Happy 30th anniversary to Dish!

[telstar_1]

Been with Dish continuously since several months after their start date. I don't now remember exactly what month. Been with Satelliteguys from within a day of the launch coming from DBSForums.

Through everything DISH has gone through, it has been reliable for me. Heavy Storm head aside which on the Western Arc is not often, I honestly think I can count on one hand outages I have had in all these years. It would take hundreds of hands for how many times Cable has gone out over that time.
My best memory is Charlie circumventing everyone and actually adding Distant channels instead of having none as ordered through a third party.

Having the current customer discount over many years has resulted in paying a more reasonable price. And DISH participates in most networks with apps allowing to use those apps for free.
I STILL use VIP receivers, best thing to happen was no more updates to them, have been rock solid.

When it came out they offered an east-west (NY-LA) distant nets package for like $5 to go along with their $20 cable lineup. Then I believe they expanded to offer nets from Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, etc. It seemed few really gave much of a crap about their local news and if they did they'd use an antenna, but a lot liked the idea of the distant net affils. This was pre-DVR timeshifting- if you missed net shows on Eastern time, you could catch them 3 hrs later on western.

Customers loved it but the nets hated it, because it was a thumb in the eye to their ironclad gatekeeping. So they got a ruling made that distant locals cannot be served to anyone who can otherwise get them offair from an affil. The criteria for "being able to get" was being within the "grade B contour" of such affils- that is, able to receive a signal strong enough to reasonably get with a representative "standard" reference antenna. DiSH, inventive if nothing else, responded by sending dealers these "reference" antennae along with a few sections of pole so that we could raise them at customer homes to measure local signals. If we found them low, we simply attested that and activated distants if the cx wanted them. So naturally we found a lot of low signals. Again, people wanted these distants and really didn't care as much about their locals.

Well, that went along for a year or so until the nets started getting the full scope of how distants were being routinely "improperly" subscribed, and then they got a court to order DiSH to cut off all distants other than to customers residing in "white areas"- outer fringe reception areas of local DMAs as indicated on maps in white. Well, now as a whole bunch of people lost their distants, they also "moved" in order to get them back. They simply reported to DiSH that they had moved to an address picked out of an online database of addresses for remote towns, and got their E-W nets back. You can see where this is going. The nets went back to court and got DiSH slapped with a ruling that because of its misdeeds it now couldn't do any distant nets. Thus began DiSH's big scramble to put every DMA up in order to provide nets. "Local into local" satellite delivery, wherein the stations just down the road from you would be transmitted to Cheyenne, Wyo. and bounced off a satellite back to your home. Switching out swaths of customers to Superdish to utilize non-DBS frequencies whilst they got more satellites built.

In this context it's easy to see some of the motivation behind their design of the hopper. The nets had wanted to make sure everyone was captive to their own DMA's commercials? So much so they SUED us to enforce that, PLUS now we have to PAY them for what they put out FREE over the air?? Well, how about we "pay" them back by taking our award-winning little ol' DVR and auto-recording all of their stuff every night from all of these affils and inserting commercial-skipping triggers for automated "hopping over" their little ol' ads altogether? Now not only wouldn't folks have to push skip forward, they wouldn't have to remember (or bother) to set DVR for network shows in the first place, so guaranteed no seeing ANY of their tiresome ads! Apparently nobody inside of DiSH thought this wouldn't be a great idea, and so it was done, and of course the nets went absolutely nuts. They came close to getting hopper functioning shut down entirely, finally coming to a settlement that autohopping could not commence until the next day after airing.

 

[tsunami2311]

Well neither are you or me...

Well that mostly 27 years ache and pain stacking up all this time,

Spoiler: Dish is no longer pleasure to deal with they where

Back then they where 1 and only customer service I had zero issue with and zero complaints about, I cant say they same about that anymore, They where yes we can do and we will do that, now days they are no we cannot and we wont. and when I get them to do it they go back on.

