New dish/multiswitch question

[mitoca]

My mom currently has two dishes at her house. A round one pointing at 101 and another round one pointing at 72.5. With the upcoming end to 72.5 (and thinking about buying her a new HDTV soon), I tried to install her one of my old 3 lnb dishes in place of the single 101 dish. I couldn't get a signal strength beyond about 65 and even that was extremely difficult to hone in on. She currently gets 101 in the 90's. I was wondering if the multiswitch is the problem. Currently both dishes feed into a 4x4 multiswitch, then into the house. The triple LNB dish I was trying to instal has a built in multiswitch. Would that mean that I can't pass it again through the 4 x 4 multiswitch? She has a very narrow look through the trees to see 101 & I am hoping that I can also get to 99 & 103, but I couldn't even get 101 in.

[JLucPicard]

Besides the vertical (up and down) and horizontal (left to right) nature of pointing a single or dual LNB dish, the Phase III dishes have a dish-rotational setting (skew?) as well. If the dish rotation isn't right, you won't get great signals over the spectrum of transponders.

If the cabling is long enough, you wouldn't need the multi-switch. If the cabling isn't long enough and you need to utilize the multi-switch, you need to connect all four feeds from the LNB assembly into the four inputs on the switch.

[veryoldschool]

The big "DOH" that I see is the "old 3 LNB" won't work for 99 & 103 [for one thing] and the 3LNB is centered on the 110 SAT, not the 101.
Skip the 4x4 switch, since you already have four outputs from the dish.
If you're moving to HD and the 72.5 SAT is going away, then the phase III isn't going to work and you'll need something like the Slimline 3 dish, with the right LNB(s) for 99/101/103.

[mitoca]

OK, I was hoping for a quick solution without getting a new dish and a tech out to reset her 2 year commitment. When she had a guy out a couple of years ago to install the 72.5 dish he wouldn't put in a oval dish because he said the trees were in the way, but it sees 101 fine & should for sure get either 99 since the dish is pointing a bit towards the west side of the opening. I wasn't sure about 103. I think the guy was just lazy.

[veryoldschool]

OK, I was hoping for a quick solution without getting a new dish and a tech out to reset her 2 year commitment. When she had a guy out a couple of years ago to install the 72.5 dish he wouldn't put in a oval dish because he said the trees were in the way, but it sees 101 fine & should for sure get either 99 since the dish is pointing a bit towards the west side of the opening. I wasn't sure about 103. I think the guy was just lazy.
With the change from the older 110 & 119 SATs to the 99/103, you can "get by" with a much narrower LOS, [~5 degrees]. New equipment will start the 2 year commitment, but you can buy your own dish [it's the receivers that mainly start the new commitment].

[mitoca]

So is the slimline 3 with single wire multiswitch the preferred dish now? They're as low as $25 on E-bay, but add about $40 in shipping. Anyone have better prices than that?

[evan_s]

If direcTV is forcing her to get a new receiver and dish to continue receiving the locals the upgrade should not reset her commitment. If she's just got a receiver she'll end up with a H21 or 23 which is a fully functional HD receiver. For a DVR she should end up with a R22 which is a HD receiver with HD output disabled.

[veryoldschool]

If direcTV is forcing her to get a new receiver and dish to continue receiving the locals the upgrade should not reset her commitment. If she's just got a receiver she'll end up with a H21 or 23 which is a fully functional HD receiver. For a DVR she should end up with a R22 which is a HD receiver with HD output disabled.
Couple of things:
The H2x without HD service is software limited to SD output only and the R22 is now not being used in these markets, but the HR2x are.