[Kevin]

I am sick and tired of the horrible Dish Interactive Weather. If the merger goes through, alot of satellite space will be freed up. Is there any chance that they will use some of that extra bandwidth to carry our Weather Channel local forecast feeds? It would be a great move on Dish's part since cable has got them beat when it comes to weather forecasts.

 

[Steve Mehs]

I doubt we'll ever see local weather channels. But theres a service called Intellicast, which is a series of 10 or so regional weather channels that used to be on Primestar, but for some reason D* never pick them up after the buyout. Intellicast was backed by MSNBC, I have no idea if theyre in existance anymore, but I would love it if someday they could be back on DBS.

 

[STXJim]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs
theres a service called Intellicast

They have a great web site.
They are on my desktop because I use them to track hurricanes.
The season starts in three weeks.
Oh...I forgot; most of you guys don't 'really' know what a hurricane is.

 

[Mark Lamutt]

Hasn't it been about 10 years or so since you guys down there were hit with a big one, Jim? I hope they miss you this year!

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by Bowling For Soup
I am sick and tired of the horrible Dish Interactive Weather. If the merger goes through, alot of satellite space will be freed up. Is there any chance that they will use some of that extra bandwidth to carry our Weather Channel local forecast feeds? It would be a great move on Dish's part since cable has got them beat when it comes to weather forecasts.

I have both Dish and analog cable, and The LOCAL Weather Channel is one of the HUGEST advantages that cable has. The LOCAL Weather Channels is about about a BILLION times better than channel 9500(Dish Instant Weather). The National Weather channel is really pretty stupid because it doesn't even give you any local info and it doesn't have the red warning at the bottom of the screen when there's a severe thunderstom warning, tornado warning, etc.
The things that cable has HUGE advantages over dbs in my area are The LOCAL weather channel, Local High School Channels, Home Town Big League Sports(which are blacked out on Dish), up to 6 times better picture quality than Dish standard def channels on NBA games, many other local channels that Dish doesn't carry, ADDITIONAL outlets at NO EXTRA CHARGE per month(Dish charges like $5 for each additional reciever). It's not surprising that dbs has the THOUGHEST time in my area out of any major market when you look at all the advantages that cable in my area has over dbs.

 

[Tom_S]

" 6 times better picture quality "

Don't make me laugh!

 

[Kman]

Not that it will help any, but at least they get the hint. I have already wrote to Direct TV, The Weather Channel and the Accu Weather Channel telling them that I am disappointed in the local weather offerings when using DBS. Will it make a difference? Probably not. But there is strength in numbers if all you guys e-mail Direct TV and tell other DBS subscribers to, maybe eventually the DBS providers will do something about it.

 

[jmeluni]

Originally posted by Jack White


I have both Dish and analog cable, and The LOCAL Weather Channel is one of the HUGEST advantages that cable has. The LOCAL Weather Channels is about about a BILLION times better than channel 9500(Dish Instant Weather). The National Weather channel is really pretty stupid because it doesn't even give you any local info and it doesn't have the red warning at the bottom of the screen when there's a severe thunderstom warning, tornado warning, etc.
The things that cable has HUGE advantages over dbs in my area are The LOCAL weather channel, Local High School Channels, Home Town Big League Sports(which are blacked out on Dish), up to 6 times better picture quality than Dish standard def channels on NBA games, many other local channels that Dish doesn't carry, ADDITIONAL outlets at NO EXTRA CHARGE per month(Dish charges like $5 for each additional reciever). It's not surprising that dbs has the THOUGHEST time in my area out of any major market when you look at all the advantages that cable in my area has over dbs.

Obviously a cable employee or stock holder!:lol:

 

[EricG]

Why can't we get the same feed for TWC for the local forecast that the cable company gets, based on your location?

 

[Nick]

Jack White said...

"...dbs has the THOUGHEST time in my area out of any major market when you look at all the advantages that cable in my area has over dbs."

