Puerto Rico VIP622 Customers

[PRHD]

I have been a D* customer for many years, probably one of first few. I live in Aguadilla PR and recently purchased a VIP622 via a local distributor. No lease or special packages are yet available for Puerto Rico that I was able to find. I had two satellite dishes on my roof, one 4 foot and one 6 footer. Since most local hourse are build out of concrete I do not have a problem with weight. One of the dishes was pointed at 110 and the other at 119. I had to install a third dish and we selected a 4 footer and point it at 61.5. We were able to get a signal of around 50 on some transponders, but no more than that. I could not get any programming from it, even though I subscribed to the HD plantinum package. What we ended up doing was to redirect the 6 footer to the 61.5 and the new 4 footer to the other satellite. Now I am able to get all programming and I am highly satisfied with the results. The key issues in getting HD service in PR are the following:
1. It is a costly proposition. I had to spend overall about $1,000 to get the whole thing working. I had the money, the HDTV and no alternatives for HD programming.
2. You need 3 dishes and the one pointed at 61.5 has to be 5 or 6 footer.
3. Very inneficient CSR services. I had to call 3 times and ended up with technical services to get the right programming. Spanish speaking CSR's would help greatly.
4. No local packages to help in pricing. The knowledge of distributors and installers is very limited.
5. Local channels exclude local christian networks such as CDM International which have a huge local customer base.

I do this post to provide information for PR customers, since we get very limited support and information for the now significant customer base in PR.

[neljtorres]

:) We have discuss this since the Voom HD became available on Dish. If you have read this about when this first started you would have known already to do everybody in Puerto Rico that has Dish knows that to get the Voom HD you need a six footer, and it's expensive. Dish has CSR that's speaks spanish but with my experience with them they don't know nothing they never now nothing so that is a waste of time.

[technoguy]

I have been a D* customer for many years, probably one of first few. I live in Aguadilla PR and recently purchased a VIP622 via a local distributor. No lease or special packages are yet available for Puerto Rico that I was able to find. I had two satellite dishes on my roof, one 4 foot and one 6 footer. Since most local hourse are build out of concrete I do not have a problem with weight. One of the dishes was pointed at 110 and the other at 119. I had to install a third dish and we selected a 4 footer and point it at 61.5. We were able to get a signal of around 50 on some transponders, but no more than that. I could not get any programming from it, even though I subscribed to the HD plantinum package. What we ended up doing was to redirect the 6 footer to the 61.5 and the new 4 footer to the other satellite. Now I am able to get all programming and I am highly satisfied with the results. The key issues in getting HD service in PR are the following:
1. It is a costly proposition. I had to spend overall about $1,000 to get the whole thing working. I had the money, the HDTV and no alternatives for HD programming.
2. You need 3 dishes and the one pointed at 61.5 has to be 5 or 6 footer.
3. Very inneficient CSR services. I had to call 3 times and ended up with technical services to get the right programming. Spanish speaking CSR's would help greatly.
4. No local packages to help in pricing. The knowledge of distributors and installers is very limited.
5. Local channels exclude local christian networks such as CDM International which have a huge local customer base.

I do this post to provide information for PR customers, since we get very limited support and information for the now significant customer base in PR.
You have to choices.
Move your 6 footer to the 61.5 orbital location or wait to see if sat 118 will work in our area.:)

[James Long]

Curious: Are the national HDs on 118? Without that move by E* one would need either 129° or 61.5° to get the entire Dish HD package - and since 129° is out of the question a big 61.5° dish seems to be the answer.

There is also the possibility that E* will use some of the new spotbeam transponders on 110° spot 49 to serve PR with the HD on 61.5°/129° (or at least some of it). That has not been done yet.

[technoguy]

Curious: Are the national HDs on 118? Without that move by E* one would need either 129° or 61.5° to get the entire Dish HD package - and since 129° is out of the question a big 61.5° dish seems to be the answer.

There is also the possibility that E* will use some of the new spotbeam transponders on 110° spot 49 to serve PR with the HD on 61.5°/129° (or at least some of it). That has not been done yet.
James we dont know yet if sat 118 will work in this area,I will post results as soon we test on our shop.:)

[Tom_P]

PRHD i feel you pain. I've been a Dish subscriber since 1997, at that time a 6 Footer was the minium size just to make it work, and as soon a a cloud passed by, there goes transponder 18 which had HBO, and other higher viewed channels.

Things had changed a lot since then, now you can even use 3 footers for the 119 location with levels on the 70s.

Now there're HD options for new subscribers, but not a single one to current subs, yet. The problem that we have is that Dish don't lease receivers in PR. So the $299, $99 for the 942/921 customers or whatever offer don't apply.
There's a significant amount of money that have to be spent in order to get HD here, basically we are premium customers. I have a VIP622 too and my experience so far is great.
Talking about the CSR, for this type of "Premium" installations Spanish speakers are no good(no offense to them is my first language too). Generally the Tech Dept(english)is aware of our situation. Believe me I'm a dealer.