Rain Fade in Effect

[trinidex]

The only thing is I want my contract to expire ASAP, if I suspend my service it prolongs it.. Next month I have 1 year left.. I will not pay the early termination fee's. Thats $20.00 a month for nothing. For $29.99 I will be getting there family package vs paying them almost $70.00 for choice xtra like I have now for that $29.99. Not a lot in it but it's better than paying Direct $20.00 for nothing. Funny how they force you into contracts so you can't walk away scott free when you find out the pitfalls of the service. I guess thats the only way they can make money. I'll never understand how people can spend $150 a month for multi room DVR's and the like. Those costs are crazy. Then again maybe I got use to the low costs, quality, and choice that the bud always had.

There's a whole bunch of discussion topics on this, however for peeps like you (and me) we're not prepared to pay "blindly" for a product that doesn't deliver - to our expectations.

I'm a big H2H supporter for different reasons, primarily because of no contracts. I understand the business rational of small amounts monthly vs. large amounts every now and then - people find it easier to pay small amounts monthly than huge chunks on a one-off and we've been encouraged to do this - i'm in danger of getting on my soapbox - my point is simple - CHOICE - COMPETITION - there is not competition between Dish and DirecTV they are the same where it matters - your wallet - cable is the same, cell phones are the same, blah blah.

H2H is continuing the belief that TV should be opt-in, it IS a luxury, the world economy is collapsing and yet TV is still so important - really??? I think NOT

Anyway, 'nuff rambling, stepping down from soapbox, I'm not out to ruin DirecTV, Dish or Cable - BUT I should have a choice, and H2H gives me a choice and if I'm happy with H2H then leave me alone, stop trying to force me.

Blah blah blah, my 2Cents - stick with H2H, enjoy it.

 

[Kb Cool]

The only thing is I want my contract to expire ASAP, if I suspend my service it prolongs it.. Next month I have 1 year left.. I will not pay the early termination fee's. Thats $20.00 a month for nothing. For $29.99 I will be getting there family package vs paying them almost $70.00 for choice xtra like I have now for that $29.99. Not a lot in it but it's better than paying Direct $20.00 for nothing. Funny how they force you into contracts so you can't walk away scott free when you find out the pitfalls of the service. I guess thats the only way they can make money. I'll never understand how people can spend $150 a month for multi room DVR's and the like. Those costs are crazy. Then again maybe I got use to the low costs, quality, and choice that the bud always had.

You should have bought a VIP 211 and a little charlie dish. Could have walked away all ready.

 

[tvropro]

You should have bought a VIP 211 and a little charlie dish. Could have walked away all ready.

I would never give Charlie a lousy nickel. After all he has done to kill the bud with YSP and NPS. Direct may be EVIL pizza but they are the lessor of 2 evils's. Charlie can burn in hell for all I care!

 

[Kb Cool]

I would never give Charlie a lousy nickel. After all he has done to kill the bud with YSP and NPS. Direct may be EVIL pizza but they are the lessor of 2 evils's. Charlie can burn in hell for all I care!

How can the lesser of the two evils "require" a contract, "require" you lease there receiver, "require" you to have them do the install and "require" you to sub to SD and the other not? :

 

[tvropro]

4th day this month

Not even raining that hard today but red cells on the radar. I have nothing 771 no signal to colorful pixels (see attached) on Direct. C band well you know Lets do the math, 31 days divided by 4 days with outages that don't equal 99%..
While I typed this Direct came back then went out completely again.

Time to turn Direct Off for the day or at least till it stops raining.

 

[tvropro]

Pizza dead again storming. Same crap different day. Pizza truly sucks!

 

[Mr Tony]

Then cancel it....seriously if all you're going to do is whine about every little thing that is wrong, cancel the service, take your lumps with the term fee, send back the receiver and go on with your life

 

[tvropro]

I'm sorry Ice but I refuse to pay $240.00 early termination fees. If Direct would wave them then I would cancel it but they won't we know. I never thought that I would have such unreliable service when I ordered Direct. If I knew that ahead of time I wouldn't have got it. Your lucky where you live you don't have the outages we do in Chicago. It's not me only this has been confirmed in the area. It's becoming a weekly thing with all the storms we have been having. It's just a unreliable service bottom line where I live and no magic pony is going to fix it.

