DIRECTV launched another satellite into orbit in June. They have been transferring a lot of their HD channels to it. The upside will be more HD channels. Unfortunately progress frequently comes with a price:

Because there are so many satellites this one orbits in a slightly different spot. That means that your old satellite dish will need to be re-aligned or replaced with a more up-to-date version. Customers have been experiencing "pixilization" due to low signal strength. If you are experiencing difficulties, give me a call.

In addition, dish-heaters that are attached to the front of the dish, a common practice in the past, will actually change the dish shape enough to cause problems receiving the new signals.

Satellite Dish Heaters

A satellite dish heater is a thin film that applies like a decal to the satellite dish. A thermostat turns it on when it's cold. These are helpful in most snowfall cases. However, when we get those major snowfalls (12" in a few hours) they just can't keep up. I do recommenced a dish heater for any satellite dish installed in an location that can not be reached safely in the winter.

The time to think about a satellite dish heater is the summer. We are pretty reluctant to climb up on a snowy roof in the winter.

Heaters on front of dish now impact signal strength.

Many HD channels have been transferred to a new satellite launched recently. Because of this satellites location you may encounter very low signal on some HD channels. This requires the dish to be retuned. In addition, until recently, it was common practice to install dish heaters on the front of the satellite dish. This now impacts the signal strength. Also, an inspection of your dish heater will reveal deterioration of the heater by the sun (pictured here). The satellite dish itself needs to be replaced with a new heater installed on the back. Because satellite dish's have been upgraded several times in the past few years it is a good idea to have your dish upgraded anyway.  Call for an appointment and a quote to have this done before winter.

In the Spring on 2010 DIRECTV stopped offering XM Radio as their music choices. The do still offer a good selection of digital music but the type of music and the channel it's has changed. You'll need to download an updated music channel guide.

For those of you with "favorite channel" buttons pre-programmed in your automated remote control we will need to adjust the channels and descriptions to reflect the current offerings.

Sirius & XM Radio