Satellite and Internet Options

[memason]

I will be arriving in TV in late December...finally!

I have searched the forums, but haven't found what I am looking for specifically, so thought I would ask...

I have always had cable/internet, however, I am considering satellite and DSL for TV. I have no interest in phone service, as we use cell phone exclusively. I have heard lots of horror stories about satellite reception, especially during storms or just plain heavy rain. I don't believe I would be happy with a system that vulnerable to the weather. From looking at the satellite packages, I believe I would be most interested in DirecTV.

My Questions:

How is DirecTV reception in TV? Weather issues...

What is the best DSL service available in TV? Fiber???

My main concern is for reliability, not cost. Not sure it's important, but I'll be living in St. Charles.

Thanks for your help.... Mike

..

[Chopper]

Our DirecTV reception is excellent. We have only had three or four signal interruptions since we moved in on June 18th. The longest outage was maybe five minutes, and only occurred when we were having a really heavy rain.

We also live in the Village of St. Charles. St. Charles was the last village to be wired with copper. Fiber optics has been installed in Buttonwood and Pennecamp. I wish we had fiber optics for use with future technologies, but, unfortunately that is not the case.

Century Link DSL service has been pretty good for the internet. It is faster than satellite internet service (especially with uploads) but definitely not as fast as cable service.

We use AT&T Mobility for our cell phone service. Reception on our iphone is not very good at our home location. Our neighbors who are using Verizon have a much better signal. Even though the reception is not great, we really like our iphones and have no plan to switch to another service provider.

[Snowbirdtobe]

Mrs snowbrirdtobe is using Virgin Mobile MiFi for internet in TV with her iPad and loves it.
We love our iPhones but not ATT so I didn't get the ATT device that is similar or want to jailbreak our iPhones for data access.
Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint 3g network and it works well at our place near SS.
It if you plan to watch streaming video it might not be fast enough for you but DSL may have the same problem.
In Massachusetts we have FIOS (fiber to the house) and I can download a 40 min. video to my WiFi iPad in 5 min. Fiber to the house can't be beat by any technology for speed and would be my choice if available at a reasonable cost.

[Bob45]

I too am curious about Direct TV and DSL. Is DSL fast enough to stream Netflix HD movies. I am not interested in their phone service. I have my own VoIP setup with Ooma.
Thanks,
Bob

[schotzyb]

Just recently switched from Dish Network to Direct TV.So far I think I made the right decision. Picture quality is better and more channels for less money than Dish. No heavy rain since I switched so I cannot say what may happen then but with Dish I lost reception for as much as 20-30 minutes during rainstorms.
Have Comcast cable for my internet provider and in over 3 years here have not had one single issue with them.

[Bosoxfan]

Memason :beer3:

First off congratulations on the move!! Welcome to our little piece of paradise:pepper2: We have Direct Tv and love it!! It rained really hard the other day and there was about a 5 second interruption in picture quality.I've had Direct TV since 1999 and they've come along way with weather interruptions.We also use cell phones (Verizon) and have no need for a landline except for internet.We have Century Link DSL ..they ran a phone line to my computer and we haven't had any problems.We go north for 4 months a year and both Direct Tv + Century link are very accommadating.Century link allows us to put our service on vacation mode for a minimal fee and Direct Tv service continues when we go north.We just call and tell them where we're located so they can send the local channels to our boxes.

Once again Congratulations and Enjoy!! :BigApplause:

[memason]

Mrs snowbrirdtobe is using Virgin Mobile MiFi for internet in TV with her iPad and loves it.
We love our iPhones but not ATT so I didn't get the ATT device that is similar or want to jailbreak our iPhones for data access.
Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint 3g network and it works well at our place near SS.
It if you plan to watch streaming video it might not be fast enough for you but DSL may have the same problem.
In Massachusetts we have FIOS (fiber to the house) and I can download a 40 min. video to my WiFi iPad in 5 min. Fiber to the house can't be beat by any technology for speed and would be my choice if available at a reasonable cost.

I'm with you on the VirginMobileUSA MiFi. I got one when I was in TV in September and I was able to stream video with no problem. Our home is in St. Charles.

Little trick with the iPhone... Download the Whistle VoIP app (Free) and use your WiFi connection [on your iPhone] with the MiFi unit. You then use Sprints network to make phone calls. I also used Skype to call back to Germany at $.02/min using the MiFi unit. Worked really well.

[wendyquat]

Little trick with the iPhone... Download the Whistle VoIP app (Free) and use your WiFi connection [on your iPhone] with the MiFi unit. You then use Sprints network to make phone calls. I also used Skype to call back to Germany at $.02/min using the MiFi unit. Worked really well.[/QUOTE]




Wooooo, lost me! Maybe you could teach a class on this technology!:coolsmiley:

[memason]

Memason :beer3:

First off congratulations on the move!! Welcome to our little piece of paradise:pepper2: We have Direct Tv and love it!! It rained really hard the other day and there was about a 5 second interruption in picture quality.I've had Direct TV since 1999 and they've come along way with weather interruptions.We also use cell phones (Verizon) and have no need for a landline except for internet.We have Century Link DSL ..they ran a phone line to my computer and we haven't had any problems.We go north for 4 months a year and both Direct Tv + Century link are very accommadating.Century link allows us to put our service on vacation mode for a minimal fee and Direct Tv service continues when we go north.We just call and tell them where we're located so they can send the local channels to our boxes.