I dont think they really have loyalty department anymore it maybe in name or want to think it is but is no way they same as it once was, and consider amount debit and amount customers they losing quarterly one would think they do everything in there power to keep people still with them, and what new people they pull in dont seem to be staying either considering the customers they losing

 

[Foxbat]

I had installed a DSS dish for our vacation home up north for Papa Foxbat, so I was pretty familiar with the process of installing the ground equipment and running RG6. We had been in our house for a couple of years and subscribed to the local Bozovision when I heard about Dish. Buy the dish and receiver for $699, and it came with a year's worth of programming. I went to this satellite dealer up in Niles, MI and looked at what they were offering. Bozovision had cheesed us off for the last time, so I picked up the install kit and unboxed it, running cables to the back yard, looking for a clear shot at 119°W. After setting up a deck chair with the dish reflector propped up, success! We had a signal from space! And it was far superior to the fuzzy image from Bozovision.

Eventually mounted the Dish 300 and its single LNBf on the side of the 2nd story, shooting through a gap in the neighbor's trees. Cancelled the Bozovision cable and never looked back. That was June of 1996.

Happy Anniversary, Dish!

 

[EarDemon]

Will anyone admit to having had Primestar?

Almost had Primestar in late '96/early '97 when I was a pre-teen. My parents, grandparents and Aunt and Uncles houses were next door and across the street from each other. My mom wanted to get Primestar, she talked my uncle and grandpa into looking into it and going with a local dealer from one town away. The dealer came to my grandparents house, gave his sales pitch to the whole family and agreed to a massive discount on installation if all three houses got it at the same time. As soon as my grandfather found out there would be no local channels the conversation was over and the dealer wouldn't give any price breaks for two installations. There used to be an antenna on the roof but it was removed and no one would go up on to a two story farm house to install one. So no Primestar for us.

Huge disappointment. There were a few things I was looking forward to. I was wrongly under the impression that the DMX channels were music video channels, I had no idea that the music channels were a blank screen with content akin to a CD player on shuffle. Having 30 or whatever music video channels would have been awesome in my mind. At the time Disney Channel was a premium cable network like HBO, so to have Disney would have been great. And there were a series of weather channels by NBC I think called Intellicast broken down by region of the country. At the time I was big into tornadoes, hurricanes, massive floods and other weather events and thought it would be cool to see weather from all around the country that was more granular than what The Weather Channel had.

In December of 1998 my parents and aunt and uncle got Dish Network from a local retailer who was the boyfriend of a co-worker of my mom. He gave a discount on the installation for two houses, my grandpa died in the Fall of '97 so that was no longer an issue. The installer agreed to provide us with two sets of rabbit ears for locals.

We all got basic Dish 2700 receivers, which a few years later were software upgraded to be nearly identical to 2800s and a single 18" pointing at 119 and had AT100 and the Superstations. We had the same installer come out a few years later to do the Dish 500 upgrade, eventually got the second dish for 61.5 since two locals were on there and some 501s and 508s.

 

[HoppertheKangaroo18]

Almost had Primestar in late '96/early '97 when I was a pre-teen. My parents, grandparents and Aunt and Uncles houses were next door and across the street from each other. My mom wanted to get Primestar, she talked my uncle and grandpa into looking into it and going with a local dealer from one town away. The dealer came to my grandparents house, gave his sales pitch to the whole family and agreed to a massive discount on installation if all three houses got it at the same time. As soon as my grandfather found out there would be no local channels the conversation was over and the dealer wouldn't give any price breaks for two installations. There used to be an antenna on the roof but it was removed and no one would go up on to a two story farm house to install one. So no Primestar for us.

Huge disappointment. There were a few things I was looking forward to. I was wrongly under the impression that the DMX channels were music video channels, I had no idea that the music channels were a blank screen with content akin to a CD player on shuffle. Having 30 or whatever music video channels would have been awesome in my mind. At the time Disney Channel was a premium cable network like HBO, so to have Disney would have been great. And there were a series of weather channels by NBC I think called Intellicast broken down by region of the country. At the time I was big into tornadoes, hurricanes, massive floods and other weather events and thought it would be cool to see weather from all around the country that was more granular than what The Weather Channel had.

