i have two hr20-700's it took about anhour for oneofthemandabout two for the other, but i had different vod chan's for each of them, then i reset both today and now i have all on both, every once anda while chan 1000 isn't avail but i can acess all the others, kinda glichy that way.
D* does broadcast all hd in 1080i, if they don't receive 1080i from the network it is not viewed that way, Have you ever watched an old western on HDNM, do you think they had HD in 1965?? the broadcast can only be as good as the feed that D* gets from the networks. Remember Tv is luxury...
I don't know how the single dishes are packed, I get them in three different boxes, lnb's, Az/El mounts, and the dish, they also come with a really cheap jumper, 90% of the time the ends are shorted out,
Looking at his pics, I don't think he has any support arms, the KA/KU dish needs to have 2 support arms like the superdish has for a tripod style mount, its a big dish