In 2 weeks I have a year left on my contract, then Direct gets busted down to a bare minimum for the duration. Then I'll dump them. I wish that Direct would have worked out better since they do have some channels I like but that is not the case. In all my years in C band (24 this year) I never had reliability issues like I had with Direct in the past year. C band is superior plain and simple.

I'll stop posting the rainfade updates Ice to make you happy. By now everyone knows there is this pitfall with pizza if they read this thread . I only wish there was a thread like this I read before getting Direct. It would have saved me the grief. And I could have spent Directs contract money on a Manhattan and more. I'll never sign a contract again.

 

[Asket]

I'm sorry Ice but I refuse to pay $240.00 early termination fees. If Direct would wave them then I would cancel it but they won't we know. I never thought that I would have such unreliable service when I ordered Direct. If I knew that ahead of time I wouldn't have got it. Your lucky where you live you don't have the outages we do in Chicago. It's not me only this has been confirmed in the area. It's becoming a weekly thing with all the storms we have been having. It's just a unreliable service bottom line where I live and no magic pony is going to fix it.

In 2 weeks I have a year left on my contract, then Direct gets busted down to a bare minimum for the duration. Then I'll dump them. I wish that Direct would have worked out better since they do have some channels I like but that is not the case. In all my years in C band (24 this year) I never had reliability issues like I had with Direct in the past year. C band is superior plain and simple.

I'll stop posting the rainfade updates Ice to make you happy. By now everyone knows there is this pitfall with pizza if they read this thread . I only wish there was a thread like this I read before getting Direct. It would have saved me the grief. And I could have spent Directs contract money on a Manhattan and more. I'll never sign a contract again.

Apparently Comcast provides service in the Chicago area. Also check this http://chicagocable.net for other providers. Negotiate with direct if they cannot provide reliable service.
Not likely but they might release you from the contract. In your case cable service may be your only answer and they usually don't ask for a contract. FTA is great but to
take full advantage you need multilingual capability.

 

[tvropro]

Apparently Comcast provides service in the Chicago area. Also check this http://chicagocable.net for other providers. Negotiate with direct if they cannot provide reliable service.
Not likely but they might release you from the contract. In your case cable service may be your only answer and they usually don't ask for a contract. FTA is great but to
take full advantage you need multilingual capability.

As much as cable could be an option since its C band to a wire. I really don't want to repeat my experience with TCI cable in my area (now bought out by Comcast) They were the reason I bought my first bud in 87. They were bad, really bad. To top it off Comcasts costs are crazy. My neighbor pays $250.00 a month. I called Comcast before I got Direct. They wanted $131.00 a month for the channels I wanted, just nuts.

My future holds running on C band H2H until the looser players (pizza & cable) kill it off. Then I'm going back to FTA only & OTA if thats still around. Or I'll go to the Library and take out some books and read.

 

[Kb Cool]

My neighbor pays $250.00 a month. .

For what?

 

[tvropro]

Comcast Cable, Internet & Phone bundle. Comcast rapes you here, basic SD digital is $75.00 for cable alone. The next tier is $100 and up from there. My neighbor like sports and has all the sports stuff. If anyone says H2H is high priced they're living in the ice age.

 

[trinidex]

For what?

$250 x 12 months = $3,000 per year for TV

I wonder if the bubble will ever burst on PayTV :

 

[Kb Cool]

Comcast Cable, Internet & Phone bundle. Comcast rapes you here, basic SD digital is $75.00 for cable alone. The next tier is $100 and up from there. My neighbor like sports and has all the sports stuff. If anyone says H2H is high priced they're living in the ice age.

Ya, thats crazy and it does make H2H appear to be a bargain or wait a minute aren't H2H and comcast the same company?

 

[tvropro]

wait a minute aren't H2H and comcast the same company?

Yes but we get a better rate because we know better. It just shows you how they rip off the unsuspecting fool, same with pizza. Sucker born every minute. Were too educated with the big dish.

 

[Mr Tony]

If Direct would wave them then I would cancel it but they won't we know.

did you try and call?

I never thought that I would have such unreliable service when I ordered Direct. If I knew that ahead of time I wouldn't have got it.

you've been here for 3 years before you got it and you did no research? Seems very odd

Your lucky where you live you don't have the outages we do in Chicago. It's not me only this has been confirmed in the area. It's becoming a weekly thing with all the storms we have been having. It's just a unreliable service bottom line where I live and no magic pony is going to fix it.

but you claim it goes out constantly yet other people in Chicago area with Directv (including some very vocal members here) dont say anything about it. It seems you've had more issues in the last week than I've had in 18 months of Directv. Have you checked everything to make sure it isnt maybe a cable or connector? I'm just checking here.