In December of 1998 my parents and aunt and uncle got Dish Network from a local retailer who was the boyfriend of a co-worker of my mom. He gave a discount on the installation for two houses, my grandpa died in the Fall of '97 so that was no longer an issue. The installer agreed to provide us with two sets of rabbit ears for locals.

We all got basic Dish 2700 receivers, which a few years later were software upgraded to be nearly identical to 2800s and a single 18" pointing at 119 and had AT100 and the Superstations. We had the same installer come out a few years later to do the Dish 500 upgrade, eventually got the second dish for 61.5 since two locals were on there and some 501s and 508s.

Also whats the difference between the model 7000, 831 and 811s? Besides age

 

[MikeD-C05]

Also whats the difference between the model 7000, 831 and 811s? Besides age

Let me get my calculator......

 

[EarDemon]

Also whats the difference between the model 7000, 831 and 811s? Besides age

I have no idea, left Dish in 2004. At the time there was the 301, 501/508/510 and 721 for DP receivers plus the legacy receivers that were out there.


From memory:
7100/7200 were the Dish Player DVRs with Web TV. 7100 had a 7 GB HDD, 7200 had a 17 GB HDD
6000 was the first HD receiver
5000 was a high end receiver that could do HD with an add on module
1000 one of the first and most basic receivers

There was the 4700, which I believe also received a software upgrade to give it the same features as the 4900

My mom would drop me off at the electronics dept at Sam's Club while she shopped and I would spent the entire time playing with the various receivers

 

[telstar_1]

I have no idea, left Dish in 2004. At the time there was the 301, 501/508/510 and 721 for DP receivers plus the legacy receivers that were out there.


From memory:
7100/7200 were the Dish Player DVRs with Web TV. 7100 had a 7 GB HDD, 7200 had a 17 GB HDD
6000 was the first HD receiver
5000 was a high end receiver that could do HD with an add on module
1000 one of the first and most basic receivers

There was the 4700, which I believe also received a software upgrade to give it the same features as the 4900

My mom would drop me off at the electronics dept at Sam's Club while she shopped and I would spent the entire time playing with the various receivers

5000 was well-pre-HD, a stablemate to the original 3000 & 4000. Basically same as 4000, with UHF remote, and at least one additional feature was on-screen caller ID (if phone line connected). 1000 was the first "2nd generation" rx, in the reduced-width cabinet. Basically took the place of 3000 as the entry-level rx. Color change from gray to black, super basic, not even any front panel buttons. I thought it just looked el cheapo. Its stablemates which then came out were the 3700 and 4700, displacing 3000 & 4000.

Almost had Primestar in late '96/early '97 when I was a pre-teen. My parents, grandparents and Aunt and Uncles houses were next door and across the street from each other. My mom wanted to get Primestar, she talked my uncle and grandpa into looking into it and going with a local dealer from one town away. The dealer came to my grandparents house, gave his sales pitch to the whole family and agreed to a massive discount on installation if all three houses got it at the same time. As soon as my grandfather found out there would be no local channels the conversation was over and the dealer wouldn't give any price breaks for two installations. There used to be an antenna on the roof but it was removed and no one would go up on to a two story farm house to install one. So no Primestar for us.

Huge disappointment. There were a few things I was looking forward to. I was wrongly under the impression that the DMX channels were music video channels, I had no idea that the music channels were a blank screen with content akin to a CD player on shuffle. Having 30 or whatever music video channels would have been awesome in my mind. At the time Disney Channel was a premium cable network like HBO, so to have Disney would have been great. And there were a series of weather channels by NBC I think called Intellicast broken down by region of the country. At the time I was big into tornadoes, hurricanes, massive floods and other weather events and thought it would be cool to see weather from all around the country that was more granular than what The Weather Channel had.

In December of 1998 my parents and aunt and uncle got Dish Network from a local retailer who was the boyfriend of a co-worker of my mom. He gave a discount on the installation for two houses, my grandpa died in the Fall of '97 so that was no longer an issue. The installer agreed to provide us with two sets of rabbit ears for locals.

