Cable and Tivo DVR

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:06:27 -0400, "Dr. Personality"
<affable@no.com.invalid> wrote:

>In article <_PtNe.5020$j21.2227@news01.roc.ny>, Seth
><seth_lermanNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "mad NATer" <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote in message
>> news:EktNe.24088$Rm3.17956@bignews4.bellsouth.net...
>> >
>> > I'm considering changing to cable as well. I had analog cable a few years
>> > ago and got fed up with the poor reception and switched to DirecTV. I love
>> > it but..... I'm tired of the signal going out whenever it rains. I'm
>>
>> If your signal goes out "whenever it rains" then the problem is on your end.
>> Either your dish isn't properly aligned or your connectors are loose and
>> getting moisture in them.
>
>
>Agreed. Also, my local cable is out for a substantial period of time
>-- several hours or longer -- about once every three weeks, according
>to my neighbor who still has cable.
>
>I expect that this is the case generally around here. An astonishing
>number of dishes has sprung up around my neighborhood (most
>single-family homes with a sprinkling of townhouses) since last
>Christmas.

just remember that digital does not always mean better quality. My
local cable company uses so much compression on the digital signal it
is worse than analog. Also the last time my signal went out I called
on a Wed to report the problem. They said it would be the next Tue
before they could come to fix the problem. Once the cable company cut
my cable while fixing the cable for across the street. It took a month
for them to fix it that time, which was when I got Directv. Try
calling your local cable company after 8pm and see what happens. In my
area you get a recording to call back the next day. I tried to call
about my bill on Sat. I got a message the billing department is only
open M-F. I have had these problems with DirecTv,

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Seth" <seth_lermanNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:_PtNe.5020$j21.2227@news01.roc.ny...
> "mad NATer" <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:EktNe.24088$Rm3.17956@bignews4.bellsouth.net...
>>
>> I'm considering changing to cable as well. I had analog cable a few
>> years ago and got fed up with the poor reception and switched to DirecTV.
>> I love it but..... I'm tired of the signal going out whenever it rains.
>> I'm
>
> If your signal goes out "whenever it rains" then the problem is on your
> end. Either your dish isn't properly aligned or your connectors are loose
> and getting moisture in them.
>

Very dense cloud cover which precipitates heavy rain causes my reception to
go out. Reception goes out a few minutes before the actual rain begins to
fall at my house. If I happen to be watching TV, I can tell when the rain
will come as its usually about 10min after the picture begins to pixilate
and then the signal goes out completely. This doesn't happen with every
storm.
BTW, my Sat Signal percentage is 83%.

 

[seth]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"mad NATer" <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:l1nOe.32086$XM3.11027@bignews5.bellsouth.net...
> "Seth" <seth_lermanNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:_PtNe.5020$j21.2227@news01.roc.ny...
>> "mad NATer" <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote in message
>> news:EktNe.24088$Rm3.17956@bignews4.bellsouth.net...
>>>
>>> I'm considering changing to cable as well. I had analog cable a few
>>> years ago and got fed up with the poor reception and switched to
>>> DirecTV. I love it but..... I'm tired of the signal going out whenever
>>> it rains. I'm
>>
>> If your signal goes out "whenever it rains" then the problem is on your
>> end. Either your dish isn't properly aligned or your connectors are loose
>> and getting moisture in them.
>>
>
> Very dense cloud cover which precipitates heavy rain causes my reception
> to go out. Reception goes out a few minutes before the actual rain begins
> to fall at my house. If I happen to be watching TV, I can tell when the
> rain will come as its usually about 10min after the picture begins to
> pixilate and then the signal goes out completely. This doesn't happen
> with every storm.
> BTW, my Sat Signal percentage is 83%.

That's still too many outages. Mine rarely goes out (like on the order of
minutes per year). You should be able to have signal levels in the 90's
with the spot beams at 99.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

mad NATer <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote:

> Very dense cloud cover which precipitates heavy rain causes my reception to
> go out. Reception goes out a few minutes before the actual rain begins to

It's not the heavy cloud cover at your house, it's the rain south of your
house, on a path from the dish to the satellite.

> BTW, my Sat Signal percentage is 83%.

Your dish is probably misaligned. My signals are all above 90, and the
transponders carrying the spot beam locals are at the top of the scale.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

<dold@XReXXCable.usenet.us.com> wrote in message
news:ded1l0$s3i$2@blue.rahul.net...
> mad NATer <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote:
>
>> Very dense cloud cover which precipitates heavy rain causes my reception
>> to
>> go out. Reception goes out a few minutes before the actual rain begins to
>
> It's not the heavy cloud cover at your house, it's the rain south of your
> house, on a path from the dish to the satellite.

Yes. You're probably right about that.


>> BTW, my Sat Signal percentage is 83%.
>
> Your dish is probably misaligned. My signals are all above 90, and the
> transponders carrying the spot beam locals are at the top of the scale.

