The Weather Channel Not Showing Local Channels

[RIRWIN1983]

The Weather Channel Not Showing Local Weather

BACK BEFORE I TOOK SBC/DISH NETWORK UP ON THEIR OFFER I HAD CABLE. AND WHEN I WOULD TUNE INTO "THE WEATHER CHANNEL" FOR THE "LOCAL ON THE 8s OR 10s" I WOULD SEE CURRENT LOCAL WEATHER INFORMATION DISPLAYED. SINCE COMING OVER TO THE DISH, I NOTICE THAT I JUST SEE A GENERIC US WEATHER MAP, HIGHLIGHTING DIFFERENT US REGIONS. UPON READING THE INFO ON THE STATION'S WEBSITE.

IT STATES THE FOLLOWING:

We patented a unique system named WEATHER STAR ® (Satellite Transponder Addressable Receiver) that allows the transmission of thousands of customized weather forecasts simultaneously.

As the network broadcasts a signal via satellite, custom equipment at each cable location decodes the transmission, extracting the appropriate forecast for viewers in that specific geography. Many cable systems are equipped with second generation STARs, allowing the presentation of weather forecasts using icons, graphics, and time-lapsed views of local radar.

The Weather Channel is constantly exploring new technologies to deliver more accurate and informative weather information and looks forward to continuously improving our weather products.


MY QUESTION IS WHY HASN'T DISH ENGINEERED THEIR RECEIVERS TO "DECODE" THIS SAME INFORMATION, IM SURE THERE IS SOME WAY THEY COULD DO THIS. SOMEHOW IN THE SETUP MENU OF THE RECEIVER ADD AN OPTION TO INPUT YOUR ZIPCODE OR SOMETHING SO THE RECEIVER CAN DECODE THE LOCAL INFORMATION FOR MY AREA (LOCAL WEATHER ID: 22537 , AS I REMEMBER SEEING ON THE SCREEN ON THE BOTTOM WHEN I HAD CABLE) SO FAR IT HAS BEEN THE ONLY DISAPPOINTMENT AND DRAWBACK TO HAVING A DISH.

 

[kevlard1]

Every local forecast on the weather channel is a different channel. Dish Network has no room to provide all of those channels to everyone.

 

[OoTLink]

I think you answered your own question, a "Satellite Transponder Addressable Receiver" at the local cable hub (which guess what, pulls down channels from a satellite system) picks up the regional weather channel for that area.

If every DMA had their own weather channel, that'd be a considerable amount more. This is what "Dish Instant Weather" is for, unfortunately it's slow to get to and sucks in that it doesn't show many cities

 

[miguelaqui]

MY QUESTION IS WHY HASN'T DISH ENGINEERED THEIR RECEIVERS TO "DECODE" THIS SAME INFORMATION, IM SURE THERE IS SOME WAY THEY COULD DO THIS. SOMEHOW IN THE SETUP MENU OF THE RECEIVER ADD AN OPTION TO INPUT YOUR ZIPCODE OR SOMETHING SO THE RECEIVER CAN DECODE THE LOCAL INFORMATION FOR MY AREA (LOCAL WEATHER ID: 22537 , AS I REMEMBER SEEING ON THE SCREEN ON THE BOTTOM WHEN I HAD CABLE) SO FAR IT HAS BEEN THE ONLY DISAPPOINTMENT AND DRAWBACK TO HAVING A DISH.

There is Dish Instant Weather , which can be accessed through the Dish Home feature. The local Weather Channel is an advantage that cable has to offer, but, if you have the internet, you just can go to weather.com to get the local forcast.
I prefer having a 100% digital signal to a local weather channel.

 

[RIRWIN1983]

Every local forecast on the weather channel is a different channel. Dish Network has no room to provide all of those channels to everyone.

if you read what the website states its not a diff channel for every forcast, its all brodcasted over the same signal, encoded differently, which is decoded at the local cable office for that areas weather. i guess you can so i did answer my own question, but the question i have is how is dish network able to blackout programs in my area and also send me my locals if they couldent do the weather channel local weather. it would apear that somewhere in their network the reciever id and the smart card tells dish network where i am located (regionaly) in order to black out programs and such. dish instant weather is nice, but not as good as it could be.

 

[RIRWIN1983]

There is Dish Instant Weather , which can be accessed through the Dish Home feature. The local Weather Channel is an advantage that cable has to offer, but, if you have the internet, you just can go to weather.com to get the local forcast.
I prefer having a 100% digital signal to a local weather channel.

i agree with you on the 100% digital signal part, but it should be something they tell people up front about. because many people switching from cable to dish would just assume that it would be the same. as i did.

 

[chaddux]

This was just asked the other day and has already been explained.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=105329

Just go to weather.com and you don't have to wait for the "8's" to get your local weather. Obviously, you have internet access since you're posting here so this shouldn't be that big of an issue. If it's such a big deal, go back to cable. DISH doesn't provide local weather data on The Weather Channel and I don't think DirecTV does either (but I could be wrong). I'd rather DISH engineers spend their time working on something more useful.

And typing in ALL CAPS is considering shouting. People don't like when you shout at them.

