We are planning to replace our TV provider, and ONLY our TV provider. We already have excellent internet and voice and have no plans to change that, so let’s leave that aside for this discussion.
What we are considering here is satellite TV.
I have heard that in the past satellite TV reception was severely affected by wet weather. Is this still the case, or have the two providers upgraded their hardware/whatever to overcome this problem?
We live in Oregon where it rains a lot in the winter. When we had Comcast, now Xfinity, we would loose picture and sometimes sound whenever it rained. We don’t want to get locked into a contract with a provider that does not provide adequate service.
Your (recent) experience with either of these providers would be greatly appreciated.
Heavy storms or downpours will knock out reception. Regular rainy days it works fine. Being in Oregon you will also have the dish pointing southward at a low angle. If trees obstruct a direct shot of clear sky you won’t get a picture.
Heavy snowstorms also knock out reception.
I’m in Oregon too and had DirectTV until last month (switched for cost reasons, not service). The only time we lost the signal was during a snowstorm when our dish was completely covered by snow and ice. We had a couple “frizzes” for a second or two during very heavy downpours, but that was rare - maybe once a year at most.
Thank you Hampshire. Since all of the trees that might get between us and the satellite are on our property, we are prepared to deal with that problem.
Troutman, what did you switch to, if I may ask? We used to have ‘frizzes’ with Comcast too, and they were supposedly a ‘cable’ company.
I’ve had DirecTV for a few years. Service is rarely interrupted, maybe once or twice a year during exceptionally heavy rain or snow. When it does happen, it’s not long before the signal is restored (IIRC the interruptions are usually less than one hour)
I’ve found their customer service to be a little uneven, but the product is good.
We’ve had both DirecTV and Dish Network. Rainstorms very rarely affect service, except for thunderstorms. A bit of light fluffy snow is no big deal, but a heavy snowstorm will affect the signal, and wet snow that cakes on the dish will shut us down until we go outside and use a broom to brush the snow off the dish.
I live in the Bay Area, and I have DishNetwork. We don’t get the number of storms that you do, but we get some during rainy season, and I don’t remember service ever going out, or even being spotty. Far better than the analog cable we had before.
Customer service has always been excellent - by far the best of any company I deal with. The hardware has also gotten easier to use in the decade we’ve been customers.
We also use it for satellite only, and buy no premium channels.
I had both Dish and DTV (at different times) while living on the Oregon Coast (with some very heavy rainstorms), and had very few weather outages. Just a couple times a year, for no more than a few minutes total.
There were also very short outages (maybe 10 or 15 minutes total) around the equinoxes, caused by the sun passing right behind the satellite.
I switched to Charter Cable to save money, and I haven’t been thrilled with either the quality or the service. Lately my phone (Charter is providing phone and internet as well as TV) has lost its connection for five minutes at a time, but I don’t want to call them because there seems to be no pattern to it, and they charge you $35 if they make a service call and can’t find anything wrong.
And besides, every time I’ve had a TV channel outage and called them, they say that whatever they use to monitor things shows everything working correctly. Then a day or two later, the channel starts working again. So either that will happen with my phone, or it won’t. If it doesn’t, I’ll dump them, because I hate their retarded DVR as well.
But they do have the fastest internet, by far, available in my area.
In Havre, Montana, Dish service would occasionally drop due to winds. Admittedly, our ‘windy day’ would be another region’s ‘Windkill Deathstorm God Hates Us 2012’, but, still, be careful about aiming the dish and getting it attached securely.
Also, snow wasn’t especially kind to our reception, but we were likely at the edge of our satellite’s coverage region; they should have better coverage along the West Coast.
Wind is definitely an installation issue. On the Oregon coast, you can count on several storms a year where the wind gusts exceed 60 mph, and occasional storms with sustained winds nearly that high. They never caused an outage for me.
Only the dish service? I live just outside of Red Lodge, Montana. When we get the windy days (like the one a few months ago that flipped over my 26’ camper trailer or the one last fall that threw a wooden picnic table through my deck railing), we lose our power.
Only the dish service? I live just outside of Red Lodge, Montana. When we get the windy days (like the one a few months ago that flipped over my 26’ camper trailer or the one last fall that threw a wooden picnic table through my deck railing), we lose our power.
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I don’t recall our power going out just because of wind. Ice storms, sure. Thunderstorms, sure. But not just wind.
I think our power company transmits our house power on used speaker wire strung along trees and barbed-wire fences – and I’m pretty sure the junction boxes consist of two wire nuts and a dead racoon. It seems like we have a five-minute power outage every time the wind goes over 50 mph (which is pretty frequent out here).
We had cable at first but the thing would go out when someone farted nearby so we switched to Dish Network. It does go out if there is a heavy rain but it’s more reliable than my internet (AT&T) which craps out every day for a minute or so, a dozen times a day. Mostly 4:45 p.m. when we assume a cleaning lady somewhere unplugged it to vacuum the facility.
We did have to reposition the dish due to our trees blocking reception one time but it is fine now.
I live in western Oregon, and have Dish network for several years. I’ve never had a problem with rain, even during the heaviest, 3" in 24’ kind of rain.
I have Bell Expressvu in Canada (Same idea, I can even use Dish Network remotes on some equipment), so our dish angle would be lower (closer to horizon) than much of the USA’s.
Heavy rainstorms or thunderstorms will cause service outages - usually about half a dozen or so a year. Also, heavy snowstorms… If the dish is pointed through a thick thundercloud cell to the south, it is thick enough to stop the signal. Ditto for a downpour, the “inch of rain in half an hour” type. As others mentioned, normal all-day drizzle does not affect reception. We got a cover for the dish (a vinylized cloth cover over dish and LNA) to prevent snow and ice accumulation on the lower part of the dish or on top of the LNA. Before that I had to go out with a broom on a long extension and sweep away snow accumulation.