Signal Loss on HD channel, tuning to SD equivalent.

[eurosport]

......is completely UNACCEPTABLE! How about placing HD on the stronger signal? Is that too much to ask? Why must we watch 144p YouTube quality?

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[D. Manley]

I think if you want a real answer you'll have to provide a little relevant information.

 

[lucky86]

I would recommend getting a stronger signal at your dish.

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[ChadT41]

Not understanding your rant. Satellite tv signal strengths are solely based on your own setup. Ie I have zero problems with hd on mine. It's tweaked about as good as it can be.

 

[Tampa8]

More importantly what the heck happened to the best avatars ever?

I don't know the rules on this, can DISH use higher output, is there a limit just as there is for terrestrial? I rarely lose the signal if you are losing it with no bad weather a repoint probably is needed. Even if it is during most storms it shouldn't be.

 

[dare2be]

I don't think I have once received that message about switching to SD equivalent. When I get rain fade, I get a complete signal loss. Rain here is either bright sun or torrential downpour.

 

[Brussam]

I recently had the HD changing to SD issue but it was my problem. The ground dish was shooting over a very large tree and Satellite 129 was right on the edge of the tree leaves. During the rain and wind, Satellite 129 dropped out and the channel would switch to the SD version on Satellite 119.

I could have moved the dish farther back and get more clearance for Satellite 129 but I didn't feel like doing that in the rain.

But I sure didn't blame Dish for the problem.

 

[Scherrman]

I don't think I have once received that message about switching to SD equivalent. When I get rain fade, I get a complete signal loss. Rain here is either bright sun or torrential downpour.

When I encounter rain fade my receiver with switch to the SD equivalent which I actually like. I'd rather be able to continue watching my program instead of getting complete signal loss. HD in my area goes out a lot easier than SD because the 129 signal is generally weaker than 110 an 119.

I suggest the OP repoint his dish if this is a common problem. That or maybe just be happy he could still watch TV instead of a complete signal loss screen.

 

[patmurphey]

For crying out loud! It's a feature. Would you rather not see anything if rain interferes with your signal?

 

[dare2be]

I would rather rain not interfere with my signal. But here rain isn't normal rain.

 

[Scherrman]

I would rather rain not interfere with my signal. But here rain isn't normal rain.

I agree, and while we're having wishful thoughts I'd rather have every channel in HD and completely get rid of SD. I'd also like to have all of this for little to no money per month.

 

[TheKrell]

I've seen this too, and I think it's a good feature. As for putting the HD channels onto stronger transponders, that's a good idea except that you can fit many more SD channels on a limited number of stronger transponders, than you can fit HD channels. Now... Why all transponders on a new satellite aren't equally strong, I don't know.

 

[eurosport]

Maybe I came off too "rant-ish" in the original post. I'm just at a loss as to why the HD is not on the strongest transponders and the SD on weaker ones. All the SD could go out & I'd never notice!

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[Scherrman]

Maybe I came off too "rant-ish" in the original post. I'm just at a loss as to why the HD is not on the strongest transponders and the SD on weaker ones. All the SD could go out & I'd never notice!

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I never really thought about it but you do raise a pretty good question there. I'm assuming they have good reason for it but maybe things should be changing since the majority of what people watch is in HD.

PS: You did come off "rant-ish," but it was a pretty good rant. Some might even say a ridiculous rant. All is forgiven.

 

[TheKrell]

Just check the SS on those transponders; some are "hotter" than others. So, if you put your SD channels on the hottest transponders, you could get many (most?) channels even through the rain. If you put only HD channels on the hottest transponders, then you wouldn't be able to get many channels through at all. That's my WAG on the situation.

However, I agree with the point about dropping the SD channel duplicates off EA. Seems like a waste of bandwidth to me.

 

[ChadT41]

I bet they leave the sd versions on the stronger TX because there are more SD customers then hd. Think about it, almost everyone who subs to HD also subs to SD. And then you got folks with 722, 322 etc. that's three TVs in sd. This doesn't mean they are on the same account, just in general. Although there is an overwhelming majority of Hd subscribers, why not appease both parties, and reduce calls during storms. Most people won't call if they can still watch something, and the SD clientele won't even know there is something wrong with the hd channels. As for the sd channels on EA(duplicates), what about those that were forced to migrate, but do not want to sub to hd? Remember, it is $10 per month without a promotion of some sort.

 

[bentjm]

When I was on WA, I saw this quite a bit in the summer. Big storm moving in from the southwest and would lose signal from 129. I knew we would see the storm in about 20-30 minutes. It would switch to SD. Then the storm would hit and I would lose all signal until it passed. Now that I am on EA, I have only seen it once and it could not lock onto SD.

 

[Brussam]

I think part of this is the evolution of subscribers. For very old users, a single LNBF dish is usually aimed at satellite 119 which has a majority of common programming especially in SD. Next step up is the dual LNBF dish which brings in satellite 110 which fleshes out the SD programming. With the triple LNBF dish, satellite 129 fleshes out the HD programming.

Because of satellite spread, 129 gets pretty far west for a lot of the US and low in the horizon. Hence lower signals. IF everyone would upgrade to new equipment, then the transponders could be changed over to higher levels of compression and almost the entire programming packages (SD & HD) could be on satellite 119 and 110 with the better signal levels.

Dish managed a forced upgrade for those on the East Coast with the release of the Eastern Arc which supports only new level of compression receivers and have virtually the entire programming on satellites 61.5 and 72.7.

So I wouldn't blame Dish as much as those who hang onto old low level compression receivers. There have been many upgrade offers from Dish but the hold-outs don't want to sign new subscriptions for the new equipment. Like Dish should hand out equipment with no commitment from the subscriber.

 

[ChadT41]

Ha, this reminds me of a customer, who refused to get rid of her 3900 because she didn't want to be apart of the "throw away generation". She kept calling in with 005 errors( dish was doing that on purpose randomly to legacy customers at the time), and I even offered her a no commitment, free 211 family receiver. I wish I had stuck around after may, to see what had happened to her come that time. She called in atleast twice a month, and told me I would get fired for not stopping the errors on her box. She didn't even beleive the OOP. I still laugh at the scenario(only because she was the nicest customer I had ever talked to. ***sarcasm***)

 

[osumike]

So I wouldn't blame Dish as much as those who hang onto old low level compression receivers. There have been many upgrade offers from Dish but the hold-outs don't want to sign new subscriptions for the new equipment. Like Dish should hand out equipment with no commitment from the subscriber.

I think they do now. Here, when a customer calls in with a problem on a SD system, and Dish has to send a tech out, it's an automatic migration/upgrade to EA, with no new commitment.