HD locals for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA timeframe??

[amoni]

I posted this over at the Eastern Arc thread...

Called yesterday to ask about all the new HD which I learned about here and not thru Dish. They said I needed the 61.5 Migration. Set up today, guy pulls up and says he can't do it. I'm in Williamsport Pa. We haven't been able to get the locals in HD since they went live a year and half ago and now he says the Eastern Arc won't work here either. In fact he had a bunch of jobs set up today for the same thing and he can't do them, they have a list of zip codes that won't work and we're one of them. He didn't know why Dish was scheduling installs when it known it won't work, and basically drove and hour and half for nothing. Of course he had no idea when or if the problem will be rectified. So as of now everyone else outside this area are getting 17 new HD channels PLUS the four local HD channels for the same price I'm paying without any inkling if it will change.

 

[JWKessler]

You are right. WB/Scranton locals are in HD and have been for a while... but the spotbeam that covers WB/Scranton doesn't cover the whole DMA area. There are a lot of us in the Western part of the DMA that aren't covered by the spotbeam that gives the HD, so we are stuck with the SD versions only. :down

Could someone confirm if WVIA is included among the HD channels? I recently saw a list of Scranton/Wilkes-Barrie channels that did not specifically list WVIA as HD.

I ask as I'm in the Binghamton area and can receive some Scranton channels with an antenna - but not WVIA. I'm wondering if "moving" would be worthwhile. I currently get the big four networks in HD either by antenna or from American Direct, but of course PBS is in glorious fuzzy vision.

 

[digiblur]

It's SD

SatelliteGuys.US - Subscription 61.5°W

 

[JWKessler]

Oh Foo! Thanks for the bad news anyway.

Based on that I assume WSKG in Binghamton will be SD as well when/if they get that one up. All the more reason why PBS needs to give us a national feed in HD.

 

[hopton]

I was just reading the thread on the STELLA Act passage (http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/212902-dish-statement-stella-passage.html) and the wheels started turning... From what I can understand (not much), STELLA means that Dish can (or maybe must??) provide locals to areas that do not currently receive them (highly oversimplified summary). Apparently it states nothing about HD, so I would assume that since WB/Scranton has SD locals available for the whole DMA on 119, and it's just the HD that misses a lot of us that are supposed to be under the spotbeam of 61.5, it doesn't really impact us at all.

What about this, though... They have really been pushing Eastern Arc and want people to switch to it. This is another area that we are being screwed because doing so would allow us to receive the many HD channels that have been added (not even sure how many the count is up to now) that we can't get on our current 119/110/61.5 setups. We have been given the choice of either staying with 119/110/61.5 and not getting the new free HD channels and keep our SD locals -OR- switch to EA and get the new HD channels while giving up ALL locals - not even getting them in SD. Since this whole thread is about locals in HD, I am assuming that a lot of us value the locals and didn't switch to EA because standard definition is better than NO definition (although only slightly better).

I am wondering if STELLA could work in our favor if we switch to EA. If we switch, we no longer have locals available, which I am hoping means they could / would give us locals from another DMA.... If that's the case, maybe they would give us Philly in HD??? Granted our local news wouldn't be local any more, but we'd have then in HD!!!

If that's the case, I might have to start packing my bags to move back home!

I am hoping some members way more knowledgeable than I can chime in on this...

Keep fighting the fight!!!

 

[digiblur]

I don't think that would work as that is Dish's fault they are not providing the channels over you area when indeed there are channels in your DMA. Now if your DMA was missing a few channels that would be a different story.

 

[hopton]

Darn. Just when there was a flicker of hope... Grrrrr! The wait continues.....

Thanks for chiming in, though, digi!

 

[amoni]

I have the same problem and I wrote to the CEO address provided here and just asked the simple question of if this problem will be fixed and if there is a time frame. At the time it was 17 HD's now it's 23 we are not getting. As of today, I have received no answer, not even a generic "we've received your question..." reply. I guess if they ignore the problem, there is no problem.

