Someone PLEASE explain the attraction of satellite TV!

[HLAuburn]

I do not get the whole satellite TV deal! We just bought a new house and I was appalled to see the neighbors attached a huge, ugly dish to the front of their house. Now, I can see putting it in the back where it's not so obvious, but why would anyone want to put that on the front of their brand new house?

There are other TV options on the neighborhood, so that is not the reason. I am working on getting a copy of the covenants to see if it says anything about the placement of dishes, but aside from that, they just look ugly. Am I the only one who thinks that??

Also, we are staying at a condo with Direct TV and everytime it rains, the signal goes out! How annoying! And I feel like every other channel is an informercial for something!

So what's the attraction??

 

[barkley]

in our case it's the only option (no cable out here in the boonies).

when we lived in an area with a variety of options, satellite t.v. offered better service (cable was always having problems), and was much more cost effective (the taxes on cable were insane, with satellite we were not taxed).

as for the placement of the dish-sometimes you've got no choice on where it's going to be placed. it has to face a certain direction, and if trees or other buildings block the signal from the back of your home then the placement has to be on the front.

 

[Lanshark]

There are more programming options available. The sports packages are extensive. The NFL Package is one. That was a determining factor for us.
Although we've lived in Atlanta since 1982 we grew up around Chicago and still follow the Bears, Blackhawks and unfortunately the Cubs. We also have the big 10 network so we can watch our college team; Purdue.

My dish is on my roof attached to my chimney. I can't imagine putting it on the front of the house unless you couldn't receive a signal. Mine is positioned to where you can't really see it from the street. We have been much happier with programming options and picture with the dish. We had cable for years.

To each his own.

 

[mrodgers]

1. The attraction can be that it is the only option, as it was for the past 15 years for me.

2. Cable can be outragous in price, as it would be for me.

3. The dish is picking up a signal from a satellite in the sky. If the satellite is in the sky somewhere in front of the house, putting the dish in the back of the house wouldn't be an option as there is a house in the way of the signal.

4. When it storms here where I am, the cable trucks are out everywhere fixing the downed lines. I can count on 1 hand how many times I've had my satellite go out due to weather in the last 15 years.

 

[daughtersrus]

I do not get the whole satellite TV deal! We just bought a new house and I was appalled to see the neighbors attached a huge, ugly dish to the front of their house. Now, I can see putting it in the back where it's not so obvious, but why would anyone want to put that on the front of their brand new house?

There are other TV options on the neighborhood, so that is not the reason. I am working on getting a copy of the covenants to see if it says anything about the placement of dishes, but aside from that, they just look ugly. Am I the only one who thinks that??

Also, we are staying at a condo with Direct TV and everytime it rains, the signal goes out! How annoying! And I feel like every other channel is an informercial for something!

So what's the attraction??

The attraction maybe the price or what is offered. We switched from Comcast Cable to Dish Network several years ago. The main reason was the price. The placement of the dish is determined by where they can get the best signal from the satellite. We chose to place ours on the roof and it's barely noticeable from the street. We rarely loose the signal. Our neighbors chose to put theirs in on the side of the front of their house. They loose the signal quite often as it gets blocked from the trees. The only advantage to having it there for them is that they can clean off any snow that may build up on it.

I know that there's a FCC law regarding them. That's why there are so many of them on the sides of rental buildings. Prior to the law, landlords could prohibit them from being installed.

 

[momof1princess]

where i live, satellite tv is much cheaper than cable. and as for the placement of the dish, that is determined by the location of the satellite in the sky-the dish is placed wherever it gets the strongest signal from the satellite. mine is on the front of my house as well, at the western corner. i don't even notice it.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

I was with Dish Network at first because of the price point involved for the stations offered. Comcast couldn't touch Dish on price. Now that FiOS moved into our area we switched to them because Dish dropped a major channel (GolTV).

As to the placement of the Dish, I believe there are laws that protect people in terms of placing the Dish on their property. Even in communities with a housing association, so long as the Dish is on the tenants "private" use area, the housing association can do nothing about the Dish.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

We have sattelite because its our only option where we live. Hearing what my relatives pay for cable makes me believe we would still have it even it cable were available. (ours is on the roof)

This is why we live where we do. If we choose to put a sattelite on the front of our house, or put up a fence, park a camper in the driveway, etc. our neighbors can not ask us to remove it. (well I suppose they could ask.) In fact they wouldn't even be able to see it from their house or the road. I don't care what they do in their front yard, and they don't care what I do in mine.

