View Full Version : What Do I Need To Do
57tbird
07-28-06, 07:29 PM
I now subscribe to DishNetwork and have four televisions hooked up to a Dish 500. The current Dish receiver for each of the four televisions are DP301's. My children are thinking of getting us a VIP622. Our son is able to get the VIP622 on eBay and checked with DishNetwork and the unit receiver number and smart card numbers are good. At this time we do not have High Definition television. If we use the VIP622 we will be hooking it up to a Toshiba combination flat color television and video cassette recorder/DVD video player and a Sony WEGA KV-32FS17. We will consider HD perhaps in 2008 or later. The reason we are considering the VIP622 is for its DVR capabilities. To be honest my son trades frequently on eBay knows the seller and can swap him for a Concord watch.
My question is that DishNetwork advises me that it is easy to hook up the VIP622 and that their technical people can walk me through the process. Can a person with no technical skills accomplish the set up? Also is this the right move getting the VIP 622 when we do not have HD?
Thank you!
hawker152
07-28-06, 08:45 PM
you should have no problem at all. it is the same type of hookups as the reciever you have now. but i would suggest. GET HDTV.
57tbird
07-29-06, 07:54 AM
you should have no problem at all. it is the same type of hookups as the reciever you have now. but i would suggest. GET HDTV.
Thank you for your reply. I want to get HDTV desperately, but have spoken to friends that are much more technology savvy then me and am told that HDTV is going to have some drastic improvements within the next two years. I feel foolish buying HDTV and then in a few years having a much improved HDTV available.
It is sooo easy to hook up that DISH will not allow existing customers to do it themselves as an upgrade (lease the 622) - you must have DISH schedule it to be installed for you! You already have 4 receivers hooked up and that is the limit to the number of tuners for both a Quad or DP34. You can REPLACE two of your existing 301s with the two tuners in the 622, but that will require you running a length of RG6 coax from the dish to where the 622 will be located. It is possible to change to a DPP44 switch out at the dish and feed both 622 tuners from a single coax, but that involves the expense of the DPP44 and some minor recabling. Neither solution yet gets the 622 TV2 output to feed other TVs in the house. Running coax isn't "highly technical". Neither is connecting the DPP44. But they aren't things a DISH CSR can really talk you through. I think you could do it, but first go to one of the existing 301s, select Menu 6-1-3 and look for what type of switch you now use in the Switch Check menu item (you don't need to Test - just display the current switch in use). Post that, as well as what you intend to do with the other 301 receivers.
There will be an additional $6/month fee for the 622 that is normally waived when you subscribe to one of the metalic HD programming packages. You could subscribe to one of the packages but that adds $20 to your current programming ($15 if you have the Everything Pack). You can save monthly costs of more than one of the 301 if you send the 622's TV2 output to remote multiple rooms, but each remote room would no longer have its own independent tuner. It would add $5.98 / month for the DVR fee (waived with Everything pack), but it would be worth that cost.
Only you could decide if it was "the right move" for you to get a 622 now. Would you be capable of getting the 301 that feeds the 32" Sony to also feed the Toshiba (I'm guessing that is a kitchen/bedroom TV??) via coax? You can watch the programming on the HD channels w/o an HD TV, but you pay for that programming. Current promotions would contribute $10/month for 10 months to that added cost.
rice0209
07-29-06, 10:08 AM
CABill is right about the install. IF you are a handy person, installing coax and switches is not difficult. The only thing that can be difficult is getting the second rg6 cable to the back of the 622 for the second input. If that part of your house is finished, then you may have to drill through the wall or spend some good time fishing a line through the walls into the attic or basement and finding a path to the dish. You will need the DP44 as well. I did a similiar installation two years ago.
As far as HDTV, I would be surprised if there were "drastic" changes in two years. HDTV is still in its infancy. People have been talking for over seven years that HDTV will be the standard and analog will have gone to the wayside. If I remember right, 2001 was supposed to be the major switchover but that has obviously been pushed back many times.
HDTV will take over in the next couple years, but I don't believe the broadcast standard will change from 720p for a while. Besides, unless you are planning on shelling out $5,000 or more for a 1080p TV either now, or in the future, then it won't matter and you will just down convert to 720p which looks great on tv's from 32" clear up to my projector screen size of 110".
Two years in my opinion is way too early as the percentage of homes that have a true HD setup are an extreme minority at the moment.
HDTV will take over in the next couple years, but I don't believe the broadcast standard will change from 720p for a while.720p is only one of the 18 digital modes. There is substantially more 1080i content than 720p which is typically limited to the Disney companies.
You can get a 60" 1080p rear projection television now for a little over $3,000 now.
Like high speed Internet access, once you go to HD, you cannot go back and everything else seems feeble. You have to plan your transition carefully.
57tbird
08-01-06, 11:39 AM
The switch that I now have is a DP-Quad-1. What I would like to do is have the 622 hooked up to the set in my living room. I would be satisfied having the 301s on the other three televisions. DISH CSR advises me that I need to have the cable from a feeder set run in the site of my living room and hooked up to the TV2 output in order for the 622 to work.