Once again Congratulations and Enjoy!! :BigApplause:
Thanks Bosoxfan.... We can't wait to get to TV! We're dreaming of a GREEN Christmas.

Good info on DirecTV...thanks. the weather issue just makes me a little nervous, but it sounds like it isn't such a big issue any longer...

We do a lot of video streaming... I'll look to see what type of service (bandwidth) Century Link provides...

Thanks again....

[memason]

Wooooo, lost me! Maybe you could teach a class on this technology!:coolsmiley:

Sorry Wendyquat... I think I let my technical side go crazy in that post :icon_wink:

There is another thread on here, where a lot of us have been discussing apps for the iPhone and iPad. Folks have recommended lots of greats apps in that thread. That's where I discovered Whistle...

Check it out:
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30126

Cheers!

[l2ridehd]

Question for those with Direct TV and comcast for internet. How does the cabling work? They both would want to use the pre-wired house circuit. How expensive is comcast just for internet? All their pricing shows only as part of a bundle.

This combination seems to be the best option for television and internet, but not sure how it would be set up (cabling) and how the cost structure works.

[memason]

Question for those with Direct TV and comcast for internet. How does the cabling work? They both would want to use the pre-wired house circuit. How expensive is comcast just for internet? All their pricing shows only as part of a bundle.

This combination seems to be the best option for television and internet, but not sure how it would be set up (cabling) and how the cost structure works.

I just looked at the Comcast site and it shows Internet [unbundled] from $24.95 (1.5Mbps Down, 384Kbps Up) to $52.95 (16Mbps Down, 2Mbps Up) for new customers. Century Link shows top end DSL at $39.95 for 10Mbps down...not sure about up, but likely less the 1Mbps.

I'm too am partial to cable internet for its speed and reliability, even though it's a bit more expensive... I've had good luck with cable in the past, but would like to try something different for television this time around. DirecTV seems to have more HD content than cable right now.

Someone please correct me, if I am wrong ...

[Chopper]

I wanted to mention one other thing that I really like about DirecTV. I don't know if Dish or Comcast have the same option, maybe they do. With DirecTV you can program the remote control to work either with IR or RF. I reprogrammed mine to work with RF so that it is easier to use with the receiver inside a media console. Now I could even change channels using the remote in another room, not that you want ever really need to do that. It is easier using the remote without having to point it directly at the receiver.

[getdul981]

I saw in another thread somewhere that the newer sections, i.e. Pennecamp and Buttonwood etc., have been set up to use fiber optics. Does anyone know which provider this would cater to?

[Russ_Boston]

I saw in another thread somewhere that the newer sections, i.e. Pennecamp and Buttonwood etc., have been set up to use fiber optics. Does anyone know which provider this would cater to?

Might be wired for fiber but to my knowledge there is no provider of fiber to anywhere in TV. Would be nice.

Mike - If you're like me and watch the tv only through DVR then be careful with satellite. On my son's Dish network if he is recording a show on DVR and the signal gets interrupted even for a few seconds the recording does not continue. Can anyone confirm or dispel this? I never watch live tv.

I think I'm going with cable anyway just for the very high speed connection. As you know the wave of the future requires more bandwidth than ever before with internet tvs, wireless blu-ray, 3D monitors etc. Just my choice.

[vj1213]

I live in Buttonwood & have DirectTV (since July) the only time I have had signal disruption was during hard rain last week and it was only about a minute at the most. I am always recording on the DVR and when I played back whatever was recording it had like a freeze moment, but it continued to tape the remainder of the show.
My internet is with Comcast. When I moved here I kept getting the runaround about the bundling with DirectTV and something about all the wires not being run out here at the time, so I just went with comcast.

[Russ_Boston]

good to know about the DVR with Direct. I'll keep that in mind.

Was it about $45 just for comcast internet?

[Chopper]

Russ,

When the Century Link technician installed our local landline telephone service he told me that the Village of St. Charles was the last village that was wired with copper. All of the newer villages are wired with fiber optics. I guess all of the service providers have the capability to use the fiber optics. I wouldn't have a clue as to how they do it. I just wish we had it so that we could take advantage of new technologies that will be developed in the future. I'll swap you some copper wire for some fiber optics.

[vj1213]

I got their fastest internet (don't ask me what it is) and phone and it is around $80 (for about $10 more I think I could have had their lowest price bundle, but I already had DirectTV.
If anyone connects to DirectTV I can give you a card to save $100 on your first year (saves me a $100 too).
This is the first time I have had satellite over cable, it is much less expensive for many more channels. And for $3 a month get full house DVR where you can tape in one room and watch in any tv in your home.

[Russ_Boston]

And for $3 a month get full house DVR where you can tape in one room and watch in any tv in your home.

good option!

[Russ_Boston]

Russ,

When the Century Link technician installed our local landline telephone service he told me that the Village of St. Charles was the last village that was wired with copper. All of the newer villages are wired with fiber optics. I guess all of the service providers have the capability to use the fiber optics. I wouldn't have a clue as to how they do it. I just wish we had it so that we could take advantage of new technologies that will be developed in the future. I'll swap you some copper wire for some fiber optics.

Thanks - I was thinking more about a provider using the fiber like FIOS. Fiber is only good if it is straight fiber to fiber like a FIOS. If cooper is involved in any stage of the flight then the bandwidth is reduced. This is the main reason why Comcast is limited in number of HD channels it can offer. If I find a good online explanation of total/carry bandwidth I'll provide.