For All You Non-believers

[PopcornNMore]

I have to admit I'm now very impressed with Dish Network's customer service. After having problems with our VIP722 HD DVR receiver I called and they sent out a technician the very next day who installed a new LNB, replaced a run of coax and installed a brand new VIP722K HD DVR receiver and two new remote controls.

Even my wife who doesn't usually notice the difference between SD and HD programming said WOW when she saw the picture quality difference between our old VIP722 and new VIP722K receiver. I'm also very impressed and plan on remaining a Dish Network subscriber for many years to come.

When I arrived home we had heavy rain with large hail, thunder and even a tornado warning in the area and still the picture looked fantastic with no rain fade. Below are pictures.

And best of all we receive "Discovery", "TLC" and "Animal Planet" in glorious HD that even look better than those "masters" I always hear about.

I'll soon be canceling my HITS subscription and upgrading my Dish Network subscription from America's Top 200 to the America's Top 250.

 

[chapelrun]

Question - - - more about HITS than Dish. I have been thinking about HITS and since I'm putting up my C-Band dish in April.

Not to change the subject - but what is your honest take on 105W and your DSR-410?

 

[wallyhts]

I have to admit I'm now very impressed with Dish Network's customer service. After having problems with our VIP722 HD DVR receiver I called and they sent out a technician the very next day who installed a new LNB, replaced a run of coax and installed a brand new VIP722K HD DVR receiver and two new remote controls.

Even my wife who doesn't usually notice the difference between SD and HD programming said WOW when she saw the picture quality difference between our old VIP722 and new VIP722K receiver. I'm also very impressed and plan on remaining a Dish Network subscriber for many years to come.

When I arrived home we had heavy rain with large hail, thunder and even a tornado warning in the area and still the picture looked fantastic with no rain fade. Below are pictures.

And best of all we receive "Discovery", "TLC" and "Animal Planet" in glorious HD that even look better than those "masters" I always hear about.

I'll soon be canceling my HITS subscription and upgrading my Dish Network subscription from America's Top 200 to the America's Top 250.

Good for you!! Perhaps you should have posted that in the dish network forum.

 

[tvropro]

Perhaps you should have posted that in the dish network forum.

I agree, his post should be transfered to the Dish Network forum. It has nothing to do with 4DTV and C band, more like a Charlie promo.

I wonder if Popcorn ever saw the SD masters for Discovery and especially the HD master on C3. He don't have a 4DTV and a HDD 200 so I think he really shouldn't comment on them. The Discovery HD theater master will blow the doors in on ANY HD LITE ANY Piizza service offers, I guarantee it!

 

[tvropro]

Question - - - more about HITS than Dish. I have been thinking about HITS and since I'm putting up my C-Band dish in April.

Not to change the subject - but what is your honest take on 105W and your DSR-410?

I will answer that question. I put up a 6 foot dish and hooked up a DSR 410 for a client about 2 years ago. It has worked flawless. He has been on H2H since April of 2009. The system just works and works, great picture too, never had any weather problems either.

Here is the thread from start to finish with pictures:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/4dtv-discussion/169000-w5-fixed-system.html

 

[tvropro]

SD masters

Here are a couple pictures of the Disney SD masters on G5 I took last year. I think they look as good or better than any HD lite pizza offers. And they have No digital artifacts pizza does. Some people just don't get what a master truly is.

 

[Mr Tony]

Couple thoughts

Popcorn....glad Dish was able to resolve the issue. I know you have been having some issues with the receiver latelly and was getting frustrated with it. Also looks like some scary weather there. Hope everyone is OK

Wally...why should it be moved to the Dish area when it involves 4DTV. Also the title I think is why it is posted here. Since some 4DTV people are very one sided when it regards DBS satellite that everything is bad and they dont give a crap about anyone popcorn showed that Dish Network fixed the issue and now he is a happy camper. Isnt that what its all about? Being happy with what you have. If you are happy with 4DTV and its (in my opinion....others have agreed) limited selection, then thats fine. But if I remember, popcorn is a family man so I think in his household more than just his opinion counts.

I wonder if Popcorn ever saw the SD masters for Discovery and especially the HD master on C3. He don't have a 4DTV and a HDD 200 so I think he really shouldn't comment on them. The Discovery HD theater master will blow the doors in on ANY HD LITE ANY Piizza service offers, I guarantee it!

And lemme see....other than those couple of times when they are in the clear for a couple days you cant see them...can you?
He has a 410 which is pretty much now the same as a 4DTV since you can only subscribe to the same offerings.

and your saying ONE channel blows the doors off anything else? You cannot be serious. By the way how many people can actually see this "oh my god its so good" Discovery HD on 4DTV?