 

[HelenePA]

Our local cable offers 1/4 the channels at a higher price. We've had directv for 10+ years. The only time we lose our reception is when a thunderstorm is moving over the mountain. Its only out for a few seconds most of the time. I'll put up with it. We didn't even lose reception during our 4' (yes foot) snow fall last winter.

 

[dizluvah]

Our response has been said by another poster - but bears repeating...

sports, sports, sports - with Directv NFL package we can see every single nfl game all season - more importantly - as the the other poster stated if you are not supporters/fans of your local teams -

the only way to see your team play is with satelitte tv -we live in NH and are San Diego Charger fans so if you want to ever see a Charger game - you get satelitte tv...

Plus I'll darn well place my dish wherever I like (ie best signal strength) whether my neighbors find it an eye sore or not is totally irrelevant to me - I am shocked that op is expending energy to see if her neighborhood association has a rule that she can use to get her neighbors to remove their dish - that could make for very unpleasant living situation with your neighbors over something I think is pretty trivial.

 

[ICF]

Generally the attraction is that you get more channels, with better picture quality at a lower cost then the cable comapany will get you.

If the signal goes out everytime it rains, you likely have a poor install or bad equipment. I've seldom lost signal over the 10+ years I have had direct or dish. That rain problem doesnt happen (or shouldnt happen) in most cases.

The dishes are also far from huge (you should have seen the dishes 25 years ago that were used) and are also legal to have at your home. They can't be legally forbiden by an HOA.

 

[bicker]

I know that there's a FCC law regarding them. That's why there are so many of them on the sides of rental buildings. Prior to the law, landlords could prohibit them from being installed.

Even in communities with a housing association, so long as the Dish is on the tenants "private" use area, the housing association can do nothing about the Dish.

The law, incidentally, is "OTARD". Useful to keep that in mind, if you end up needing to invoke it with your landlord, condo board, or HOA board.

I've considered satellite several times and have always decided that cable was superior. It has a lot to do with what is offered in your area, including the relative quality. Satellite is, of course, affected by weather, while cable is not, and so if you have, like we do, a nationwide cable service offering over 100 HD channels, which practically never goes out, then that's going to make a big difference, as compared to if your have some dinky, local cable service, with a couple of dozen HD channels, that either has flaky signal quality or frequent outages.

 

[Colleen27]

The satellite dish has to face the satellite, so the placement isn't up to the homeowner to decide. That's why we stick with cable, even though satellite would be a little cheaper and offer more options. I can't stand the idea of having the dish mounted on our old Victorian, particularly once we get to restoring the exterior to its period look.

The attraction, in addition to generally better pricing, is that satellite tends to offer more specialized packages. Not just the sports and HD add-ons that are (mostly) available from cable as well but also international and foreign language programming and things along those lines.

And in rural areas, it can be the only option; we looked at a couple of houses that we decided against because they were far enough out that satellite TV/internet were the only option, and while sat TV is a little cheaper than cable, sat internet is really expensive compared to cable/DSL.

 

[FireDancer]

I have satellite because it is the lest expensive way to get the channels I want. I couldn't get the soccer packages as cheaply with anyone else and one of the two largest channels that carry the European leagues isn't offered by my cable choice. I have also never had any customer service issues with them which I can't say about my two years with cable. I have only lost my signal in extreme weather and that has only been a handful of times. Often it is an installation problem. Either the dish isn't aimed at the center of the sweet spot and looses line of sight too easily or it is not mounted firmly enough and is moved off of the signal too easily in wind or rain.

As for dish placement, you put it where it gets the reception. That may mean the front of the house, the back of the house, out on a shed with the cable tunneled in, or anywhere else on property. As long as someone has the dish somewhere on their own property I really don't care where that is. It isn't any of my business what part of the house my neighbor mounts their dish on.

 

[Sorsha]

The attraction with satellite is, quite simply, the channels. Where I live, we have one cable company. It is small, it is expensive, and it sucks. It offers terrible channels, and if you go in and ask them if they would consider offering a certain channel, the answer is always NO. They have no intentions of changing the programming offers anytime in the near future.

For exactly the same price I would pay to get about 60 channels of cable, I get almost 300 channels of satellite with free DVR - I haven't watched commercials in months. I still get my local networks, and now I get all the channels I wanted to have but were never offered to me on cable. I have only lost reception once, during one awful snowstorm, in the year we have had the service.

The dish is small, and IMHO pretty unobtrusive. I am sorry if it bothers any of my neighbors, but what it comes down to is its on MY house on MY property and its no more anyone else's business than it is MY business to tell my neighbor that I think his choice of petunias in his flowerbed is ugly.

