direct tv

[Landon]

I had a guy approach me at Wally World today wanting me to subscribe to Direct TV. The first thing he ask me was I getting a lot of down time when a storm cloud is in the area. I naturally said yes as that is true. He said Direct would not have near as many as Dish and I ask him why and he said that Direct had a lot more sat's up than dish. I told him I couldn't because I still had a commitment to dish.
I was wondering if this is so or was he blowing smoke?

 

[Jerryinvirginia]

The number of sats won't alter storm problems. The dish required for the services received is more important. The area of the country that the two systems are installed and how well the installation was performed is important. If you experience excessive rain fade, I would suggest that you perform a tweeking on your system to confirm proper alignment.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

That Slimline works real nice against rain fade. I'll give the salesmen that much.

 

[skyviewmark]

That Slimline works real nice against rain fade. I'll give the salesmen that much.

+1
As a dealer I gotta agree with this one. I have both.. Both are perfectly aligned. And I can always count on my slimline still being up and working when the weather gives my Dish 1000.2 fits. But all that can depend on which way the weather comes from and the fact that 129 and 61.5 have a total different look angle than 103 on Direct Slimline. But the slimline does seem to hold up better.

 

[Rey]

could it be that the slimline is larger than the 1000.2?

 

[tigerfan33]

I have both and we just had a very heavy rain come through and I lost both. Got them back on about the same time. They both will go out when it is extremely heavy rain, which is rare.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

could it be that the slimline is larger than the 1000.2?

I believe it is bigger. Thats most likly why its better.

 

[FitzAusTex]

I have the 1000+, which I think is bigger than the slimline, and I have really decent signal strengths, but still lose signal too often. Particularly bad on 129, which I swear causes a signal loss cascade onto 110 and 119. I think this because if I have two TVs turned on, and one is on a 110 channel it doesnt lose signal as fast, or as often as the other TV on a 129 channel.

But then again I live in Flash Flood Alley and can get 4 inches of rain in 20 minutes, so probably best to just ignore me.

 

[Chinatown]

I have had both. I have never seen much of a difference.
I do know one thing, I will never go back to cable.

 

[EricBskiVT]

I get peeved at the cable commercials suggesting they are more reliable than satellite in severe weather. When I had cable, we would lose service for hours at a time whenever there was a thunderstorm.
I have two Dish 500s and rarely have weather fade except during really bad blizzards. I swore I would never use cable again even before I tried satellite because of poor service and frequent price hikes.

 

[mike123abc]

The Ka band that DIRECTV uses suffers from more rain fade than the Ku band that Dish uses. DIRECTV makes up for this with a larger dish. They should be pretty close to the same amount of rain fade, it is a calculation they use to figure out what size dish, error correction rates and satellite power will give what % of uptime. Elevation has a lot to do with this too, since more atmosphere to go through at a lower satellite elevation, more chance to hit water droplets. DIRECTV probably has an advantage in the East, DISH more in the West.

 

[Cantonsurroundsound]

If dish does not bring back Voom HD I'd recommend to go directv as they have 90 HD compared to dish's 80. Plus the so called 22 new HD of dish are up converted and poor quality content so I see no value anymore with dish. They used to have quality but now they are weak and over priced.

 

[DishSubLA]

The new satellite replacing the sickly one at 129 is due to begin operations around the 1st quarter 2009, or Lyngsat has the replacement satellite set for a January 2009 launch. Anyway, stick it out here on Dish and the problems should disappear by the beginning of 2009. However, I will say that Direct TV is not a bad service. I just prefer what I get and the price I pay and the equipment features offered by Dish.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

. Elevation has a lot to do with this too, since more atmosphere to go through at a lower satellite elevation, more chance to hit water droplets. DIRECTV probably has an advantage in the East, DISH more in the West.

I would agree with that . My D* signal always seems to hang on longer in a storm,them my E* Dish 500. The 61.5 is seems ok, even when the storms are bad. I think Eastern Arc with the new Dish should work out real nice in bad weather.