Hooking Dish up in an apartment

[skidog]

Ok heres my question. My dad lives in an apartment, a few years ago I convinced him to ditch cable for satellite, the people he called was Dish but the guy came out and wouldn't hook it up because there was nothing to ground to, so he called Direct and that guy came out and hooked him up no problem so that is who he has tv through. I wanted to buy him a new tv for his birthday but none of the tv's have enough old school jacks on them to hook up his standard def Dtv receiver, the vcr or his dvd player and since he is on a budget he will not spend 100 bucks to get a HD Dtv receiver nor will he be willing to spend an extra 10 bones a month for HD. So my question finally is do Dish installers still need to ground the install or are they willing to hook it up ungrounded. My second question is if they will hook it up is there any installers around Edina Minnesota that will come make sure there is LOS, and if none of that is possible will Dish send him the equipment so I can install it and is it a safe bet that if he has Dtv that I will be able to see Dish's satellite? There are some trees out the back where his dish is mounted to the railing and he is on the ground floor.

Thanks guys

 

[boba]

His SD Directv receiver should have coaxial cable out/composite out and "S"video out the same outputs as a SD DISH receiver so if one can't be connected the other also couldn't be connected. DISH won't send out their leased equipment for an amatuer installer to mess up, if you want to do a self install you need to buy the equipment.

Ok heres my question. My dad lives in an apartment, a few years ago I convinced him to ditch cable for satellite, the people he called was Dish but the guy came out and wouldn't hook it up because there was nothing to ground to, so he called Direct and that guy came out and hooked him up no problem so that is who he has tv through. I wanted to buy him a new tv for his birthday but none of the tv's have enough old school jacks on them to hook up his standard def Dtv receiver, the vcr or his dvd player and since he is on a budget he will not spend 100 bucks to get a HD Dtv receiver nor will he be willing to spend an extra 10 bones a month for HD. So my question finally is do Dish installers still need to ground the install or are they willing to hook it up ungrounded. My second question is if they will hook it up is there any installers around Edina Minnesota that will come make sure there is LOS, and if none of that is possible will Dish send him the equipment so I can install it and is it a safe bet that if he has Dtv that I will be able to see Dish's satellite? There are some trees out the back where his dish is mounted to the railing and he is on the ground floor.

Thanks guys

 

[dwarren2]

Here's a suggestion. Hook the receiver to the tv via coax. Radio Shack sells, or did sell a composite A/B switch. Hook the vcr and the dvd player to it and the out to the composite in's of the tv. He would then just have to switch between the antenna in and the video in and then on the A/B switch either the vcr or the dvd player.

 

[skidog]

Hey guys thanks for the answers I figured out the composite hook up dilemma, I found a Composite A/V switch for under 20 bucks that i can hook everything into. My dad is cmpletely clueless about electronics so the fewer buttons and controllers needed the better.
I'm still hoping to get some more options for getting him Dish. Not really sure how I could mess up Dish's equipement, it's a matter of unscrewing the coax from the Dtv lnb and box and screwing them into the Dish equipement is it not?

 

[Tampa8]

And that's why Dish insists on installing it's equipment....

You may be able to use the coax Direct TV installed, that's about it. Old Legacy receivers/LNB used to work.

 

[skidog]

I understand all I will be using is Dtv's cable as noted in my last post.
If you buy and install your own equipement do you get the discount for the first year as a new customer?

 

[stardust3]

I understand all I will be using is Dtv's cable as noted in my last post.
If you buy and install your own equipement do you get the discount for the first year as a new customer?

You can, It does require a 2 yr agreement for the new customer promo.

 

[garys]

You can, It does require a 2 yr agreement for the new customer promo.

Buying your equipment may require you to get a flex account, in which case you would need to pay the activation fee and may prevent you from getting the usual discounts on a lot of the programing.