Andi, we had Dish before and the installer had to check all over our tree filled yard until he found a good spot.
The installer said the final option was to install it up in a tree, if all else failed.

Of course, I didn't want the dish where you could actually see it and eventually, we found a spot that was out of the way with clear line to the satellite.

I really don't know how this stuff works but if Direct TV uses a different satellite, maybe you would get a better siganl?
I always thought satellites orbited the earth and don't really understand how you can "point" to one when it moves about.