One of the long-standing arguments the cable industry has made to convince consumers is that their service is more reliable than satellite. Satellite TV is frequently affected by the weather.

In my experience, that’s simply not the case. Sure, we have lost out satellite service a few times in the dozen or so years we have had it, but it’s always been due to very severe or unusual weather conditions.

Satellite seems most susceptible to severe thunderstorms during the summer. This isn’t much of a problem for us since I always disconnect the satellite dish from our DVR and receivers when we get storms like that. I also unplug all electronic devices from the power outlets.

It’s a pain, but well worth the effort if lighting strikes your home or the power lines in your area. Lightning can wipe out just about every electronic device in your home if a strike happens close enough and your devices are still plugged in.

We had some severe weather here in New Hampshire last night and some Comcast customers got a taste of how cable TV service can be affected by the weather as well. Although the actual number of customers impacted is not included, Manchester, NH television station WMUR reports on their website that a number of Comcast customers lost their service during the finale of American Idol last night.

Since American Idol is a wildly popular show, and the finale is probably one of the most-watched (if not the most-watched) programs every year, there must be quite a few unhappy Comcast customers around the state today.

We happened to be watching that very program last night, and despite the bad weather in the area, we had no problems with our DISH Network reception whatsoever. In fact, I watched TV until around midnight last night and never had any reception problems at all.

WMUR reports that it was some kind of telephone pole fire that knocked out Comcast service for some customers. With thunderstorms in the area, it is likely that the fire was the result of a lightning strike.

Now what was that the cable industry was saying about how unreliable satellite TV is during bad weather?

I’m always running into advertisements on the net that claim you can get “satellite TV on your PC” for $50 or something. Obviously, there are questionable products. Many of them involve downloading some application that supposedly allows you to watch various satellite channels. In view of the fact that satellite TV is a subscription service, it really doesn’t make sense to believe you can get it via your PC for a one-time payment of $49 or $39 or whatever. At least not legally.

With the announcement of a new distribution deal between DISH Network and NeuLion, you can now get real satellite TV on your PC. NeuLion is a company that distributes television programming over the internet and they will now be able to offer international channels from DISH Network.

Dish Network Vice President of International Programming Chris Kuelling has this to say about this new partnership: “We know some of our customers prefer to watch their favorite channels via satellite and others prefer broadband delivery, and we are pleased that we can now offer a solution that fits their specific needs.”

Finally, I can hear someone say “satellite TV in PC” and actually believe it!

Not terribly surprising for me to hear, but Comcast’s latest quarterly report reveals that the company has lost another 82,000 cable TV subscribers. That follows an even bigger loss of 199,000 during the 4th quarter of last year, which may be a sign that the rate of customer flight may be slowing.

Yeah, I’m always tough on Comcast, and for that matter, most cable TV companies. That’s because I cannot recall a single one of them I have ever been satisfied with. I’d estimate that I’ve been a subscriber to at least five different cable companies in my life, and it was always a lousy experience for me.

Today, I’m still a Comcast customer, but only for high-speed internet. Comcast is the only game in town if you want high-speed internet in my area. To be perfectly honest, the high-speed internet service is pretty good. The problem I have with it is the price. Paying $62 a month for an internet connection (and that’s not even the highest-speed option) seems a little over-the-top to me.

Sure, I could get high-speed internet from Comcast cheaper if I signed up for one of their cable TV packages, but when I consider the signal quality, the low number of HD channels and the fact that I have been quite happy with my DISH Network service for the last dozen years or so, the idea of switching to Comcast for my television programming is not an option.

Despite the loss of cable TV customers, the company reports that their revenue per customer has risen about 6%. That’s probably due to increased fees – something I remember very well from my days as a cable TV customer; regardless of what cable company it was.

Even though it’s painfully obvious that Comcast lags behind the satellite providers when it comes to HD channels, I suspect they will continue with their sneaky TV commercials which claim they offer more HD “content” than satellite. There’s a difference between HD “content” and HD channels, so they must be including all their on-demand programming in their calculation of “content” and hoping that consumers will think “channels” when Comcast says “content.”

I guess most companies play games when it comes to making their offerings look good, but my years of experience as an unhappy cable TV customer might make me a little more cynical with regard to cable TV advertising claims.

It’s risky enough to be receiving illegal satellite or cable TV broadcasts on your own, but for some people that’s not quite enough, and they think of ways to make money for themselves by setting illegal equipment to others. Those that venture into that type of “business” model should prepare themselves for serious consequences if they are caught.

That’s the case with Won Tak Kim, “president” of an outfit called Panarex. The organization was in the business of selling “free-to-air” or FTA satellite systems, which can be perfectly legal when used to receive signals that are intended to be free for public consumption. Panarex, however, was also providing customers with some extra “features,” specifically DISH Network signals that are intended only for DISH Network subscribers.

