After a month, loving Directv more and more! I came from cable...

[Shield]

I had some hassles with getting the service properly installed, but everything's been working pretty well ever since.
Coming from cable, I had fears that the service would cut out all the time or fade during rain, but I must admit that the service has been so much better than Time Warner cable (here in central Ohio) that I feel sorry for the people still on cable. While the HR21-700 box is a little sluggish and has a few other problems, it's light years above the 8300HDC that Time Warner is now rolling out.
I had a problem with the local channels not coming in all the time, and Directv set up an appointment for a guy to come out last Friday from 12-4. He didn't call or show in that timeframe, so I called Directv and they contacted the local installer company and they said he was on his way.
He "peaked" the dish and the problem has gone away so far.

The next day I looked at my Directv account and I had $100 credit for the no call/no show (it's the 2nd one I've gotten since I signed up). This one I didn't even ask for - they just put it on there.

Directv rocks! Finally, I have more than 10 HD channels and now just wish I had more time to watch tv!

[RAD]

Glad to hear your a happy camper.

IMHO the rain fade that DBS has is nothing compared to when cable goes out. With rain fade you may loose the signal for a few minutes but with cable it can be down for hours if not days.

[ccr1958]

i agree... it has to be a fairly hard downpour to get signal drops....
just a normal steady rain should not give you any probs..
you may have a problem with a wet snow though....glad you are
happy....

[Stuart Sweet]

Give your HR21 some time. After its initial housekeeping it may improve.

[Shield]

We had a serious downpour the other day - not a lot of wind, but some super heavy rain - and the signal didn't go out at all.
The HR21-700 is much better now that I've joined the "Cutting Edge" and updated the software.
With Time Warner potentially going to a metered bandwidth at some point in the future, I'm about ready to get rid of my last two TW products (phone and Internet)...
Now if my wife would stop making so many long distance calls to her family...:lol:

[MikeR7]

Welcome to the wonderful world of DirecTV™ Shield! :)

The DirecTV™ service is going to just keep getting better and better with more and more HD! :lol:

:welcome_s

[goober22]

I came to D* after being a cable customer for years. I had many advanced setups and was getting more and more outlets and needed more features. I had tried D* back in late '97 but left because cable was cheaper for more outlets.

Now, I have much more for the same price (after averaging over the 2yr commitment). I have 4 HD/DVRs, a DVR & 2 SD receivers. because of the 1 account charge for HD & DVR (compared to cable's charge "per receiver", I can have so many more and enjoy plenty of HD content and the new DoD material.

When I first had D* (small round dish) I did suffer from rain fade. But I've learned a lot since then :). I installed my Slimline and picked up an Acutrac II Pro meter. Most all my signals are 94-100. We had one hard rain so far and never lost a channel, that I could find. Only CNN was slow to tune in (3-5 seconds) but did come in and stay locked. I figure the meter will pay for itself as I tweak the dish over the years (and save tech visits).

[SPACEMAKER]

I've been a D* sub since October and have been very happy with everything. Cancelling Comcast was a very good decision.

[JDubbs413]

The original poster and I have a lot in common. I couldn't be happier with DirecTV.

[quickfire]

Shield..........ONLY 10 HD channels????

[Pink Fairy]

I am glad to hear of a good experience (well, that was rectified quickly!).

Welcome to the DIRECTV Family Shield!

[mrdbdigital]

Every time I've had cable over the years, I've found out that cars impacting utility poles and backhoes digging up cables/fiber lasts much longer than the worst rain fade I've ever had.

[BGreen965]

I subscribe to Mediacom in Valdosta along with Directv and I can safely say that just one of the cable companies outages hasn't added up to the downtime I have suffered from rain fade and I live in the south where our rain tends to come in heavy downpours sometimes even disrupting my OTA signal...

[frederic1943]

I used to get rain fade quite a bit with the old SD round dish. Since I've got my 5LNB dish I've never had a rain fade problem.

[tooloud10]

I subscribe to Mediacom in Valdosta along with Directv and I can safely say that just one of the cable companies outages hasn't added up to the downtime I have suffered from rain fade and I live in the south where our rain tends to come in heavy downpours sometimes even disrupting my OTA signal...

I'm convinced that it's all in the aim of the dish. Too many installers just get it "good enough" instead of "almost perfect". I average five hours of cable outages a month with Mediacon versus less than 30 seconds of rain/snow fade per month with D*. I'm 6" in to a 12" snow storm with no problems watching CNNHD.

Also, I have several friends whose cable regularly goes out ONLY when it rains, so let's not pretend that they don't have their own problems.

[etexlady]

I've had DirecTV a little over three months and couldn't be happier with the service. My install was done on time and the installers (3 of them) were quite professional in every way. This is my first experience with satellite television and I wish I had not stayed with cable all of those years. Oh, and I suppose I have been lucky but there has been no outage at all, not even a minute. Very happy customer.

[Billsfan69]

Wet snow has been a problem. I haven't experienced too many issues with rain, maybe just one brief outage. All in all I am very pleased with Directv. I switched in May of 07.