Can I reprogram a receiver to get a certain channel/s from a different satellite?

[Forward]

I'm a very long time Dish subscriber. At this point I have a setup with a 622 and a couple 211s. Outside, I have a 1000 picking up 110, 119 and 129, and a small dish pointed at 61.5. A tree has grown up on the next property over that has absolutely killed my reception from 129. I am 100% sure that is the problem. 129, of course, carries a lot of HD channels (I'm a 250+/HD subscriber). I can still get the SD feeds from 110 and 119 of the same channels, but that's more than a little disappointing since all my TVs at this point are HD.

Looking at some channel charts I see that many of the same HD channels on 129 are also transmitted from 61.5. Is there a way I could reprogram my receivers to pick up those feeds instead? I don't want to do it permanently because I'm negotiating to take care of the tree problem and I believe there are some 129 channels that are not also transmitted from 61.5. But it will be at least a month until the tree issue is resolved, and football season (among other things) is starting.

Can this be done? Thanks for any help.

 

[MaryB@SlingTV]

Hi Forward, just be be clear that you do want the 129 Satellites as the HD channels for the Western Arc will be removed from the 61.5 Satellite in the future. i know you are working to correct the tree issue, but I just want to be clear that this would be a temporary fix at best. You cannot program the receiver but you can remove the 129 feed from the dish, then you can run a check switch test and it should pick up, 110, 119, & 61.5. Do you have access the dish or the cables coming from the dish?

 

[KAB]

Actually, most if not all of the common HD channels have been moved from 61.5 to 72.7 so your wing dish would need to be re-pointed slightly. More install oriented folks will hopefully chime in about disabling reception of 129 and picking up the other. Are you getting you locals off 129??

 

[Forward]

Thanks for the reply. I understand what you are saying. Until this latest installation I had always done my own installations (more as a hobby project, for some reason I enjoy it). But isn't there only one cable coming from the LNB that carries the signals from all three satellite receptors? Would I have to remove the specific 129 cable at the LNB? That would be a little tricky, but I could do it with the right ladder (no power cables nearby, fortunately -- just a rosebush I wouldn't care to fall into). Obviously, this is why I was hoping there was a software solution.

Thanks for the heads up on the future changes for 61.5. I will need to redouble my efforts to deal with the 129 blocking tree, since I have run out of places on my property where I can peek around it.

I've had Dish so long the saplings have grown, unfortunately.

 

[Forward]

My locals are on 61.5. I am already getting some HD channels on 61.5. Pretty sure I see the Golf Channel that way, for example. I'm pretty sure it's a single dish so I can't imagine it's capable of getting signals from 72.7 and 61.5.

 

[Willh699]

maybe you should just call Dish to have them set you up on a Eastern Arc set up. so that way, you get all of your channels in SD and HD, even your Locals.

 

[KAB]

maybe you should just call Dish to have them set you up on a Eastern Arc set up. so that way, you get all of your channels in SD and HD, even your Locals.

Agreed. If locals are on 61.5, you really should be on EA. PM Mary above about what it would take to get you set up for it. You'd then only need one dish. And BTW, the changes are not in the future, they have already happened.

 

[Forward]

I'll have to do a site survey first. There are a lot of trees in that direction as well. It so happens there's a window between them for 61.5, but I might be looking at the same problem if I had to pick up other birds in that direction. What are the other orbital positions for "eastern arc?"

 

[MaryB@SlingTV]

72.7, 77, & 61.5 are your Eastern Arc Satellites

 

[Forward]

Just wanted to mention that with the help of those here in educating me about this, and Mary B's outstanding customer service, I have already had a Dish tech come out to my house and install a new dish, and I am now receiving the eastern arc satellites and have all my HD channels back. I should have looked at this site three months ago when I first started losing my line of sight to 129. Thanks all!

 

[Hall]

For anyone who comes across this thread and similarly doesn't want to disassemble the LNBs in order to disconnect the cable, people here have mentioned simply covering the 129' LNB with aluminum foil or other material. Can't hurt to try that !