2 dish vs 1 dish

[ndcoop]

A couple of questions:
1. Will the signal strength be considerably better with 2 dishes vs 1 dish (for HD)?
2. Can the base for a Dish 500 be used for a Dish 1000.4, or will new holes need to be drilled to place the base for the 1000.4? Thanks

 

[CowboyDren]

Theoretically, a 24" (Dish500) with two LNBs (DPTwin) only feeds each LNB as much signal as a dedicated 18" dish. This means that a D500 with a DPDual LNB would feed that LNB more signal. I don't know how the math works out on the 1000.2 or 1000.4 dishes. If the question came down to using a 1000.4 or a D500 spotting 110/119 and a 61.5 wing dish, I'd go for the wing dish. The best signal you can get with COTS hardware is three D500s with three DPDuals, each spotting a single bird, and feeding into a DPP44 multiswitch.

The 1000.2 and 1000.4 dishes use the same size mast (1-5/8") as a D500, but I'd personally want to brace it better, DirecTV style. That's personal preference, though.

 

[whatchel1]

Don't think you will get that much more signal w/ 2 Dish 500's than with 1 1000.4 if peaked correctly. You would have to go to larger dishes than the %00's to gain signal level.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Bigger the DISH for each satellite you are looking at , the better signal strength.

 

[thedamaja]

The 1000.2 and 1000.4 dishes use the same size mast (1-5/8") as a D500,.

The dish 1000.4 has a longer mast and different mounting base than the 1K2/500. If you try to use the 1K4 mast with a 1K2/500 base it will bind on the bottom and not swing completely through the range. Depending on the angle you need this may be an issue.

I actually just went from a 1K4 to a 2 dish setup with a 500 (110/119) and 300 (61.5). My signal level on 110/119 is much better than what I received from 72/77 and the 61.5 signal is marginally better than what I had with the 1K4.

Honestly I never had issues with the 1K4 signal reception but decided to move the dish from the yard to out of site on the back of my garage. I figured if I was doing this I would maximize my signal.

 

[jeffero]

If someone has a 1k2 satellite and then connects a 500 dish into the port thats open on it aimed the 61.5 satellite would the 61.5 disable the 129 dish or could the 129 just be unplugged? I have a 1k2 and my picture quality is not good. I'm thinking of going to a 2 dish system to see if the picture gets better.

 

[CowboyDren]

Picture quality (fuzzy, blurry, grainy) or signal quality (blocks, tiles, dropouts)? Changing your dish won't change your picture quality. There's no way you'll get better signal quality from 61.5 than from 129. 129 is the most powerful satellite in Dish's service, high in the sky. 61.5 is old hardware, and I'm pretty sure it's farther away. If you're having signal quality issues, get your dish repeaked.

 

[MrDogDad]

Picture quality (fuzzy, blurry, grainy) or signal quality (blocks, tiles, dropouts)? Changing your dish won't change your picture quality. There's no way you'll get better signal quality from 61.5 than from 129. 129 is the most powerful satellite in Dish's service, high in the sky. 61.5 is old hardware, and I'm pretty sure it's farther away. If you're having signal quality issues, get your dish repeaked.

Actually both satellites are about 22,000 miles high.

The look angle all depends on where on the earth your dish is as located. The closer you are to the satellite's longitude, and to the equator, the higher in the sky the satellite appears. For me, 61.5 is 37,477km away vs. 129 at 38,930km. Of course 129 is more powerfull so I get more signal from 129 on my 1000.2 than my wing dish at 61.5.

 

[CowboyDren]

But the quick way to tell which is closer to your dish is to look at your elevation. The lower on the horizon, the longer the hypotenuse, and the greater distance (more importantly, how much atmosphere) you have to listen for the transponder.

Am I wrong?

Looking at a mostly worthless 2D map, it looks like OH is closer to 61.5W than it is to 129W, but I'm pretty sure that even if you live in Miami, CIEL-2 is going to kick out a stronger signal than Rainbow-1 (E*12) or EchoStar-3 ever could.

 

[mike123abc]

If you want the best possible signal a dedicated dish per slot is the best way to go. Multisatellite dishes are a compromise, mainly because they are designed to work anywhere in the US, which means that the apparent angle of the satellites in relationship to eachother is different as you move around, yet the LNB arm is fixed and not adjustable.

The bigger the dish the better gain. The triple satellite dishes work around the compromise problem of three satellites by being much bigger, so they compensate for the lousy focus 2 of the 3 satellites will have. You can peak any of the three but the other two will be slightly compromised.

 

[MrDogDad]

But the quick way to tell which is closer to your dish is to look at your elevation. The lower on the horizon, the longer the hypotenuse, and the greater distance (more importantly, how much atmosphere) you have to listen for the transponder.

Am I wrong?

Looking at a mostly worthless 2D map, it looks like OH is closer to 61.5W than it is to 129W, but I'm pretty sure that even if you live in Miami, CIEL-2 is going to kick out a stronger signal than Rainbow-1 (E*12) or EchoStar-3 ever could.

That's true. According to dishpointer.com, in Columbus OH, 129 is at 24.2 deg elevation while, 61.5 is at 38.7deg. The higher elevation would not make much difference in signal strength if both sats had the same effective radiated power and there is clear line of sight to both. However, the shape of the satellite's antenna pattern along with its transmitter power will determine how much signal is received.

