Does dish antenna matter for HD...?

[lepa71]

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I was wondering if it makes any difference what dish network antenna to install. I currently have dish network Dish 500 antenna and i'm planing to upgrade to HD service. Dish network CS rep said they will need install a new antenna for me to be able to receive HD programming. So I need to know if I should ask for a specific antenna when switching.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[whowanna]

They install the antenna for you, as far as I know, they don't ask which model antenna you would like installed?

[lepa71]

I do believe there are couple different ones. Like 1000.2 and 1000.4. Is there a difference between them?

[Volmaul]

Originally Posted by lepa71

I do believe there are couple different ones. Like 1000.2 and 1000.4. Is there a difference between them?

They point at different groups of satellites. All HD is encoded in MPEG4 on both groups. SD is encoded in MPEG2 with the 1000.2 Western Arc and MPEG4 with the 1000.4 Eastern Arc. There is not much difference between them. MPEG4 is more efficient, but Dish uses a lower resolution for MPEG4 SD channels than MPEG2. They will likely choose the dish that will get your local channels in HD unless a line of sight issue prevents that. It shouldn't matter.

[lepa71]

Here is my current setup. I live in MN zip 55446. Dish 500 points to east. Standard receiver 4900. My new setup, or at least the way I want it to be, 722 or 722k receiver. 1st TV in HD and second SD TV. So I will only have 1 receiver. Are they going to install dish 1000.4 Easter Arc? I don't have any issues with line of sight.

Thanks

[lepa71]

I found this site while researching. Judging by Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com my dish could be pointed to ether East or West arc. Which one is better for HD-DVR?. My dish 500 is being pointed west right now(110,119). I prefer not to relocate dish poll on the roof, but I would if it makes sense. I also found Dish 1000+ antenna that may work for me. Does any body know about it?

Thanks

[MikeD-C05]

I have to say that in my side by side observations of both sd channels on both western arc and eastern arc on two toshiba hdtvs, eastern arc looks better on sd channels in mpeg 4. There is less compression and artifacting in the backgrounds of the sd channels for shows like Golden Girls on Hallmark channel. I have both arc dishes set up on poles out back of my house. I have three coaxes run into my house in three rooms. So I can flip back and forth between either arc and just change the coax leading into the receiver and then run a check switch. I even recorded a tv show on each arc in sd and compared the same show in side by side comparison using pip screen and you can definitely see a difference. My wife said the same. The bonus is that eastern arc has a strong powerful brand new satellite at 72.7 and the recordings in mpeg 4 take up less room on your hard drive.

[Volmaul]

Originally Posted by lepa71

Here is my current setup. I live in MN zip 55446. Dish 500 points to east. Standard receiver 4900. My new setup, or at least the way I want it to be, 722 or 722k receiver. 1st TV in HD and second SD TV. So I will only have 1 receiver. Are they going to install dish 1000.4 Easter Arc? I don't have any issues with line of sight.

Thanks

Your HD locals are located on both the 61.5 and 129 satellites, so they could install either dish and you would get them. It is probably going to be the one the installer thinks is easiest that gets installed unless Dish has mandated a certain type of install for your area. You could always ask them and see what they say if you'd prefer one or the other.