Question: DirecTV question...

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,487
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Huntsville, AL,USA
We used to purchase College Game Plan when we lived in NC and IL, but we haven't needed it since moving to MS. We finally got local channels a few years ago, and that was nice, so make sure you get your local stations where you are or you will miss some games you don't want to miss.
Staci, we have excellent air HD signal to the local stations (we have a couple of TVs on air, and I could put a couple more), but it appears that DirecTV does also have local stations here...
 

bamanut_aj

Hall of Fame
Jul 31, 2000
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Spring Hill, TN
Looking a little further, I see that our neighborhood (no surprise) doesn't have U-verse yet. However, to my surprise, AT&T has a bundle deal with their phone and internet and DirecTV. I'm going to look into that...
that's what we did. I called about U-verse and they don't offer it here yet. So, they told us about their partner deal with Direct. We get 6 MEG DSL for 19.99/month for a year, and we're on the 34.99/month Direct TV package. We'll pay a little over 60.00/month for both for a year, then it will go up to around 85.00/month. We were paying Charter close to 120.00/month (we don't even have movie channels) for internet and cable ALONE. When we called to cancel, I expected customer-retention to beg us to stay and offer us something. They said "well, just bring your equipment back or you'll be charged $150.00" Wow....they don't even care.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
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Oct 13, 1999
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that's what we did. I called about U-verse and they don't offer it here yet. So, they told us about their partner deal with Direct. We get 6 MEG DSL for 19.99/month for a year, and we're on the 34.99/month Direct TV package. We'll pay a little over 60.00/month for both for a year, then it will go up to around 85.00/month. We were paying Charter close to 120.00/month (we don't even have movie channels) for internet and cable ALONE. When we called to cancel, I expected customer-retention to beg us to stay and offer us something. They said "well, just bring your equipment back or you'll be charged $150.00" Wow....they don't even care.
I expect the same out of Comcast. I've been with them so long my email is just "eself," and I've been with them for TV even longer. They've totally lost sight of the big picture...
 

uafan4life

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Mar 30, 2001
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Hmm, maybe it's where you're at. I've always had good luck with Comcast.

Right now I've got my phone, internet, and TV through Comcast. I wouldn't have phone, but I have to have it to have it for work. I get all the TV I want, the fastest internet speeds available in the area, and a phone line with unlimited long distance for right at $150 a month.

That's cheaper than I can get the TV I want from DirecTV plus phone and internet from AT&T.
 

glasscutter256

All-American
Jan 31, 2009
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Huntsville
The only thing I don't like about Direct TV is there is no replay of game on Sunday night or Monday. Occasionally they'll replay during the week, but nothing regular.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
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Oct 13, 1999
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Huntsville, AL,USA
Hmm, maybe it's where you're at. I've always had good luck with Comcast.

Right now I've got my phone, internet, and TV through Comcast. I wouldn't have phone, but I have to have it to have it for work. I get all the TV I want, the fastest internet speeds available in the area, and a phone line with unlimited long distance for right at $150 a month.

That's cheaper than I can get the TV I want from DirecTV plus phone and internet from AT&T.
The quality of Comcast varies widely. I would never have phone through them (we have to have a landline because cell service is flaky on our mountain top), because they go out for days at a time. I'm paying them $175 a month without phone...
 

kyallie

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Jan 17, 2010
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The only thing I could add is , I believe you are far enough North that you get ice and some snow. Last winter we had ice , and it was to slippery for me too get to the Satellite. I had to go back to cable...I did pick up Fox Sports south in addition to the big 10 (was getting it on Direct TV) That's a local issue though.
 

lazlohollyfeld

1st Team
Jul 20, 2010
828
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0
Allen, TX
Dang Earle, it does look like a rainforest.....
It does, but what does it look like from the roof line? Is there a chimney as well?

I ask as my parents have a lake house in East Texas with a view similar to yours. Their dish is mounted to the chimney and they have had no issues. And that was their preference for install as they did not want to bother with the trees on property. The options where the house is located are pretty limited and satellite made the most sense. It was also easier in the sense that their existing cabling came in through the ground floor, went up to a splitter in the attic over the second floor, then was distributed back down to both floors from there. They had just bought the property and were making some quick improvements. We had just installed a solar powered attic fan and, since we were on the roof anyway, I cut and installed a sleeved conduit for RG cable next to the chimney. That brought both lines from the dish down by the chimney and dropped them right over the splitter. The DirectTV tech was onsite for less time than at my house near Dallas.

It was easier and made sense in their situation, I have no idea if it is even doable at your property. It would depend on where you can get cable back into the house and where it needs to go. In my parents case it was 8 feet below the dish.
 
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TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
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Oct 13, 1999
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Huntsville, AL,USA
The only thing I could add is , I believe you are far enough North that you get ice and some snow. Last winter we had ice , and it was to slippery for me too get to the Satellite. I had to go back to cable...I did pick up Fox Sports south in addition to the big 10 (was getting it on Direct TV) That's a local issue though.
Excuse my ignorance, Allie, but why did you need to get to the dish. (You said "Satellite," but I don't think that's what you meant...
 

