A couple Dish questions before switching

1113 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Jolard, Oct 31, 2006

FreeBaGeL

Discussion Starter · Oct 29, 2006

I've finally become fed up enough with my cable company to make the switch to satellite. This will be my first go-round with satellite and I'm heavily considering E* over D* mainly because they give better sign-up deals without requiring a commitment. However, I did have a couple questions first..

1. There are no HD locals offered in my area (Gainesville, FL) and I doubt there will be for quite some time. I have had trouble picking up much with an indoor OTA antenna and understand that D* will attach an OTA antenna to the satellite when they come and put it in. Will E* do the same? Also, is my understanding correct that the 622 will work with (IE record) OTA channels as well? If they will hook up the OTA antenna with the dish is it a good one? It would be imperative for me to be able to pick up CBS HD (~11.2 miles away) and FOX digital (~35 miles away), and best case scenario pick up the distant FOX HD station from Jacksonville (I'm in Gainesville about 70 miles or so away).

2. If I eventually switch providers again can the dish be easily removed from the roof without damaging it or leaving blemishes?

3. So I see this injunction against waivers for E*. NBC HD is not available OTA in my area, and I don't believe there is a tower within 70 miles of my location. Does this mean that I still would not be able to get a distant NBC HD affiliate?

4. Is there any kind of negotiating when ordering as a new member? Paying $200 up front on top of a monthly fee to lease something (HD DVR in this case) just sounds crazy to me. It should be $200 to buy OR a monthly fee (which is how it is for cable), not both. Any chance on getting that up-front fee reduced or waived?

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bderouen

· #2 · Oct 29, 2006

FreeBaGeL said:
I've finally become fed up enough with my cable company to make the switch to satellite. This will be my first go-round with satellite and I'm heavily considering E* over D* mainly because they give better sign-up deals without requiring a commitment. However, I did have a couple questions first..

1. There are no HD locals offered in my area (Gainesville, FL) and I doubt there will be for quite some time. I have had trouble picking up much with an indoor OTA antenna and understand that D* will attach an OTA antenna to the satellite when they come and put it in. Will E* do the same? Also, is my understanding correct that the 622 will work with (IE record) OTA channels as well? If they will hook up the OTA antenna with the dish is it a good one? It would be imperative for me to be able to pick up CBS HD (~11.2 miles away) and FOX digital (~35 miles away), and best case scenario pick up the distant FOX HD station from Jacksonville (I'm in Gainesville about 70 miles or so away).

2. If I eventually switch providers again can the dish be easily removed from the roof without damaging it or leaving blemishes?

3. So I see this injunction against waivers for E*. NBC HD is not available OTA in my area, and I don't believe there is a tower within 70 miles of my location. Does this mean that I still would not be able to get a distant NBC HD affiliate?

4. Is there any kind of negotiating when ordering as a new member? Paying $200 up front on top of a monthly fee to lease something (HD DVR in this case) just sounds crazy to me. It should be $200 to buy OR a monthly fee (which is how it is for cable), not both. Any chance on getting that up-front fee reduced or waived?

I am in the process of switching from D* to E* too, so most of your questions, I can't really answer. But i've been doing a lot of research and I can maybe answer a question or two

1. I am asking the same question as I have tree problems around me right now and I'm suspecting that the locals won't come down off the satellite as that 'bird' is at an angle behind a tree, and what i was told by my dish rep was it would be best to get my own antenna from some places like Radio Shack. I asked if they would hook up the antenna and was told they would, however, as with DTV, I'm expecting to have to pay the installer extra and direct for that, as that would be out of their regular area of responsibility.

2. As far as removing the dish, I can't really answer that too much except to say that when I moved from my apartment to my new home, I had to pull down my dish from DTV from my patio. I was forced by my apartment complex to mount my dish on the patio and on a pole so the installer screwed the pole into the wood on my patio. The only things left were the holes.

4. Right now if you get an HD-DVR, you pay the $200, but you get a 'rebate' of sorts. It comes in the form of a $20 credit on your bill over the next 10 months. And FYI...DTV does the same thing now as far as charging for an upgrade and still lease. I find that stupid, but evidently that's how both are doing now too.

Hope this helps
Bruce

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saltrek

· #3 · Oct 30, 2006

3. E* does not have an agreement for NBC HD, only CBS. Jacksonville's NBC appears to be the closest. Seems like their broadcast tower is in a similar location to the FOX station, so if you set up a long range antenna, maybe you'll be able to pick that one up.

