SG Broadband Community

Does anyone else have Directv here? Man it's turning out to be such a hassle. The signal boxes have to be plugged into phoneline to "call out" about once a month or they get shut off. This is ok if you have a ton of phone jacks. But I live in an old house and I'm using all the jacks for HPNA networking as is. Now I have to install additional jacks for these fuggin converter boxes.

Also everytime it rains we lose signal. Now this might not be an issue in, oh say, THE SAHARA!! But here on the gulf coast it rains every afternoon. So basically I can count on losing all signal for 20-30 minutes at the least everyday. Not to mention typically right when I'm getting home.

Everyone else considering Directv, make sure you have ample phone jacks for each room with a TV and make sure you look into some type of rain protection for your dish. I'm going to either have to wax the dish or buy a rain shield. I'll let you all know if it works out.

So I take it you'll not be hugging the technition next time he comes out?...lol

I'd call and see why your service is so abrupt and if they cannot fix it I'd say adios to them and get something else ( if possible where you live)

Well the only other game in town is cox cable..which sucks IMO. My Dad has a friend that also has Directv. I just got off the phone with him and he says the guy bought a rain guard and it seems to work about 90% of the time. Going to have to get this installed somehow.

Why does Cox suck in your area? Or is it Cox in general?

Rain protection for the dish will not prevent rain fade. Rain fade occurs because of the large rain clouds between you and the statellite. Here in the NE I see rain fade before the storm arrives. And, it seems not as often as the gulf coast. To help with rain fade you need to make sure the dish is aimed so you get the highest possible signal strength. You also might think about getting a larger dish.

make sure you are getting the highest signal should be around 90 then when it rains you will get very little ineterference.

some people dont use phone lines for their sat setups maybe an option you may or may not want to explore

Hi Jstyr


I Have Bell Express VU & prior a Huge Sat. dish.

We lose signal no matter what, if the Rain is really Heavy, or when the Snow comes down hard.

Nothing you can do about it. I usually read


I live in the Country with No Cable access, so its still the best game in town.

The only saving grace at times is if you do lose signal on a particular program you wish to watch you can at times find it on at a later date on the Western Channels and tape it, or watch it.

At times it can be a pain, but overall its pretty good.

PAM sprayed on the Dish will help Snow from sticking, or a Shield will help, but nothing i know of works in the heavy rain.


Have a Good one


regards

minir

I doubt that the gulf coast gets much snow.

But, for the rest of us, PAM on the dish is not a bad idea to prevent snow from sticking.

The dish rain guard will only help keep driving rain from getting into the LNBs.

*kisses cable box and modem*

Ive had a couple gals hug me before when I fixed their tv/modems Aint it good to be a good lookin tech *flex*

Originally posted by EvilAngel
So I take it you'll not be hugging the technition next time he comes out?...lol

I'd call and see why your service is so abrupt and if they cannot fix it I'd say adios to them and get something else ( if possible where you live)

Originally posted by Jstyr
Does anyone else have Directv here? Man it's turning out to be such a hassle. The signal boxes have to be plugged into phoneline to "call out" about once a month or they get shut off.

I've had DTV for 3 years and I've never had my receiver plugged into the phone jack Only thing the phone line is for is ordering ppv movies, which you can do over their web site now. Did DTV tell you that it will get 'shut off'? If they did, there lying

Regarding the rain, what is your signal streangth? Mines in the 90's (transponder 26) on a consistant basis and mine will only go out in a bad thunderstorm. There's just no way I'll go back to cable tv, with the bad reception (here anyways, even digital) and the high bills. Im paying half now and Im getting the exact same channels I had with digital cable

Originally posted by Randy
make sure you are getting the highest signal should be around 90 then when it rains you will get very little ineterference.

some people dont use phone lines for their sat setups maybe an option you may or may not want to explore

Randy, signal checks out at 98% almost constantly. The tech's told me it just doesn't get any better than that. Only problem is when the afternoon thunderstorms roll in. Heavy driving rain. I do notice it usually cuts out right as the rain starts or even just before. I think it is a mixture of the heavy clouds and sheets of rain in the air. Signal always seems to come back about 5 minutes before the rain stops.....or once the interference from the clouds and water has dissapated enough.

As far as the phone line thing goes. What the Directv people told me is that any household with more than 1 receiver box has to have the boxes hooked into a phoneline for modem dial-out. Apparently the modem dials out about once a month to make sure all the boxes are on the same physical phone line. Otherwise people can claim they have 10 tv's in their house, get 10 receiver boxes, and then give them out to friends for free Directv. Good suffer for the bad again.

Originally posted by minir
Hi Jstyr


I Have Bell Express VU & prior a Huge Sat. dish.

We lose signal no matter what, if the Rain is really Heavy, or when the Snow comes down hard.

Nothing you can do about it. I usually read


I live in the Country with No Cable access, so its still the best game in town.

The only saving grace at times is if you do lose signal on a particular program you wish to watch you can at times find it on at a later date on the Western Channels and tape it, or watch it.

At times it can be a pain, but overall its pretty good.

PAM sprayed on the Dish will help Snow from sticking, or a Shield will help, but nothing i know of works in the heavy rain.


Have a Good one


regards

minir

Minir, thanks for the reply. I guess I'm not the only one with the weather issue then. There are a ton more channels on satelite than cox cable here. Even with the occasional signal loss it would be hard to go back. Also the price is just about the same for both.

I'm going to try spraying it with PAM then and see if it helps some. Thanks very much for the tips, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

The only reason you need the phone line hooked up is for DTV to bill you for any PPVs you have bought through the receiver. Without plugging the phone line in, you can still buy movies/porn (whatever it is you like to watch) but the cards will only allow you to buy up to 25 movies. After that, your card needs to be cleared since you have taken all the slots, when you plug the phone line in the card will transmit to DTV what movies you bought and will clear the slots (unless you have a smartcard programmer to where you could clear them yourself and never pay for the movies).

Hi Jstyr


Its 10.55am here in Ontario Canada and at my place it is Pouring Rain non-stop.

My Express-VU is Showing Error Message and cutting in & out, because of the Rain being So Heavy at the moment.

I usually just Shut it off in times like this.

Just thought you might like to know, it does happen.


regards

minir

Originally posted by fastchevy
Why does Cox suck in your area? Or is it Cox in general?