Opinions needed......

[Nitrohaulic]

DUDE! Tell me about it. I decided NOT to buy a house on an acre cuz that area couldn't get satellite, digital cable NOR high speed internet of any kind. CRAZY!

But, how does the satellite know where you live? It's a dish, right? I mean, how can you move far enough away not to get SATELLITE RECEPTION??? I know I'm asking to have a negative proven but, how do you you not get satellite?

There's a joke in there somewhere! It's not Foxworthy but, it's a joke. I'm actually serious in my question, too.

What, do you folks in Texas have some small, unregulated satellite TV companies who just didn't have the budget to shoot the rocket WAY UP there or what? Low altitude satellites? I'm picturing their customer service people having to include "curvature of the earth" in their dialogue. "Sir, it depends on what county you're in."

Do you know what tone of voice I would achieve if your company told me I couldn't get SATELLITE reception because of where I lived in Texas, in the middle of the country?

 

[none]

I'm with you Alan, one dish and I get all the local stations.

When we moved into our current house in `04 you couldn`t even get local channels at all thru DirecTV. About a year later is when local channels became available, but only with another dish going up on the roof. It might different in other parts of the U.S. but here in BFE you need the second dish.

 

[Mike]

Chris, I sure would like to know the reason for that. I'm about a hour from san diego and 2 from LA and I get both local satations. I wouldnt get san diego but I traded a box's with a friend who wanted LA stuff.

 

[Kelly]

Do you know what tone of voice I would achieve if your company told me I couldn't get SATELLITE reception because of where I lived in Texas, in the middle of the country?

Silly! It's more about service providers than actually being able to receive a signal. LMAO! No one services certain parts of Splendora.....at all. It's that simple.

 

[none]

Chris, I sure would like to know the reason for that.

Well, I just got off the phone with one of DirecTVs techies and it seems that the satellite that we use here in Boise sits lower in the hemisphere than most of them and you cannot pick up the local channels without a second dish. I asked how many other cities in the U.S. have to have two dishes in order to receive local channels and he said about 20. I then asked why we can`t just pick up the other satellites like people in larger markets (that only need one dish) and he said it`s a matter of having enough room on that particular satellite....kinda like a cell tower.

 

[Toejam]

DUDE! Tell me about it. I decided NOT to buy a house on an acre cuz that area couldn't get satellite, digital cable NOR high speed internet of any kind. CRAZY!

You live in Texass right?

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Silly! It's more about service providers than actually being able to receive a signal. LMAO! No one services certain parts of Splendora.....at all. It's that simple.

What "services" do they have to provide? Shouldn't I be able to bring one of their dishes, boxes, etc HERE, plug it in, and it work? I provide the TV and power, they provide the thing in space?

I bet Bobby's satellite on his RV works everywhere.

LOL, I'm still missing it.

LOL, I saw something that made me think of you this morning, remembering that you wouldn't move into an area due to lack of TV.

I may have to move, myself now.

They tore our Krispy Kreme down! If the Waffle House goes, I'm outa here!

 

[Bob]

Silly! It's more about service providers than actually being able to receive a signal. LMAO! No one services certain parts of Splendora.....at all. It's that simple.

Do you mean there's no one who will install a satellite system for you? I installed my system, it only took a couple hours.

 

[vegasnitro]

Most everyone knows that I was an engineer for the cable company in Vegas for almost 10 years, so you can probably guess where I stand on this issue. I can tell you guys this, I absolutely could not live without the cablemodem. Something to think about is that if you get satellite, their high speed service absolutely sucks. In some cases, you still need a phone line for upload purposes. Also, if you are price shopping, bundling your TV with your internet will usually tip the scales in cable's favor.

Kelly, the neighborhood I live in has a Homeowner's Association (don't get me started on these Nazis) and one of the regulations is "no antennas or dishes on the outside of the house". So if you live here, you have no choice but to have cable. I appreciate them keeping all of my old buddies in a job, but I feel you should at least have a choice ....

Also, as an RF engineer, I can tell you it does not matter where you live in Texas, you should be able to pick up a satellite signal. Whether someone is out there to install or service your setup is another matter, but your geography has NOTHING to do with being able to receive satellite. You should be able to install your own setup (or get someone to do it for you) and be just fine (probably won't get local channels though). I took my Sirius satellite receiver on my most recent cruise to Mexico and was able to receive satellite radio all the way down in Acapulco and out in the Pacific.

