Direct TV Outages

[loonlovers]

We switched from Comcast to Direct TV last September due to continuous billing issues. Now we are very disappointed with the frequent blackouts in the bad weather, particularly the past two days. Are we the exception or are there other Direct or Dish customers who have been experiencing these same blackouts. Its particularly worrisome when all these tornado warnings are in effect and the TV reception is gone!

Now I wish I had Comcast back....billing issues are a pain but not compared to feeling so uninformed in bad weather! Guess I'll have to see what the penalty fee is for switching back.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

loon - What you experienced with your DirecTV reception during the storm is the nature of the beast with ANY satellite-based system, be it DirecTV, DISH Network, Sirius/XM radio, and so on. The storm front interrupts the signal that your antenna is trying to pick up. In many cases, it'll even happen BEFORE the storm gets to your location if it's coming from the south/west.

We've had satellite TV for a number of years in OH. You're right - it IS kinda a pain when the signal gets messed up in a storm. But I always revert to the computer for weather reports, etc. during times like that. It gives me all the info I would get via the television.....and more!

Bill :)

[Army Guy]

We switched from Comcast to Direct TV last September due to continuous billing issues. Now we are very disappointed with the frequent blackouts in the bad weather, particularly the past two days. Are we the exception or are there other Direct or Dish customers who have been experiencing these same blackouts. Its particularly worrisome when all these tornado warnings are in effect and the TV reception is gone!

Now I wish I had Comcast back....billing issues are a pain but not compared to feeling so uninformed in bad weather! Guess I'll have to see what the penalty fee is for switching back.

As you said, billing/charge issues aside. Comcast is the most dependable. We would not have sat TV because of that! Wait till the thunderstorms everday in the summer!!!
Army Guy

[F16 1UB]

Dish does it also. I have the radar on the puter....640 AM radio.....weather radio.... and the most dependable is our small dog. She goes into nervous wreck mode when storms approach.

[NJblue]

We have DirecTV as well but also use Comcast for Internet access. When we subscribed to Comcast they had a bundled offer where you could get very basic TV (local channels only) for a very nominal extra charge over the cost of Internet. We took that option and have one small TV connected to a CATV jack for just such a situation.

[John_W]

I've had Directv for about 5 years and would never go back to Comcast even if it were free. I find that during heavy rain you'll lose reception first on the HD channels but the basic channels usually only go out in a severe storm, maybe for 10 minutes at the most.

Hopefully you've already gone through the channel set up and have only selected the channels you're interested in watching for your favorites list. On about 95 of the channels on my favorite list, I have the HD version selected. So for example, if I'm watching TNT, TBS, ESPN2, Bravo, etc. then I'm watching the HD version. When the picture begins to freeze during a rain storm, hit the yellow button on your remote, select 'change favorites list', and then select 'all channels'. Now all those channels that you've deleted will now be visible on the on-screen guide. Hit the 'BA' version, or basic version and the channel should reappear in the non-HD version.

[nitakk]

While the storm outages are a pain, I still wouldn't go back to Comcast. Our whole reason for switching to Direct TV was their better quality high def and more channels. The difference in the high def picture between the two is quite significant and I couldn't go back to a lesser picture. As the previous post said, when we have severe weather I resort to my computer to keep me up to date.

[chuckinca]

We have Direct TV and except for the last 20 minutes haven't had an outage during the storms we had had since Monday. Still can get non-HD channels.


.

[memason]

We are also having the outages, during the big storms. It's a bit of a pain, with internet and weather radio, we stay in the loop.

Would not switch back to Comcast... DirecTV is simply better than Comcast, in my opinion.

However, I am a little surprised at no calls from Red Alert today ??? We got 2 or 3 yesterday. Anyone else get calls today?

[loonlovers]

I was surprised that we didn't receive a red alert call today since a tornado warning was posted. We did receive two calls yesterday to our landline and one call to our cell phone (don't know why the second call didn't come in...maybe cell tower difficulties).

Like others, we have no complaint with our HD reception with Direct but as we stated before, we're not happy with the frequent blackouts. We will try the suggestion to try non HD channels.

[BogeyBoy]

I also have basic Comcast cable and Directv.

Yesterday I was listening to the weather updates on my "Comcast connected" television. Then Comcast went out. Went into the living room and switched on the television with Directv - no problem.

This morning I was up early and again listening to updates on the basic cable television. Thunder! Lightning! Then, same as yesterday, no Comcast. And also same as yesterday, Directv, including HD channels, was fine except for a few seconds of frozen pixels.

Side note, we get our Comcast bill electronically, and we got the same rate increase mentioned on TOTV earlier.

