[Down Sized]

Originally Posted by goingtothevillages

Understand about the storms - but - my problem has been going on for several months. Started out going out 1/week - then 2/week - now it's up to 3-4 per day. Sometimes only a minute or 2 - but other times greater than 1/2 hour or more. I'm not getting what I'm paying for.

Have you checked to see where your wife is when this happens?
Had she been nagging you to get the honey-do's finished instead of watching toooo much TV????

[er9027]

Ask your Cable TV provider where they get most of their signals...HBO, etc. etc.
SATELLITE dishes that they have at their sites....

[Eve2278]

Originally Posted by goingtothevillages

Hi folks - I used to recommend Direct TV but WARNING - my service goes out 3-4 times a day. I called and for them to fix THEIR problem, they want to charge me $49.95 for a service call. Stay with cable. I made a BIG mistake and now need to get my attorney to get me out of their contract.

IMHO...You either have a dish problem or the cables going into the house are defective, or is the dish placed in an area that something is blocking it, like trees etc. Don't let anyone tell you its because of the stormy weather or heavy clouds. In Virginia we get weather just as bad as Fla and the techs up there will tell you it may blink for a minute but should come back on and it does. I've had it for nine years in Virginia and had the dish replaced twice. When I got Direct TV down in Fla we were losing it off & on and I got one story after another why it was happening and they always said it was weather related.Finally demanded to have someone sent out who knew what they were doing. Three came out, replaced the dish and that was four years ago. No problems, rarely goes out for a minute. What usually happens is the pictures pixels semi collapse and then straighten out. Thats when you lose part of the signal. If the pixels are 'crumbling" for sure its the dish.
There is no way any satellite company could compete with cable if people were losing the signal as much as you guys are.

Also did they run you through the signal strength test. You can do it on your own by hitting "Menu" then "Parental Favs & Setup" then "System Set Up" at that point you will see "Satellite." Click on it and go to View Signal Strength" Should be all 90's to 100 except the 4th row will be anywhere from 60to 80's
Do Tuner 1 & 2 test. At least that will tell you if it's aligned correctly.
You should get the 5.99 a month protection plan. You won't have to pay anything. So sorry your having problems but I really feel it's because of ill advised employees of Direct TV.

[Sable99]

I'm sorry you are having problems with DirectTV but, I would have 2nd thoughts about changing to Comcast!!

I'm in Michigan and we have Comcast for cable, internet and phone. For the last month, we have lost both our phone and internet several times a day. I had to hit the reset button on the modem atleast 3 or more times a day to get them to work. I think the 4th tech may have finally solved the problem. At least, our service hasn't gone out for a week! We just got our latest bill. Even though we pay an additional charge every month for any wiring issues, they still charged us $60 for the service calls. That charge doesn't include the last two techs that came out!

A couple of days after the techs last left our house, my aunt called. She has the same service with Comcast that we have! Her internet just went out for the 2nd time in a week. When I talked to the tech for her, they told us it was a wireless issue! You got it! It was an additional $39.95 setup fee and I think it was an additional $5.95 monthly fee for wireless support. She said ok, since she wanted her internet! Then they asked her if she wanted her internet to run faster. If so, that monthly support was another additional charge. I will say the wireless tech was in Stuart, Florida and he seemed to know what he was talking about.

So, needless to say, we are really frustrated with Comcast right now!

[getdul981]

I don't know about the Dish, but occasionally our cable box has a problem changing channels, loading the guide or pixelating or whatever. Whenever this happens, I unplug the box for a few seconds and then plug it back in. It takes a few minutes to "reboot", but this uwually takes of the problem. I try to do it when we won't be watching the TV for a while, that way it can doit's thing and won't annoy me. When you are getting ready to leave home for awhile, unplug and then plug it in and leave.

[goingtothevillages]

WOW - great suggestions - appreciate it. I've only had Direct TV for 4-5 months - no trees, etc. nearby and the house is new - so I agree, it has to be equipment and/or installation, etc. I should have known from the beginning - when initially installed they ran a cable through my office with a splitter on it - fully exposed in the middle of a wall. I asked if he could use a longer cable so that the splitter would be behind furniture or something to hide it and basically he said no, he didn't have any other lengths of cable.

Guess I've learned my lesson the hard way!

[getdul981]

Originally Posted by goingtothevillages

WOW - great suggestions - appreciate it. I've only had Direct TV for 4-5 months - no trees, etc. nearby and the house is new - so I agree, it has to be equipment and/or installation, etc. I should have known from the beginning - when initially installed they ran a cable through my office with a splitter on it - fully exposed in the middle of a wall. I asked if he could use a longer cable so that the splitter would be behind furniture or something to hide it and basically he said no, he didn't have any other lengths of cable.

Guess I've learned my lesson the hard way!

My guess is he just didn't want to go back to the truck and cut a piece. He should have had a whole roll on the truck and could cut you a piece as long as you wanted. I have a roll that, when I bought it, was 500 feet.

