Differences between my Dish (round dual LBN) and this new Tri-LNB DISH?

[MRTRIPOD]

Differences between my Dish (round dual LBN) and this new Tri-LNB DISH?

What are the differences?

Is it really just for HD?

Would I benefit from it at all?

also..what is the difference between the P4 cards and the P5 cards?

 

[dishrich]

Man, you're sure full of questions tonight...

Unless you want/need Spanish, HD or unless your locals require it, (I assume you already get locals, since you do not say where you're located at) you are fine for now.
Don't worry about the cards - if you need new cards, D* will let you know & if you buy a new receiver, it will already have the correct card(s) you need.

 

[JosephB]

You do not need it for locals (I see you're from Birmingham too, Bham locals are at 101)

The 3 phase dish gives you HD and international programming. I don't know if they moved it, but last time I checked NASA TV was also on one of the side sats, requiring a 3-lnb dish to pick it up.

 

[dishrich]

You do not need it for locals (I see you're from Birmingham too, Bham locals are at 101)

The 3 phase dish gives you HD and international programming. I don't know if they moved it, but last time I checked NASA TV was also on one of the side sats, requiring a 3-lnb dish to pick it up.

Nope, NASA, along with a couple others, moved to 101 several months ago. The only other free PA channels are on the 119 sat, which are CCTV-9 (chinese) & HITN & ONCE TV (both spanish).

 

[JosephB]

CCTV-9 is Chinese in terms of its origin, but it is English language. Also its good to hear nasa moved over to 101. I'll be getting DirecTV installed again next week. Its nice to be back from school and away from the land of cable!

 

[charper1]

If you can do without HD and the few extra channels like NASA and foreign language, then the only 2 things this will give you is a higher signal gain to protect against weather outages and you would be upgraded to the most current dish for any future D*, be that new programming from D* or the free/low-cost upgrade offers IF/WHEN the new systems roll out to non-HD users. HD and HD-DVR users will get prime treatment in that last scenario.

 

[rh26]

... the only 2 things this will give you is a higher signal gain to protect against weather outages and you would be upgraded to the most current dish for any future D*, be that new programming from D* or the free/low-cost upgrade offers IF/WHEN the new systems roll out to non-HD users. HD and HD-DVR users will get prime treatment in that last scenario.

1. Does anyone have a pointer to the "higher signal gain" claim? The 3 LNB dish is physically larger (it's oval), but my guess is that the offset feeds don't use that extra area and have no more directivity/gain than the round dish. Measured gain numbers for the 2 antennas would be great, otherwise anyone know the dimensions? BTW, antenna engineering *is* my profession...

2. Assuming I don't have HD now, I don't see how this helps me in the upgrade path scenario. If D* puts ANY SD programming on 99 or 103 then they are going to have to upgrade a LOT of people. I would also assume, that if I upgrade to HD-- shouldn't matter whether next month or next year-- they'll include the latest multi-satellite dish in the receiver price. Where am I wrong on this?

 

[VOOMER]

Phase III / Basic 18 inch Dish

The only other thing appears to be amount of Receivers.
An 18 inch would require a Multiswitch to go above 2-Basic Recs.
A Phase III will allow him 4 - Basic Recs. without the switch ,but does require a cable from dish to each location.
Pros/ Cons Looks like a pretty much split decision.

As for Gain I personally dont believe its much difference with either dish ,when installed and properly peaked.

Would like to see actual specs. if someone comes up with them.

 

[charper1]

Took some digging, cause most typical equipment doesn't list specs like aftermarket or upgrade items do and things vary quite a bit based on manufacturer of both dish and the LNB. But here are some typical gains by dish size.

18" RCA: 32.3 dBi
PhaseIII (18x20): 33.5
PhaseII (18x24): 34.2
48cm: 34.2
Gain-Master (27x36): 36.0
60cm: 36.5
70cm: 38.0
80cm: 38.7
90cm: 39.3

BUD (in the round mesh)
5' : 35.0
7.5' : 46.1
10' : 47.2
12' : 53.4

 

[rh26]

... here are some typical gains by dish size.

18" RCA: 32.3 dBi
PhaseIII (18x20): 33.5

So you get an extra 1.2 dB with the Phase II dish. And every dB helps!

The only real question would be how much is it worth to you? If the the new dish is free, it's a no brainer, otherwise you need to evaluate cost vs. how often you lose programming due to rain fade now (and try to decide if 1 dB would make a difference in those situations).

I'm about to switch to D* from E*. Given that I'm in Georgia, and 101 is pretty high in the sky, and the Phase III would cost an extra $20, I'm just going to go with the round 18"...

 

[charper1]

PhaseII = +1.9dBi
PhaseIII = +1.2dBi

You can find dishes on ebay all the time cheaper than retail. I got my PhaseIII with shipping for $55