Additional HD receivers

[drags]

I heard from a tech that eventually D* wants to get rid of the satellite that broadcasts local SD channels. He was out because we were having issues with the SD local channels (prior to local HD's being available). So, he thought that now that there are HD locals coming through the main dish, that SD programming could come through there and render the second dish obsolete. In that case, he thinks people might be able to wrangle hd receivers out of D* for free, since they want to do away with the second satellite.

Long story short, I just bought my third HD TV and need another HD receiver. Either I pay for one, move one of the existing ones, or get D* to give me one for free by my thinking above. Am I whacked on that thinking, or have others gotten free HD recievers? What's the cost of another one? Non DVR.

Thanks!

[Stuart Sweet]

You certainly can ask DIRECTV and they may offer you a free receiver. As for satellites "going away", that's not completely true. The DIRECTV satellites at 110° and 119° are likely to change their purposes, meaning that they won't be necessary for many viewers. However, the satellite at 101° that carries a lot of SD programming isn't going anywhere.

[drags]

Thanks for the info. Is it just as easy as swapping one sd receiver in a different location in the house for an HD receiver? currently I have two HD receivers and one SD. The new TV is going in SD location now, but it is a much much nicer set than one of the HD receiver TV's now, so I thought if iit's too expensive to purchase a third HD, I'd just swap them. Is that easy to do?

[jodyguercio]

Thanks for the info. Is it just as easy as swapping one sd receiver in a different location in the house for an HD receiver? currently I have two HD receivers and one SD. The new TV is going in SD location now, but it is a much much nicer set than one of the HD receiver TV's now, so I thought if iit's too expensive to purchase a third HD, I'd just swap them. Is that easy to do?

If by swapping you mean moving from one room to another, it is extremely easy. All you do is unplug the SD receiver and move it to the HD receiver location and plug it back in. Done. Now are these just receivers or are they dvrs? If one is a dvr and one is just a receiver, don't forget unless you have a SWM the dvr may need another line run for the second tuner.

[BattleZone]

The OP seems to be referring to those few areas whose SD locals are served by 72.5. In those areas, DirecTV is migrating the SD locals off of 72.5 and on to Ka spotbeams off 99 or 103. For those folks, they are migrating them to MPEG4 equipment, but only AFTER the MPEG4 locals are turned on. Adding a receiver before that is just like any other upgrade.

[evan_s]

I'm taking a guess here but it sounds like you are in a 72.5 market since you talk about a "main dish" and a "second dish". In that case the tech was probably right. The 72.5 locals are on a rented sat and are even using conus transponders instead of spots. I don't believe DirecTV has actually announced a shut off date but there are a lot of clear indications they intend to stop using this sat and instead use mpeg4 locals off 99 or 103. I believe most if not all of these markets have now gotten HD locals on one of those two sats so most likely they will just supply r-22 or similar devices that are capable of decoding and down sampling in the receiver rather than supplying both a HD and SD version.