 

[HLAuburn]

Plus I'll darn well place my dish wherever I like (ie best signal strength) whether my neighbors find it an eye sore or not is totally irrelevant to me - I am shocked that op is expending energy to see if her neighborhood association has a rule that she can use to get her neighbors to remove their dish - that could make for very unpleasant living situation with your neighbors over something I think is pretty trivial.

That's a real nice attitude about doing whatever the heck you want regardless of what other people think. If you want to live in a "bubble", then don't move into a neighborhood with restrictive covenants. The HOA rules are there to protect the neighborhood as a whole and maintain the "look" and value of it for everyone. I can't just go put up any fence I want or paint my house red if I want, so I don't see this modification as any different. And you bet that if the convenants say something about it having to be out of view of the street, I'll say something! Might be trivial to you, but I didn't pay half a million dollars to look at that thing everytime I come home.

Of course if the covenants don't address it, I guess I don't have a leg to stand on, and I'm just stuck with neighbors with no taste.

And I get the whole location deal, that it has to point a certain direction, but I cannot imagine any TV program would be worth ruining the appearance of your beautiful new home. Obviously it's just my opinion, but it looks awful.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

That's a real nice attitude about doing whatever the heck you want regardless of what other people think. If you want to live in a "bubble", then don't move into a neighborhood with restrictive covenants. The HOA rules are there to protect the neighborhood as a whole and maintain the "look" and value of it for everyone. I can't just go put up any fence I want or paint my house red if I want, so I don't see this modification as any different. And you bet that if the convenants say something about it having to be out of view of the street, I'll say something! Might be trivial to you, but I didn't pay half a million dollars to look at that thing everytime I come home.

Of course if the covenants don't address it, I guess I don't have a leg to stand on, and I'm just stuck with neighbors with no taste.

And I get the whole location deal, that it has to point a certain direction, but I cannot imagine any TV program would be worth ruining the appearance of your beautiful new home. Obviously it's just my opinion, but it looks awful.

And as I, and other PP's, have pointed out, they don't say anything because they cannot. As bicker pointed out (thanks since I couldn't remember the name), they are called the OTARD laws and protect the homeowner from overzealous HOA's.

 

[Elmo9607]

It is our only option out here too. EVERYONE out here has a dish. It is extremely unusual to see a house without one. Our dish is smack dab on the corner of the front of our house on the corner of our garage. If you never looked up, you'd never see it. We have a tree blocking it from view from the road, but we were not concerned about appearances as everyone has one out here and if we were, we wouldn't have TV since that's obviously the only spot on the house where a decent signal could be found.

 

[ICF]

Of course if the covenants don't address it, I guess I don't have a leg to stand on, and I'm just stuck with neighbors with no taste.

And I get the whole location deal, that it has to point a certain direction, but I cannot imagine any TV program would be worth ruining the appearance of your beautiful new home. Obviously it's just my opinion, but it looks awful.

As stated, your outta luck and will have to deal with having to view those "huge" dishes everyday.

Perhaps if it were such a big deal to you having to view these dishes from your "half million dollar home" you should have thought about that before building.

It sounds like your neighbors will love you......

 

[mill4023]

That's a real nice attitude about doing whatever the heck you want regardless of what other people think. If you want to live in a "bubble", then don't move into a neighborhood with restrictive covenants. The HOA rules are there to protect the neighborhood as a whole and maintain the "look" and value of it for everyone. I can't just go put up any fence I want or paint my house red if I want, so I don't see this modification as any different. And you bet that if the convenants say something about it having to be out of view of the street, I'll say something! Might be trivial to you, but I didn't pay half a million dollars to look at that thing everytime I come home.

Of course if the covenants don't address it, I guess I don't have a leg to stand on, and I'm just stuck with neighbors with no taste.

And I get the whole location deal, that it has to point a certain direction, but I cannot imagine any TV program would be worth ruining the appearance of your beautiful new home. Obviously it's just my opinion, but it looks awful.

That's a real nice attitude about deciding that you should have the right to tell your neighbors that they can't choose to have satellite tv service because you don't like the way it looks, even though it's fully within their legal rights and normal community standards. Not to mention insulting someone and name calling because you disagree with them.

If you want to live in a "bubble", where you are protected from the horrors of having to see a satellite dish, then I guess you shouldn't have moved into a neighborhood with houses that are within your view.

Might be trivial to you, but those neighbors didn't pay a half million dollars to have nosy neighbors try to prevent them from subscribing to the tv service of their choice!