Although satellite signals that are broadcast by pay-TV providers like DISH Network are encrypted in order to make it more difficult for individuals who attempt to “pirate” the broadcasts without paying for a subscription, there are some individuals who have the technical expertise to manufacture the equipment required to receive the encrypted signals.

When DISH Network learned that Panarex was selling satellite systems that were imported from South Korea and were able to receive encrypted DISH Network broadcasts after downloading decryption codes from the internet, they took legal action.

A federal district court in California ordered Panarex to surrender their inventory and stop selling the illegal receivers. The company was also ordered to pay a $121 million penalty to DISH Network.

No word on how Panarex customers will fare after this settlement, but I would not want to be someone with one of those illegal receivers in my home. Some customers probably believed that they were buying satellite systems that were legal, but there is no doubt that many of them knew exactly what they were getting and may be at risk of prosecution.

A new addition to DishLATINO packages is aimed at viewers who enjoy programming from Central America. Centroamerica TV features programming that includes original programming as well as top-rated soccer games from Central America.

A special feature of this new addition is the airing of Centroamerica TV’s La Liga (Spanish soccer league) game of the week, which airs every Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Centroamerica TV is available in the U.S. only via satellite and can be found on DISH Network Ch. 832. The new channel comes at no extra charge to subscribers of DishLATINO Clasico and above programming packages. The channel will  provide Central Americans living in the United States with a solid connection to their home countries using informative and entertaining programming that includes "Viva la Manana" from Guatemala, "Hola El Salvador," "Noticias 12" from Nicaragua and "Telenoticias" from Costa Rica.

The channel will also air live soccer games each week and sports highlights programs like "El Pizarron Deportivo" from El Salvador, "Resumen Deportivo" from Costa Rica and "Gol a Gol," a thorough recap of the week’s highlights from La Liga.

"DISH Network is the leader in Spanish-language programming because we continue to bring new and exciting programming like Centroamerica TV to the wide variety of Latino communities in the U.S.," said Dave Shull, senior vice president of Programming for DISH Network. "We are very pleased that the millions of Central Americans who live in the U.S. now have access to Centroamerica TV at a value unmatched by any other pay-TV provider in the country."

"We continue with our commitment to serve the Central American community in the U.S., and we are thrilled Centroamerica TV is now available through DISH Network’s DishLATINO suite of packages," said Antonio Briceno, general manager for Centroamerica TV and vice president of Distribution and Channels for Imagina U.S. "This reaffirms our standing as the leading channel for Central Americans living in this country."

According to a report on the Upper Michigan’s Source, DISH Network is poised to add local channels to their line-up, giving UP residents access to local stations such as TV 6.

According to the report, the local channels will be available for DISH Network customers to order tonight starting at 7:00 p.m. EDT.

Photo: takomabibelot

Comments in response to the news from Upper Michigan’s Source seem to indicate that some UP residents have had problems receiving their local TV channels since the cutover to digital TV. Something I can relate to here at my home since DTV seems to be a bit less “stable” than the old reliable analog signals that served us well for many decades.

I signed up for the local channel package from DISH Network a while back, mainly to receive our local ABC affiliate that is located in Manchester, NH. The terrain between our home and the stations transmission tower make it impossible to receive a reliable signal these days following the DTV transition, although we could usually count on a snowy, but watchable signal when they were broadcasting an analog signal.

Residents of the UP who are not already DISH Network customers and who would like to sign up or learn more about DISH Network can visit the DISH Network website by clicking here for all the latest information on programming packages and pricing.

Well, it sure wasn’t a pleasant way to see my point proven with regard to cable TV’s susceptibility to weather when compared to satellite, but our experience here during the ice storm of 2008 reveals the truth regarding cable TV’s susceptibility to weather-related outages.

On Friday, December 12 at around 10:00 PM we lost the power at our house. It was something that was expected since a serious ice storm had moved in. It turned out to be a lot more serious than we expected.

Our power was restored on December 23, making for 11 days and 12 nights without power. Fortunately, we have a wood stove and enough dead wood around our heavily-wooded lot to keep it going, so we were able to hold down the fort here at home while others had to resort to shelters to avoid freezing to death in their own homes.

The cable TV line from the telephone pole to the house had been ripped down by fallen trees and broken in two places. In case your wondering why a DISH Network fan like me has a cable TV line running to his house, it’s because we use it for high-speed internet only. Unfortunately, cable TV offers the only high-speed internet service in our area.