We're glad you enjoy your local cable service. Some are "clearly" better than others. Personally, I still miss the 'local access' channel, but I don't miss that oh so s-l-o-o-o-w program scroll, or the extended outages, or the herringbone patterns/static interference my previous cableco served up.

Jack, you say DBS has a' tough time' in your area. First, what is your area, and second, we would like to know what your source of information is about DBS penetration in your area?

Nick :smoking:

 

[jmeluni]

I especially don't miss Time Warner's annual and outragous rate increases!

 

[EricG]

I have to say that the lack of the local forecast is my ONLY complaint about my move to DBS 16 months ago.

 

[Neil Derryberry]

The only thing I would love to see in regard to weather is some sort of warning delivery system based on zip code.. this could possibly be built into chnl 9500...?

 

[jmeluni]

I'd go one better and have the warning appear on any channel your watching. Maybe they could somehow tie into the EAS or EBS (whatever there're calling it now) system.

 

[Lorax]

www.weather.com - that will pretty much get you anything you need to know

I wondered about the same thing when I got DBS, but an antennae and getting my locals OTA really solved it. When it comes down to it for severe weather, locals are the only way to go. TWC reports stuff after it happens quite often with regards to time sensitive material......For long term forecast, TWC online really does suffice and give the same info.....All in all, although a concern at first, really havent missed it.....

Dave

 

[Guest]

If you have internet, why would you care about the local weather.... I really have a hard time understanding that.... Lorax is right, just go to www.weather.com and find your local area.... It has radar and keeps you informed of bad weather..... Just my thoughts.....

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by STXJim

They have a great web site.
They are on my desktop because I use them to track hurricanes.
The season starts in three weeks.
Oh...I forgot; most of you guys don't 'really' know what a hurricane is.

We had a bad boy in 1989 (Hugo)... I live in the Columbia, SC area and I never thought a hurricane would do that much damage 100 miles in.... It even ripped Charlotte, NC up pretty good.... We had 7 billion dollars worth of damage.... I believe Andrew surpassed that mark but Hugo was no fun storm.... I would hope we never have another like that.....

 

[Kman]

I think for now I am going to invest in one of those weather radios. I understand it gives out local weather reports and also has an alert system built in. I believe a high pitch signal is followed by whatever the weather advisory is. I have seen them at Radio Shack. They are fairly inexpensive. Does anyone have any info on these radios? I still think though for the long term we should all nag Direct TV. After all being a media service provider, they should also take responsibility for detail local weather and a weather alert system. Especially for you guys located near hurricane areas or Tornado Alley.:hi:

 

[Neil Derryberry]

weather.com is great, but I don't spend my life behind a computer... The extra warning would be nice.

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by Tom_S
" 6 times better picture quality "

Don't make me laugh!

You can laugh all you want, but if I only had Dish Network standard def channels to watch the NBA playoffs, then I'd be crying instead of laughing.
I have PROPERLY CALIBRATED Sony Televisions, I use THICK S-video cables to connect my Dish recievers directly to my televisions, and my analog cable picture quality still BLOWS away Dish's standard def channels.
You see you've never seen what a good analog cable picture looks like. I didn't say that my analog cable has 6 times better picture quality than Dish Network standard def channels on every single channels.
I said that my analog cable has 6 times better picture quality than Dish Network standard def channels on NBA GAMES.
Just because the cable in other people's areas migh suck doesn't mean that mine will suck too.
The difference in picture quality really depends on the channel.
Starz East on my analog cable for example only has about 50% better picture quality than Starz East on Dish.
Dish could have way better picture quality than my cable if it had a good bitrate like 8Mbps or 10Mbps per channel, but unfortunately Dish has a very bad bitrate on standard def channels.
When people are over at my house and there's an NBA game on, I do a direct A/B comparison between Dish and my analog cable, and people's jaw hits the floor when they realize just how much worse the picture quality of Dish Standard def channels is than my analog cable.
Dish looks very blury and soft after you've watched analog cable or after you've watched a good high bitrate dvd.