 

[jeffero]

I have a 500 dish on my roof still but the LNB is gone. It's still pointed at 61.5 and I have 1000.2 now. I'll probably stay with what I have but some shows and movies look absolutely horrible. Like the signal is coming from a web cam. As an example the kids movie High School Musical 3 on Starz looks terrible for some reason. My dish is peaked and I have a new 612 DVR. Then theres times when it doesn't look to bad. I still like Dish Network. No one can match their prices and willingness to give freebies and excellent DVR and reciever boxes.

 

[whatchel1]

Have you yet checked

I have a 500 dish on my roof still but the LNB is gone. It's still pointed at 61.5 and I have 1000.2 now. I'll probably stay with what I have but some shows and movies look absolutely horrible. Like the signal is coming from a web cam. As an example the kids movie High School Musical 3 on Starz looks terrible for some reason. My dish is peaked and I have a new 612 DVR. Then theres times when it doesn't look to bad. I still like Dish Network. No one can match their prices and willingness to give freebies and excellent DVR and reciever boxes.

Have you yet checked the setting for your resolution yet? I've seen you on another theard and don't remember if you ever said that you have set the resolution to either 720p or 1080i.

 

[CowboyDren]

I guess there have been several complaints about the picture quality on 612s that may not be resolved by changing a setting. Check your settings, but I'd call Dish and bitch about a bad receiver. No amount of pointing and peaking will fix an ugly picture, just an unreliable signal.

 

[mike123abc]

Picture quality is not affected by the dish. Loss signal pop ups and picture cut outs would be. This sounds like a connection between the 612 and the TV. SD on Dish on an HDTV will just look bad, not much can be done. You can turn down the sharpness on the TV to help with the picture that is about it. HD should look good, are you using HDMI? Is the 612 set to 1080i?

 

[jeffero]

It's set to 1080i. The guy from Dish Network that came out was the field manager because they were busy and he was the only one available and he knew what he was doing. He called tech support and had them note my account that even with the new reciever the picture was still grainy. As of last night I think Dish did something because it's starting to look better. I needed to reboot my reciever once last night (before the last post I put up on here) because the picture went black and wouldn't change channels or anything. Before that the fan in the reciever came on high as if it was getting an update but it wasn't time for it to get an update and I was able to watch TV while the fan was running on high. I figure they were doing something to it. It does look better now. It's not perfect but looks good. I want to get a 1080p TV sometime also. I have a nice 32" Sony LCD though. It's an XBR4 with 120Hz processing but it's only 720p. I know having a 1080p would eliminate the pixel gaps in the picture and would make a difference. Thanks everyones help again.

 

[whatchel1]

Unlikely

It's set to 1080i. The guy from Dish Network that came out was the field manager because they were busy and he was the only one available and he knew what he was doing. He called tech support and had them note my account that even with the new reciever the picture was still grainy. As of last night I think Dish did something because it's starting to look better. I needed to reboot my reciever once last because the picture went black and wouldn't change channels or anything and before that the fan in the reciever came on high as if it was getting an update but it wasn't time for it to get an update and I was still able to watch TV while the fan was running on high. I figured they were doing something to it. It does look better now. I want to get a 1080P TV sometime also. I have a nice 32" LCD though. It's a Sony XBR4 with 120Hz processing but it's a 720P model. I know having a 1080P would eliminate the pixel gaps in the picture more. Thanks everyones help again.

I think it is unlikely that E* sent any commands to your DVR. It sounds more like you have a problem with the unit. I hope you have the EHD function applied to your account so you can keep all the recordings on it instead of the HDD in the 612. What cables are being used to hook up your 612 to the LCD?

 

[CowboyDren]

I know having a 1080p would eliminate the pixel gaps in the picture and would make a difference. Thanks everyones help again.

Um, no, it wouldn't; LCDs don't work like CRTs. Your "720p" display is actually 1365 (or 1366)*768 panel, so even 720p signals have to be [up]scaled to that resolution by a chip inside the TV before they're displayed. When you send it a 1080i/60 signal, it takes the 1 frame and the 2 frame, deinterlaces them into a static picture, [down]scales it to 1365*768, and displays that (twice, I believe). If you can see a "pixel gap", you're sitting about three times closer than you should be.

You didn't mention if HSM3 was on Starz or StarzHD...the SD picture quality from Dish is notoriously awful. If you're 100% sure that you're getting poor picture on a High-Def channel, tell Dish that you want a new receiver.

 

[thenight11]

so ill ask this here because im in this situation. I live in south texas(78596) had two sats but they came out and replaced it with one dish. Now they are having trouble getting the 129 sat , have had two installers come out and they are telling me i need the one sat because 61.5 is going away the 1st of Jan. Just wondering if this is true and advice on my situation

 

[whatchel1]

It's not going

so ill ask this here because im in this situation. I live in south texas(78596) had two sats but they came out and replaced it with one dish. Now they are having trouble getting the 129 sat , have had two installers come out and they are telling me i need the one sat because 61.5 is going away the 1st of Jan. Just wondering if this is true and advice on my situation

61.5 isn't going anywhere (maybe something in your area is being taken off it). In fact it's gonna get a replacement in a while, maybe that's what they are talking about. Thing is you have said nothing about 61.5 and are talking about 129. If you are having trouble with it then something is wrong w/pointing of dish or you are on the edge of spotbeam and need a dish just for it. We need more info as to what is wrong and what are the problems on 129.