Thinking of moving to E*

[ncted]

I am seriously considering moving to E* from TWC. I cannot conscience going back to D* after they tried to not honor the terms of my contract termination and the HR20 still has problems. TWC is getting worse with Navigator and SDV is going to ruin HD Tivo's chances. FiOS is not available in my area for another year or 2. Here are my questions:

1. How are the HD LIL channels on DISH in the Raleigh DMA? I cannot get OTA.

2. Will DISH be able to match D* on HD National channel rollouts? Right now, DISH has more channels, but that is expected to change, right?

3. Are there any gotchas I should know about?

4. Can anyone recommend a good reseller in the RDU area?

Thanks,
Ted

 

[kg4ozx]

2. Will DISH be able to match D* on HD National channel rollouts? Right now, DISH has more channels, but that is expected to change, right?

I can't really answer your other questions, but you are correct that Dish currently has the most HD channels, but I think it's fair to say that Dish will carry most every HD Channel that D* will carry. To illustrate that point, D*made a big deal about being the first to carry HistoryHD and then Dish Network beat them to the punch by releasing it first.

Dish isn't hyping their upcoming HD offerings like D*, but they are definitely keeping up or even staying ahead.

My boss has D* and was bragging that he's about to have NFL Network HD... I told him that i've had it for 4 months (since I got my service installed)

 

[ccg3]

HD Locals are off of the new 118.7 so you get a new 500 plus or 1000 plus dish, bigger than the dish 500 and smaller than superdish. If I were you I would just call Dish and request install, if you want to save the 49.00 fee PM me and I will send you a club dish card number. for gotchas may sure you understand everthing in the contract there are lot's of options and I think that where people get gotchas, either were never told or don't remember. This is bad for DISH and the customers.

 

[ncted]

HD Locals are off of the new 118.7 so you get a new 500 plus or 1000 plus dish, bigger than the dish 500 and smaller than superdish. If I were you I would just call Dish and request install, if you want to save the 49.00 fee PM me and I will send you a club dish card number. for gotchas may sure you understand everthing in the contract there are lot's of options and I think that where people get gotchas, either were never told or don't remember. This is bad for DISH and the customers.

Thanks for your reply. Why not just get a superdish? I would like to get the biggest dish I can to reduce the effect of rain/snow/clouds, right?

Thanks,
Ted

 

[ncted]

A friend with DISH let me check out his 625. It seemed pretty nice. One thing he mentioned was that his installer told him he could have no more than 16 DISHPasses. That sounds kind of small. Is that still the case?

Thanks,
Ted

 

[KKlare]

I don't know about the 625. I just added a lot of passes to my 722. The limit here seems to be about 96 to 100 timers, both Dish Pass and fixed times. I'm trying to fill in my DVD copy and HDD archives. So now it is hard to add even 1 more timer until some get satisfied.

Search history seems limited too. I think it is 3 pages or 40-50 items, I need more.
BTW, I now have 800-900 DVDs but many need to be re-sourced from HD instead of SD. I am limited by the S-video on my DVD but it is hard to find a component recorder--got a small list. With the HDD recording one can have HD copies but it is $1/movie vs $.20 for DVD+R, all at best.

-Ken

 

[osu1991]

The superdish is made for 121 or 105. You need a dish for 118.7 plus the regular stuff. So you need a 1000plus dish for your hd locals and all the regular hd and sd stuff.

 

[ncted]

The superdish is made for 121 or 105. You need a dish for 118.7 plus the regular stuff. So you need a 1000plus dish for your hd locals and all the regular hd and sd stuff.

Thanks. 1000+ it is. I had no idea there were so many satellites!

Ted

 

[ncted]

I don't know about the 625. I just added a lot of passes to my 722. The limit here seems to be about 96 to 100 timers, both Dish Pass and fixed times. I'm trying to fill in my DVD copy and HDD archives. So now it is hard to add even 1 more timer until some get satisfied.

Search history seems limited too. I think it is 3 pages or 40-50 items, I need more.
BTW, I now have 800-900 DVDs but many need to be re-sourced from HD instead of SD. I am limited by the S-video on my DVD but it is hard to find a component recorder--got a small list. With the HDD recording one can have HD copies but it is $1/movie vs $.20 for DVD+R, all at best.

-Ken

WOW. I keep about 30-40 at most on my 8300HD. Seems like the 722 can handle way more than I need.

Thanks,
Ted

 

[ncted]

OK, here is another question, and I forgot to check this out on my friend's DVR. I also didn't see it mentioned in the user guide.

Is there a skip to hash feature on the DISH DVRs? For instance, on my 8300HD with Passport, I can start to FFWD then hit the right arrow to skip to the next hash which represents a point every 15 minutes into a recording. I want to say my TiVO did this as well when I had it.

Thanks,
Ted

 

[ncted]

Does no one have any opinions about the quality of the HD locals in Raleigh?

Ted

 

[kg4ozx]

Does no one have any opinions about the quality of the HD locals in Raleigh?

Ted

I guess not, so far at least.

I can tell you that the Birmingham Alabama locals look pretty good. Not as good as OTA, mind you, but they look really good and they are reliable, unlike OTA out here in the sticks 70-80 miles from the towers on a set of rabbit ears .

I know, I know.. I need an outdoor OTA antenna... I just don't want to crawl under the house to run coax until the first frost.. too many snakes and spiders until then.

