New Equip for High Def?

[tsummerall]

Yes I'm pretty annoyed at the chaotic state of HD right now, but I think I'm ready for the switch. Do I contact the installer or does dish? I want to have him come out and make sure I can actually see the birds before I get the process started.

[ts7]

Can I be pretty confident that if I can see the SD satellites I'll also be able to see the HD ones?

No. I had a 500 on my roof with no LOS problems. When I went to HD and had to add 129, I had to move the dish to the middle of the backyard about 70' from the house. This turned into a major project. The initial installer stuck a temporary mount in the yard and laid the cables on the ground and ran them up the corner of my house to the roof where the original dish was. Another installer came a few weeks later and installed a pole in the ground, but was just going to bury the cable left by the previous installer. That was, in my opinion, unacceptable as it was going to leave ugly cable going up the side of my house and draped across my roof. I volunteered to install conduit from the utility service entrance of my house to the new dish site and the installer came back to pull and terminate the cable (he was more than happy not to have to dig a trench!). At any rate, it ended up costing me an extra $100 or so and now I'm stuck with a dish in the yard that I have to mow around (plus it's been hit by a few stray soccer/footballs).

Sorry for going on so long... just wanted to let you know what you could be in for.