Thinking of DIRECT TV...HAVE CABLE...HOW DID U SURVIVE THIS STORM WITH YOUR TV SERVICE (2015, verizon FIOS)

[deeds]

Wondering who wins DIRECT TV OR COMCAST for TV service during this bkizzars of 2015

[Kthnry]

My direcTV service never failed during/after Sandy, while my cable was out for ten days. However, my satellite dish is in a sheltered area on my roof. I'll bet plenty of DirecTV customers had their dish blown out of alignment, causing loss of service.

[captne76]

Similar here no problem with Direct VSAT dish but remember to also have a regular RE AL TV antenna for all the free and regular TV programs you won't get elsewhere. That stays up all the time.
I find too many people forgot what TV is.

[ansky]

When I had Directv snow was never a problem. I guess if your dish gets buried or covered in snow you could lose the signal, but I never had that happen. But during heavy rain and thunderstorms I used to always lose my signal (anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes). With Comast I used to lose my internet service randomly for no reason. Now for the past 6 years I've had Verizon Fios and there has not been a single service interruption for TV or internet, and that includes hurricane Sandy and the few blizzards we've had over the years.

If you do decide on Directv, you'll want to also get an OTA antenna as Captain mentioned. Directv does not carry local subchannels like Antenna TV or Cozi.

[Kthnry]

I have a Leaf over-the-air antenna that brings in several dozen channels, including the major networks, with crystal-clear reception. Even though I have DirecTV, I got this as a backup in case of an outage in an emergency. The Mohu website has a mapping function that helps you determine what channels you're likely to get in your location.

http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Ampl...f+hdtv+antenna

[jrsydevil82]

It does well during snow as long as there isn't heavy snow that fills the dish (happened once), or as long as the snow gets blown out of it.

Now, god forbid there's heavy rain or a thunder storm...then it almost always goes out.

[ultraviolet3]

We used to have terrible issues with losing our signal before we switched to high def tv. Even a light rain shower would knock out our signal. We haven't had any issues since we finally upgraded to high def tv a few years ago, even though our dish is in the exact same spot that our old round one was.

We never lost our DirectTv signal after Sandy, but Comcast (our internet provider) was out for about 4 days.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, there was about 6 inches of snow piled up on our dish which blocked the signal. I considered getting the ladder out to clear it (our dish is mounted about 12 feet up on the side of our home) but the wind took care of it within a few minutes.

We did not lose our signal at all in this latest storm.

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by jrsydevil82

Now, god forbid there's heavy rain or a thunder storm...then it almost always goes out.

What I have observed over the past few years is that the signal will begin to pixilate and then disappear as a storm approaches. A few minutes later, once the rain has actually started falling, the signal is fine. The longest that I have lost the signal was for...maybe...10 minutes, as a storm approached.

If Fios was available in my area, I would get it, but unfortunately it isn't available here. So, my choices are the abominable cable service or DirecTV. I switched to DirecTV, and have enjoyed better sound quality, and better video quality, as well as fewer outages.

[ultraviolet3]

Originally Posted by Retriever

What I have observed over the past few years is that the signal will begin to pixilate and then disappear as a storm approaches. A few minutes later, once the rain has actually started falling, the signal is fine. The longest that I have lost the signal was for...maybe...10 minutes, as a storm approached.

If Fios was available in my area, I would get it, but unfortunately it isn't available here. So, my choices are the abominable cable service or DirecTV. I switched to DirecTV, and have enjoyed better sound quality, and better video quality, as well as fewer outages.

I wish we could get FIOS here, too. It's in the next county, but Comcrap has a strangle hold out here.

Back to DirecTv, I've noticed that on the rare occasion that we do lose the signal, it's usually only the HD channels. I simply go into settings and display the SD channel duplicates and 9 times out of 10 they are working. Once the weather improves, I simply hide the SD channels in the guide again.

[RobRiguez]

I have Cablevision with 50MBps. Even during Sandy I didn't have much of a problem.

Fios fiber is not available by me. It would be the only option IMO. I care MUCH more about my internet speed than my TV signal.