 

[ncted]

I guess not, so far at least.

I can tell you that the Birmingham Alabama locals look pretty good. Not as good as OTA, mind you, but they look really good and they are reliable, unlike OTA out here in the sticks 70-80 miles from the towers on a set of rabbit ears .

I know, I know.. I need an outdoor OTA antenna... I just don't want to crawl under the house to run coax until the first frost.. too many snakes and spiders until then.

I wish OTA would work for me. I only live about 30 miles from the antenna farm, but I cannot reliably receive signals at my home. I also have trouble with cell phone reception, so it is either the topography or some sort of interference.

Thanks,
Ted

 

[ncted]

I ordered a 722 and a 625 yesterday for install next Saturday. The one problem which may crop up is whether I can get signal from all the Satellites at my house. I plan to have the installer put the Dish 1000+ as high as possible on my roof, but even then, they said I may need a second dish to get all the HD channels. I don't really care too much whether I need an additional dish, but this seems a bit unreasonable to me. What do people in the northern latitudes do?

Ted

 

[osu1991]

People in the NE part of the US have trouble or can't see 129 at all for the HD so they have to get a second dish for 61.5 to get the hd stuff. Some people have trouble with 129 and prefer 61.5 as it is a new more stable satellite.

 

[ChrisFix]

I ordered a 722 and a 625 yesterday for install next Saturday. The one problem which may crop up is whether I can get signal from all the Satellites at my house. I plan to have the installer put the Dish 1000+ as high as possible on my roof, but even then, they said I may need a second dish to get all the HD channels. I don't really care too much whether I need an additional dish, but this seems a bit unreasonable to me. What do people in the northern latitudes do?

Ted

Ted,
I know you from the Navigator forum on AVS...looks like you took the plunge. I'm anxious to hear how this works out for you in our area. I might be right behind you if I hear good things. The 722 sounds better than anything we are going to get from TWC for quite some time! Would love to hear about both SD and HD quality in comparison to TWC and the 8300.

Did you go with a local retailer, or DISH directly?

Good luck with the install!!

Regards,
Chris

 

[kskimmel]

Does no one have any opinions about the quality of the HD locals in Raleigh?

Ted

I switched to Dish one week ago. VIP722, 311, 1000+ dish into DPP44 switch. Also using indoor Silver Sensor antenna to pick up Raleigh locals 45 to 50 miles from transmitters. I compared the OTA with the Dish locals and quite frankly both signals are nearly identical. I was surprised by the sensitivity of the OTA tuner as well as the excellent quality of the HD LIL reception.

 

[ncted]

Ted,
I know you from the Navigator forum on AVS...looks like you took the plunge. I'm anxious to hear how this works out for you in our area. I might be right behind you if I hear good things. The 722 sounds better than anything we are going to get from TWC for quite some time! Would love to hear about both SD and HD quality in comparison to TWC and the 8300.

Did you go with a local retailer, or DISH directly?

Good luck with the install!!

Regards,
Chris

Hi Chris,

I'll definitely post updates on my progress and impressions. I did go with a local retailer, Satellite City aka The Dish Doctor. I had used them previously for my OTA satellite install, and they were very professional and friendly. They seem like really nice folks, and they spent about an hour answering all my questions, so I figured why not give the local guy a try.

I expect HD to be almost indistinguishable from TWC and SD to be possibly worse, but SD looks pretty marginal on my 46" Sammy LCD no matter what, and I am not doing this for SD content.

Anyway, I hope they have better luck aiming my dish than we had with my antenna, but I do not believe the antenna issues were any fault of theirs as WRAL came out to my house for a signal test and had trouble as well bringing in all of the local stations at once.

Ted

 

[ncted]

I switched to Dish one week ago. VIP722, 311, 1000+ dish into DPP44 switch. Also using indoor Silver Sensor antenna to pick up Raleigh locals 45 to 50 miles from transmitters. I compared the OTA with the Dish locals and quite frankly both signals are nearly identical. I was surprised by the sensitivity of the OTA tuner as well as the excellent quality of the HD LIL reception.

Thanks for your response. It is good to know the quality of the LIL channels is good. Approximately where do you live? I may pick up a Silver Sensor to try out, although I am not optimistic.

Ted

 

[ncted]

Update:

I got my install today. Things went very well. I ended up needing the second dish to get the HD nationals on 61.5. The installers put both dishes on the roof as I expected they would need to. They took their time and did it right. All told, install took about 4 hours. I did have them run an extra line from my attic to the unused 2nd connection from back when I used to have DirecTiVO. My plan is to have another go at OTA. Worse case, I should be able to get PBS-HD with it which does not come over the dish.

My impressions of the 722 so far are very positive. The HD picture is very crisp and clear with VERY few compression artifacts or macro-blocking so far on the channels I have watched so far. The interface is very snappy, although it was not at first while the receiver was first booted. I was glad to see it speed up later on. The receiver looks great and is SO much quieter than the SA boxes.

One nice bonus was the ability to use both remotes in Single mode which means the wife and I both have our own remotes. Also, working CallerID is nice to finally have after Jones Intercable first promised it back in the 80s. I know hacks have been around for a while and it works for some Digital Phone subscribers on TWC have it, but I have never successfully experienced it before.

In short, is it a Tivo, no, but my initial impression is that it is years ahead of Passport and decades ahead of Navigator. So far, so good.

Ted