Newbie OTA HD/SD question.

[Torqd]

I am new to the whole satellite thing. I am planning a free dish 811/301 combo. Our HD locals are not offered here yet so I need to get my locals somehow. I know the 811 can get my local HD OTA for its room with an antenna. But will that same antenna work for SD tv in my other room. And How will I get the wiring installed to the two receivers. Do I have to have the antenna there before the installer comes? I know the 811 will integrate the channels into the guide. Will the 301 handle any channels or will I have to switch from cable to antenna on the tv. Thanks for any help in advance!



I am so ready to jump...just need to cover all my bases!

 

[dlsnyder]

You say your HD locals aren't offered yet. Are you waiting for HD locals from Dish? That probably won't happen due to the amount of bandwidth available on the satellites. SD locals are available from Dish in 101 cities now so maybe they will have yours if you are interested. The picture quality will definately be better with the digital over-the-air (OTA) locals you will receive with that new 811 and an antenna. As I recall an OTA antenna is not part of the standard install but you may be able to get one installed for an additional charge. Call your installer before they come out. You could also install one yourself - it isn't too terribly hard as long as you are handy with tools. The 811 will tune in any local OTA digital channels but the 301 will not. It will pass through the analog channels to the tuner on your TV though so you will have to push a button on the remote to switch between the antenna and the satellite receiver. As for wiring the antenna most people use a coax run between the antenna and the satellite dish, then use a diplexer to combine the two signals. You will also need a diplexer at the TV end to separate the two signals back out again. Again, check with your installer. For an additional charge they will probably do all this for you if you don't want to tackle it yourself.

 

[Torqd]

Ok...thanks for the reply...I was beginning to wonder if someone would To clarify...I can get locals over the air...not from dish. I know the antenna isn't part of the deal but I want to talk to the installer about my options and the cost. I am sure I can handle it (I am handy enough to build my own house )but I am not up on this diplexer stuff. What kind of cost are we talkin about for the diplexers and such...Thanks again for the reply!

 

[shellbmb]

The 811 will tune in any local OTA digital channels but the 301 will not. It will pass through the analog channels to the tuner on your TV though so you will have to push a button on the remote to switch between the antenna and the satellite receiver.

But will the 811 tune in local OTA SD channels and avoid you having to switch between the antenna and receiver on your tv input? Bascially I'm trying to see if I can cancel my local sub through the satellite if I put up a huge antenna for the HD signals. I know I will probably lose the guide for my locals, but I can live with that. This is of course assuming the PQ of my OTA SD locals is adequate. If I get the huge antenna I need to pick up CBS-HD here in San Antonio, that should not be a problem.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

I purchased a Terk 55 for an outside antenna, alot of reviews said they had to take back 6-7 to get one that worked, guess I was lucky. mine worked fine.

I am picking up 6 digital stations in my rural area, they are about 40 air miles away. Signal strength from 67-90 percent.

The digital signal makes the PQ great, except for one station that must be using $10 CAMERAS.

I got a couple of walkie talkies and had my wife check signal strengths while a played with the position of the antenna. A foot up or down makes a difference, I actually lowered mine a foot on the chimney from where I was going to place it, it made about %20 signal increase in some channels.

It is not a great antenna for the analog channels. I am also lucky that the stations all all north and north east. Some would probably want a mast mount with rotar.

One thing I was curious about, one station seems to be broadcasting 3 digital sub channels, is this something thats common ?

 

[hemway]

Shellbmb,

I'm in the Phoenix area and I installed a Channel Master Stealthtenna on the peak of my house (I'm around 20 miles from the broadcaster's antenna farm). I ran the coax (used RG6) from the antenna to a point where I could install a splitter that allows me to run a cable to the OTA input on my 811, and another cable to my 501 OTA input.

My local OTA digital signals on the 811 are in the 90 - 95 range. I can also program in the analog signal on the 811, but don't because the difference between the digital and analog pictures is as different as night and day. Over on the 501, when I watch the analog signals all but one comes in almost as good as the signal I use (key work here is 'use') to get from E* when I subscribed to them. The one channel that isn't as sharp as the others is still pretty good. I think if I added a rotor to my antenna that would clear up also, but I really don't watch that channel that much anyways, so it's no big deal for me.

 

[mike123abc]

The 811 will tune in digital OTA, analog OTA and analog Cable (not digital cable channels). When you change to a channel, for example channel 6 in my market, you change to 006-00 for analog channel 6, 006-01 for digital channel 6 program 1 (if you have muliple programs in digital). Changing channels to 006 will default to digital.

The 6000 is the same, and I would assume the 921 is also the same.