Maybe a new subscriber

[dconger74]

My wife and I are looking at getting satellite tv. The DN Americas top 250 is our choice with HD in 3 rooms and standard in 1 room. I have been reading some of the posts on this site and I see alot about people have multiple dish setups just to receive all the channels within their package they subscribed to. My question is if we go with DN will we have to have a multiple dish setup to receive all the channels in americas top 250? The zipcode where we are is 40391.
Thanks

 

[CK SatGuy]

You would only need 1 dish and since your HD locals are on 77, you would get an eastern arc dish receiving 3 orbits (61.5, 72.7, and 77). You will, however, need 3 HD receivers if you want HD on 3 TVs, which could get pricey. (until the sling extender finally gets released which should be coming out soon.)

 

[dconger74]

Being a new subscriber and the package deals that they are offering at this time they HD receivers are going to be free or so their website says when you had them to the cart. I'm glad to know that I will just need one dish. I don't have room for two and my wife really doesn't like the look of them anyway! LOL!! Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[dwarren2]

How many DVR's do you want? You can do 1 HD and the SD from a 722 DVR and get unlimited storage with an external HD at no additional charge. You can do the other 2 HD's with a 211 series in each room. the plain 211 has a built in OTA tuner the "k" requires an OTA tuner module. Same goes with the 722 "k" but that gives you 2 OTA tuners. The 211 can be turned into a simple DVR by adding an external HD for a 1 time fee of $40 eliminating the monthly DVR charge. It also gives you the ability to pause/rewind what you are watching.

 

[dconger74]

We hadn't planned on any DVRs. We didn't want the monthly 7 dollar fee for having a DVR that we would most likely never use. Also the receivers that have the 2 tuners in them do you have to have cabling to run from the tuner to the second tv? Is the one time fee of 40 dollars for the life of the account or is that a reoccurring fee every year?

 

[dconger74]

Sorry. I seen where you said one time fee. 2 HD receivers will be in bedrooms and 1 in our living room. The other standard will be a computer room. How can we get DVR capabilities with out the 7 dollar monthly fee?

 

[KAB]

We hadn't planned on any DVRs.

Seriously??? You have no idea of what you are missing. To me, no DVR is the Dark Ages. BUT, if you are getting 211's you can do it once you see the light and without the SIX dollar DVR fee.

 

[dconger74]

Could you explain to me how you go about using the 211 as a DVR without the 6 dollar a month fee?

 

[KAB]

You would have to call Dish and pay the one time $40.00 activation fee. You could have multiple EHDs on multiple 211s, and move between them. The reason they don't charge the $6.00 is simply because, out of the box, it is NOT a DVR.

 

[dwarren2]

Believe me, once you use a DVR you will wonder how you lived without it. How many times have you wanted to watch 2 or more shows that were on at the same time, were on when you had to go away or after you went to bed, or had to step away from the TV for something? You can start watching a program that you have recorded, stop it and resume at the same spot later on. The DVR keeps a rolling buffer of up to 1 hour or till the last time you changed a channel. I don't know how many times either my wife or myself is yelling out "Pause it"
There is no fee for an EHD on a 722 and you can use as many drives as you want, but only 1 at a time. They just eliminated the fee on the 722 in Feb. The $0 for the 211 is a 1 time fee only. I just added the HD to my 211 and I wonder why I waited so long.
In order to get the 2 tuner receiver, you have to get a dvr. Yes, the installer will run coax from the DVR to the site of you SD TV. All the tuners in the DVR will record HD. The TV2 output via coax will be down converted to SD. If you are using an OTA antenna, only the TV1 output will have your locals in HD from the antenna and all the sub-carriers (ie. PBS Create, etc) TV2 output will have your locals as supplied by Dish.

 

[tpautler]

Seriously??? You have no idea of what you are missing. To me, no DVR is the Dark Ages. BUT, if you are getting 211's you can do it once you see the light and without the SIX dollar DVR fee.

Once you DVR, you never go back. My totally non techie wife, (who never did figure out VCRS), will only watch her shows recorded. Now have 3 dvrs in the house....

 

[dwarren2]

You would have to call Dish and pay the one time $40.00 activation fee. You could have multiple EHDs on multiple 211s, and move between them. The reason they don't charge the $6.00 is simply because, out of the box, it is NOT a DVR.

Actually, you don't call Dish. When you hook up the EHD to the 211, it does it on screen.

 

[dconger74]

Cool. How does the one receiver work as 2 tuners? Does it require more cabling or is it wireless? And thanks again for answering all my questions. I have just recently started researching this and I am trying to learn all of this.

 

[dconger74]

Okay. You answered some of my questions that I was typing before I posted it. Now my next question is can it be any EHD and what type of file system does it have to be formatted too?

 

[KAB]

Well, there are two Sat tuners in them...the 722/622. The 622/722 has built in, two Sat tuners plus one OTA...3 simultaneous recordings. The 722K with optional OTA module can record 4 shows at once (2 OTA, 2 Sat). Coax is run from the TV2 output to the second SD TV. BUT, keep in mind, any DVR you lease will incur the $6.00 fee.

 

[KAB]

Okay. You answered some of my questions that I was typing before I posted it. Now my next question is can it be any EHD and what type of file system does it have to be formatted too?

Any AC powered EHD will work. Limitations are 2T for 722/622, 1T for 211. All minimum, 50 GB

 

[dconger74]

I would much rather have 3 HD receivers (211) and one standard receiver. That way I would not have to run more cabling. Can you request which type of receivers that you would like to have? Also are you allowed to do your own installs?

 

[dwarren2]

I would much rather have 3 HD receivers (211) and one standard receiver. That way I would not have to run more cabling. Can you request which type of receivers that you would like to have? Also are you allowed to do your own installs?

Actually there is not much more cabling for the dvr. They use cabling that is 2 way. the TV2 output feeds back into the single cable that feeds the dvr and then is split to the dish and TV2. It is much better to have Dish do the install. They do it quickly and correctly. You will miss a lot if you don't get a dvr. You will regret it. Also, I'm not sure if they make a SD receiver anymore. All new installs require VIP receivers to handle the mpeg4 signals from the Eastern Arc sat's.

 

[dconger74]

Okay. We may end up getting a DVR with 2 tuners and and just 2 HD receivers to cover our 4 TVs. Last question, on the EHDs is it a FAT32 file system or NTSC?

 

[dwarren2]

Not sure. You Dish receiver reformats the EHD when you first attach it. I forgot to mention the the dual tuner DVR has both a single and dual mode. In dual mode it outputs different signals to the TV1 and TV2 outputs. In single mode it puts out the same signal as the OTA/TV1 tuner to both outputs. That way if you want to watch something from your OTA on TV2, you can. I've had a 722 for over 6 years and I'm still discovering features.