[jnieman]

Originally Posted by eweissenbach

I have had direct tv for 12 years and I am a big fan. Mine goes out maybe once a month or so during storms, usually for a brief period of time. My guess is that your dish has moved slightly so that it is not aimed correctly anymore. I would put some pressure on DTV to send a rep out and re-direct your dish. The threat of cancellation has gotten me better service or prices a few times. You also may be able to call a troubleshooter at 800 direct tv and they may be able to guide you through a solution. Good luck!

I've had Direct TV for 3 1/2 years. I do have the $5.00 a month protection. Haven't had to use it one time. I do agree the installers could have done a better job hiding cables, but once we were hooked up we hardly ever lose reception if so maybe for 5 minutes then it is back on. I will say this week has been a little different. I troubleshooted on the phone with the tech at 1800 number and it looks like our dish has shifted slightly causing a little pixilation at times. They are coming out this morning to fix it. I got an appointment in one day. They said if it is an equipment problem they will replace the equipment all included in the protection package. I do agree that we should not have to pay extra for the protection package, but it reminds me of when I had a home phone with AT&T and they had a similar set up and it was also $5.00 a month if they had to come inside the house. I wish you good luck in getting this problem fixed as I know how frustrating it can be to lose your TV. I would be lost without mine. I just like knowing it is there in case I get bored.

[goingtothevillages]

Guess I'll have to suck-it-up and pay the monthly maintenance fee just to be able to get what I'm paying every month for. It's a shame they won't live up to the norm and correct THEIR problems at their expense. Thanks for all the input.

[Realitybreak]

Originally Posted by goingtothevillages

WOW - great suggestions - appreciate it. I've only had Direct TV for 4-5 months - no trees, etc. nearby and the house is new - so I agree, it has to be equipment and/or installation, etc. I should have known from the beginning - when initially installed they ran a cable through my office with a splitter on it - fully exposed in the middle of a wall. I asked if he could use a longer cable so that the splitter would be behind furniture or something to hide it and basically he said no, he didn't have any other lengths of cable.

Guess I've learned my lesson the hard way!

Sounds to me like you had a bad install person. The make their own cables from rolls of coax, so it can be any length. I would call Direct TV ask for the cancellation department demand to have someone check the installation, fix your problem or you will consider canceling. I was told by an installer this is the best option to get there attention and resolution to you problem.

[jnieman]

I'm really hoping for you that you get this resolved. Today Direct TV came as scheduled to address my problem with the small bit of pixilation and the stuttering DVR which I've had for a few days. They replaced the instrument on the end of the pole that sticks out on my satellite dish (not sure what that thing is called). He also replaced all of the wiring at the pole. I told him I thought it was the DVR since our other DVR was working fine. He then replaced our DVR with a brand new one. Then he found a problem with the remote and gave us a new one. Adjusted everything and that fixed the problem. I didn't have to pay him anything and when I called to see how much an upgraded DVR was earlier in the week they said $199. I guess I got one of the good guys. Good luck to you and I hope you have your TV back soon.

[aljetmet]

Originally Posted by getdul981

I don't know about the Dish, but occasionally our cable box has a problem changing channels, loading the guide or pixelating or whatever. Whenever this happens, I unplug the box for a few seconds and then plug it back in. It takes a few minutes to "reboot", but this uwually takes of the problem. I try to do it when we won't be watching the TV for a while, that way it can doit's thing and won't annoy me. When you are getting ready to leave home for awhile, unplug and then plug it in and leave.

Excellent post!! Whenever you have a problem with either cable or a dish, unplug the box for 20 seconds and then wait for it to reboot. Most of the time it will fix the issue.

I once lost sound and thought for sure I had a major issue as I have an optical wire from the Directv box to our 5.1 channel receiver.
Didn't know which box was faulty.
A reboot to the Directv box and all was cured.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Can't speak to cable boxes.......but the satellite boxes/receivers are essentially just computers. If one is suddenly not acting right, then unplugging from power then plugging it back (or pushing the reset button) will many times resolve a problem.

Bill

[getdul981]

Originally Posted by Bill-n-Brillo

Can't speak to cable boxes.......but the satellite boxes/receivers are essentially just computers. If one is suddenly not acting right, then unplugging from power then plugging it back (or pushing the reset button) will many times resolve a problem.

Bill

C'mon Bill!! You can too speak to them. They just won't speak back.

[Eve2278]

Originally Posted by jnieman

I've had Direct TV for 3 1/2 years. I do have the $5.00 a month protection. Haven't had to use it one time. I do agree the installers could have done a better job hiding cables, but once we were hooked up we hardly ever lose reception if so maybe for 5 minutes then it is back on. I will say this week has been a little different. I troubleshooted on the phone with the tech at 1800 number and it looks like our dish has shifted slightly causing a little pixilation at times. They are coming out this morning to fix it. I got an appointment in one day. They said if it is an equipment problem they will replace the equipment all included in the protection package. I do agree that we should not have to pay extra for the protection package, but it reminds me of when I had a home phone with AT&T and they had a similar set up and it was also $5.00 a month if they had to come inside the house. I wish you good luck in getting this problem fixed as I know how frustrating it can be to lose your TV. I would be lost without mine. I just like knowing it is there in case I get bored.

ohhhh, I got mine from Verizon for .50 a month many years ago, never raised it ..only used it once tho...