Cable is going up again and satallite won't work.

bukzin wrote:

docj wrote:

3 dog nights wrote:
Both Sat. company rep's have been to my location and announced the only way for me to get a signal is for him to cut the trees. We live deep in the forest and most houses were built by clearing only the footprint of the house and long drives. I really think my best option might be internet if I can find access that works for me. (currently part of the cable package)

We had a house just like that in the Maryland mountains a few years ago. We had been able to get SD DirecTV because only one satellite was needed but when we wanted to go to HD the DirecTV installer said there was no way.

So I called Dish and was lucky enough to find an installer who didn't want to take "no" for an answer. He worked at it for a couple of hours and finally came up with a "non-standard" installation in which two dishes were used one of which was attached to a very large tree about 10 feet above ground level. On subsequent service calls other jinstallers asked me "who in the world installed this?" but since it had been approved and I was an existing customer there was no way they could refuse to work on it.

From my experience I strongly suggest you contact one or both of the satellite companies again. Some installers are downright lazy; I think they pretty much get the same fee no matter how easy or difficult the install is. They would much rather tell you "no" and go on to an easy one rather than spend several hours with a complicated install.

You might also contact Solid Signal.com

Larger dishes pull in a stronger signal and they sell direct to customers.

Larger dishes don't help if you have a tree branch blocking your view of the satellite. That was always our problem. Fortunately at our house the trees were our own and we could cut down the ones we needed to in order to get a signal.

docj wrote:

3 dog nights wrote:
Both Sat. company rep's have been to my location and announced the only way for me to get a signal is for him to cut the trees. We live deep in the forest and most houses were built by clearing only the footprint of the house and long drives. I really think my best option might be internet if I can find access that works for me. (currently part of the cable package)

We had a house just like that in the Maryland mountains a few years ago. We had been able to get SD DirecTV because only one satellite was needed but when we wanted to go to HD the DirecTV installer said there was no way.

So I called Dish and was lucky enough to find an installer who didn't want to take "no" for an answer. He worked at it for a couple of hours and finally came up with a "non-standard" installation in which two dishes were used one of which was attached to a very large tree about 10 feet above ground level. On subsequent service calls other jinstallers asked me "who in the world installed this?" but since it had been approved and I was an existing customer there was no way they could refuse to work on it.

From my experience I strongly suggest you contact one or both of the satellite companies again. Some installers are downright lazy; I think they pretty much get the same fee no matter how easy or difficult the install is. They would much rather tell you "no" and go on to an easy one rather than spend several hours with a complicated install.

You might also contact Solid Signal.com

Larger dishes pull in a stronger signal and they sell direct to customers.

KD4UPL wrote:
I have an antenna and get about 10 channels. I can watch ESPN on the internet by using a family member's account number for the cable company's online services.
Even without doing that I can usually find what ever football game I'm looking for online.
Hulu, Stream2me, and other sites usually have most anything you want.

Got tips for finding NFL games?

I have found those to be a major challenge.

3 dog nights wrote:
Both Sat. company rep's have been to my location and announced the only way for me to get a signal is for him to cut the trees. We live deep in the forest and most houses were built by clearing only the footprint of the house and long drives. I really think my best option might be internet if I can find access that works for me. (currently part of the cable package)

We had a house just like that in the Maryland mountains a few years ago. We had been able to get SD DirecTV because only one satellite was needed but when we wanted to go to HD the DirecTV installer said there was no way.

So I called Dish and was lucky enough to find an installer who didn't want to take "no" for an answer. He worked at it for a couple of hours and finally came up with a "non-standard" installation in which two dishes were used one of which was attached to a very large tree about 10 feet above ground level. On subsequent service calls other installers asked me "who in the world installed this?" but since it had been approved and I was an existing customer there was no way they could refuse to work on it.

From my experience I strongly suggest you contact one or both of the satellite companies again. Some installers are downright lazy; I think they pretty much get the same fee no matter how easy or difficult the install is. They would much rather tell you "no" and go on to an easy one rather than spend several hours with a complicated install.

If all else fails, drop your cable connection for three months, then sign up as a new customer in your spouses name to get the new user discounts, and contract for two years at that price.

Internet tv depends on what as you say, shows your family like to watch . Make a list and go online to see if they stream them. Most people who cut the cord have 3 or 4 networks they can get over the air OTA. The Current cable tv stations have a grip still on the popular shows esp sports and block Internet streaming without a cable or sat subscription . If it's shows that are OTA stations nbc abc cbs etc then you have a better chance ( Hulu or the stations own web site ) unfortunately there is no one box solution.... Yet

Just finished watching HAWAII FIVE-0 and BLUE BLOOD on 'MOP VIDEO TV' that was aired last night on CBS that I missed... Works great downstreaming TV shows here on my 24-inch computer monitor screen...

Roy Ken

Satfinder application on a smart phone will let you wander around the property to check for a clear view of the birds. An installer would not want to deal with a coax 200 feet from the house. On many occasions I have found a small hole in the trees that works.

Does your neighbor have satellite? If so maybe he would allow you to run a coax from is dish system or to mount yours next to his.

abc40kids wrote:
Call your cable company, ask for the cancelation department. Tell them your fed up and are gonna make the switch to satellite. This departments job is to try anything to keep you. Tell them you'll stay if they offer you one of their many promotional plans.

If your willing to take a few minutes of your time it will work and your set for a year. When the year is up call again!! It's their game but you can play too!!

I did this in August. called to cancel.. ended up with 1/2 cost for a year AND the NFL package free.

Over the air antenna is an option, Finding a different spot for the sat dish is an option, Short mast or tower for the dish is an option.

Internet TV is not an option. First, you need the cable to bring in that kind of bandwidth so the cable company has you, as they say, by the short hairs,

I normally use Over the Air myself, with modern multi-tier channels and the Retro channels (Retro TV, MY TV, Antenna TV and so on) and a apair of chatty DVRs (i could use my 3rd one back but alas it's long gone) I get more TV than I can watch.