2003TIDE

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Excuse my ignorance, Allie, but why did you need to get to the dish. (You said "Satellite," but I don't think that's what you meant...
If the LNB (receiver part of the dish) gets blocked with ice or snow, I imagine the signal goes kaput. I know you can cover it with your hand and block the signal.
 

uafan4life

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Excuse my ignorance, Allie, but why did you need to get to the dish. (You said "Satellite," but I don't think that's what you meant...
If the LNB (receiver part of the dish) gets blocked with ice or snow, I imagine the signal goes kaput. I know you can cover it with your hand and block the signal.
Yeppers. If the snow, or ice, is falling in the right direction and starts to accumulate on the dish it can alter the angle of the reflection and cause the LNB not to receive the signal from the satellite(s). Really heavy rain can do the same thing although it doesn't accumulate, so it's just temporary. This is a bigger problem if your dish is unprotected from the west, where the whether typically comes from.
 

uafan4life

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The quality of Comcast varies widely. I would never have phone through them (we have to have a landline because cell service is flaky on our mountain top), because they go out for days at a time. I'm paying them $175 a month without phone...
Odd. I wonder why the price difference? I'm in year two of my service at this location. Once my initial year prices ended I just called them and asked what was the best bundle deal they had for the services I currently had, and the lady put me on a triple play bundle adding in the extra TV services, CableCard rentals, etc. Based on the initial year setup and price changes it should have been around $170 but the bundle runs me about $20 less than that. My initial year wasn't really a bundle deal, it was internet for x amount for one year, tv for x amount for 6 months, and phone for x amount for one year or something like that.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
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Oct 13, 1999
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Huntsville, AL,USA
It does, but what does it look like from the roof line? Is there a chimney as well?

I ask as my parents have a lake house in East Texas with a view similar to yours. Their dish is mounted to the chimney and they have had no issues. And that was their preference for install as they did not want to bother with the trees on property. The options where the house is located are pretty limited and satellite made the most sense. It was also easier in the sense that their existing cabling came in through the ground floor, went up to a splitter in the attic over the second floor, then was distributed back down to both floors from there. They had just bought the property and were making some quick improvements. We had just installed a solar powered attic fan and, since we were on the roof anyway, I cut and installed a sleeved conduit for RG cable next to the chimney. That brought both lines from the dish down by the chimney and dropped them right over the splitter. The DirectTV tech was onsite for less time than at my house near Dallas.

It was easier and made sense in their situation, I have no idea if it is even doable at your property. It would depend on where you can get cable back into the house and where it needs to go. In my parents case it was 8 feet below the dish.
I'd actually thought about the chimney. There's attic space right below. I'm afraid it still won't be high enough. Some of those trees are well over a 100' high, and some of them are up on the low ridge to the west of our property, in effect sticking them up even higher.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,487
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Huntsville, AL,USA
Odd. I wonder why the price difference? I'm in year two of my service at this location. Once my initial year prices ended I just called them and asked what was the best bundle deal they had for the services I currently had, and the lady put me on a triple play bundle adding in the extra TV services, CableCard rentals, etc. Based on the initial year setup and price changes it should have been around $170 but the bundle runs me about $20 less than that. My initial year wasn't really a bundle deal, it was internet for x amount for one year, tv for x amount for 6 months, and phone for x amount for one year or something like that.
When they rolled out "xfinity" they sent us notice that they were giving us a special deal for six months. After the six months ended, the bill jumped up to $175. On top of that, I added long distance to AT&T on our tornado. I was told that I had a grandfathered plan, but that could give us that and our bill would drop by $5 to around $45. After one month, their bill jumped to $85. I'm totally fed up with both. The $175 bill is just for Comcast's middle package. The only way I can reduce it is to go to their "starter" package, which has none of the channels I like to watch...
 

kyallie

FB Moderator
Staff member
Jan 17, 2010
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Shakopee Minnesota, via Birmingham Alabama
Excuse my ignorance, Allie, but why did you need to get to the dish. (You said "Satellite," but I don't think that's what you meant...
The ice and snow combined to block the signal, this happened several times last winter. It was to slippery to get to my dish, to clean it off. The dish was mounted on my fence 8 or 9 feet off the ground.
 

TrampLineman

Hall of Fame
Jul 21, 2010
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Alabama
We had two ten-inch snows last year...
Its not "too" bad down here though. When it snowed here Christmas we never lost signal and at its worst it was dumped snow for a hour or so and we never lost signal. Was some of the heaviest snow I seen since '93 and the satellite stayed on. Now if the dish starts freezing up you might get sporadic coverage but we rarely lost signal at all unless the weather was bad and had heavy rain. From the pics of your house I think you will be ok with mounting on the house. To me thats better as my brother had 30' of ground rods in his yard and he kept taking lightning to his box. I told him for 3 years that he could keep driving in ground rods and it wouldnt work in saving his box and since he's had it on his house he hasnt taken a shot since.
 

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