What Satellites does DirecTV use?

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andrewj0781

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Pub Member / Supporter
Feb 28, 2009
1,166
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Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States
I'm thinking of switching over to D*. I was wondering what Satellites does D* use? My zip code is 16602 (Altoona, PA) I want to make sure that I can get it before I call and order it. Thanks for your help.
 
If you get DISH just fine you will not have problems with Direct TV. Been there done that. I think you will like Direct, I switched after ten years with DISH and I am very happy I did.
 
Depending on your overall subscription needs:

72.5°W - DirecTV 1R

95.0°W - Galaxy 3C

99.2°W - Spaceway 2 & DirecTV 11

101.0°W - DirecTV 4S/8

102.8°W - Spaceway 1 & DirecTV 10/12

109.8°W - DirecTV 5 (nothing on this one currently)

119.0°W - DirecTV 7S
 
Depending on your overall subscription needs:

72.5°W - DirecTV 1R NOT USED ANYMORE

95.0°W - Galaxy 3C INTERNATIONAL ONLY

99.2°W - Spaceway 2 & DirecTV 11

101.0°W - DirecTV 4S/8

102.8°W - Spaceway 1 & DirecTV 10/12

109.8°W - DirecTV 5 (nothing on this one currently)

119.0°W - DirecTV 7S

I added a couple notes
72.5 is no longer used. It had some locals on it but those have been moved to 99/103 and are in MPEG4
95 is only used for Internationals
 
gizmojoe said:
If you get DISH just fine you will not have problems with Direct TV. Been there done that. I think you will like Direct, I switched after ten years with DISH and I am very happy I did.

Not true. This is my biggest pet peeve being an installer. "I don't see why I have no problems with dish and you tell me I can't have Directv" Directv uses different satellites then dish HOWEVER it is a very strange situation when Directv can't be installed and dish can. It works both ways but I will agree with gizmo Joe, you shouldn't have any worries
 
If you get DISH just fine you will not have problems with Direct TV. Been there done that. I think you will like Direct, I switched after ten years with DISH and I am very happy I did.

not necessarily. On top of what the person above me wrote, on the eastern part of the US they use 61.5/72/77 which is aimed about 80 degrees opposite direction of what Direct is
Even if we are using Western Arc (110/119/129) I have seen folks have line of site issues getting one or the other
 
I'd be looking at Choice Xtra with HD. (I was told even if I had sd tvs I'd still have to hook hd receivers because of where our locals are located.)

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gizmojoe said:
I think you will like Direct, I switched after ten years with DISH and I am very happy I did.

I had Directv in the past and wasn't a big fan of it. Once my Aunt got the upgrade to the slime line dish I noticed that the quality is a lot better then the two dishes system I had. I like the quality enough that I'm willing to give it another shot. Also I the lack of sport support is my main reason of moving on.

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get the HD units if thats what they are offering; saves upgrade time and costs later. they will don-covert to your current TVs anyway
 
I agree what Charper says. Get what you THINK you need NOW...you'll pay more in the long run if you dont
The HD receivers you can set up to show the SD version only
 
I had Directv in the past and wasn't a big fan of it. Once my Aunt got the upgrade to the slime line dish I noticed that the quality is a lot better then the two dishes system I had. I like the quality enough that I'm willing to give it another shot. Also I the lack of sport support is my main reason of moving on.

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Depending how long ago, it may have been back when the Mpeg2 stuff was bring used, now Most is in Mpeg4 ...
 
Jimbo said:
Depending how long ago, it may have been back when the Mpeg2 stuff was bring used, now Most is in Mpeg4 ...

It was back about 5 years ago. I came over when E* dropped Lifetime and my wife was upset about losing those channels.

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More than likely, you'll only need 99, 101, and 103.
Edit: Checking the locals on D*'s website and it seems like your locals are HD only, so because of that, they'll have to give you all HD receivers no matter what. You shouldn't have to pay anything upfront.
 
Sorry for the ignorance on this topic, but why would anyone care which satellites are being used. I see a ton of chat on the forums about which satellites are being used, etc.
I thought it is just a case of your dish needs a view of the Southern sky, and you can pick up up DTV. Obviously it's not, but I'm just trying to understand it.
 
george99 said:
Sorry for the ignorance on this topic, but why would anyone care which satellites are being used. I see a ton of chat on the forums about which satellites are being used, etc.
I thought it is just a case of your dish needs a view of the Southern sky, and you can pick up up DTV. Obviously it's not, but I'm just trying to understand it.

Point your D* dish to other locations in the sky and see what happens.
 
There are a ton of Sats up there.
D* uses 3 MAJOR Sat locations for the majority of thier programming.
The 101 has the Core programming on it, the 99 and 103 slots have the HD / Mpeg 4 stuff on it and the 119 has a few channels on it music and non MAJOR programing, the 110 is not being used as far as I know as of this time, the 72 just ended programming, D* moved it to the 99 and 103.
This allowing D* to have the majority of thier programming on 1 dish, the 72 pretty much forced then to use the second dish which was used mostly for locals at the time.
 
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