Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | Off topic but here goes.
For years I had DirecTV and got along well. About three years ago I decided to get a HD TV. After shopping around I decided on a SHARP LCD model and ordered it online. I was a bit uneasy about that large a purchase from some place in N.J. but it all worked out fine.
I then switched to DISH network for my satellite source. They had a "come on" program to bait folks such as me into switching to them. I received an HD Reciver and new dish for this system. A local guy came out and installed it and things worked well.
A year or so ago I noticed that my signal was dropping at times. The signal strength in general was getting lower than what I had experienced before. After looking over my dish location I decided that some trees had grown enough to be presenting problems.
I moved my dish location to a short post in the front of my house. I realigned the dish myself by listening to the tones provided via by TV on the alignment menu. My signal strength was not as good as I had remembered it to be in the beginning with the other location but everything worked fine except in very bad weather which is to be expected.
A friend of mine noticed that I did not seem to be getting the same number of HD programs as he did with the DISH network in his home in Iowa. He also reported that my menus were different than his. I thought this might be due to a difference in programming packages. I got busy with planting and basically did nothing.
A couple of weeks ago I received a telephone message from the DISH network advising me to contact them about an upgrade. They indicated that without new equipment I would be losing all HD programming (although the standard programming would continue to work).
I called the special number and the guy explained that due to some changes the new equipment was necessary. They would provide the new receiver, dish and installation free of charge. I would also then receive more HD programming without any increase in price. It seems to me that I had been paying for these extra HD channels for some time but was just not able to get them due to my equipment's limitations.
The installer showed up and swapped out the dish, receiver and remote. The new dish has three LNBs on it for sats at 110, 119 and 129. The new equipment works at times.
Apparently the "new" HD programming that I can get all lives on sat 129. When trying to watch some of this new programming the signal drops out often or is not available at all.
I called DISH tech support and really didn't get very far as the fella didn't have much of a clue to how these things work and just read steps off of a screen.
I called my installer and he said that 129 was an old weak satellite that DISH had decided to use for the HD expansion. The signal strength on all three seems low to me and especially 129 which drops in and out on their strength menu. The signal strength readings are not comparable to the old equipment due to the way they are calculated (according to a note on one of the screens).
The installer is coming back one of these days to try to do a realignment. It is possible that my newer location for the dish is not the ultimate for the use with Sat 129 which is further west. Again some trees might be blocking the signal although it doesn't really look that way to me.
Along with this problem, the Remote does not seem to work reliably with the new receiver even for more common tasks. Also when I switch channels, the TV screen goes black for a bit and then I hear three seconds of static from my TV speakers, then the new program comes on. This static is was not present with the old equipment. The static does not appear on my small TV in the kitchen that is connected to a different output. The static does not appear on my stereo system that I have hooked to the TV output for better sound.
Also I am not able to get the new remote to work with my DVD as the old one did. The remote does work with my VCR and TV.
All in all, I'm thinking of "jumping ship" and going back to DirecTV.
Any thoughts, suggestions, advice?
Edited by tedbear 7/5/2008 08:08
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Satellite TV Woes