 

[JWKessler]

We have been given the choice of either staying with 119/110/61.5 and not getting the new free HD channels and keep our SD locals -OR- switch to EA and get the new HD channels while giving up ALL locals - not even getting them in SD.

Either I lead a charmed life or I asked the right questions. I had a 119/110/61.5 installation here in the Binghamton area and when the new HD first appeared i called Dish and they came out the next day and added another wing dish to get me the 72.7 slot. This required adding a new DPP44 Multi Switch and a power supply inside.

So now I have four satellites and all the HD.

Maybe if you called and asked nicely you would get the same.

I'm hoping to get the WB/Scranton locals once the STELLA Act dust settles.

 

[Jim S.]

They seem to have implemented the obvious solution for the SD locals + HD nationals problem:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...37-6-16-2010-2-45pm-uplink-2.html#post2235047

But why oh why don't they just move the HD locals somewhere we can get them? This makes it seem like they have no intention of doing so!

 

[dk21]

Seriously, I wish they'd just find a way to get the HD locals to us. I'm a happy Dish customer, but if they could get the locals in HD working that would be fantastic!

 

[Jim S.]

Well this is interesting... the local dealer says that they were just informed by highly-placed sources at Dish yesterday that the Scranton HD locals will remain at 61.5, but will be available to everyone when Echostar 15 is in place, probably in August.

The reason I say interesting is twofold. First, they just did this thing with renumbering the local SD channels on 119 to facilitate the supposedly forbidden mixed-arc setups. Second, apropos of said deprecated setups, all previous intel on this board pointed to all national HD being migrated off of 61.5 by next year, which makes no sense to me because 61.5 isn't going to have spotbeams.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they're fixing the problem, but I'm extremely confused by the fact that they appear to be fixing it in the stupidest way possible!

 

[digiblur]

Well this is interesting... the local dealer says that they were just informed by highly-placed sources at Dish yesterday that the Scranton HD locals will remain at 61.5, but will be available to everyone when Echostar 15 is in place, probably in August.

The reason I say interesting is twofold. First, they just did this thing with renumbering the local SD channels on 119 to facilitate the supposedly forbidden mixed-arc setups. Second, apropos of said deprecated setups, all previous intel on this board pointed to all national HD being migrated off of 61.5 by next year, which makes no sense to me because 61.5 isn't going to have spotbeams.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they're fixing the problem, but I'm extremely confused by the fact that they appear to be fixing it in the stupidest way possible!

Is there one of the spots that covers your entire DMA well? Like one of the adjoining spotbeams that your locals really should be on? (Hard to go by the maps since E* changed the satellite orientation)

 

[Jim S.]

That's really hard to tell without a valid map. The beam they're using for Philadelphia and DC covers my area well, but I have a feeling it doesn't cover the northeastern corner of the state. Plus, it might be full already, what with all the SD locals those cities have. The Buffalo beam also lands here, but is probably even worse in the rest of the DMA.

 

[Derwin0]

perhaps it'll be going CONUS on the new Sat

 

[dk21]

This is great news! I really hope it ends up being true...

 

[Hemi 6.1]

perhaps it'll be going CONUS on the new Sat

Scranton Wilkes Barre, Conus???

NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

 

[Derwin0]

Scranton Wilkes Barre, Conus???

NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

Why not, Harrisburg is.

 

[Jim S.]

Yeah but Harrisburg is on 77, isn't it? I don't know why they didn't just put Scranton there and spare all the trouble. Must be something to do with their initial policy of not wanting to give EA dishes to existing customers. Hey Dish, if you don't have enough of something to go around to everyone, how about not announcing it?!

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Why not, Harrisburg is.

They aren't going to waste conus Bandwidth on a Tiny Local DMA. Like Scranton Wilkes Barre.

Major Citys are Conus, and most of those are now being switched to spotbeam only, because they take up less space and distantnetworks are becoming a thing of the past.

If the 77 has no spotbeams, I doubt you'll see anymore locals put there.
You'll be waiting untill E*15.

In the Mean time All American Direct might be an option.
Granted its not cheap , but its better then nothing.