Here are a couple pictures of the Disney SD masters on G5 I took last year.

last year huh? Any new pics or are they scrambled? I guess if Disney is your thing....me....I'm a Nickleodeon kinda person

I think they look as good or better than any HD lite pizza offers.

thats your opinion. I've seen plenty of HD that looks damn good compared to the "masters". Examples are sports feeds. Right now I can flip between the Twins backhaul in HD and FSN North HD and they look almost identical. You have to remember if the backhaul looks like hell, the final result looks like hell. Seen that with spring training baseball. These feeds using a 13000 symbol rate and its nothing but 16:9 480i. Some feeds are just smart and not put them in HD (Red Sox are smart and just do it in SD).

Like I say if popcorn is happy with his decision thats his right and shouldn't be chastized for it. I read the post as giving some good info about the customer service he recieved. You read the board and its always about bad service. Its kinda nice to see a thread about good service. Seriously some folks in this area are just as bad (or worse) than the people in the Dish or Directv area who attack folks who talk bad about their system.

and tvropro...in another thread you got all huffy at the "trolls" who were talking bad about 4DTV...but then you come to the Directv area and do the same exact thing. Or when a channel goes in the clear for a day you bash the DBS providers about it. Kinda ironic...dont ya think?

 

[trinidex]

Oh boy.....

Popcorn, you like the rest of us need to do what's good for us...and the family.

I enjoy HITS for freedom, because of the DIY nature, because of the low cost...
Other people do not, I have Dish to appease the missus...family considerations.

Masters are truly fab yes they are. When we could, we use to have a sub that included BBC America on both it's Master and W5 uplink - there absolutely was a difference and yes, IMO the current W5 BBCAm is better Q than Dish SD - SD not HD.

I HATE - yes HATE that I get artifacts on Palladia HD - WTF Dish, come on!

Reality says Dish & DirecTV will be here for the future because it's easy, yup, easy and we all like easy, at least that's the message we send.

I continue to support HITS/Big Dish.

If at the end of the day, this is what Pizza and Cable are using for uplinks then there's something good about it - they're not using compressed uplinks are they??

 

[tvropro]

Ice, The point I was trying to make is a good master feed is extremely good. From what I have seen in the pizza camp on HD the masters look better. Granted the channels are scrambled most of the time but they are a treat when open. I understand where your coming from and want to be able to watch whenever you want. I do too, we have lost that edge with c band thanks to bad moves by certain companies such as NPS, Netlink, Turnervison, and Superstar. Dish ate up a good portion of our clout with all that happened for years.

There are a few things I don't care for with Direct, the contract, rain fade, and high costs to get the high tier channels. I have had C band for 24 years and never dealt with those things. Pizza could take some lessons from c band like get rid of the contracts and offer more smaller packs at better prices. Unfortunately they know they don't have to do that since the masses accept their model.

Pizza has a big following and some bad press won't really affect them. Bad press however about the 4DTV hurts us trying to rebuild it. I'm over sensitive to this. I saw what Satforums did to hurt the 4DTV last year I don't want to see Sat Guys follow that course. Sat Guys IMHO has always been the elite of satellite forums and we were above a lot of the petty stuff. I have a lot of effort in the fight for what is left and now with the Map master. I want to see us have our chance again that has been taken from us in so many ways for many years.

If Popcorn is happy with dish thats fine and I'm glad he had some good service help vs the bad stories I read too.

BTW I like Disney and Nick they both have there good points

 

[PopcornNMore]

Question - - - more about HITS than Dish. I have been thinking about HITS and since I'm putting up my C-Band dish in April.

Not to change the subject - but what is your honest take on 105W and your DSR-410?

HITS is a great service for some people and offers very good SD video quality. The best deal is the Digital Deluxe package from Skyvision with channels costing 62 cents each per month. To compare Dish Network and DirecTV subscribers pay an average of 40 cents per channel, but higher cost channel packages must be purchased. HITS lacks popular channels such as Food Network, Comedy, Showtime, HBO, Discovery, Animal Planet, Nickelodeon, Disney, TLC, VH1, MTV, Lifetime, USA, A&E, E, ESPN, DIY, CMT, Cartoon, etc. However, many higher tier channels such as National Geographic, OWN, Planet Green, History International, BIO, MTV Hits, Chiller, Great American Country, Cooking Channel, etc are available in lower cost channel packages.

The graphics and channel guide on the DSR-410 are very easy to read from across the room and channel switching is very fast. The things I found frustrating were the channel guide being a half an hour behind and every time the receiver is powered on your favorite channels group must be reselected.

So, if you don't mind not having access to popular channels, no HD and no DVR functions HITS is a very good alternative.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I was simply trying to show that rain fade isn't as big of a problem as some people think if the dish is properly aligned and all the connections are good. Today we had the worst rain and hail storm I have ever seen since moving to Western PA 5 years ago and the Dish Network picture looked great with no signal loss.