In 2 weeks I have a year left on my contract, then Direct gets busted down to a bare minimum for the duration. Then I'll dump them. I wish that Direct would have worked out better since they do have some channels I like but that is not the case.

again try to verify cables/ends. Heck maybe go back to the stock 18" dish. Sounds weird but back when Dish was at 148 I tried a 24" dish there and had more issues than I did with the stock 18"

In all my years in C band (24 this year) I never had reliability issues like I had with Direct in the past year. C band is superior plain and simple.

I'm sorry but if it was superior, it would truly be an alternative to cable/dish/directv like it was 10 years ago or so. Not a "add on" for most people.

By now everyone knows there is this pitfall with pizza if they read this thread . I only wish there was a thread like this I read before getting Direct. It would have saved me the grief. And I could have spent Directs contract money on a Manhattan and more. I'll never sign a contract again.

so you didnt do any research then? Heck that is what the Directv area is for. To ask questions and get info. And it seems you're the only one with this crazy bad luck of rain fade.

 

[Mr Tony]

My future holds running on C band H2H until the looser players (pizza & cable) kill it off.

I dont think Dish/Directv/cable are killing off C-Band. Maybe 10-12 years ago when people found they could get more channels on one sat with no maintenance that started the downturn. But technology getting the signal from the TV station to the satellite has changed dramatically and the providers found a better way (more economical) to beam up the signal.

 

[Mr Tony]

Yes but we get a better rate because we know better.

you cannot be serious....

 

[tvropro]

I started with the 18" dish then a slimline then the 90. The slimline is still up and connected to an old receiver for testing and has the same results, the 90 goes out after the slimline. People I talk to locally, neighbors and friends including the VP of a well known commercial satellite install company says there are rain fade problems even on 1.2's in the Chicago Area. If you need the company name and more info contact me. 4DTV Online... Contact Us

I posted about trying different dishes in the Direct forum last year. Fighting with DirecTv is about as useful as fighting with my old cable company. Your not going to win. The best thing to do is find a work around. They got me when I signed on the dotted line and thats that. The plan of action I will follow is what I already posted. If you read the DBS forums you will see many in Chicago have problems like me. One guy said it has to do with the high tops of clouds and alignment of our dishes here. I'm not a meteorologist or claim to be. I do understand though signal attenuation, path loss, link budget, C/N etc etc associated with a satellite signal. I've wasted enough time on this issue trying to get someplace. It is what it is.

I have other more important things to deal with issues with Map Master USB interface problems lately then to waste my time dealing with Direct on the phone trying to get an answer. Heck they can't even diagnose a access card that needs a rehit properly then send out a refurbished junk receiver. And that was the access card dept I spoke with. I do feel sorry for the next sucker they sent that smeary D-12 to.

I appreciate your concern Ice trying to diagnose a dish or connector issue. But that's not the problem. I checked & double checked and tried multiple dishes. Direct did hold up all winter though here and you even lost it for a day I remember. So maybe you have snow problems and I have rain problems go figure.

 

[eurosport]

...a few ramblings

I wish things were still the same with C-band. Comcast HITS through Sky/SRL is OK but there's just one lil' thing holding it back. ..HD. All the "bigger is better" ramblings in the satellite hobbyist community is true, when it comes to rainfade and signal stability. I love my 2 BUDs and what they pull in... in HD. Sure you have to hunt for the stuff, but that's half the fun! I still have HITS only because they have music video channels that actually show videos! But the truth is, it will not last forever. I only watch SD feeds when HD of the same content is unavailable. I also don't want to hear about HD-light or whatever it's called, no my Dish Network HD may not be as good as a first-gen C-band HD feed, but it's pretty damn close. Waaay better than any SD...including the "masters" ...SD on C-band was great, when it was still analog. Look closely when anything in DCII SD is open... same "digital look" that the small dish services have. SD is SD. I'll continue to sub to HITS for those music channels but that's it. No HD=no future for ANY video delivery service. I wish we could get a consumer IRD, to subscribe to the master HD broadcasts on C-band, but I don't think that will EVER happen. It is what it is.