[raider]

I am currently with Directv but I am considering leaving for Dish due to price and free HD. I have a couple of questions. My current set up is one SD receiver with DVR in the living room and one SD receiver upstairs. What would be my best HD options from Dish. I do not want HD upstairs but I do want HD DVR in the living room. Also can I do this without having a phone line in the house. I am using OOMA for phone service and I'm not giving that up. Thanks for the help. I notice on the DISH web site on their equipment pages the small type all says phone line with caller id subscription mandatory. I'm pretty confused on this.

 

[butters]

A 722 would give you a 2 room DVR solution with HD on the main TV and SD on your upstairs TV. I don't believe you need to have a phone line although you may need to be connected to broadband. Someone here should be able to clarify the phone line question although one of my wife's friends just had a 722 installed and she has neither a phone line or broadband.

 

[phrelin]

I am currently with Directv but I am considering leaving for Dish due to price and free HD. I have a couple of questions. My current set up is one SD receiver with DVR in the living room and one SD receiver upstairs. What would be my best HD options from Dish. I do not want HD upstairs but I do want HD DVR in the living room.

butters suggestion for a 722 seems like the perfect solution.

Also can I do this without having a phone line in the house. I am using OOMA for phone service and I'm not giving that up. Thanks for the help. I notice on the DISH web site on their equipment pages the small type all says phone line with caller id subscription mandatory. I'm pretty confused on this.

At one time you had to have you box hooked up to a phone line, but I'm sure they dropped that. I've never had caller ID.

Currently I don't have either of my boxes (722 and 612) hooked to a phone line. In more recent times I have had them hooked up to the internet through my home network, but for my convenience, not Dish's.

I can't swear they won't give you grief if you tell a CSR you're using OOMA. (I thought it had caller id?) But if you sign up on line, my guess is that you'll have no problem.

 

[MadScientist]

722 will give you HD in the main room and SD in the other. Phone line is not needed any longer, but is if you want any PPV's

 

[BattleZone]

A phone line with Caller ID service is required IF you want on-screen Caller ID pop-ups. And either a phone or Internet connection is required for ordering PPV over the remote, some interactive features, or for the receiver to report health checks. An Internet connection is required for OnDemand content.

922 receivers *require* an Internet connection to function.

 

[bgullicksen]

I am a Dish subscriber and I too have Ooma and it appears to work fine. All phone line tests pass and the caller id works fine. I don't suspect that you will have any problems.

 

[ShapeShifter]

I notice on the DISH web site on their equipment pages the small type all says phone line with caller id subscription mandatory.

The small type is probably a footnote to the larger type above that mentions on-screen caller ID. If you want the on-screen caller ID to function, you must have a phone line, and it must have caller ID on it.

But you don't need to have either to get the receiver to display television programs.

butters suggestion for a 722 seems like the perfect solution.

It is a great solution, as long as one is aware of the limitations -- it can independently drive two TVs, but it's more restrictive than a DVR driving a single TV. With regular DVRs, you get two tuners per TV, so you can watch one live show and record another. With the duo DVRs, you get two tuners, but they are shared between the two TVs, so on one TV you can watch a live show or record a show, but not both (unless they are the same show) while on the other TV you can watch a live show or record a show, but not both. There are some settings you can change to give one TV priority, so that TV can watch a live show and record another, but when you do that, it starts to impact the second TV (when a recording starts, that TV can no longer watch an independent live show.) On the other hand, it can be recording shows on both tuners, and be playing back two different shows at the same time, one on each TV, so it does have some additional benefits over a regular DVR.

It's a great solution where the demands are light -- occasional recording, or occasional live watching. It's also great that you can start a movie in the living room, pause it, get ready for bed, and then finish the movie in the bedroom. But if you are a heavy duty user, who records several shows at once, and wants the ultimate flexibility, you might be better off with two independent DVRs.

I have a 722, and I love it, in the proper environment. It's great in the motorhome, where it can independently drive the main and bedroom TVs. But we don't do a lot of recording on that one, and when we do, the operation of the bedroom TV can suffer (because I have it set up to give priority to the front TV.) It works well there, but for the main viewing locations (back in the house in the main living room and master bedroom, they each have their own dual tuner DVR for maximum flexibility and recording ability (and because both TVs are HD, and the second TV of a dual is limited to SD.)

I am a Dish subscriber and I too have Ooma and it appears to work fine. All phone line tests pass and the caller id works fine. I don't suspect that you will have any problems.

I also have Ooma, and the on-screen caller ID works. Also, all phone line tests pass. But if I do anything that requires it to "phone home" like access my bill or other customer support options through the receiver, it tries to call out (I can see the red light on the Scout come on) but after a long delay it gives up and says the call could not be completed.

So, as long as all you want is on-screen caller ID, it works just fine with Ooma. But the receiver likely won't be able to call out on it.

 

[ernessch]

I am currently with Directv and am considering jumping to Dish due to DTV's failure to add HD channels that I want. Dish has them. My problem is that I am getting concerned about the number of holes in my roof. There are four from DTV's SD dish, the installer just left the bracket up and removed the dish when I upgraded to HD. If I switch to Dish I will have another bracket left from the DTV HD dish. I called Dish and asked if they could pole mount it and was told that they don't pole mount HD dishes. Is this a potential problem? My roof is only three years old. I want Dish but not at the expense of a leaky roof. I have a huge tree that is just under the DTV dish line of sight. The sides of the house won't work due to additional trees. Any ideas?

 

[James Long]

Call a local installer. They tend to listen and do what gets them more business (even beyond the normal install).

DISH does install HD dishes on poles. Expect an extra charge.