I will always be a C band supporter as well and plan on keeping my various C band dishes for many years to come.

 

[tvropro]

I have a 90 cm dish on Direct 101 and loose it when we get good storms rolling through. The dish is peaked to the max and gives me signals from 96-100 normally. It helps over the stock dishes and even the slimline. But the way the fronts come through by me I have a good share of outages. They come in from the SW in the summer and get in line with 101 and its toast. C band laughs at all storms here and always did 99 quality when Direct says zero. BTW coax connections and LNBF are fine on Direct.

Do some reading on Ku rain fade on the net there are some interesting sites out there including stuff from NASA.

 

[eurosport]

Good for you!! Perhaps you should have posted that in the dish network forum.

Exactly. And there's absolutely NO difference in picture quality between a 722k and a 722. Same transport stream, same bitrate.

Sent from my DROIDX using SatelliteGuys

 

[eurosport]

Oh, and on a side note, I also have Dish. For the wife and kids though. If it was just me, I'd kick that SOB to the curb!

Sent from my DROIDX using SatelliteGuys

 

[PopcornNMore]

Exactly. And there's absolutely NO difference in picture quality between a 722k and a 722. Same transport stream, same bitrate.

Sent from my DROIDX using SatelliteGuys

That very well could be, but we do notice a difference. The technician also replaced a low frequency barrel connector within the wall plate with a high frequency barrel connector and replaced some "F" fittings outside that were beginning to rust, so this possibly improved the picture as well.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I have a 90 cm dish on Direct 101 and loose it when we get good storms rolling through. The dish is peaked to the max and gives me signals from 96-100 normally. It helps over the stock dishes and even the slimline. But the way the fronts come through by me I have a good share of outages. They come in from the SW in the summer and get in line with 101 and its toast. C band laughs at all storms here and always did 99 quality when Direct says zero. BTW coax connections and LNBF are fine on Direct.

Do some reading on Ku rain fade on the net there are some interesting sites out there including stuff from NASA.

Believe me I know what you are saying. This past winter during a snowstorm when our Dish Network was out while our 8' C band dish played great. I just feel pizza gets a bad rap due to rain fade even within CATV advertising, but it really isn't as bad if the dish is properly adjusted. Plus if a storm is really bad most likely your electric is going to go out first.

 

[macgod79]

The 722k is the same unit as the 722 it just added a ota tuner to it for recording cause I still have my 722. Just for the record my bill was always 120 bucks or more a month. When I had a problem with one of my receivers they did send someone the next day as well but wanted to add 50 bucks service call to my bill. You better look at your next bill good cause they sometimes like to make MISTAKES on the following bill. Another thing is they charge 5 bucks to remove a service, crazy. I will say I miss the epg and the ease of dvr use, but I love having my bud setup. I bought a year sub to hits just to let them know that we want this to continue and hopefully they,comcast, will want to invest add channels for us. I don't see them adding more sub channels on anything other than 105 west. I hope they do but on another note anyone have a 922 for sale.lol

 

[eurosport]

Just wanted to add this.
I know where Popcorn is coming from. I can do without Dish Network, but my wife and kids enjoy their cartoons, and nick, and the dvr for my wife... I will also keep a HITS sub going too, since the music video channels HITS has actually play MUSIC! I wish C-band was like before, but I don't see it happening. Dish size requirement, and no subscription HD channels are the reasons why it isn't very popular anymore.
Do I like it, no.
Will I have to accept it, yes.
It is what it is. My 2 C-band dishes still provide plenty of entertainment...but only as a companion to the small dish and OTA where most of my family's entertainment comes from.

 

[eurosport]

Plus if a storm is really bad most likely your electric is going to go out first.

That's what usually happens here...when a storm is kickin' out there, the TV usually goes out about 2 seconds before the power!

 

[tvropro]

Over here the power mostly stays on and Direct goes out (the bud keeps on playing ) The only time the power goes out here is we have to have the motherload of the storm. Ku gets pounded hard with the way storms roll through even ku FTA and Shaw is out.

I have watched the bud for years during some pretty bad storms and beside an occasional breakup of digital when lightning strikes it's solid. On analog I would see static from the lightning.

I have been reading that ku goes out because of scatter of the signal from the moisture not from the moisture amount itself. Anything above 10 ghz get affected and ka band for HD Direct is even worse.

The old ku of HITS on X4 even went out here but seemed to hold up better. I think this is because the 3/4 error correction was used . It allows more threshold. Both Direct and Dish use less bits for error correction (5/6 I believe) since they compress so much. Its like the 7/8 error correction with DC-2 it is harder to get and degrades faster. HD content and Mpeg 4 even has more errors to deal with and that gets choked off even faster. Ku and Ka may have the edge for easy install and aesthetics but C band has reliability. This is why the broadcasters use it so widely for the backbone.