Cable TV & cellular service in Wrightwood.

[Mountain_Witch]

Does anyone know if Rick the handy man still installs dishes? I know he used to, as he installed mine and programmed it for me a while back.

[asmith47]

I would like to know more about the alleged differences in picture quality between Dish and Direct. They both use MPEG to compress the signal within an inch of it's life, so why is there a difference? I have noticed that the MPEG artifacts are very evident on dish, sometimes taking a few fractions of a second to update various parts of the image, especially when the overall illuminantion in a scene is dark things get real muddy.  This can be very disconcerting, as when a character turns their head, one eye moves ahead of the other eye and the nose is kind of floating, it looks like the whole face is distorting!

[Chris]

[Wrightwood]

I would like to know more about the alleged differences in picture quality between Dish and Direct. They both use MPEG to compress the signal within an inch of it's life, so why is there a difference? I have noticed that the MPEG artifacts are very evident on dish, sometimes taking a few fractions of a second to update various parts of the image, especially when the overall illumination in a scene is dark things get real muddy.  This can be very disconcerting, as when a character turns their head, one eye moves ahead of the other eye and the nose is kind of floating, it looks like the whole face is distorting!

asmith47,
the digital artifacts are a nature of the beast as you know. The are a  number of things that will cause the problem. Most significant would be lack of signal strength which can be caused by any of the following and/or combination: rain, snow, heavy cloud cover that contains moisture, trees, plane going by, weak satellite signal from an aging satellite, solar flares and a dish that is not aligned for optimal signal strength.

Not to get too technical for other reading this, just consider this. The signal coming down from the Satellite will be blocked by anything larger than the diameter of a pencil. In another words, if there is a slight rainfall with mist and the clouds aren't too heavy your signal will be fine. If you have a heavy downfall of rain (dumping with raindrops the size of a pencil or bigger) you're not going to get a picture on a small dish. If a tree partially blocks your view of the satellite and snowfall accumulates on the tree you aren't going to get a picture or may get digital artifacts.

Another hint that the signal strength is not what it should be is when you see a message "searching for satellite signal" or similar message.

For those of you that don't know what digital artifacts are; when you see your Dish or Direct TV signal breaking up into little colored squares. It might be just a few once in a while or sometimes you may lose the entire picture.

As far as the difference in picture quality between Dish & Direct TV goes; the Dish picture is a much softer picture than the Direct. The best way to describe it is that the picture lacks contrast.

The only fair judgment of this is having both a Dish and Direct TV receiver and running them both through the same TV or monitor. It does need to be a TV or monitor with decent picture quality to really compare the two. Many people don't even care. They are so pleased with the small dishes when it's setup they think either is great. I've seen it plenty of times side by side and there isn't any comparison on picture sharpness. Dish Network is far better.

[asmith47]

Umm, that is not the way a digital signal works. You either get a perfect copy at the recieving end or the stream breaks down entirely. There is some error-correction built in but once you use that up, the screen goes all blotchy then blanks out. It has to do with the level at which the compression is set. I think that they mess around with it, setting it lower for things like playoff football games, and ramping it up high on things like local channels that are only seen in one market like KCOP. It looks real murky.

[Wrightwood]

Umm, that is not the way a digital signal works. You either get a perfect copy at the receiving end or the stream breaks down entirely. There is some error-correction built in but once you use that up, the screen goes all blotchy then blanks out. It has to do with the level at which the compression is set. I think that they mess around with it, setting it lower for things like playoff football games, and ramping it up high on things like local channels that are only seen in one market like KCOP. It looks real murky.

I agree, by theory you are right about getting all or nothing.

In reality that's not always the case. If you've watched long enough you've seen the digital artifacts I'm talking about. Many times I've seen digital artifacts on both Direct and Dish Network signals in inclement weather without losing the picture. It might be from losing the signal and then regaining it so quick. Solar activity is another time I've seen it. During the earliest little dish  signals fast action scenes caused artifacts and was a big complaint by many. They seemed to have that under control now.

Many of the big dish owners and engineers didn't think small dishes were going to work out because of these points we are talking about. I was convinced that the signal was going to create big problems due to weather.
Rarely have I seen a small dish lose it's signal unless it's really coming down. Then again we haven't had much of that for a while

Your point about the signal being cranked up or down during certain events has always been a hot topic of discussion. Just try getting a company engineer or spokesman to put it in writing

Are you using Dish or Direct?
Have you had many weather outages?
Is your dish under an eve or protected from snowfall ?

[Wrightwood]

It seems that there is some question about digital artifacts and the appearance that the little dish signals can be tweaked (there's that word again) when the broadcasters want, so I did some further research.

