New Dish Sub / issues & observations

[mengel]

Greetings. I have now been a Dish sub for 1 month. I was a Direct sub for nearly 10 years, but decided to switch for HDTV (Direct didn't make me much of an offer to stay & upgrade, so I made the switch...). Went with the 942 in single mode and a 625 for the bedrooms.

In general I like Dish... here are some initial observations:
1- Way too many sat feed drops. Every time it rains I lose signal. I never had this problem w/ Direct and I lived in 3 different parts of the county. My sat signal is in the mid 90s, but I still drop signal w/ the slightest inclement weather. Is this Dish or the installer? Any suggestions?
2- Too many menu options. Seems like Dish made a menu option for every single decision... makes it difficult to navigate IMO.
3- 625 acts strange. Recording things we didn't ask and tuning to a spanish speaking station every time we turn it on...
4- 942 remote acts strange w/ TV controls. The remote works the TV fine during daytime hours (volume/mute/on-off). At night the TV won't respond. I have no problem controlling the sat (both sat & TV are IR). Any ideas?
5- SD pic quality on my Toshiba 55" rear proj TV is OK, but doesn't seem to be as good as Direct's PQ. HD PQ on OTA is exceptional but it is not quite as good on Sat HD channels. I need to adjust my TV pic settings more on Sat HD. Still much better than SD.
6- My OTA signal also drops out. I am only in the 65 signal range. This is a new house, w/ channel master antenna w/ preamp, and although I am closer to Raleigh DMA I can only seem to pick up Roanoke channels.

If I could just get rid of the nuisance Sat feed drops and remote control issue I'd be much happier...

 

[David Dietzel]

I have not experienced your issues.

My 942 and 510 work as advertised. No rain fade except during rare torrential downpours. Far better PQ than cable on both SD and HD channels (I never had Direct so can't compare). Dish is more price competitive than cable in my area, even with the sat box and DVR fees. And, nearly half of the channels I used to get with "digital cable" were, in fact, analog -- and it showed.

Sounds like perhaps your installation job was done poorly. Perhaps you should call Dish TECHNICAL SUPPORT and see if you can get a DIFFERENT technician dude/dudette out to check your dish, switch, alignment and cabling.

 

[riffjim4069]

Except for a few well documented 942 software bugs, my 942 and 811s also work as advertised. I have had very little rain fade problems on the 110/119 Dish 500, however I did experience severe rain fade problems on the 61.5 sat (VOOM/locals) even through the signals levels were between 102-106 during clear weather. As it turns out, the installer used a recycled dish he pulled from another job that turned out to be slightly bent/warped. Dish dispatched a tech who replaced it with another brand new Dish 500 (and even swapped out the dual LNB) and all is well.

I haven't had any problems with the 942 remote(s) (used mostly in single user mode) and we need more info on your OTA problems. Were you using your OTA antenna with your D* equipment. I will assume not since you're in a new house. I have two Channel Master 4228s w/matching 7775 UHF preamps...work like a charm with my E*, VOOM, and built-in OTA receivers: Richmond VA 51+ miles, Charlottesville VA 55+ miles, DC 55+ miles and even Baltimore at 90+ miles. What is your zipcode and what antenna and preamp are you using?

BTW, your signals levels should be in the low 100s IMO - you may need to have your dish peaked.

 

[mengel]

Thanks for the response. I may have to call Dish out again to peak the signal.

You are correct, the OTA antenna came w/ the new house. I don't have details on it other than it is a large chimney mounted Channel Master UHF w/ preamp. Unfotunately, the rotor control is gone - went w/ the previous owner, I guess. I am hoping the direction was optimized before they left, but I am looking to buy a rotor control in the meantime. From what I've been able to figure out it looks like the antenna is pointed Southeast towards Raleigh/Durham (small end of antenna pointed towards SE), yet I'm only picking up the Roanoke stations which would be NNW. I'm closer to Raleigh, but unfortunately there are many large trees higher than the antenna in the SE direction. My zip is 27574.

The romote issue is just a nuisance. I can always just use my TV remote (which is also IR) and I have no problems controlling the TV.