I have Dish Network installed at home, with one Joey and a few Hoppers. I have a hunting cabin way out in the woods that I recently brought an old Dish 500 Pro Twin LNB, and a Dish VIP 211K that I had not being used up there so I at least had something to watch besides DVD’s. As far as I can tell the 211K is HD capable, but I think I’d need triple LNB dish to be able to get a HD signal to the tv. My question is, can I just buy a triple LNB and use the same dish, or would I need the triple LNB and a completely different dish as well?
Required Hardware for HD Signal?
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Indeed the 211 is HD capable. Be sure to phone Dish to verify that that receiver can be added to your account.
If you are on western arc (WA), you may need a triple lnb.
I believe the guide is on 110 and most HD is on 119 on WA that would necessitate the triple lnb and the Dish 1000 reflector.
Using the Dish 500 you will be able to receive 110 and 119 but it has only a few of the HD channels on those two sats.
Here is a decent listing for WA - http://uplink.jameslong.name/westernarc.html
Here is one for EA - Eastern Arc Channels on DISH Network (Unofficial Listing)
If you are on western arc (WA), you may need a triple lnb.
I believe the guide is on 110 and most HD is on 119 on WA that would necessitate the triple lnb and the Dish 1000 reflector.
Using the Dish 500 you will be able to receive 110 and 119 but it has only a few of the HD channels on those two sats.
Here is a decent listing for WA - http://uplink.jameslong.name/westernarc.html
Here is one for EA - Eastern Arc Channels on DISH Network (Unofficial Listing)
Your Dish 500 could be pointed to the EA satellites, but that’s not a great solution as it’s designed for 110° & 119°. You could get an acceptable signal to 61.5° but 72.7° is 11.2° degrees away, and being off by 2.2 degrees is a significant difference. You’d get one or the other, but not both.
We have a cabin in northern Michigan and bought an Eastern Arc Dish 1000.2 DP+ for the owned ViP 722 (replaced with a pair of ViP 211 receivers, also owned). I, too, had a Dish 500 and thought seriously about mounting it with the Dish 300 I also had. The EA 1000.2 was a clearer installation for us.
A lot depends on what you want to watch and which satellite has your Local stations if that’s important to you. Also, does your cabin in the woods have a clear view of the SW or SE sky.
We have a cabin in northern Michigan and bought an Eastern Arc Dish 1000.2 DP+ for the owned ViP 722 (replaced with a pair of ViP 211 receivers, also owned). I, too, had a Dish 500 and thought seriously about mounting it with the Dish 300 I also had. The EA 1000.2 was a clearer installation for us.
A lot depends on what you want to watch and which satellite has your Local stations if that’s important to you. Also, does your cabin in the woods have a clear view of the SW or SE sky.
Not necessarily. There are many examples of people here (myself included) who are or have used a D500 to successfully pull in both 61.5 and 72. It may, however, depend on location as to how successful one might be. That being, I am/was hesitant to advise the OP to use a 'non-standard' setup without knowing their aiming/tuning skills. To be honest, skewing the dish to 90 degrees and using one eye of the twin pointed at 61.5 would still give someone plenty to watch.
It sounds like my easiest option would be to just swap out the Dish 500 to a 1000 WA. I was planning on keeping the 211K since I own it, just wasn't sure if just swapping to a triple LNB with the 500 made sense, but it appears like the 211K with a 1000 WA would be the easiest and get all the channels I'm currently getting on 110 and 119, and possibly 129 as well, correct?
Absolutely your best option. As long as you have a view of the western arc you will be golden.
I was able to find the 1000.2 WA dish for a good price and should have it any day now. When I swap out the new dish with the extra LNB, will the coordinates be pretty much the same, just able to get the extra satellite due to the extra LNB?
What's your zipcode/closest city? Depending on where you are in the country, you are going to have to point a few more degrees to the south (If you are right behind your current dish its to the left), and elevation may or may not need to be lowered a few degrees as well. Skew should be set before you mount it up, and there is a marker on the backside of the 1000.2 to do that. This page (MyDISH) can give you the directions in degrees based on your zip and some basic steps as well, as an example for my 774XX zip the difference was 6 degrees more south (214° on the 1K.2 vs 208°) and 3 degrees lower on the elevation (46° on the 1K.2 vs 49°)
The reason you cant just mount it the same way and be done with it (and not to mention it would be pretty surprising for someone to eyeball it and get a completely different dish mounted in the exact same direction down to the degree) is because the D500 has its 2 LNBF's side by side, so when aligning you are technically pointing towards 114.5°, the middle point between 110/119. On a 1000.2/4/plus you are aligning for 119 (72.7 if EA), since this is the LNB in the center and 110/129 will come in on the side LNBF's once 119 is present on it (as long as your skew is correct).
I figured it wouldn't be possible, but figured I would ask. At least it's in the general area. On my current setup, with the VIP 211K, I only have one signal in port on the receiver, and I connect to port 1 on the dual LNB, can I still just connect to port 1 with the triple LNB also. The documentation at Mydish shows it connecting with a cable to ech port and three separate signal in connecting to the receiver, but I swear I saw somewhere that showed it being done with the same one signal in from port 1.
The 1000.2 has a built in switch. One coax from port 1 should be fine.
To be clearer, I should have said that the western arc LNB for that 1000.2 dish has the built in switch. There are three ports 1-3 to feed receivers. The 4th port is to add another dish.
