Who has satellite TV?

[turbojimmy]

I had DirecTV installed this past Friday and I love it. My cable company SUCKED. I had no idea what a clear picture my TVs were capable of delivering.

So after the installer left I noticed a ground hum from all the TVs and audio equipment. I went up on the roof - sure enough, the dish and cables are not grounded. It's DirecTV's obligation, per the terms of their 'free' installation, to ground the dish and cabling per NEC code. This means grounding the dish mast AND the cabling where it ENTERS the house (NOT inside the house) to the main electrical panel's grounding system.

I called them and they sent another guy out today. This guy says that his 'supervisor' told him that he can ground the switch (where the cables connect, which is inside my attic) to my furnace (5 feet away in the attic) and it will be fine. I pointed out that it's not code, must be grounded outside, blah blah blah. The installer didn't seem concerned, and was actually more concerned about how he was going to get paid because it was the guy that did it wrong on Friday who was going to get paid. He said that the dish would 'never' be struck by lightning, so who cares? The ground hum is gone, so I guess I'm fine. There are a multitude of objects around the dish that are much better lightning targets so do I care? Should I properly ground the thing? It wouldn't be that hard, but it's a matter of principle at this point.

Jim

 

[CS99]

I have installed several dishes. I do not ground any of them. Alot of opinions on this subject, but I have been told that when grounding the dish, it will act as a lightning rod and attract lightning.

 

[turbojimmy]

I have installed several dishes. I do not ground any of them. Alot of opinions on this subject, but I have been told that when grounding the dish, it will act as a lightning rod and attract lightning.

Yeah, I noticed the different opinions including 'attracting' lightning. I can't stand the ground hum - it's extremely irritating (particularly when amplified through an AV receiver). I'm glad it's gone, but now they've introduced a new path to ground from outside to inside my house.

Jim

 

[IrvJr]

I have DirecTV too and just have it grounded at the block outside the house.

 

[Renthorin]

Direct TV too. No cable out where I live and they laugh at me when I ask "how soon".

Love the setup...zero complaints.

I have my dish grounded to the power pole my lines come into the house through. We have had 3 lightning strikes on the 'house/property' since we got the dish 12 years ago and all 3 have been on the well cap, not the dish.

Where my dish is, on the roof, it is not the highest point and there are MANY trees taller so I don't worry about it.

 

[stack1]

You thought cable sucked, wait until the shine wears off DirectTV. First you've got the weather issues. If it rains or snows, goodbye signal. The best is when you've DVR'd something and you watch it several days later. You forgot about that thunderstorm last week until you're halfway through a show and all you've got left on the recording is "searching for signal". Then's there's the lag when you change channels. I love waiting 3-5 seconds for the picture to come up when switching channels. Get use to the menu guide because channel surfing is a thing of the past. It takes an hour to run through them. Then your introductory offer ends and you're paying out the a$$ for their crappy service. Good luck!

 

[Renthorin]

Wow...I think you had a bum setup.

I loose signal only in the worst of storms, maybe 12 times a year and then I don't want my TV on anyway as we get brownouts.

My channels switch instantly, no lag and I have my menu set up to only include the stuff I watch so no biggie there.

Sorry you had such a bad experience :-(

 

[wile87]

no intro price with my setup and no contract either

 

[Renthorin]

Jim, I have been told by a DTV tech and others that if you do NOT ground the dish it can pick up static electricity...but...nobody has told me what that will do.

I have a UPS behind the TV that the dish runs into and the coax is isolated there. I have mine grounded because it was 2 feet from the power pole and was easy to do but I have others who have not grounded theirs and things seem fine.

 

[TurboBuRick]

no intro price with my setup and no contract either

FTA

 

[stack1]

no intro price with my setup and no contract either

I didn't think that I had a contract either. I went to cancel and they told me that since I had PAID $200 a few months ago to upgrade to a HD DVR, that was a contract and I had to pay $320 to break it.

 

[Renthorin]

FTA

What does "FTA" stand for?

 

[TurboBuRick]

What does "FTA" stand for?

Free to air.

 

[54Rich]

You thought cable sucked, wait until the shine wears off DirectTV. First you've got the weather issues. If it rains or snows, goodbye signal. The best is when you've DVR'd something and you watch it several days later. You forgot about that thunderstorm last week until you're halfway through a show and all you've got left on the recording is "searching for signal". Then's there's the lag when you change channels. I love waiting 3-5 seconds for the picture to come up when switching channels. Get use to the menu guide because channel surfing is a thing of the past. It takes an hour to run through them. Then your introductory offer ends and you're paying out the a$$ for their crappy service. Good luck!

+1

Best thing I did was dump them! A compressed HDTV signal is not all that great and they are very limited by bandwidth.

And ground that dish. It should have a 8' ground rod installed, so if it gets struck it heads to ground and does not end up going through the house and taking everything else with it Remember it will take the least resistive path to ground, but it will evently make it there. They should be installing a rod or they would not be putting it on my house.

Cable is not perfect, but it's a local service and I can actually talk to someone without sitting on hold forever.

 

[hrhoward]

I have Dish Network. No chance on cable where I live for years to come. I have six large oaks on the southern side of my house so the dish couldn't be mounted on the house itself. Mine is on a pole just past the oaks. Goes into the ground a few feet.

As far as reception, great except when the largest of the thunder-heads roll by. When changing channels there is a very, very slight delay. Not an issue with me.

I used to have Direct TV but when they started coming out with the DVR's I called and inquired about one myself. I was told, sorry, no offers for current customers. I asked to have my service canceled. They then offered me a deal with a DVR. Piss off!! Went with Dish Network. No real complaints.

 

[rmar]

Free to air.

The only way to go.............:biggrin:

 

[TurboDave]

+1



Cable is not perfect, but it's a local service and I can actually talk to someone without sitting on hold forever.

You must not be with Charter! Talk about sitting on hold and getting nowhere!! And they are far from local.

 

[turbopete]

Charter

I have Charter, with HD DVR, and they are OK. My only complaint is that they don't pay the fees to ABC for HD feed, so I need over the air for one HD channel. Idiots...

 

[murphster]

+1

Best thing I did was dump them! A compressed HDTV signal is not all that great and they are very limited by bandwidth.

Cable is not perfect, but it's a local service and I can actually talk to someone without sitting on hold forever.

Directv continually ranks ahead of cable companies as far as customer service. Of course, people will have problems with each one now and then.

There really is no bandwidth limit with satellite since all they have to do is put up new satellites, as evidenced by Directv putting up two new satellites recently to expand HDTV programming to over 150 channels, more than anyone else.

In most areas, Directv now offers local programming in HDTV. Since I live near NYC, it never was a big deal to me since they always carried NYC channels in HD. But I could see that being a big drawback for a lot of people.

As far as compression, with the new satellites and switching to MPEG4, Directv displays the contents from the providers with no further compression.

 

[Johnboy]

I had directv for years and just got rid of it. I really can't complain and hardly ever lost the signal. The reason I dumped them was is I still use an antenna on my roof for local channels. Having four TV's in the house it would have jacked up my price to add more receivers and run more cabling, plus the local cable company had a great deal running. I will say directv was going to give me a good deal too once I told them i was going to drop it.