the signal. Snow has done it a couple times, but it needs to be blizzard conditions (those storms where you can't even see out the window), but as soon as the snowfall slows down some (does not need to stop all the way, usually just enough where you would be able to see across the street), the signal comes right back.

As for maintenance, we have only had to go outside to clean the dish off (due to snow) one time in the 9 years. Other than that, we have not had to do anything outside to maintain the dish.

Geoff

 

[geekboy2000]

Good point... I had Comcast's number memorized after dialing it so much for different service and picture problems. I couldn't tell you the number for Dish or my installer. I think I had to call once when I screwed up my 622 after playing around in the setup menus.

I suppose I may be asking alot, but considering it's now nearly 2008, I'd like to think a communications/entertainment service provider ought to be able to provide very nearly 100% uptime. Generally, we don't have to wonder what's going to happen when we flip on a light switch. Light should just "come out". Likewise, a dial-tone (remember those?), though I no longer have landline service, is virtually always there. Just as important to me, is believing that if I call customer service to report a problem, they won't tell me, "Well, it wasn't out that long, and it was after midnight." I don't expect that my Dish receiver will never fail, or that something won't interrupt my service at one time or another, but it's got to be better than Comcast. And, so far, it's been much better.

 

[geekboy2000]

My CS experiences with Dish have been really good.. But, obviously, my ones with T-mobile are better.

IMO, any company would be smart to model their Customer Service after T-Mobile's. Perfect? No. But, they're the best I've seen. And, I figure, any company that's so bad, that they drive a 75 year old woman to take a hammer to their local branch, is not a company I wan't to deal with.

Taking a Whack Against Comcast - washingtonpost.com

 

[iceondsom]

Cable gets their signal from satellite too. They are simply the middle man.

 

[drdroo]

Not so often now.. Many cable companies get channels from fiber optics nowadays, especially when it comes to On Demand channels. Not to say they don't still use the dish farms too, but cable companies used to be totally reliant on them. Now it's a mixture.

 

[POLARA500]

Thanks again for all the info. I guess it's time to go shopping.

 

[GregE]

I am very glad I left cable and went with E*. I love the 722 receiver and being able to watch it on my 2nd TV. I have long wanted to be able to have more storage and the 722 has it plus I went for the EHD option so now I have plenty of space.

I was disappointed that my locals were not in HD from E*. I hooked up an OTA antenna so I could get them and I recently "moved" so I get the networks in HD from Atlanta. Now I can record 3 network shows in HD at the same time. I couldn't do that with cable. I also have more HD channels with E* than my cable company has. I am very happy.

Good luck and enjoy your shopping!!!!!

 

[comcast]

Get a 1 Meter parabola! ^^__^^

When you truly want 100% uptime for your DN system, then please upgrade to a larger dish. Ku-band signal attenuation is higher than 4DTV since its frequency is at 12Ghz compared to 4Ghz. You can try the 90CM dish if budget is tight. I recommend Sadoun to buy satellite parts. Great customer service too. :up