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I tried that with Direct but they said I had to pick a qualifying package. I'll call Dish tomorrow & see what they say.

I can't imagine any area that cannot get local tv with a proper outdoor antenna. Have you ever tried a high gain outdoor antenna? A high quality unit such as a winegard 9095 P with a mast mount low noise amp with high quality coax an a modern tv with digital tuner or a set top terresrtial tuner like mentioned above.

Also local broadcasts from various places can be had with a fta box slaved to your big dish.

NotTy said:

I tried that with Direct but they said I had to pick a qualifying package. I'll call Dish tomorrow & see what they say.

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Directv requires a package because they lease the equipment

NotTy said:

Oh wait, you mean buy a receiver out right? I didn't even know you could.

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correct. Buy a used clean receiver on Ebay. Make sure it has the purple (new) card in it. Since you own the equipment you can get just locals for $10

Iceberg said:

Directv requires a package because they lease the equipment



correct. Buy a used clean receiver on Ebay. Make sure it has the purple (new) card in it. Since you own the equipment you can get just locals for $10

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I might be interested in this but I have a few questions.

If I get a HD receiver will they do the HD version of them?

How tight are DN's spot beams compared to DIR? I would like to use a friend's address in Dallas to get Dallas locals. I live between two markets and my address is considered in the crappy one.

Is it possible to get NY and LA channels instead of locals? Claim RV?

I quit local TV back in 1988 when I got my BUD. With all the crap that's been put out over the last few of years and with NPS continually deleting ala cart stuff, I finally broke down two years ago and put up an antenna to receive the new "Gubmit" mandated digital OTA TV and it's been great for the most part. I'm picking up signals from 60 miles away in two different directions thru a "Gubmit" subsidized digital converter box for my OLD 50" Hatachi BIG screen TV that I still love to watch!! Before digital I could only pick up 4 stations on a good day, back in the day of analog but with this new digital format I'm getting 15 channels in digital quality that puts even BUD reception to shame! Only problem is that it's just the networks and what they offer, which isn't ALL bad.

The Magnavox converter boxwas $40 retail and the antenna was like $35 on fleabay and both were worth every cent I paid for them!!! And YES, I would buy them again!!!

Lone Gunman said:

Before digital I could only pick up 4 stations on a good day, back in the day of analog but with this new digital format I'm getting 15 channels in digital quality that puts even BUD reception to shame!

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You need to try a DVB-S2 HD receiver then because the HD masters of the networks put OTA to shame. OTA is a 2nd generation encoding. All OTA is MPEG2. NBC and ABC masters for example are MPEG4/AVC and a higher bit rate than OTA.

Lone Gunman said:

The Magnavox converter boxwas $40 retail and the antenna was like $35 on fleabay and both were worth every cent I paid for them!!! And YES, I would buy them again!!!

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I've tested about 6 different converter boxes and the Magnavox from Walmart was the worst of them all. My top two were a Zinwell and a Artec.

Hell here in southern Saskatchewan we only get 2 OTA channels CTV and CBC. If it wasn't for BUD or pizza dish or cable we would not get much for TV. We only had 0ne OTA channel till about 1974 and right now the one channel has pretty poor reception right now.

TheTechGuru said:

If I get a HD receiver will they do the HD version of them?

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you have to be set up to receive the HD version but yes you get the HD version included if you sub to locals

How tight are DN's spot beams compared to DIR? I would like to use a friend's address in Dallas to get Dallas locals. I live between two markets and my address is considered in the crappy one.

Click to expand...

Here is the map for the spotbeam for Dallas...pretty wide if you ask me
SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - Dish Network ALL

Good part is both SD (all) & HD (Big4 + PBS & CW) are on the same satellite (110) so a simple DIsh 500 is all you need for both SD & HD locals

Is it possible to get NY and LA channels instead of locals? Claim RV?

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NY in SD yes HD no
LA no for both

NY SD is on COnus...the rest are spotbeams

madmike46 said:

Hell here in southern Saskatchewan we only get 2 OTA channels CTV and CBC. If it wasn't for BUD or pizza dish or cable we would not get much for TV. We only had 0ne OTA channel till about 1974 and right now the one channel has pretty poor reception right now.

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Canada is crazy in general for OTA. Unless you're in Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto your OTA is pretty sparce.
I know Thunder Bay has 4 stations
CBC
Global
TVO
SRC

they had that weird setup where the 2nd station was a CTV/Global/CH mix and they'd bump CTV programming to CBC if need be.

TheTechGuru said:

I've tested about 6 different converter boxes and the Magnavox from Walmart was the worst of them all. My top two were a Zinwell and a Artec.

Click to expand...

I've got 2 DTV Pal units and they are really good. Tried a couple other models and they sucked.

Good morning.
After the switch from analog to digital, I had to replace my old cable with new quad cable & ran it 3 inches from everything. The signal was way better & actually did pick up a couple more local stations but Fox is the only network channel I can get. I replaced my old antenna from the 70's with one twice as big that my parents gave me that they bought in the early 90's. There was only a slight difference. I live about 60 miles from the rest of the network channel locations & my antenna is about 30 feet high. I also live between 2 mountain ranges with a lot of hills. I have the cheap RCA converter but was told by Best Buy there really isn't any difference in decoding the signal as compared to the more expensive units, but the more expensive units have more whistles & options. But I never thought about a booster. I'm also suffering from the effects of the economy so purchasing on a gamble right now is still on hold. But the booster sounds like a good idea. I'm also thinking I would rather gamble on an FTA box. Any suggestions? I only have a 7.5 foot c band mesh dish. I bought a used C/Ku lnb about 4 years ago but never hooked it up, but I'm not sure if a 7.5 foot mesh dish is really even big enough to catch the Ku signals effectively.
So off I go to search for a good signal booster. Thanks again..

truckracer said:

I can't imagine any area that cannot get local tv with a proper outdoor antenna. Have you ever tried a high gain outdoor antenna? A high quality unit such as a winegard 9095 P with a mast mount low noise amp with high quality coax an a modern tv with digital tuner or a set top terresrtial tuner like mentioned above.

Also local broadcasts from various places can be had with a fta box slaved to your big dish.

Click to expand...