[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.