locals and ota

[cebbigh]

I am new to HDTV and locals versus ota. Have recently upgraded and am getting my HDTV thru the Dish 921. Installed a cm4228 antenna and am getting all the ota channels I want. Before jumping to HDTV was subscribing to Dish for the locals
package. I vaguely recall reading on some forum somewhere that the 921 doesn't do all of its OTA programing/recording functions unless you subscribe to the locals package. Is that correct? I hope not. Now that I am switched to HDTV the locals for Seattle are really poor over the Dish 921 (they were never really that good over the Dish 510 either).

[Mark Lamutt]

To have guide data for your OTA local channels, you must subscribe to the Dish locals package. You can still record your OTA stations manually, but you'll have no program titles or information about your recordings other than date and time.

[cebbigh]

That could get confusing sorting through recorded programs. As it is now, the on screen guide doesn't populate the program info on the OTA for programs that haven't started yet. To do that, I show both the local package channel and the ota channel on the same favorites list. It shows up on the ota channel only after a program has already started to air. Is that the way it works typically or have I missed something in setting up my OTA channels? If I drop the local's package does the ota channel populate program info on the on-screen guide?

[Mark Lamutt]

You must have a setting wrong because if you subscribe to your seattle locals from Dish, you should be seeing guide data for your seattle OTA channels (or at least the major ones) all the way out to the end of the guide. If you drop your locals package, you won't have that guide data at all for the OTA digitals - it will say "No Information Available" in the guide.

[cebbigh]

Thanks. I will review the manual and see if I missed a step somewhere. Also just saw the thread on L212 which I will review for additional info. Sorry if some questions I've asked (or will ask) seem uninformed. This is new ground for me. Unless DISH makes a revision that enables their program guide to work without paying for the locals, I will keep them. It seems unfortunate that there isn't a compromise. I don't mind paying a little for the use of the guide but I really don't like the way the DISH locals appear on the 921. I guess there will come a day when the locals are actually carried in HDTV via DISH locals. Who knows what the future holds?

[cebbigh]

Was off today and got to know the 921 better. My err was that I missed the obvious. I have been using the 500 series so long I just kept punching up "info" without even noticing that the 921 populates the program description on the "guide" screen. Wonders of wonders. Still learning things like using the DVI prohibits viewing standard images over s-video but component permits the dual setup. This is a plus because if and when the weather gets bad enough to degrade the ota signal the standard looks better than the digital on the locals (but I do think I've tweaked my unamplified antenna (cm4228) height and angle enough to get ota consistently now on the locals I care about). All in all, I am happy with the setup.