Although I called Comcast the day after the storm – hoping to secure a top spot in line among many other customers who would be calling in to have lines repaired – I did not expect them to be out the next day as the Comcast customer service guy told me. Due to the seriousness of the storm, I expected it would be a while before they could come fix the line. What I didn’t expect was to be completely forgotten.

After power was restored and I still had not seen any sign of Comcast, I called again only to find that they seemed to have no record of my earlier call at all! Adding insult to injury, they informed me that the earliest date they could send a technician to my house was January 22 – a full month away. I was not happy, but I accepted my fate and hung up the phone.

The next day I got to thinking a bit and I realized the situation was not acceptable. I had called within a day of the storm’s end to secure an early spot in line and now they are telling me January 22?

I called Comcast again and explained the situation to them and told them that January 22 was not good enough. After some discussion with a supervisor or manager, the customer service rep told me he could have someone out at my house on December 24, which was the very next day. I found that much more acceptable than waiting a whole month.

Looking down our driveway away from the front of our house

Well, December 24 came and went and nobody from Comcast ever showed up. Big surprise. I knew I would not see them on Christmas, and hoped they would have someone out soon after the holiday.

Sure enough, a contractor for Comcast showed up on December 26 but told me that the wire running from the pole to my house was a heavier type than he had with him and would not work as well. He said someone would be out with the correct wire as soon as possible.

A couple of days later another contractor showed up and our service was finally restored.

OK, I guess that may have been kind of a long way to get to the point of my story.

During the 11 days we were without power we were also without internet, and would have been without cable TV if we subscribed to it. During this time I also had a generator that I would run periodically during the day to keep the food in the refrigerator from spoiling and at night for a few hours so we could watch TV.

Unlike cable, which was out for more than the 11 days of the power outage, we were able to use our DISH Network service the day after the storm when the ice melted off the dish.

I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty: That approximate two-week period when our cable was out of service was a longer period of time than all the weather-related outages we have experienced with DISH Network over the last 11 years or so. Much, much longer.

While our cable TV line lie broken in front of our house for two weeks or so, we were able to watch all the TV programming we usually watch because we have DISH Network service. Ice storms, blizzards, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes and volcanoes don’t disturb orbiting satellites very much at all.

Now what was it that the cable companies were saying about how the weather disrupts satellite TV?

When you compare customers of satellite TV service and cable TV service, satellite is coming in on top overall.

According to the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, the two big satellite TV broadcasters, Dish Network and DirecTV are outscoring their cable TV rivals.

The latest data reveals that DirecTV’s rating was up 1.5% to 68 and Dish Network was came in second with a rating of 65, which was down from 67 last year.

Although some of the smaller cable companies like Cablevision and RCN helped drive the overall ratings for cable TV up a bit, the cable giants like Comcast and Charter Communications held cable’s rating back.

Be Sure To Check Out Dish Network’s Latest Deals

As a satisfied Dish Network customer myself, I have few gripes about the service. I guess the biggest gripe I have is being connected to an overseas call center when I call Dish Network. I’d much rather talk to someone who is a native English speaker and who understands the culture here. Talking to someone half a world away about a problem with my service or equipment can be very frustrating when it is difficult to understand the person who is supposed to be helping you.

So many of these big companies are using these overseas call centers these days that it’s kind of hard to avoid the situation. If Dish Network would go back to using U.S.-based call centers, I guess I’d have to say that I really don’t have any gripes with the service whatsoever.

According to a recent article on CNN Money, consumer demand for HDTV continues to be strong.

There is also a war of sorts that is going on between the satellite and cable companies with each of them claiming the most HD channels. Some folks make the mistake of believing that all you need to do is buy an HDTV set in order to watch HD programming all of the time.

The truth of the matter is that you will not see HD-quality programming on your new HDTV set unless the signal that is being transmitted is an HD signal. As it stand now, most television programming is still being transmitted in standard definition. That goes for the cable systems, satellite systems and local over-the-air broadcasts.

Just the other day I saw a commercial from Comcast that was advertising their superior number of HD channels when compared to DirecTV satellite. I have a hard time believe that, especially since I have seen Comcast commercials in the past they I considered deceptive.

I have heard recently that DirecTV has recently updated their HD offerings and now have about 100 HD channels. I don’t have Comcast cable TV service myself but my relatives in Massachusetts do and the last time I talked to them, Comcast was not offering anywhere near 100 HD channels on the system that are serviced by.

Dish Network currently offers about 75 HD channels but promises to upgrade that to 100 channels this year with the launch of new satellites. I just hope they are able to position the new satellites close enough to the 100, 199 or 61-degree satellites to allow me to catch them with the dish antennas I currently have now. I don’t mind having two dishes on my house but it seems like three might be pushing it a little.