Wanted: Live Radar on a Channel

[BillH]

I would like to suggest a new feature for Dish. A channel or 4 channels that showed a live radar shot of each section of the US. Like the live radar of DTN.

One channel for the south east, one for the north east, one for the north west, and one for the south west.

It is a great way to see what the local weather is and would suffice for "local weather" updates.

 

[AJF]

With most of us pining for more HD channels or locals, I don't think you'll get many people who will second your motion for 4 live radar channels.

Maybe I'm wrong; The Weather Channel is successful when many predicted it would bomb. Why don't you start a poll to see if others would be interested?

 

[Stacy A]

BillH,

I think the idea is great. Our local digital ABC station multicasts a 24/7 Doppler radar screen of the area. It has turned out to be a very useful feature. Whenver there is rain or storms in the area, we keep an eye on that channel to see which direction its going and how far away it is. A number of times I've been able to see that I should go ahead and power down the Home Theater and unplug. It would be better if The Weather Channel created it and offered it as a part of their pack.

Stacy

 

[BillH]

Wanted, Radar Full Time

BillH,

I think the idea is great. Our local digital ABC station multicasts a 24/7 Doppler radar screen of the area. It has turned out to be a very useful feature. Whenver there is rain or storms in the area, we keep an eye on that channel to see which direction its going and how far away it is. A number of times I've been able to see that I should go ahead and power down the Home Theater and unplug. It would be better if The Weather Channel created it and offered it as a part of their pack.

Stacy

I also thought the idea was a good one. At work, we have a full time DTN radar screen 24 hours a day. With that, you do not need a weather-cast. You can look yourself and see what is going to happen.

It would be a great addition for me.

 

[AJF]

What is DTN?

 

[rcbridge]

I also agree this would be a good idea and it shouldn't take up much bandwidth!!

 

[BillH]

What is DTN

What is DTN?

DTN is a subscription satellite feed that is now known as Meteorlogix. You can subscribe to many different feeds. Ours is Weather and there must be a 100 different screens. Many get the stock market, and there are a number of other things you can subscribe to.

Our service is around $100 a month.

I think the web address is meteorlogix.com

 

[BillH]

New DTN Name and Address

I now see that DTN or Metorlogix has been sold to a new company. It just happened.

The new companies web address is http://www.wxc.com

You can see many of their weather products at this address.

 

[AJF]

Thanks, Bill. I'd never heard of DTN.

Okay, looks like I was wrong about whether others would want this.
But, I'm also taking into consideration that Charlie may not want to give up the bandwidth.

I also agree this would be a good idea and it shouldn't take up much bandwidth!!

How would it not take much badwidth? How much less than a regular channel?

 

[FWGMills]

I lose Dish in the rain so what good would it do me?

I use my computer to look at local radar during storms that knock out my satellite service. It's faster and I get my choice of several different local's weather radar pages for coverage.

 

[BillH]

Radar Screen

It might help keep you from losing your computer to lightning.

:shocked

 

[snathanb]

3 of the Dallas OTA digital stations are broadcasting live radar 24/7 on their sub channels.

Those stations stay locked in, even after rain fade knocks dish out.

We have had very extreme weather in Dallas this week, and no outgage on the Digital stations....

 

[ROLLTIDE]

I didnt like DTN when we had there stuff when I worked at Clear Channel.

There are better products out there like weathertap.com and the new XM sat wxwork radar service.

 

[Frank Jr.]

Hey Guys, I would love to have live full time color weather radar from my satellite. Time Warner Cable in Cola. S.C. has it through a local television station on their HD feed. Its great. I think that for Dish to provide this it would have to be broken down in regions such as north east, southeast, north central, south central, northwest, and southwest. Six channels on one transponder. Far as having it on my pc yea sure however it would be more readily available off of my satellite. I think most customers of dbs would like it. I'll say it again. It would be a great marketing tool as well. There is a large number of channels I currently have on Dish that I would gladly sacrifice for something useful such as weather radar. The instant weather Dish provides currently is good for forecasting a day or two in advance. Current weather is useless. Just my 2 cents.

 

[cameron119]

BillH,

I think the idea is great. Our local digital ABC station multicasts a 24/7 Doppler radar screen of the area. It has turned out to be a very useful feature. Whenver there is rain or storms in the area, we keep an eye on that channel to see which direction its going and how far away it is. A number of times I've been able to see that I should go ahead and power down the Home Theater and unplug. It would be better if The Weather Channel created it and offered it as a part of their pack.

Stacy

Multicasting steals valuable bandwidth from ATSC HD broadcasts. Is it really worth it for a friggin radar you can get on your computer?

 

[jerryez]

I can get local radar at 50 sites on my computer instantly. I also, get the local CBS which has a sub channel with live radar 24/7 and do not even watch it, since I can get better radar on my computer.

 

[Cyclone]

I have two local Radars on Digital subchannels. Plus there are many more on the internet. Hopefully Dish will not spend anytime on it. Maybe make it a Dish Home application.

 

[Frank Jr.]

An answer to your question in a word, YEA. HD consumers are still in the minority. But seriously why does it have to take away from HD. There is enough bandwith that could be used, rather reallocated. Someone once said it's not how much money you make it's how much you spend.

 

[nebguy94]

Multicasting steals valuable bandwidth from ATSC HD broadcasts. Is it really worth it for a friggin radar you can get on your computer?

And if you hook your PC up to your HDTV you can just "change channels"...


In regard to some of the other posts:

If you're worried about lightning sneaking up on you invest in a quality surge protector that will protect your equipment from lightning strikes, APC makes an 11 outlet protector that you can get for <$40.

Better yet, get a lightning rated UPS and never worry about your equipment resetting during a thunderstorm, you can find good quality ones for about $80...

You do realize that even with the equipment turned off, if your house is struck by lightning and you don't have some surge protection in place your PC, TV, and other remote controlled electronic gear will be damaged anyway...

 

[dlsnyder]

For the couple of times it rains each year here in sunny SoCal it wouldn't be worth it to me. I can look at any of a number of Doppler radar sites to see the light drizzle coming. Right now where I am in Long Beach CA it is a slightly hazy 75 degrees with a light westerly breeze of about 5 mph. It stays like that most days from April through October. Life is good!