During the heaviest rains or when the receiver's dish is covered with melting snow, the receive signal level becomes marginal or very low, resulting in an extremely high received bit-error rate. When this happens, it can result in failure of the forward error correction, appearing to the viewer as incorrectly placed small picture blocks, blocks of colored snow, rainbows, or other visual anomalies called artifacts.

In reference to being able to adjust the signal strength when they want, it is constantly monitored and adjusted when needed. So in essence they can crank it up or down for a big game or when weather is a problem. This creates another problem in that they have only so much bandwidth available. If they crank the signal up for certain stations, other stations need be be reduced. I've heard talk that is why Dish Network and Direct TV need to merge.  Right now they duplicate each others efforts. If they become one they will have more bandwidth available to offer additional options such as interactive TV, more channels and the need for much more bandwidth on High Definition signals.

Here's a statement I found that sums up their ability to adjust their signals bandwidth:

This is caused by insufficient bandwidth being allocated to the channel in question or a mistuned MPEG2 video compression algorithm. (In a modern codec, most coding parameters are readily adjustable, often in real-time, as part of a dynamic bandwidth control protocol.)

Here is a web site that does an excellent job of explaining it in more detail:

http://www.hei.ca/mpeg2c.html

http://www.hei.ca/mpeg2g.html

[oldsub]

[Mountain_Witch]

I have DISH and haven't had any problems with service for the 3 yrs that I have been with them. I have an older model receiver 3722 (Dish 500) but I don't have web tv.

[rmekemson]

I had cable service for awhile and was genuinely unimpressed.  The clarity was non-existent and, for my taste, the quality and quantity of selections didn't warrant the price tag.  I've had DirecTV for about a year and have NEVER had any reception problems with it.  I did have a problem one with not receiving a signal so I just unplugged the box for 30 seconds and then plugged it back in.  NO PROBLEMO!

When it comes to technology - I belong in the Jurassic Age.  All I know is - it works fine.  Now if only my Verizon cellular would outperform yelling and/or smoke signals.....

[oldsub]

Thanks for the input. So far it seems the 7100 receivers are having the problems.
Mtn Witch--a 3722 is newer than a 7100. Elmerfudd, I have spent half the morning trying to figure out some of my phone's features. I'm with you on this technological stuff. My Dad, however, just got his first touch tone phone, but prefers the dial one.

[rmekemson]

I share your bewilderment with all this technology stuff.  When it comes to a phone I want to be able to punch in the phone number, talk to someone and then hang up.  If I could ever figure everything else out, I'd still have troubles getting my fat fingers to hit the right buttons.  Why are they so darn small?

[oldsub]

[oldsub]

Back to my problem. I have located 4 other people whose receivers are dysfunctioning, the same as mine. DISH suggested: 1) replace the coaxial cable,  2) replace the LNBF ( they run around $70.00), and 3) For a mere $69.00 they'll issue me an RA ( return authorization)--I ship them my receiver and they ship me a refurbished 7100. AFTER I bought a new receiver at Costco ( $89.99). Rick the handyman climbed up on the roof and tweaked my dish. He refuses to explain the problem to DISH--or to me for that matter, but I now have 86%  signal, and things are ducky. Anybody need a new receiver??  IF your receiver can't remain locked on to the signal--call Rick.

[Supermodel]

Anyone else been having problems w/their cable TV?

[oldsub]

If you have a 7100 ,aka dishplayer ,AND an old dish, you will be unable to retreive program information until you call DISH ( 1-800-333-3474) and make an appointment for them to install a new DISH 500 onto your house. It has two dual LNBFs one on satellite 119, the other on 110.
IT"S FREE.
I learned all of this the hard way!
An installer will be in town on the 20th for my installation!! :-[

[Butterfly]

We had Sprint cellphone service and it works well in Wrightwood.  We recently switched to Verizon because Sprint service really stinks in other areas and their customer service is awful.  Verizon doesn't work in Wrightwood at all for us.  We drove down Hwy 2 towards Hwy 138 and just before you get to Hwy 138 it works.  I've heard some rumors that they are working on getting a Verizon cell tower in Wrightwood but I have no idea when.  The Sprint cell tower was just put in last year I believe.  

[Wrightwood]

[Butterfly]

Thanks Wrightwood.  I will do that.  

[BikingBrian]

Do any of the TV service providers (Charter Cable/Direct TV/Dish) allow you to turn on the service only when you need it?  This would be good for a weekender with football season starting up...  

Also, I tried to go to the Charter Cable website and entered in my address to check the pricing/services in my area, and it said "address not found".  How annoying!