[Mr. B]

It happens here occasionally in New Orleans... every other month perhaps. If the clouds are thick enough we'll lose the signal, almost always during thunderstorms.

 

[warrior05]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dan1son /img/forum/go_quote.gif Install is much easier now that they have the single wire multi-switch (SWM) dishes and boxes. Basically it wired straight into my existing wiring for the house and only needs one wire to every box (even the HD DVR), instead of multiple to DVRs as before. The only thing I miss from Time Warner was the fact that local HD channels were sent over the wire so I didn't need to buy HD boxes for other TVs.

Ah... you answered another question I had. I assumed they would just tap into the cable that is wired throughout my house.

 

[warrior05]

Well, these are very promising responses. I really do appreciate the feedback, people. My wife is already getting excited about the additional channels we may be getting and all at a lower price than Time Warner. Very cool indeed!

 

[tstarn06]

Been a Directv sub for 11 years, and one of the original HD DVR owners. Their flagship DVR has had some weird issues, but mine has worked fine since I got it, for the most part. Some of the issues, like blank recordings and voice sync issues, were very annoying, but they have finally seemed to be worked out, after numerous software updates.

But as far as rain fade, it's really a minimal disruption issue compared to the ridiculous outage issues we had with Comcrap, and we live in the Comcrap home office city. On balance, even though Directv has had some issues, it's better than cable. Also, they do have a networking capability with their DVR, but I never bothered to hook up to it. No need in my view, since I don't download movies or stuff like that. I use my PS3 for movie watching for the most part.

 

[PhilS]

For me, moving from cable to DirecTV was like moving from a PC to a Mac. Fewer "I want to pull my hair out" types of problems, more user friendly, and an "I'll never go back" type of experience.

I had repeated problems with the DVR from our cable company (replaced the Motorola DVR a lot of cable companies use about 5 times), the hard drive storage with the cable company was much less than what was available from DirecTV (and it's even increased more), the picture quality with DirecTV is better (IMO), they are always upgrading the software (when you are asleep) to add new features, there is a wider range of programming (at least in my area) and the customer service has been excellent and very responsive. Plus, you can get things you can't get on cable, such as NFL Sunday ticket, and the like. And they have these cool "mix" channels, where you can watch 6 or 8 channels at once during special events (e.g., the U. S. Open).

I live near the coast in So. California, where we almost never have thunderstorms, and so signal loss is not a problem, but even if I lost it on occasion, I would never go back to cable. In fact, I was so impressed with DirecTV after I used it for awhile that I bought some of the stock.

 

[NacMacFeegle]

Hmmmm! You guys are making this tough. I guess I'll do some more research on DirectTV. However apart from the rate increases I've never had a problem with TWC or any of their equipment (jinxed myself...D'oh!), so switching would have to be really worth it. Just not quite there yet...but come the next rate increase...

 

[Drag0n]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif "rain fade" is largely a function of how far north you are. The bird is near the equator, and you are very far from the equator, so the signal is at a lower angle for you than it is for me here in Utah, so there's more weather for it to pass through. OTOH, my friends in Canada say they don't have much of a problem with rain fade either. It's probably a bigger problem if you live north of the great plains area, where huge storms can build up. I've never experienced 'rain fade'. I *have* experiended "crapton of snow and ice built up on the dish" fade. I've heard that this can be prevented by spraying down the dish with PAM cooking spray, or perhaps with spray silicone lube, or something. I just wait for the sun to get higher in the sky. It doesn't bother me because we have brutal daily freeze/thaw most winters here, and i don't watch much TV in the morning anyhow.

Pam? That might break down too easy in weather. Id try Rain-X for car windshields.