[Golf-Tinker]

Our Comcast connection (in Hadley) remained on (we have cable and Internet) throughout the Wednesday and Thursday storms. No outage whatsoever. Don't understand why Hemingway would be impacted.

[ladylake1]

Only had one brief outage on Direct during recent storms. Yesterday afternoon for maybe 10 minutes. Only do non-HD and local channels always work during storms.

[VillagesFlorida]

We have Comcast for phone, internet and TV....no loss of signal here. We had Dish Network for a year, several years ago and lost our signal every time it rained. While Comcast is not perfect I have been impressed with their technical support over the years. I am surprised to read how many folks leave their TVs and computers plugged in during these storms. I know of too many people who have lost expensive electronics to lightning. We have an old 13" TV that used to be in the kitchen and that is the only one that is plugged in when lightning threatens. We have surge protectors but they will not save a TV or computer in the event of a direct hit.

[vj1213]

I have Direct TV, wasn't home yesterday so I don't know, but I have had my tv on all day today and haven't lost my signal for any period of time. I might have had just a little glitch a couple of times for less than a minute each time.
I also have my phone and internet with comcast so I could connect if I wanted but have never done it since moving here.

[jgbama]

Was always wondering how Dish worked there. We have Dish at the golf course I work at here and normally lose local channels at the thought of rain! I like the idea of both, with Comcast for internet and only the basic channels.

[BogeyBoy]

Our Comcast connection (in Hadley) remained on (we have cable and Internet) throughout the Wednesday and Thursday storms. No outage whatsoever. Don't understand why Hemingway would be impacted.

I can't speak for Hadley or even the guy next door. As I said earlier mine went out - I turned it off almost immediately and went to the TV with Directv so I have no idea if it was out for 2 minutes or 2 hours.

[NJblue]

It's interesting the different levels of outages with DirecTV. We lost signal multiple times this morning with each outage being at least 10-20 minutes.

It never occurred to me that standard def channels would get better results than high def, but I tried it this morning when I lost signal for a high def channel and sure enough, when tuning to a standard def channel it was still getting a signal. However, unless there is some secret that I am not aware of, the local channels that broadcast weather information are only available in high def.

[loonlovers]

I love TOTV....thanks for the info about tuning into non HD channels! Hubby did that this pm and voila....we're back! Feeling much better about keeping Direct TV now.

[JenAjd]

We've had DirectTV for over 12 years and we LOVE it!!! Yes we do have those outages...but with the lightening...the radio people were telling us to disconnect our t.v.'s, computers, micro-waves etc. Frankly I found the radio to be more informative anyway as the weather-people could tell us exactly where the worst of it was, as per The Villages etc. We don't watch alot of daytime t.v. anyway...so for us it wasn't a huge disappointment. When a signal is lost, we generally revert to watching our TIVO'd programs. Wouldn't change it for anything!!! Just mho!!

[Dbinac]

We have been lucky as we have had very very few blackouts for bad weather and then only for a few minutes. Have had directtv for about 20 years.

[logdog]

I've had Directv for about 5 years and would never go back to Comcast even if it were free. I find that during heavy rain you'll lose reception first on the HD channels but the basic channels usually only go out in a severe storm, maybe for 10 minutes at the most.

Hopefully you've already gone through the channel set up and have only selected the channels you're interested in watching for your favorites list. On about 95 of the channels on my favorite list, I have the HD version selected. So for example, if I'm watching TNT, TBS, ESPN2, Bravo, etc. then I'm watching the HD version. When the picture begins to freeze during a rain storm, hit the yellow button on your remote, select 'change favorites list', and then select 'all channels'. Now all those channels that you've deleted will now be visible on the on-screen guide. Hit the 'BA' version, or basic version and the channel should reappear in the non-HD version.

Thanks for the tip. Always wondered why my HD set loses signal for a few minutes in heavy rain but my SD set hardly ever freezes up. I also would never go back to Comcast. They may be more reliable during storms but when they do lose signal, it's for hours at a time. DirecTV seems to be much more reliable, especially in SD. And when it's not really storming, DirecTV HD has much better picture quality, offers more channels and has a more advanced DVR.

[BigLew]

Every storm we get plenty of pixelation and outages with comcast, wanted to get u-verse but att is frozen out of the villages by verizon...I wonder if their fios service is any good?:MOJE_whot:

[jblum315]

I have Dish satellite TV and I had no outages during the storm. I still have my internet and phone with Comcast.

[aljetmet]

Every storm we get plenty of pixelation and outages with comcast, wanted to get u-verse but att is frozen out of the villages by verizon...I wonder if their fios service is any good?:MOJE_whot:

I bet New Yorkers would say FIOS is very good!
Is FIOS available in TV?