 

[goaliebob99]

post the link to where you found that on the wetherchannels websight.. I cant find it..

 

[RIRWIN1983]

This was just asked the other day and has already been explained.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=105329

Just go to weather.com and you don't have to wait for the "8's" to get your local weather. Obviously, you have internet access since you're posting here so this shouldn't be that big of an issue. If it's such a big deal, go back to cable. DISH doesn't provide local weather data on The Weather Channel and I don't think DirecTV does either (but I could be wrong). I'd rather DISH engineers spend their time working on something more useful.

And typing in ALL CAPS is considering shouting. People don't like when you shout at them.

i used caps to show when i was talking as to the info i cut and paste from their site, and here is the link:

http://www.weather.com/aboutus/television/star.html

and personaly for me it wasent too big of an deal, but with my dad it was as he doesent use the pc. and would wake up before the local news was on for the morin to get the weather, or check it before he when to bed early at night before the late news report.

 

[M Sparks]

Not trying to be rude, but shouldn't this be obvious? A lot of cable systems haven't even upgraded to the new graphic systems, so they must be pretty expensive.

Whatever happened to those regional NBC weather channels they used to have on Primestar? And didn't DirecTV have some local weather capabilities with WINK?

I live in a pretty small town, and DISH Instant Weather works here. Accurate too. Too bad you have to go through the menus now to get it.

 

[kevlard1]

if you read what the website states its not a diff channel for every forcast, its all brodcasted over the same signal, encoded differently, which is decoded at the local cable office for that areas weather. i guess you can so i did answer my own question, but the question i have is how is dish network able to blackout programs in my area and also send me my locals if they couldent do the weather channel local weather. it would apear that somewhere in their network the reciever id and the smart card tells dish network where i am located (regionaly) in order to black out programs and such. dish instant weather is nice, but not as good as it could be.

It comes to the cable companies and satellite companies as one channel but when you decode it would make it many different channels and as I said before Dish doesn't have the room to carry all these channels.

 

[OoTLink]

This is a great little page that explains it all:

http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online2005-1/4140.html

If you really wanted to, I'm sure you could get a DigiCipher or VideoCipher box and a weatherstar box (along with dish to point at one of said satellites)... it'd cost a lot (there's actually an emulator that does this stuff too O_O) -- but you'd get that custom weather

FWIW, the more modern boxes are called IntelliStar boxes, and they work over internet connections as well as satellite feeds

 

[cablewithaview]

a few thousand dollars that's all, when we priced one we told'em that we would put on radar and noaa weather radio in it's place. LOL

 

[cablewithaview]

Weather Star is a computer that is turned on through cue tones provided by TWC when they cut to commercials to activate the system or to activate the conditions at the bottom of the screen during programming. depending on your location, you will have your local forecast come from an airport, etc. some of these weather observation centers are manned and some are automative. DirecTV has a generic one that runs national conditions in major cities during the program and local's on the 8's at the bottom. they still have the same generic maps and all you see every ten minutes. the only other way they could go city to city with local conditions would be to set up in every local hub and then rebroadcast in each DMA. The only thing bad about that is for example, I don't use my DMA primary (Birmingham which would be Gadsden), I actually use a secondary from another DMA (Huntsville's DMA using Fort Payne locals) as the main because it is a lot closer to the system in my case with Gadsden being just as close and being used as a back up if Fort Payne goes down. basically whats going on in say Huntsville, AL will be different then say Fort Payne, AL local conditions. since there is such a difference between me and Birmingham, it would not do me or the customers any good. 29 degrees and snowing here and the local in Birmingham would say 35 and raining so that would be the bad part for Dish and DirecTV not to be more accurate on the local in different parts of the DMA. In each DMA you could have up to 5,6 or even 10 different observation stations depending on terrain, etc. (10 may be high but to make a point)

 

[cablewithaview]

The DCII feed is a Motorola DSR 4526 DX with a Intelli Star computer. This has all the graphics, alert tones, etc built into the Intelli Star. This is ONLY for commercial use though.

 

[RIRWIN1983]

I dident start this post to get bashed or treated like im stupid. it was mearly a point i was making and was seeing if it was a temporay thing since new install, or dish is looking into it. instead of getting treated respectfully, i got the later, which will keep me from posting outher items in the future more than likely, so to all the a**holes, thanks!

 

[cablewithaview]

I dident start this post to get bashed or treated like im stupid. it was mearly a point i was making and was seeing if it was a temporay thing since new install, or dish is looking into it. instead of getting treated respectfully, i got the later, which will keep me from posting outher items in the future more than likely, so to all the a**holes, thanks!

I was not treating you as stupid. I was explaining some basics to your question, if I misunderstood, sorry. :

 

[Neutron]

If DISH could, or Directv for that matter could, and had the room for it eventually, they should do this:

Get every feed based on DMA and send that feed to each home based on DMA.

I know they don't have room for it now, but it would be something they could eventually offer.

 

[Hall]

Is this something Charlies has ever promised ??

 

[cablewithaview]

I don't think it would be a matter of room. If they uplinked the locals with the weather channel in a per DMA spot beam, I believe there would be room with in the spot beam. They would have to set it up at the hub where there local channels come in. I could be wrong.