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jfk88

Last reply Dec 15, 2004 · posted in DISH Network Support Forum

Decisions for a new subscriber...

Well...it's official...my need to educate myself has yet again left me cross eyed from reading posts in the forum over the past two hours.

Can you guys just make a suggestion.

I want SAT. Dish seems to offer more value.

I'm intersted in 921...however very skeptical about all these problems I've read about.

Is it worth it? I have Sony 55" Grand WEGA™ LCD Rear Projection HDTV KDF-55WF655 and I'm new to HD tv & DVR service. I'm technical but for god sakes it seems like a nightmare with some of these things I've read. Now granted the newest update might have addressed these issues or some of them...but my biggest fear is I drop this coin and get the thing all setup by my local retailer and I have issues with HD recordings etc. Any input?

Also...I'm a bit lost with this whole OTA vs. Dish locals. I'm in the PHilly area and they are available to me through dish. However I'm getting the impression many don't pay for locals because they have some kind of other antenna? Someone please elaborate there.

Any help is greatly appreciated as I'm really hoping to make an educated and informed decision.

Thanks,

Joe

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jfk88

Dec 15, 2004

Thanks again guys..

I'm starting to think I may just try the digital cable service and HD through my local cable provider to see if I'm happy with the quality on everything under 100.

Then if that doesn't work out come back to the satellite thing. I just really felt satellite was better because of the digital thing...I think I've read otherwise a few times now...and isn't the digital cable audio inferior?

sigh...again..

What's better ? Dish or Direct tv? Taking price out of the equation...I want one reliable tv that I can have DVR and HD...

C Diddy

Dec 15, 2004

jfk88 said:
What's better ? Dish or Direct tv?

Honestly, that's something only you can answer. As said above, ask 10 people and you'll get that many different answers.

You need to take a look at several factors.

1. Which company offers more programming that you are interested in?
2. Which company offers that programming at a more reasonable price?
3. Do you want to rent your equipment, or own?
4. Do you mind paying $900 for Directv's HR10-250, which most would consider more reliable, or would you rather pay $550 for Dish's 921, which has had some reported bugs?
5. Are you concerned about Dish going Mpeg4, or are you confident it won't be an issue for you?

And many other things to consider as well. This is a decision only you can make, after you've informed yourself as best possible. Honestly, if you are okay with the pq of your local cable company, and they offer HD and a DVR, it will most likely be the cheapest route.

rad

Dec 15, 2004

When it comes to asking D*/E* or cable that's something that really can't be answered except by someone that's on your same cable system, everyone's is different.

Some 'general' comments:
- A good analog cable channel can look MUCH better then the same channel on digital.
- You can get your local HDTV channels without the need for another antenna, be it one on the roof, in the attic or rabbit ears, if your cable system provides them. Even they they might not provide all your local channels in HD, on Comcast Chicago they've not added our local UPN station, which recently went HD, so no HD UPN programming like Star Trek Enterprise.
- Just because a channel is 'digital' doesn't automatically mean better, it especially depends on how many SD channels your cable system crams into the available bandwidth, some systems might compress more then E*/D*, some less, so your milage will vary.
- On our cable system, they carry many more channels in Dolby Digital then either E* or D*.
- Cable is not always more expensive then DBS. If you comparied D* or E* to what Comcast charges in our area I get more channels for less money. Some systems charge lots more then DBD, again you need to do your research for your system.

As you indicated your leaning at this time, if you're not looking at a large outlay I'd say give your cable system a shot and see if it meets your expectations. Give it a few months and then D* and V* should start rolling out what they've said they plan to do in 2005 and E* might have a more clear direction by then.

jfk88

Dec 15, 2004

Good input for sure...

I live in Central NJ with Cablevision as the provider. I have their voice over ip and internet service both of which are outstanding.

I'm not particuarly happy with my picture on my basic projection tv on the lower channels. I have no digital cable box either. So maybe if I get the digital box and my new tv I'll see how it looks..then take it from there.

I just don't think they offer DVR.

rad

Dec 15, 2004

jfk88 said:
Good input for sure...

I live in Central NJ with Cablevision as the provider. I have their voice over ip and internet service both of which are outstanding.

I'm not particuarly happy with my picture on my basic projection tv on the lower channels. I have no digital cable box either. So maybe if I get the digital box and my new tv I'll see how it looks..then take it from there.

I just don't think they offer DVR.

Don't know how low you mean but low back VHF channels (2 through 6) can but a b*tch. You might just want to call Cablevision and drop a hint that you're thinking about DBS because of poor signal and you'd like to give them one last shot to fix it. Maybe they will, maybe they won't but at least they'd know why you'd be cancelling.

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Scott Greczkowski

Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge

Last reply 46 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Song Name Game Part 3!

Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne

Get it?

An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....

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sdfntx

Today at 10:19 AM

I Care About Detroit - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

dishstaller

Today at 10:32 AM

I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith

Bobby

Today at 10:51 AM

98.6 - Keith

harshness

Today at 11:25 AM

I'm Easy - Keith Carridine

gms49ers

46 minutes ago

It's Easy - Boston

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reubenray

Last reply Today at 10:36 AM · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Laptop Shutting Off When On Battery?

Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.

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arlo

Today at 10:09 AM

A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.

dishstaller

Today at 10:36 AM

arlo said:
That's all I got.

That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks

TRG

Pub Member / Supporter

Last reply Today at 10:27 AM · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Starlink Router question

I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

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b4pjoe

Saturday at 2:12 PM

TRG said:
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.

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HipKat

Saturday at 11:07 PM

TRG said:
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc

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Foxbat

Sunday at 12:44 AM

TRG said:
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.

harshness

Sunday at 11:46 AM

If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

Starlink V5 Is Here: What RVers Need to Know

Overview of the new Starlink V5 model along with comparison to the previous V4 model along with a recommended setup for mobile internet users.

mobilemusthave.com

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Foxbat

Today at 10:27 AM

Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.

dishstaller

Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter

Last reply Today at 10:27 AM · posted in The Chit Chat Club

I think we could all use a laugh - Rodney Dangerfield on Carson

Good...simple humor. Enjoy

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E92AtfTLge4

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJy0WnejlF4

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Jimbo

Today at 12:37 AM

Not Rodney, but a laugh ...

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WHEcmortfK0?feature=share

dishstaller

Today at 10:27 AM

Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.

dishstaller

Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter

Last reply Today at 10:17 AM · posted in The Chit Chat Club

At least 64 dead in Spanish passenger train collision

Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

At Least 64 Dead After Two High-Speed Trains Collide In Spain | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

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Jimbo

Yesterday at 11:24 AM

dishstaller said:
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

At Least 64 Dead After Two High-Speed Trains Collide In Spain | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.

dishstaller

Today at 10:17 AM

Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.

The safest seat to sit on in a train

Safety experts have shared top tips on train safety after a fatal railway crash in Spain killed 69 people, including where the safest place is in an emergency.

www.dailymail.com