We all got basic Dish 2700 receivers, which a few years later were software upgraded to be nearly identical to 2800s and a single 18" pointing at 119 and had AT100 and the Superstations. We had the same installer come out a few years later to do the Dish 500 upgrade, eventually got the second dish for 61.5 since two locals were on there and some 501s and 508s.

It seemed that oldsters were the most sensitive to retaining local channels in considering satellite. Of course cable, the force behind Primestar, generally had zero experience or interest in homes having an antenna for offair, but this having been proposed for acquisition through a TV/satellite dealer, you'd think that offair locals would have been something that they'd routinely incorporate. If it indeed was a 'real' satellite dealership and not just a contracted Primestar putter-inner. And then with getting DiSH the axiom proved true of the younger generation deprioritizing locals and settling for what likely was lesser reception with indoor antennae. Though that was the quick answer that was most dealers' go-to for providing locals. However in the early DiSH years I couldn't tell you how many cx's I had who were perfectly satisfied to get satellite distant nets and not care about local content. Had to go back with offair solutions to get the broadcast net programming as the noose was tightened on distants.

 

[tsunami2311]

Will anyone admit to having had Primestar?

Yah we had that prior to dish network I dont remember them just the name back then when we had primestar I was still watch OTA only, and when they switch to dishnetwork I was last one to get box mostly cause I was watch dishnetwork via other means, those were days

After I got dish box is when I took over dealing with dish

 

[Mr Tony]

Will anyone admit to having had Primestar?

I'll one up it. I SOLD Primestar at the Radio Shack I was working at. Sold a ton of them based on one thing....Univision 24 hour a day

At the time there were a fair amount of Spanish people in town and the local cable at 6pm turned Univision (until 6am) to PPV programming. So it was an easy sell with 5 simple words....."Univision 24 hours a day"

 

[telstar_1]

Yah we had that prior to dish network I dont remember them just the name back then when we had primestar I was still watch OTA only, and when they switch to dishnetwork I was last one to get box mostly cause I was watch dishnetwork via other means, those were days

After I got dish box is when I took over dealing with dish

I'm going to guess that if you were pirating at the time it was the DSS (DTV/USSB)

 

[tsunami2311]

Dish network all channel every last one was great for a few years. said box still work just now it only work with the free satalite feed, or if you have "card" for some old provider that still uses them

 

[HoppertheKangaroo18]

Dish network all channel every last one was great for a few years. said box still work just now it only work with the free satalite feed, or if you have "card" for some old provider that still uses them

Also is dish still gonna launch echostar 25 later this year?

 

[Bobby]

Also is dish still gonna launch echostar 25 later this year?

Echostar 25 launched successfully 2 days ago.

 

[HoppertheKangaroo18]

Echostar 25 launched successfully 2 days ago.

Oh I didn't even know about that lol

 

[Foxbat]

Oh I didn't even know about that lol

Here's a recap of the Echostar XXV launch the other day:

​

 

[HoppertheKangaroo18]

Here's a recap of the Echostar XXV launch the other day:

​

Cool! Also I wondered how they move the programming from the old 110 to the new one . Like if a customer is watching something on the old 110 and dish moves the channel to the new satellite would the customers signal go out?

 

[Bobby]

Cool! Also I wondered how they move the programming from the old 110 to the new one . Like if a customer is watching something on the old 110 and dish moves the channel to the new satellite would the customers signal go out?

Keep in mind that the programming doesn't reside on the satellite. It is beamed up from an a few earth stations and then beamed back down to your dish. They are capable of beaming the same programming to 2 satellites at the same time. They will actually test the new satellite to ensure that all the programming is working correctly before activating it to your dish. You wouldn't see the transfer at all.

 

[HoppertheKangaroo18]

Keep in mind that the programming doesn't reside on the satellite. It is beamed up from an a few earth stations and then beamed back down to your dish. They are capable of beaming the same programming to 2 satellites at the same time. They will actually test the new satellite to ensure that all the programming is working correctly before activating it to your dish. You wouldn't see the transfer at all.

Good to know

 

[MikeD-C05]

Oh I didn't even know about that lol

That's because it was successful. If it wasn't you would of heard this.