New to Dish Network Help please

[Ender]

I do not have satellite yet, nor the receiver or the tv even. I am hoping to check with all of you to get informed and make an intelligent decision of what to finally purchase. From the research I have done this is what I would get today (if it was available).

Marantz PD5020D 50" HDTV plasma tv
Dish Network with the "America's Everything pack"
PVR-921 receiver
Superdish.

I already have a Sony DA555ES receiver, Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 speakers, and plan on buying any good cables as needed.

If the superdish and the pvr-921 are available around Christmas that is when I will initiate the purchase and installation. I am planning on getting it all professionally installed.

Some questions:

1. Is this equipment a good setup?
2. What am I missing?
3. What would be better?
4. Am I missing a line doubler or anything which would make things better?
5. Do I need another dish to get more channels (local or ?)?
6. Do I need to purchase more packages to get more HDTV channels or more local channels - I'd like to get all I can (what packages would you get or do you currently have)
7. I live in San Francisco - anybody know of a good installation company.

I'm sure I'll have a bunch of other questions. I really appreciate your help.

Roger

[Mark Lamutt]

If the superdish and the pvr-921 are available around Christmas that is when I will initiate the purchase and installation. I am planning on getting it all professionally installed.

Some questions:

1. Is this equipment a good setup?
2. What am I missing?
3. What would be better?
4. Am I missing a line doubler or anything which would make things better?
5. Do I need another dish to get more channels (local or ?)?
6. Do I need to purchase more packages to get more HDTV channels or more local channels - I'd like to get all I can (what packages would you get or do you currently have)
7. I live in San Francisco - anybody know of a good installation company.

Hi Roger, and welcome to DBSTalk! :hi:

I can answer a couple of your questions here. The superdish will be available by November 1st, but we expect it before then. Dish Network has announced that the 921 will be available by November 1st, but will be in very limited supply. It's not quite ready for primetime yet, and when it initially ships, won't have all of its features enabled.

1. Sounds like a pretty sweet setup to me!
2. You're missing a UHF OTA antenna to pick up your local HD channels in San Fransisco.
3. Mostly personal opinion - some would say that Directv would be the better way to go, with the HD Tivo coming out sometime next year. I wouldn't be one of those people. :)
4. If the plasma tv doesn't have a built in line doubler, you may want to consider one for SD material viewing. The 921 will be able to upconvert all content to 1080i or 720p, but we have no idea how good the upconversion will be. The upconversion that the 6000 does isn't very good.
5. By midway though next year, all HD content will be on the 105 satellite that the superdish will see. Until then, it will be on 110 and 148 (in your case). If you're not looking to buy until Christmas, then I'd stick with the superdish and ignore the wing satellites.
6. The HD package will be separate from other programming packages and includes ESPN-HD, DiscoveryHD, HDNet, HDNet Movies initially for $9.99 a month. Channels to be added will be Bravo-HD, Cinemax-HD, the Starz HD channels and others I'm sure. You'll get the premium HD movie channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz) only with subscriptions to those movie packages (which you will get with the Americas Everything Pak).
7. Can't help you there. :)

[Ender]

So, from what you posted, I need the UHF OTA antenna in addition to what I thought I needed, this will give me local channels in HD.

Forgive my lack of knowledge but when you said "By midway though next year, all HD content will be on the 105 satellite that the superdish will see. Until then, it will be on 110 and 148 (in your case). If you're not looking to buy until Christmas, then I'd stick with the superdish and ignore the wing satellites." does this mean that I need to point my satellite to 110 and 148 and I'll need to change it later to 105? Or can I use the 105 as soon as I get it. Hopefully an installer will know this but I want to be informed before they start making mistakes (I'm sure with all this new equipment I want to get I'll be somewhat of a guinea pig for any installer).

I also get from your reply that I should purchase the HD package in addition to the AEP.

I'm not planning on having an SD (don't even know what it is) so I guess I'll hold off on the line doubler.

Thanks again - if anybody has any other clues for me fill me in!

[Mark Lamutt]

Ah, let me try to clarify a little bit. SD stands for standard definition (what all of the channels are that aren't high definition). That's where the line doubler would help - SD is 480 lines of resolution. A line doubler would double that.

The superdish will look at 105, 110 and 119. That'll be what you want. If you need to see 148 as well, you'll need a second dish for that.

[Ender]

HA! I thought SD was some new digital media format for the TV - thanks for the clarification!

Nowhere in the Marantz literature have I seen anything mentioning line doubling. I guess it is not included.

Any recommendation on a line doubler? Somewhere in this forum I saw something for $399.00 that others used and were recommending - I'll try to find it...

Thanks, Ender

[Ender]

Just called a distributer and asked if the Marantz 5020D does interlacing and they said yes - it does. So I don't need an external line doubler. Of course the distributer said Marantz is the best plasma around and has the best interlacing and picture optimization of all. ANybody want to dispute this to educate me?

Ender

[Mark Lamutt]

I have no idea - never seriously looked at plasma televisions. Take a look over at the AVSForums - lots of talk over there about higher end televisions.

[Cyclone]

For Plasma's I'd look into Panasonic and Pioneer. Just advice.

[DVDDAD]

HA! I thought SD was some new digital media format for the TV - thanks for the clarification!

Nowhere in the Marantz literature have I seen anything mentioning line doubling. I guess it is not included.

Any recommendation on a line doubler? Somewhere in this forum I saw something for $399.00 that others used and were recommending - I'll try to find it...

Thanks, Ender

Most likely your set does have a line doubler built-in to it, if you have a HDTV. If your set takes SD (standard definition) source material (cable, VHS, older DVD players) and up-converts the SD material from 480i (480 lines of resolution interlaced [interlaced draws the odd numbered lines, 240 of them first, then draws the even numbered lines next, your eyes and brain merge the two sets of lines into one image]) to 480p (480 lines progressively scanned - meaning that all 480 lines are visible on the screen at once) you have a built-in line doubler.

Many older generation HDTV's had flawed chips in the line doublers and therefore the up-converts suffered without the presence of an external line doubler. My set, a second generation Mitsubishi greatly benefited from adding an external line doubler which added at the time about $850 to the total purchase price. The line doublers in the current generation sets are much better now and the purchase of an additional line doubler might only add a noticeable dent in your bank account, and not much of a noticeable improvement in PQ (picture quality). I suggest you check out http://www.avsforum.com to get more information on your set and line doublers. You did however come to the right place for info on your satellite set-up. BTW, I'm not waiting for the HD Tivo I'm going with the 921 when it ships. But, if you must have your out of market NFL games you should wait and go with the HD Tivo and DirecTV's NFL Sunday ticket (you can't get Sunday ticket with DishNetwork.

[DVDDAD]

Sorry, I got interupted a few times before I finished typing the last post, but again go to avsforum for more info on your set.

[Ender]

Will do, thanks for the info.

I'm not interested in the NFL games so really want the extra channels that dish network has.

The Marantz PD-5020D has a line doubler built in, just found out a little while ago.

Now I just need the 921 and the Superdish.