How do I get the receiver dish aligned properly? Call DirecTV? I don't
really want to pay for a service call.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On 2005-08-22, mad NATer <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote:
><dold@XReXXCable.usenet.us.com> wrote in message
> news:ded1l0$s3i$2@blue.rahul.net...
>> mad NATer <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote:
>>
>>> BTW, my Sat Signal percentage is 83%.
>>
>> Your dish is probably misaligned. My signals are all above 90, and the
>> transponders carrying the spot beam locals are at the top of the scale.
>
> How do I get the receiver dish aligned properly? Call DirecTV? I don't
> really want to pay for a service call.

I agree with dold - all my signals are above 90 with many near the top.
This makes a huge difference when weather comes a knocken.

There are various ways to align your dish. Essentially, you just have to
go out, loosen it up, change where it points, and see if that helps the
reception and if so, tighten it back up. I think the easiest for an
existing installation is to use two people - one down below talking about
how the signal strength is and one on the dish changing it based on
feedback from the one down below.

The last time I installed a dish, I was alone and what I did was run an
extension cord up to the dish and physically had a receiver and a
hand-held tv (like a 5" one). I hooked the dish to the receiver to the tv
so I had instant feedback on my dish alignment modifications (well, not
instant since it takes a little bit of time for the output percentage to
change based on your latest modification).

Since your dish is already close, you won't have to go through the hardest
part of the installation - that being finding the signal to begin with.
You just need to do some slight tweaking to its alignment. Also, when
you're done, make sure you tighten it up as well as you can (without
changing where it points to) - don't want it loose up there.

--
This is my .sig

 

[Gman]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

In article <11gk7gsgvkmood6@corp.supernews.com>, Mike Hunt <in2sheep@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On 2005-08-22, mad NATer <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote:
>><dold@XReXXCable.usenet.us.com> wrote in message
>> news:ded1l0$s3i$2@blue.rahul.net...
>>> mad NATer <Mr.X@nospam.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> BTW, my Sat Signal percentage is 83%.
>>>
>>> Your dish is probably misaligned. My signals are all above 90, and the
>>> transponders carrying the spot beam locals are at the top of the scale.
>>
>> How do I get the receiver dish aligned properly? Call DirecTV? I don't
>> really want to pay for a service call.
>
>I agree with dold - all my signals are above 90 with many near the top.
>This makes a huge difference when weather comes a knocken.
>
>There are various ways to align your dish. Essentially, you just have to
>go out, loosen it up, change where it points, and see if that helps the
>reception and if so, tighten it back up. I think the easiest for an
>existing installation is to use two people - one down below talking about
>how the signal strength is and one on the dish changing it based on
>feedback from the one down below.
>
That works fine until you both get to the point where you are
hyperglycemic (sp?) and start yelling at each other about how stupid
you both are and the one on the roof gets frustrated and comes down for a
beer!



Easier way is to get on ebay and get one of those inline $4.99 signal strength
meters and do it yerself!!!!!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Randy S." <rswitt@NOSPAM.com> shaped the electrons to say:
>Digital quality is better than analog, I think you'd have a hard time
>disputing that, as long as you don't try to bundle in other factors.

This is not always true. Sometimes the digital stations are
over-compressed, then you get MPEG artifacts. Alternatively a really
solid analog signal can look fantastic. MPEG is lossy compression,
doesn't matter if it is MPEG2 or MPEG4. Plus with digital cable and
TiVo you currently need a cable box and then an analog loop to the
TiVo, with analog cable you just connect to the TiVo directly.

All things digital are not inheretly superior to all things analog.

>Well, that's good I suppose, but one of the benefits of digital is the
>error correcting. You basically get a perfect signal or none at all.

Again, not true. The error correcting used in the systems doesn't
always restore dropped data, it can tolerate some. It isn't all or
nothing, but if the error rate crosses a threshold, then it is
nothing.

-MZ
--
<URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org> Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-852-2171
<URL:http/www.megazone.org/> <URL:http/www.eyrie-productions.com/> Eris

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

MegaZone wrote:
> "Randy S." <rswitt@NOSPAM.com> shaped the electrons to say:
>
>>Digital quality is better than analog, I think you'd have a hard time
>>disputing that, as long as you don't try to bundle in other factors.
>
>
> This is not always true. Sometimes the digital stations are
> over-compressed, then you get MPEG artifacts. Alternatively a really
> solid analog signal can look fantastic. MPEG is lossy compression,
> doesn't matter if it is MPEG2 or MPEG4. Plus with digital cable and
> TiVo you currently need a cable box and then an analog loop to the
> TiVo, with analog cable you just connect to the TiVo directly.
>
> All things digital are not inheretly superior to all things analog.

Ok, yes, you are absolutely correct. I suppose the more correct way of
putting that is digital always has the *potential* of being better than
analog as it doesn't suffer attenuation losses. However overcompression
or low bit rate, etc can certainly make a digital signal subpar.

>>Well, that's good I suppose, but one of the benefits of digital is the
>>error correcting. You basically get a perfect signal or none at all.
>
>
> Again, not true. The error correcting used in the systems doesn't
> always restore dropped data, it can tolerate some. It isn't all or
> nothing, but if the error rate crosses a threshold, then it is
> nothing.

True, it's not really all or nothing. However in my experience the
range of digital signal strength between a perfect picture and no signal
is very small. Especially when compared to the equivalent range of an
analog signal.

Randy S.