Now I remember why cable sucks...

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JEFFinINDY

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jul 31, 2004
1,139
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Indianapolis, IN
So.... Comcast recently added a ton of HD channels (making the lineup competitive with Dish), coinciding with active Spring weather patterns that have caused a couple incidents of signal loss.

This caused me to consider switching back to cable, until tonight. A severe storm moved through Indy around 5 hours ago. Dish came back in about 10 minutes (with full OTA in the interim), but my cable Internet connection is still down 5 hours later. And on a night with the NBA finals, the Tonys, and the premiere of True Blood, I would not have been a happy camper.

Dish + iPad 3G is the clear winner on a stormy night...
 
I don't know whether to laugh or get angry when I see the cable ads touting no rain fade vs satellite. I had cable for 9 years and it seemed like almost every thunderstorm knocked it offline for hours. Plus cable get its content from satellite feed. It takes a real doozy of a storm for me to lose my Dish signal.
 
yep same here. Its been raining here in Minneapolis for what seems like 2 weeks straight...had some dark clouds and satellite signal went down on the meter but didnt go out :)
 
If anyone ever says anything different about their dish, wether it be Dish Network or DirecTV, they need their dish repointed.
 
Love my Dish, it poured down here in Eastern North Carolina last night, dish went out for 30 seconds and came right back on. Didnt miss a thing .... Had cable when i lived in VA it went out all the time.
 
This echos my TWC experience. I've easily had fewer bouts of rain fade than I had cable outages.

Ted
 
ncted said:
This echos my TWC experience. I've easily had fewer bouts of rain fade than I had cable outages.

Ted
Click to expand...

I have been with TWC for almost a year now and while I haven't had any outages, we certainly have had a share of SDV (Switched Digial Video) burps. They last only a couple seconds and they are more frequent when there is something very popular on tv; life a Buffalo Sabres Playoff Game or American Idol show etc.

Even though TWC gave me a great deal for two years; (saving me about $40 a month) I would still be with Dish if they had MSG-HD and YES.
 
I love my dish, but I do lose signal when heavy cells move through, which tends to be often anymore when there are thunderstorms.. I have recently been upgraded to EA and it hasn't gotten any better and the installer made sure I was pointed 'as good as it gets'... clear view too.. anything I can do to improve my reception during storms? What should I be seeing for signal strength? Philly area 72,77,61.5.
 
Islandguy43 said:
I have been with TWC for almost a year now and while I haven't had any outages, we certainly have had a share of SDV (Switched Digial Video) burps. They last only a couple seconds and they are more frequent when there is something very popular on tv; life a Buffalo Sabres Playoff Game or American Idol show etc.

Even though TWC gave me a great deal for two years; (saving me about $40 a month) I would still be with Dish if they had MSG-HD and YES.
Click to expand...

Neither the Sabres HD nor FOX are SDV channels though. They are QAM channels. Only "burps" I notice during Sabres games are MSG issues.
 
One of cable's weaknesses - especially in rural areas - is that it is a long series system so a fault anywhere along that chain will result in an outage from that point on. Since cable requires repeater amplifiers that are powered by the local utility company, a power outage anywhere along the line will result in a up line cable outage.

In my area - which is a long distance from the cable company head end - storms and other events frequently result in power outages from trees falling on wires or whatever. A power outage 40 miles from my house that I am unaware of will result in the cable going out. Even on clear days outages are not uncommon.

Dish has been nearly outage free since I got it late last year.
 
My Situation Is the Exact Oppostite.

I have had a lot of problems with Dish during storms. Last week or so we had a Tornado Warning it was really bad. Dish went out. Thankfully our Comcast High Speed Internet was still plugging away as usual and one of our local tv stations was streaming the weather online. Our Comcast HSI has never went out since we purchased it.:)
 
The biggest issue with cable and loss of signal is that when the cable goes out it is often for no apparent reason, and when you call in to report it, they never have any information on when it might be up. It can then take up to 48 hours to get it back up. That was one of the large motivating factors for me to leave cable 10+ years ago.

The only time I lost signal so far this spring/summer with Dish was when the digital transmitter for the local CBS affiliate failed and dish lost their uplink (and I lost the ability to pick it up over the air). Otherwise Dish has been pretty solid. It helped that 129 is now a better bird than it was a couple summers ago.
 
129

Mike_H said:
The biggest issue with cable and loss of signal is that when the cable goes out it is often for no apparent reason, and when you call in to report it, they never have any information on when it might be up. It can then take up to 48 hours to get it back up. That was one of the large motivating factors for me to leave cable 10+ years ago.

The only time I lost signal so far this spring/summer with Dish was when the digital transmitter for the local CBS affiliate failed and dish lost their uplink (and I lost the ability to pick it up over the air). Otherwise Dish has been pretty solid. It helped that 129 is now a better bird than it was a couple summers ago.
Click to expand...
That's cause it was replaced
 
Jimmerinwi said:
Get a 1000.2! 1000.4's are JUNK!! Just my opinion though.
Click to expand...

I'm in Louisville, KY, and on the EA. I have a 1000.4. Can I use a 1000.2 and would Dish switch it out? I only been with Dish a year now, so I'm still a bit new to understanding the differences in dishes and satellites...I know I'm getting 72.7, 61.5, and 77...The reason I ask is I do get a lot of rain fade at times, but it happens more during regular downpours, than with full storms. Also, not to be OT, but at times (like yesterday), the guide was very slow to respond to my remote. I would press the button to bring up the guide and nothing would happen for a few seconds...same with trying to scan through the guide. I just put brand new Duracells in the remote 2 days ago.

Ghpr13:confused:
 
I agree with the OP...our Dish Network outages were infrequent and far-less in duration than when we had Comcast (could be out for hours of even days). However, our FiOS service has been running for 2-years and 4-months wihout one second of service outage. I just need to point this out since FiOS, and U-Verse for that matter, are classified as "Cable" service.
 

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