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quote:
Originally posted by ohanamama
I have 2 giant monster dishes in my back yard, ugly[xx(]....and when it rains it blacks out and sometimes- at random- channels are just plain missing. I loved direct TV on the mainland but it is not the same system here and does not work nearly as well. I am just biding my time until cable gets here - I'm on a waiting list in HPP. I'm told the wires are installed but we can't get it yet for some reason.
Good Luck!
ohanamama, what part of HPP are you located in? Did Oceanic quote you a monthly price too?
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I wasn't quoted any price, I signed up online and then Oahu called me and said the local office would call me, which they did. She was very nice and said 16th - 18th lines are laid but the service was not ready yet.?? She put me on a list of people waiting and that she would call when service was available. - So I wait.(sigh)
Maybe if everyone on 16th-18th floods them with calls?
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We are on 18th but will stay on Dish even if cable reaches us. For one thing, the HD picture is much better on Dish than on cable from what I have seen. Also, Dish carries some channels that we are interested in that are not on cable.
However, if you are just interested in regular channels and don't care too much about your HD quality, I agree that cable is better than putting up a bunch of dishes.
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frossie - Hey neighbor! It may be that I pass by your house every day! I enjoy HD also,but still find it super frustrating when it rains, either no picture or pixelated and messed up sound.( maybe that will change with the new satellite) Also I find the new HD DVRs a real pain to program, and they now they charge extra to save movies to DVR and they expire. After a long day I just wanna plop my butt down on the couch and relax! If the picture is fuzzy with cable -It sucks to have to choose - What a cruel world! (SIGH) It's always something! Perhaps I should just grab a book? AHHH nope I am totally addicted to TV......
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Hi ohanamama, we only get HD dropeouts during heavy rain and if it is something we really don't want to miss any of we record the SD version of the channel as a backup. If you are getting dropouts that are frequent I am wondering whether you need to align your dishes (or need a bigger dish? of course at that point you might as well switch to cable).
For reference, we have a one meter dish pointing at 119 and 118.7 and a one meter dish pointing at 110.
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I just have to give Kudos to Rico from Big Island Satelite - 982-9990.
He got down here within about an hour of my call (our service went out Sunday and the other person only returned my call this AM). He charged me about $30 less for the dual LMB than the other person was going to who originally installed our service, and talked DN into waranting our box (although it is 2 years old). He checked and cleaned everything. He is even going to fix a client's dish this week. (He is busy but fit us in since he was working in the neighborhood and had all the pieces in his car!)
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Article in Sundays Honolulu Advertiser's business section. Dish struggles to stay competitive, explains the problems the network is having.
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Hi,
We're currently DirecTV customers but are thinking about a switch to Dish - cable isn't an option for us in Orchidland, unfortunately. It's been two years since this thread was active, so I'd appreciate refreshed comments from Dish customers or those who've had both services. Is the expensive devil I know better than the theoretically cheaper devil I don't know???
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The size of the sat dish is very important as well as the aiming.
If you are near the ocean, rust and salt spray will cause signal degradation problems in a relatively short amount of time.
You cannot just have it installed and forget about it.
Get up there and clean the sat dish and LNB off. Anything that interferes with the signal collection and its' entry into the LNB needs to be dealt with, including bird droppings. I have heard of people putting a light coat of wax on the sat dish to help ward off rust.
Due to Hawaii's position relative to the satellites, rain fade can be an issue, especially if you have trees, etc. partially blocking the view towards the satellites. Think of the angle of the sat dish and how it has to go through the clouds. In Hawaii, that signal has to go almost horizontally through the clouds which further obscures the signals. This is why you have to get the larger sat dishes compared to what you would use on the mainland.
Hawaii also suffers in that somehow, the local installers have been allowed by the providers (Dish and Direct) to charge completely unreasonable fees for the installs. The actual sat dish cost $20 or less which is why if you move or cancel service, no one comes to remove the sat dish. It isn't worth the effort. They are not $200 or more as the installers would have you believe. Coax cable is a couple cents per foot and the cheap connectors are about a dime each. Those connectors that are installed outside are subject to corrosion and may be the cause of signal degradation as well. Replacing them with higher end connectors with gold contacts may be an option for those of you near the ocean. Wrapping the connections with tape or other water proofing is also a good idea.
