How to Stop Rain Fade for D* HD

[Stanley Kritzik]

It happened Sunday night -- right in the middle of the Sopranos.  On D*'s channel 70, there was significant pixelization (if I'm spelling it right), during a medium rain.  I'm concerned that, going forward, this will become a more common occurence.

Now, I know that prior to the new satellites, Channel Master sold a significantly larger dish, which presumably minimized the problem.  The question is: will D*, or anyone else, have a larger dish for the new environment?  Does anyone know?

Thanks,

Stan

[Bebop]

It happened Sunday night -- right in the middle of the Sopranos.  On D*'s channel 70, there was significant pixelization (if I'm spelling it right), during a medium rain.  I'm concerned that, going forward, this will become a more common occurence.

Now, I know that prior to the new satellites, Channel Master sold a significantly larger dish, which presumably minimized the problem.  The question is: will D*, or anyone else, have a larger dish for the new environment?  Does anyone know?

Thanks,

Stan

There's no cure.

[Talos4]

I had the same issue during the Soprano's.  However, on the South side it was more than a "medium" rain.  during that time I couldn't see across the street.  

I just switched to 501 and least I could watch the program.

Odd that the HD channels seem to be more affected than the SD channels at least in my situation.

[digdugm]

All you can do is dail the dish in as well as possible, the upper 80'slow 90's on most channels. Thats how mine's set-up and it takes a very big storm to knock it out, and when it does its always less than hour, usaully its only a couple minutes.

[Nels Harvey]

I think the satellite services, D and E, only promise 95% viewability on their services because of the size of the dishes, and the possibility that the originating uplink can be blocked by bad weather as well.

Since the local stations receive their signals via satellite, and even though they have much larger dishes, they also suffer from storm outages at times.  Since the TV stations have frame store capabilities, usually the missing picture will appear as a still frame, and sometimes the audio can carry through.  A casual viewer can easily miss a loss of signal event.  If it lasts a bit longer, you can bet you will be seeing some sort of filler, probably commercials!

The best one can hope for is that the dish is aligned as best as possible, and put up with it!

Nels....

[dj1111]

Yeah same here.  A couple minutes at a time and maybe 2 or 3 times a year.  It's a non issue at our house.  Being the weather nut I am, I'm usually on the internet tracking the storm instead of watching the TV, if it's raining that hard.

[bradsmainsite]

You could seperate the  lnb's and use 3 individual dishes that are 24"'s or larger
and run those 3 into your dp34 or a variation of 18" and so forth depending on
which sat is most important to you ie 119-18" and 110-30" for hd and 30" for
61.5 or 129 I would prefer 61.5 has a stronger signal than 129, (more hd programing on these 2 sats have the same hd channels though so you only pick one) and 121-18".  

Those were just examples depends on whats most important to you.  This does reduce rain fade to just the severest of storms, but you better have the roof space!

[picopir8]

I solved my rainfade issues by switching to cable.  :p  That move also got me a HD DVR.

[Movin2Milwaukee]

How does snow falling affect Directv's reception? Snow fade? I am still deciding whether to go with TWC or Directv...may wait for the latter's new HD-DVR to be released first.

[vegasvic]

I had 10X the outages when I had TWC than I've had in the 5 years since I switched to DTV.

[mhz40]

I had 10X the outages when I had TWC than I've had in the 5 years since I switched to DTV.

I think that is bad timing on your part and very old data to be throwing out here, as TW was just completing their major upgrade around that time.
In the past 5 years I've had maybe two complete cable outages.  Roadurnner went on a solo outage maybe twice more and my phone was out once... and i rebooted my modem to resolve.
Im sure others can chime in with more info.

Getting back on topic, yes snow does affect reception.  The higher the water content, the worse the affect.  All you should really need to to is brush off the dish.  Now if it's mounted to your chimbey, you may have an issue.  Otherwise its a simple fix.

[vegasvic]

It's not like I was experiencing TWC outages over a short period of time.  I had them for several years.  Their keystone cops approach to customer "service" exacerbated it.  I had no choice until I built my house and dumped them for good.

I'm sure there are many who love TWC and are absolutely thrilled with them. That's great.  My experiences are on the other end of the spectrum and I share them every chance I get. I guess I did venture off topic but only to respond to TWC shill Picopir8.  :p

[Stanley Kritzik]

D* supposedly is coming out with a "multi-dwelling" solution sometime this year; meaning, I assume, one dish plus multi switches, amplifiers, etc., and that still leaves me wondering if they, or someone like Channel Master will come out with an over-sized dish (the larger the dish area, the fewer the outages).

It's one thing to get some graininess in an analog signal -- quite another to lose pixels, etc. with a digital one.  To lose video in, say, a hundred unit building will cause D* no end of trouble, and a big dish for an apartment building is no big deal/no big expense, and quite an insurance policy.

SK

[Chinatown]

How does snow falling affect Directv's reception? Snow fade? I am still deciding whether to go with TWC or Directv...may wait for the latter's new HD-DVR to be released first.

Look..................just mount the dish in a location that you can take a broom to it, if snow is a problem..........That will be the only time that you will loose the signal, if at all........................

[Audio Gnut]

And lets not forget sun fades with satellite reception. They usually happen in March and October.