How's dish TV reception in the city? Will I have to go out on the roof in storms?

Question

I want to get dish TV because it's cheaper and comcast sucks. But I am worried that it will be end up being a hassle...

Answer 1

I've had DirecTV satellite for 1 year now, and it just went out last week for the first time. We had a huge storm with tons of lightning and thunder and a few surges that made it blow.
I wouldn't say once per year is very much. And, I didn't go up to the roof myself because it's 3 stories up. I had to call tech. service. I live in the city of Atlanta.

My parents have had satellite for a few years and there's does go out with heavy storms but will be back up within 30 min. It never stays out for very long.
Prior to this last year I had Comcast and it went out 95% of the time during heavy storms. In fact it went out even when there were NO STORMS! I hated Comcast.
I know what you mean though. Cable commercials make it sound like having satellite is such a hassle. I think it's all marketing & competition.
I don't know where you live...apt., townhouse, house. But, make sure before you get a satellite that there's a clear view (signal point) facing west. The satellite has to face west in order to pick up signal. Sometimes they can mount it on the side of your house in which case it's not that hard to access. But, with my townhouse it had to go way on the top of the roof in order to face west.
You may also want to consider DirecTV instead. The DVR (digital video recorder) they give you is TiVo brand. It rocks! It's much more user friendly than the DVR that dishTV gives you. I have Direct vs. my parents who have dish, so I use them both.

Answer 2

There are advantages that both Dish and digital cable have over one another. As a subscriber to both (and currently with Time Warner), I'll try to give you insight to both services.

Dish: Every channel is digital (even the locals if you apply). Crisp, clear, and sounds great. However when a storm comes, you will most likely lose you signal. With Dish you own all the equipment. This means you pay a serviceman every time he comes to your house. The equipment is not the responsibility of Dish. Dish's responsibilities to you, in essence, ends in space where their satellite sends a signal to your home dish. If it's not working properly, that is your problem and your cost to fulfill.

Digital Cable: Not every channel is digital. In fact, it's about 50/50 digital/analog. You will get several local channels (some more clear than others). Digital cable also offers "On Demands". That is a service Dish can't provide. You can watch whatever you want whenever. It's like PPV but you don't have to pay. All the premiums and other popular channels like Comedy and TBS offer On Demand programming. -- The Cable companies also own all the equipment you use. For a small monthly fee, you will never have to repair anything or pay repair costs.

So, weigh your options. If you don't like Dish, you can always go back to cable. Most people in rural areas don't have that option.

Answer 3

Once you try a dish you will think Comcast is the best thing in the word!!! The dish SUCKS in the city, the country, or anywhere alse you live. You will constantly need to wait out storms such as rain or snow and you will have much more trouble than it's worth. I would definitely stick with Comcast and ditch the dish. I have had both and Comcast is way better. Good luck.

Answer 4

I started out with cable and then switch to satelite and never turned back the good things about Dish is getting it free install and the system is free also if you want to cancell later since you own the system you just call them and cancel and the best thing about that is they dont charge you just to cancel because no ones comin out there to close the switch.
Then theres the pakages they have so many from $19 to $80 and the good thing about this also is you call in to cancell or add pakages any time of the day or night.
The only time you'll get bad reception in the city is when snow piles up on the dish you'll have to go and clean it off.
And as being a hassle no its so easy just one call or if you already have a dish on your property they'll come and give you the receiver so get dish you wont regret it.

Answer 5

It shouldn't matter if you're in a city. Dish Network will have some dude install it for you. The dude will put it up the right way.

The only time you'd have to worry about it is if you get a lot of snow. If the dish picks up a lot of snow on it, you lose the reception. But if you get this problem and you clear off the snow, the reception comes back again instantly. I have a broom taped to another broom to clear it off, and that works. If there's a very hard, driving rain or a very hard blizzard, you will also get no reception. But it must be a very hard rain - like a downpour.

But just by being in the city, it shouldn't make any difference.

Answer 6

You're gonna encounter the same issues as Comcast in the long run i.e pricing and programming and picture quality.
The only time you would have to go on the roof is to adjust your dish by moving it to pick up a clear picture. Be careful , if you take it too far out of focus, you're gonna have to place a service call and it will cost you plenty.
With comcast, at least you don't have to pay for service calls if the problem is service related not due to "enhancements" you may have made i.e adding a splitter like from Radio Shack or extending the cable line.

Like I said before, the pricing will increase comparable to Comcast and in some areas, you may not be able to pick up local channels like ABC, NBC , FOX , etc.

Answer 7

Yeah,during a storm the satellite company insist you climb on the roof and do a kind of a rain dance(instructions included in the box set).
Once you have worked out how to use the remote control(instruction only available in Japanese).
The system is very tricky and you may need a soft toy(some states its against the law to use real animals,I understand that a hamster or small rodent is fine though) to throw at the dish before embarking on the(suicide mission)roof.
So its no hassle at all go 4 it.

Answer 8

Well, I live in the city and have Dish Network Satellite. When it is really rainy outside, then you lose reception, but you can always watch a recorded show or pop in a movie. I personally like to get nice and comfortable on my living room couch and watch all of the recorded shows people have so nicely recorded for me. It really is a good deal and you should look into that. Just make sure when the forecast is looking rainy for the week, just go rent some movies.(That was meant to be sort of a joke and sort of not a joke if you catch my drift.) I really think that you should go for the satellite TV and you will thank yourself for it.

Answer 9

That's because the dish sucks. Get comcast.

Answer 10

In my city of colton dish reciption is fine and for you in storm area
do not worry about it because dish net work never gets static also D.S.L cable company will install it for free service.