It is sooo easy to hook up that DISH will not allow existing customers to do it themselves as an upgrade (lease the 622) - you must have DISH schedule it to be installed for you! You already have 4 receivers hooked up and that is the limit to the number of tuners for both a Quad or DP34. You can REPLACE two of your existing 301s with the two tuners in the 622, but that will require you running a length of RG6 coax from the dish to where the 622 will be located. It is possible to change to a DPP44 switch out at the dish and feed both 622 tuners from a single coax, but that involves the expense of the DPP44 and some minor recabling. Neither solution yet gets the 622 TV2 output to feed other TVs in the house. Running coax isn't "highly technical". Neither is connecting the DPP44. But they aren't things a DISH CSR can really talk you through. I think you could do it, but first go to one of the existing 301s, select Menu 6-1-3 and look for what type of switch you now use in the Switch Check menu item (you don't need to Test - just display the current switch in use). Post that, as well as what you intend to do with the other 301 receivers.
There will be an additional $6/month fee for the 622 that is normally waived when you subscribe to one of the metalic HD programming packages. You could subscribe to one of the packages but that adds $20 to your current programming ($15 if you have the Everything Pack). You can save monthly costs of more than one of the 301 if you send the 622's TV2 output to remote multiple rooms, but each remote room would no longer have its own independent tuner. It would add $5.98 / month for the DVR fee (waived with Everything pack), but it would be worth that cost.
Only you could decide if it was "the right move" for you to get a 622 now. Would you be capable of getting the 301 that feeds the 32" Sony to also feed the Toshiba (I'm guessing that is a kitchen/bedroom TV??) via coax? You can watch the programming on the HD channels w/o an HD TV, but you pay for that programming. Current promotions would contribute $10/month for 10 months to that added cost.
The switch that I now have is a DP-Quad-1. What I would like to do is have the 622 hooked up to the set in my living room. I would be satisfied having the 301s on the other three televisions. DISH CSR advises me that I need to have the cable from a feeder set run in the site of my living room and hooked up to the TV2 output in order for the 622 to work.
The DP Quad can feed 4 tuners and the 622 is two tuners. If you get the eBay 622, added switches, cable, diplexers, labor, ... is your $. You would likely need both a DPP44 and another dish & LNB. Most of the HD channels come from 61.5 / 129 and it seems likely that Philly is far enough in the NE to not be able to get 129. It may be able to see 129, but you'd need a 3rd sat location in any event. The DPP44 is able to feed both 622 tuners off a single coax, so you could still have 3 DP301s active if you want (using all the existing coax from the dish into the house). If you are able to see 129 in Philly, you could also just get a Dish 1000 and use its DP Twin. Only one connection to it would be needed - going to the 622. The existing Dish 500 could still feed the 301s with the Quad it has. I'm not sure how the price of a DP1000 compares to a DPP44 w/ 2nd dish & LNB.
Another route would be to drop one of the three 301s so that the quad fed two 301s and the other two go to DP21 switches (to combine 61.5 onto the cable) and then on to the 622. That requires running a 2nd coax from the dish to the 622 location and the 61.5 dish & LNB.
Rather than buying the eBay 622, you can lease it from DISH and then it isn't your responibility to get it hooked up. It is up to DISH to get it working - dish, switch, coax. It would cost $199 to get the 622 that way. There is a $10/month for 10 month promotion for signing up for HD Metalic package, but that applies to purchased or leased. I doubt DISH would accept the Concord watch:)
I'd suggest running the 622 Home Dist output to at least the master bedroom. There are MANY times when we are watching something in the front room and stop it there to finish watching the rest of the show in the bedroom. It won't be HD, but you don't have the HD Tv in the front either! The 622 coax output can be sent back to the dish with a pair of diplexers on the cable bring the LNB feed to the 622. Another pair of diplexers can continue that signal from the dish with the 301 LNB signal. If you disconnect a 301, you wouldn't need the diplexer and could just use the coax for the 622 RF output to a bedroom (or two). The diplexers just let you avoid running a coax from the 622 to the bedroom.
HTH.
DISH CSR advises me that I need to have the cable from a feeder set run in the site of my living room and hooked up to the TV2 output in order for the 622 to work.This would be a little backwards, but it should work.
You would need a cable run from the living room receiver directly to another TV (I'll call it TVX. Then it gets interesting:
1. Install a separator at each end to backhaul the satellite signal from TVX to the ViP622 and send the ViP622 RF signal to TVX.
2. Plug the cable that currently feeds the receiver at TVX into the satellite input of the separator
3. Plug a cable from the ViP622 satellite input to the satellite output of the separator.
At this point, you'll have your second satellite input for the ViP622
4. Plug a cable from the home distribution output to the OTA separator input
5. Plug a cable from the OTA separator input (output) at TVX into TVX's antenna input.
Steps 4 and 5 enable you to send the signal to the now receiverless TVX.
As was pointed out, you'll need a new dish and a switch (or two) to handle more than two receivers. If you lease everything, Dish will take care of everything for the lease entry fee ($199). While it comes with an 18 month commitment, it is a relative bargain.
Everything involves:
1. New dish for 61.5
2. DPP44 -OR- two DP34s and another run of cable to the living room.
3. Phone jacks all around?
The one chink the the armor of this plan is that they won't let you have five leased tuners, so you would have to buy a 311 to replace an existing receiver or try to weasel them into doing the run from the ViP622 to TVX.
Why not just put up a 2nd dish 500 with a DPP twin to feed the 622 with one cable. and let the rest of his 301s as they are.
IF all you want is a DVR have your son shop for a DVR508 on Ebay. It dosen't have a DVR fee and will directly replace a 301. Just disconnect the cables from the 301 and connect them to the 508. You don't need the extra expense of the HDTV without a HDTV set. BY 2008 DISH will probably have improved their products.
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