[ripwho]

A Yankee fan buddy of mine ordered up Directv and the sports pack in order to get the YES network. He tells me the first time he went to watch the Yankees on YES, the game was blacked out. Any one else experience something similar? any explanations 'why', if it was blacked out? Thanks.

[wmchale]

They black out games that are on the same time as the local teams play
such as the Rays

[Talk Host]

The games, and every other channel, will be blacked out too, IF IT RAINS.

I have direct TV (what a mistake). If there is a blip in the electricity, the receiver box shuts down and it takes 10 to 15 minutes to reload the software. Just perfect for the end of the game or the final minutes of a show or movie you are watching.

Three weeks after it was installed, the box hard drive crashed. I was without TV for 6 days until the new box arrived that I had to install myself, then spend one hour on the phone getting it aligned.

NEXT: Never did get High Definition. So finally they sent a tech, who told me that the installer hooked it up wrong. Without HD for two months, they credited my bill for $5.38.

I would cancel it, but there is a $485 early termination fee. I'm locked in for two years.

[NJblue]

This was my pet peeve with DirecTV. When I was in the buying mode I was told by a sales agent that I would be able to subscribe to the sports package that included the YES network as well as numerous other sports channels around the country. Since the price of this was nominal, I ordered DirecTV last winter with the intent of activating the sports package in April for the baseball season.

However, when April came and I tried to order the package, I was told that since YES was not in the Florida region that I would not be able to subsrcibe to it - it is only available in the NYC area. They said the only recourse was to subscribe to the MLB Extra Innings package - for a lot more money. After much kicking and screaming, I ended up doing just that. With the Extra Innings package I can get most (but not all) Yankee games as they are broadcast by YES and Channel 9 in NYC. While this is OK for game coverage, it still lacks the full YES coverage (i.e., pre and post-game coverage plus all the other shows that appear on YES).

Yes, the satellite is at times disrupted by weather (but the weather has to be quite severe for it to be a problem) and yes, the receiver takes forever to reboot if power is disrupted, but if you want to watch a lot of sports and in particular sports from other regions, DirecTV has the best options - if you are willing to pay for them. If you are not into sports, I would recommend staying with Comcast. Their customer service and integrity is miles ahead of DirecTV.

[ajdeck]

Must be a lot more problems with the Direct or Dish than we have up here. I have had Dish since 1995 and have never had it out for more than 5 minutes and that was only once.

If ours was out any length for 10 times in all those years that was a lot.

Now we do live in Northern Michigan and we have heavy snow storms offten even with that we have not lost our pictures. We receive from 110, 119 and 121 and have at least 80% strength unless storms come then it goes down to about 60. I would suggest that anyone who has Direct or Dish make sure they are getting the full possible strength for the area. Maybe the dish was put up with a bit less effort than could have been.

You can check yourself by buying a locater at Radio shack or on line to make sure.

aj

[cashman]

I had all these problems when I used DISH.

I changed to the full HD programming with DIRECT and have not had a problem in two years except for blackouts by local networks which has nothing to do with DISH or DIRECT.

[ajdeck]

Good to know about Dish in Ocala area. Like I said we have been very happy since 1995 up here but that is a total different angle for the dish to receive. Maybe I will be looking at Direct instead when I get there.

Thanks for the info.
aj