Adding a 2nd HDTV, shocked at the price, what are my options....

[dominogold]

Situation:

Switched from cable 3 months ago, had a major contract dispute with Dish because they lied to me about the promotions and pricing and I had to file complaints with the Attorney General to get their attention. Basically it's been hell, had the installers out 3 times due to signal loss, spent countless hours on the phone trying to get my contract straightened out, and I've regretted every minute of it and am counting the days until my contract is up. Until then, I'm trying to make the best of it.

I have the HD Bronze package and use antennas to pick up all 7 local channels. I have 3 TVs hooked up right now, 1 HD plasma and 2 regular TVs. I'm now adding a second DLP HDTV in the basement and am looking for the cheapest way possible to get HD signals down to the basement. My house is pretty well wired with 3 cable jacks per TV so I can do in/out's pretty easily.

I called Dish today and they said I'd have to buy another receiver for $300+ plus another $5 a month for the new receiver, there were no lease options. To me this is ridiculous when I'm going to be switching back to cable as soon as possible.

What are my other options? I have a ViP211-HD hooked up to the plasma and a DISHPRO 322 for the other two TVs. I rarely use one of those and could get away with 1 TV.... basically I wish the dual tuner was on the HD box intead of the standard def box.

Any advice?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Even if you had gotten a dual tuner HD receiver, like the 622, you would have still been out of luck in driving a second HDTV from it, as it only has HD outputs for TV1, not for TV2. Well, I guess you could drive two HDTVs as long as you are willing to watch the same channel on both.

Outside of picking up an older receiver, like an 811, off of eBay for around $100 and hoping that Dish will activate the HD MPEG2 channels for you, I don't know of anything cheaper than buying a 211. Or you could keep playing CSR roulette to see if any of them will lease you another 211 for $49, but that would start a 2nd contract.

 

[hpman247]

Well you 211 has HDMI and Component, and both are hot, so you can hook both HDTV's up but you would have to watch the same channel. Other than that, you likely need to go to Dishstore.net and pick up a 622 or 211.

 

[dominogold]

So this is what it's sounding like my options are...

1. Buy another 211 for $370 (not going to do)
2. Play roulette with the CSRs to try and lease another one for $49 and would renew the contract (probably not going to happen)
3. Run an HDMI from the upstairs receiver to the basement, so that the same channel will be on both HDTVs, one using component and one using HDMI (sounds better)
4. Move the 2nd tuner of the 322 to the basement TV... won't get the HD channels but at least will get some TV.... could use an antenna to get locals in HD still (probably the best option)

Leaning towards option 4.

Question... isn't there any way to take some kind of output from the 211, and get that HD signal to the basement using RG6 cable? I was thinking it would be easier than running an HDMI because I could just take an RG6 out down to the basement which is already wired for this (all TV locations in my house are wired with 3 RG6 and 2 CAT5e)

 

[Minsk1]

You can do what I did:
1. Connect main TV using component cables with 622 (942).
2. Buy long enough HDMI cable which will go from 622 (942) receiver down to your second HDTV.
3. Buy optical audio splitter (if needed). Connect it to 622 (942) audio optical out. Connect one of the outputs of the splitter to your main audio receiver.
4. Buy long enough optical audio cable which will go from the second splitter output to the second audio receiver.

This will allow you to watch HD on both TVs at the same time, but it will be the same program. If you want watch two different programs, then you need a second Dish HD receiver.

I use this setup to watch recorded programs on my HD projector in the basement.
The price tag for the project is: $6 for splitter, $30 for 26' HDMI cable, $25 for 40' optical cable.

BTW, I have another HD receiver (211), connected to the projector. It allows me to watch (rarely) two different HD programs.

 

[ekans]

I have leased 3 211's. I had to wait for almost a month for dish to fix their order system as their system would not allow more than 2 211's per customer. Wonder why they don't let you do it. I was a new customer when I ordered that.

Situation:

Switched from cable 3 months ago, had a major contract dispute with Dish because they lied to me about the promotions and pricing and I had to file complaints with the Attorney General to get their attention. Basically it's been hell, had the installers out 3 times due to signal loss, spent countless hours on the phone trying to get my contract straightened out, and I've regretted every minute of it and am counting the days until my contract is up. Until then, I'm trying to make the best of it.

I have the HD Bronze package and use antennas to pick up all 7 local channels. I have 3 TVs hooked up right now, 1 HD plasma and 2 regular TVs. I'm now adding a second DLP HDTV in the basement and am looking for the cheapest way possible to get HD signals down to the basement. My house is pretty well wired with 3 cable jacks per TV so I can do in/out's pretty easily.

I called Dish today and they said I'd have to buy another receiver for $300+ plus another $5 a month for the new receiver, there were no lease options. To me this is ridiculous when I'm going to be switching back to cable as soon as possible.

What are my other options? I have a ViP211-HD hooked up to the plasma and a DISHPRO 322 for the other two TVs. I rarely use one of those and could get away with 1 TV.... basically I wish the dual tuner was on the HD box intead of the standard def box.

Any advice?

 

[bhelms]

...Question... isn't there any way to take some kind of output from the 211, and get that HD signal to the basement using RG6 cable? I was thinking it would be easier than running an HDMI because I could just take an RG6 out down to the basement which is already wired for this (all TV locations in my house are wired with 3 RG6 and 2 CAT5e)

Yes, there is, and this might be unique but I think it would work. If the 3 RG-6 cables run from where your 211 is located to the basement TV (and hopefully aren't connected to anything else or split), use them for the component (RGB) signals to the basement TV. Component is good for at least 75' (based on other threads) through good cables and RG-6 is probably a great choice.

You can use a wireless link for L/R audio (microwave "Leapfrog" or equivalent). That would only be stereo vs. 5.1, but that wasn't on your "wishlist"...!

BRgds...

 

[Zookster]

Would it be worth carrying both cable and Dish for the remainder of the contract? I did that for 9 months last year to get an HD DVR from cable after I made the mistake of going on a 12 mo. contract for an 811. Subscribing to the minimum level of service to get the HD I wanted on both, my total combined bill was less than $100. In the process, I enjoyed the best of both worlds and got to compare PQ/features side-by-side.

 

[gutter]

I have a feeling that the next DISH upgraded receiver will probalby have outputs for 2 HDTV's. the problem you describe is only going to grow as people replace second and third standard TV's with HD. But until then, DISH will try to extract every extra dime they can. The change will be when D* becomes more competitive in its HD offerings and receivers.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

You can pick up a 211 on Ebay and save about $100 bucks.

 

[dominogold]

Thanks for suggestions

I'm really not liking the idea of taking down the ceiling to fish a wire through the floor so I think I'm going to just do #4 above. Plus if I did the RG6 for compontent cables I would actually need 4 of them upstairs, one for the cable coming in and then 3 for the components going out, and I only have 3. I did plug in an antenna and all locals come in HD no problem. So I'll have to live without the Voom HD Channels on the TV until my contract is up. All the other options are either a lot of work or two expensive it seems.

Dish's customer service ranks up there among the worst I have ever experienced. I just can't wait to get rid of this thing.

 

[JavaJohnson]

Another possibility is to use the Cat 5 cables to transmit the A/V

I don't presonally have any experience with this, but have used similar for standard, non-hd audio video:

http://www.svideo.com/ypbpr3.html

Looks like a great solution for those of us with Cat 5 everywhere in the house.

They also had DVI and HDMI converters, but those were big bucks.

 

[dominogold]

Wow that is fascinating. Has anyone tried this with success?