 

[Alan]

Bob, I'll keep your offer in my head. But as of right now, Comcast has the 'triple play' available in my area, with digital cable, internet, and digital phone service (unlimited US long distance) for $99 for 12 months. That's pretty hard to pass up!!!!! Get that, go buy a DVR, and I'm set! But that's where we are looking.

Thanks for all the help Maters!

 

[Mike]

Alan, check with your phone company, they might have better deal. We have verizon fios(not avaliable at my house)that blows high speed cable away.



Chris, if thats not true the guy at direct tv should get some kind of award for coming up with such a good line of shyt.

 

[Mike]

Alan, check with your cable company before you buy a DVR. A friend of mine was going to do that and his cable company was going to charge him to record a show with his DVR. Oh, he now has direct tv.

 

[brian]

Directv all the way.... Had it for 8 years & never a moments trouble... Great sports, great HD offerings & local channels included here. Couldn't be happier with it.

 

[none]

Alan, check with your phone company, they might have better deal. We have verizon fios(not avaliable at my house)that blows high speed cable away.



Chris, if thats not true the guy at direct tv should get some kind of award for coming up with such a good line of shyt.

Mike, yeah I don`t know why the situation is what it is here...I know a lot of people who have to have the two dishes too. Even got a neighbor a couple houses down that does c/s for DirecTV, and she corraborated the same story when I saw her this afternoon.
And as far as Verizon Fios...that is gonna be a LONG way away `til we see that in Boise!

 

[Mike]

Chris, fios is a hundreds yards from my house and no plans to extend it

 

[.]

My dad has had Dish Network almost since the beginning and his old buddy and coworker from Rockwell, Neil Rohlena of Fairfax, Iowa, was the very first dealer to sign on with Charlie Ergen. Neil was already a dealer for Echostar so when Charlie told him about the upcoming Dish Network he signed on right away. Charlie used to have a picture of himself and Neil in his office, maybe he still does.

I've had cable on and off over the years and it's always looked like ass unless it's one of the digital channels or HD. DirecTV uses a lot more compression than Dish Network so their picture doesn't look as good. When you see them side by side it's usually plain as day. I worked for Magnolia hi-Fi out here in Oregon for a couple years so I had to deal with Comcast, DirecTV and Dish on an almost daily basis so I had plenty of time to see which one looked best. Dish has the best picture and the most HD channels. If you're having problems with reception then you need to check the positioning of your dish. I had Dish for 2 years before I moved out to Oregon in 2002 and I only lost signal 3 or 4 times, each time during wicked thunderstorms. My dad has had Dish Network for close to 10 years and he's only had outages in severe weather conditions.

 

[Mike]

Brent, should have bought a plasma for a good picture(LOL)

 

[.]

Brent, should have bought a plasma for a good picture(LOL)

huh?

 

[vegasnitro]

Chris, fios is a hundreds yards from my house and no plans to extend it

Have you contacted Verizon and asked them to do a "site survey"? Most companies will do them free of charge, though they generally take 4-6 weeks to complete.

How we did them in Vegas is we would go on site and locate the nearest cable/fiber plant and then measure directly to your house's tap. Then we would see if we could hook up any other houses besides yours by extending the plant. We would then send the results of the survey to our design department and they would draw up the prints, pull the necessary permits from the county/city and estimate all material and labor costs. That information would then get passed on to the sales staff and they would contact the customer with the survey results, and there were normally only 3 results:

1. Costs are reasonable, build it no questions asked.
2. Costs are somewhat high, build it BUT make the new customer sign a long-term service contract to recoup capital investment.
3. Cost prohibitive, don't build it ... sorry.

The main problem we have in Vegas is that there is so much construction going on, that if they got the go-ahead to build the project, it was at least 180 days before they even started on it because of the backlog.

 

[Mike]

Chris, I'll give it a shot but I still live on a dirt road. The last time I spoke with someone at Verizon I was told when housing tracts get built I'll get fios. Man, I just got DSL about 3 years ago