Do you subscribe to local channels from Dish? There has been some discussion in another thread about Dish shutting down the SD feeds of the local channels in many markets soon. Some markets will lose their SD feeds as early as next week, while others will be shut down over the next couple of months. Just something to think about, if you want to be prepared before the date you might lose your locals.
Yes, I get 4 or 5 local stations. The only one that would bother me a bit is the local PBS station. I rarely watch the local stations. I get my local news from the newspaper, hard-copy and electronic.
That's the great thing about this site. If you want to learn about a custom, personalized install, this is the place!I don't intend to upgrade right away, unless I have a hardware failure right away. But with the info that you guys have given me I can order a new house system more confidently when my hardware eventually does fail.
Thanks again to all who responded.
Yes. Post what local market you are in, and I can tell you which Dish 1000 LNB you would need. (Could be either Western Arc or Eastern Arc.) Also, you can add an OTA USB adapter to the Wally, which would give you two more tuners for recording, and allow you to get your locals with an over-the-air antenna for free. It doesn't sound like you would use that feature that often, but it is nice for those who do want that.
Good news! Your HD local feeds are on the 119 satellite, which is the same satellite used for the SD feeds. You would be looking for a Western Arc 1000.2 LNB, to get your national HD channels from the 129 satellite.
Thank you. The info in this thread will be valuable I can see that. Maybe I should copy all this down to my PC, just in case . . .
You may have until March. The post below is about Dish's phase-out of MPEG-2 broadcasting. When they are no longer transmitting channels in MPEG-2, your SD receivers will stop working.
I would assume that Dish would contact us old folks with the old receivers ???!!!
Yes, they would. Your first indication may be a message that pops up on your local channels, to inform you about the need to upgrade your equipment. So, it may be worth checking those channels from time to time, to see if a message pops up on your screen.
Yes, TV is aprox 200 +/- ft away from wifi hotspot. Key is getting Joey in same direction as HotSpot. Many walls in between but these are interior walls no insulation.
I have a somewhat eccentric friend who is holding onto his stupid dumb-ass Sony CRT TV's and waiting for them to die before he upgrades to a vastly superior HD picture. I gave him a spare HDTV. I bought him a FireTV Stick. He put them in the closet and waits! The problem with these Sony TV's is that they may last longer than he does.
I am like Mr. BarnRat. I only watch PBS. That is the sole reason I have that antenna and OTA adapter: to record NOVA and Nature. I have hundreds of these shows stored on my EHD dating back to my earliest 722 days.
Both our TVs are relatively new large HDTVs. I don't think I need to upgrade them since they are both newer than the Wally box (introduced in 2016). It's just that they are being wasted with the SD box (DVR 625).I have a somewhat eccentric friend who is holding onto his stupid dumb-ass Sony CRT TV's and waiting for them to die before he upgrades to a vastly superior HD picture. I gave him a spare HDTV. I bought him a FireTV Stick. He put them in the closet and waits! The problem with these Sony TV's is that they may last longer than he does.
Don't be somebody's eccentric friend. Upgrade those TVs as soon as possible. Then upgrade with HD Wally replacements. You won't regret it.
I am like Mr. BarnRat. I only watch PBS. That is the sole reason I have that antenna and OTA adapter: to record NOVA and Nature. I have hundreds of these shows stored on my EHD dating back to my earliest 722 days.
My parents were similar, in that they bought new HD TVs but still kept their standard def DirecTV equipment. Only when GSN stopped being transmitted as an SD feed were they forced to upgrade. I recently asked my dad about the better picture quality he's got now and says he doesn't notice a difference.
Admittedly, both of our HDTVs are being wasted with our Dish SD receivers. But they are not being wasted. We use them to watch Blu-Rays and we have Apple TV plus 4 internet streaming services. Actually, I would guess that I only watch Dish stuff maybe 30% of the time. My wife, a bit more than that. In fact, part of my decision process concerning this upgrade to Wallys will be the possibility of dropping Dish entirely. That would be a might painful since we've been with Dish for 23 years now and I do feel some loyalty to them.
I doubt it. It has taken her 9 years to accumulate her "archive". My DVR recordings can easily be replaced but her stuff is mostly hard to find documentaries -- I can't even find them on DVDs. She will be upset when she has to discard her DVR stuff -- I won't. I've suggested we buy a recorder to transfer her stuff to DVDs (or MP4 files) but my understanding is that it takes forever because it is just recording the output stream from the DVR 625.