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FreeBaGeL

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 30, 2006

saltrek said:
3. E* does not have an agreement for NBC HD, only CBS.

Meaning that they could only provide long distance CBS channels, not NBC HD?

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saltrek

· #5 · Oct 30, 2006

Yes, curently E* only has an agreement to carry distant CBS-HD in very limited circumstances. Since you have a local CBS affiliate, you probably would not get a waiver. Now, with the injunction ruling, the CBS-HD distant is in danger of going away as of 12/1/06.

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harsh

· #6 · Oct 30, 2006

FreeBaGeL said:
I have had trouble picking up much with an indoor OTA antenna and understand that D* will attach an OTA antenna to the satellite when they come and put it in.

I don't think DirecTV is giving away dish mounted antennas anymore. In fact, I'm not even sure they have a model that will fit the new dishes.

Will E* do the same?

Probably not, but you should be asking them, not us.

Also, is my understanding correct that the 622 will work with (IE record) OTA channels as well?

The ViP622 can tune and record digital OTA channels only.

If they will hook up the OTA antenna with the dish is it a good one?

Typically the antennas that are offered for satellite dishes are a compromise to get around residential agreements against roof-top antennas. They are often nothing to write home about and most likely won't reach much farther than a couple dozen miles if there are any hills involved (mountains to you Floridians).

It would be imperative for me to be able to pick up CBS HD (~11.2 miles away) and FOX digital (~35 miles away), and best case scenario pick up the distant FOX HD station from Jacksonville (I'm in Gainesville about 70 miles or so away).

Clearly, you are in the roof-top full-range antenna market here. This may be complicated if your stations come from different directions.

2. If I eventually switch providers again can the dish be easily removed from the roof without damaging it or leaving blemishes?

A good installer won't install the antenna on the roof unless there is no other option. The new larger dishes require a pretty solid mount and it doesn't come off easily.

4. Is there any kind of negotiating when ordering as a new member?

No. You get the offer du jour. Right now, that is $200 for the ViP622 then ten months of $20 credits.

You might be able to swing a bundled deal with installation of a suitable antenna from a local storefront that does their own installations.

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FreeBaGeL

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 30, 2006

Ah, didn't realize the 622 recorded only OTA stations. So then I would need a different DVR (presumably only one or the other) to record ESPN, etc?

This combined with the news that I'd be looking at a tricky rooftop antenna install is really making me less excited about switching. You're saying you don't think the one they mounted with the satellite would be able to pick up my local stations (antennaweb report printed below). They did mention setting me up w/ a local retailer for $59.99 on the phone if I didn't already have my own OTA antenna, but couldn't tell me much more than that at the time.

Of course they don't divulge this kind of info when I talk to them on the phone unless I ask specifically, and the answers given there were much less helpful than the ones I received so far here.

Here are my antennaweb results for digital stations...zip code is 32607:

DTV Antenna
Type Call Sign Channel Network City State Live
Date Compass
Orientation Miles
From Frequency
Assignment
* yellow - uhf WCJB-DT 20.1 ABC GAINESVILLE FL 189° 6.7 16
* yellow - uhf WGFL-DT 28.1 CBS HIGH SPRINGS FL 273° 11.0 28
* yellow - uhf WUFT-DT 36.1 PBS GAINESVILLE FL 1° 5.3 36
* yellow - uhf WOGX-DT 51.1 FOX OCALA FL 173° 19.3 31

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sleeplessInSunnyvale

· #8 · Oct 30, 2006

FreeBaGeL said:
Ah, didn't realize the 622 recorded only OTA stations. So then I would need a different DVR (presumably only one or the other) to record ESPN, etc?

No you're mistaken. 622 can record 1 OTA and 2 satellite programs AT THE SAME TIME, i.e., you can record up to 3 programs and be able to watch a pre-recorded program simultaneously.

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FreeBaGeL

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 31, 2006

Ah, looks like I may have misread harsh's post and he was saying that the only OTA channels the ViP622 records are the digital OTA channels, not that it records only OTA channels.

Thanks for the clarifcation.

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Jolard

· #10 · Oct 31, 2006

Free Bagel, don't worry, I read his post that way at first too, and was wondering what he was smoking!

(No offense Harsh)

1) No Dish won't automatically install an antenna, although some installers will do it for an additional fee. I know Dish does have some new deal for CERTAIN cities where they will sell you a discounted antenna, I believe that promotion starts November 3rd.

As for the recording, the full DVR functionality is available on the OTA ATSC channels. It works very nicely.

Good luck!

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