Simpleton needs expert perspective.....

bnewt

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 6, 2003
1,440
469
Shepherdsville, Ky
with all of the recent problems that Dish has experienced (failed satellite launch, death of a satellite, etc.) should their subscribers be looking for other sources of progrmming???? I have been a customer for over 10 years, and don't really want to change, but it looks like a change may be forced. This fall, I had planned on upgrading to HD, after eastern arc was in place, due to the problems of 129. I really like the Dish dual tuner receivers since I have 5 tv's in the house. Moving to Direct would mean receivers at each tv. Direct has more HD channels, including my locals. I would like to remain loyal, but am concerned about committing to a contract when upgrading to HD with Dish. Does the death of the satellite yesterday have any effect on the majority of customers? Does Dish have another launch scheduled soon? Will the Eastern arc project still proceed? If not when will 129 be replaced? Sorry for all of the ?'s, but I am trying to plot my strategy.
 
with all of the recent problems that Dish has experienced (failed satellite launch, death of a satellite, etc.) should their subscribers be looking for other sources of progrmming???? I have been a customer for over 10 years, and don't really want to change, but it looks like a change may be forced. This fall, I had planned on upgrading to HD, after eastern arc was in place, due to the problems of 129. I really like the Dish dual tuner receivers since I have 5 tv's in the house. Moving to Direct would mean receivers at each tv. Direct has more HD channels, including my locals. I would like to remain loyal, but am concerned about committing to a contract when upgrading to HD with Dish. Does the death of the satellite yesterday have any effect on the majority of customers? Does Dish have another launch scheduled soon? Will the Eastern arc project still proceed? If not when will 129 be replaced? Sorry for all of the ?'s, but I am trying to plot my strategy.
E11 was launched early this morning. It is going to 110W to replace E8. The Ciel-2 sat should be launched in the 1st Qtr 2009 time frame to replace E5 at 129. E2's demise will do nothing but perhaps delay EA for awhile. I would stay the course for now. If Ciel-2 doesn't go up then ....
 
By this fall D* might have HD hardware that compares with E*.....but I would bet the farm on it...................Think long and hard about changing providers.
 
If 129 is your only worry, buy a 24" or larger dish to get it for now, or point one at 61.5 in the meantime. I wouldn't worry about 129 going offline before Ciel 2 replaces it. With E11 going to 110, they'll put E8 at 129 if the satellite there went down prematurely. No way would DISH risk losing all the HD subs pointed at 129. I know E8 is scheduled to go somewhere else but if 129 went down, that would change real quick because while DISH wouldn't get their Eastern Arc up as soon as they like, they would stop the exodus of HD customers who would leave without service from 129. EA could be postponed without affecting anyone so far, but a failure at 129 would have to be resolved very rapidly.
 
That is one of the reasons that I was waiting for the Eatern Arc - the constant trouble reports with 129. When is it scheduled to be replaced? Upgrading to HD will require the running of new cable from the dish inside the house since I will be adding a 2nd dual tuner reciever. I don't want to make the change now & then have to do it over again when Eastern Arc is available. One final thing, is the picture quality of Dish HD the equal of Direct? I have seen Direct's feed in several stores & even with it feeding several tv's it was very eye catching. If Dish can't offer that type of quality, then that is something else to consider.
 
Get your HDTV professionally calibrated. Any HD is not as good looking as it can be unless your TV is set up for your viewing environment. DirecTV PQ is pretty good, when the installer actually sets the box to HD.
 
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