Expected costs?

1755 Views 20 Replies 7 Participants Last post by mattmill, Aug 16, 2008

mattmill

Discussion Starter · Aug 6, 2008

I want to switch to HD. Will need a pole mount (too many trees) and have NO LOS to 119 and most likely no los for 110 either. I get my SD locals OTA at the moment and I believe they are moving to 99 or 103 for HD.

New HDDVR and use existing DTIVO to replace the current second SD receiver. Two 5 year old buried RG6 lines from 18" dish (pole mount) to switch. 2 runs already to the HDDVR location and one to the new TIVO location.

Any ideas on rough install costs for this? I assume that with the pole mount and no LOS for 119 it won't qualify for the free install.

Portland ME DMA
Zip 04011

matt

1 - 20 of 21 Posts

Mertzen

· #2 · Aug 6, 2008

Normally a pole mount is free to get LOS. Can you get LOS anywhere?

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 6, 2008

5 years ago we were told we could not keep dish network due to no LOS to 119. The d* dish is pole mounted in the front yard. Maybe LOS by the street but plows will kill in in the winter. We were told the elevation is too low this far north.

matt

BattleZone

· #4 · Aug 6, 2008

Ordering through DirecTV, a pole mount is free IF you can't get LOS anywhere on the house, and IF you CAN get LOS from the pole. Generally, the HSPs won't install you at all if they can't get LOS to all satellites, in fact, the current software includes Installation Verification that prevents activation unless all sats can be seen.

At some point in the near future, there will be a dish without 110 and 119, and the need to see those two orbital locations to complete an install will go away, but the dish isn't out yet nor has the policy been updated.

As an existing customer, you can't go through a retailer unless you pay for everything. Your best bet might be to wait until the Slimline3 is released.

Phroz

· #5 · Aug 6, 2008

IIP said:
At some point in the near future, there will be a dish without 110 and 119, and the need to see those two orbital locations to complete an install will go away, but the dish isn't out yet nor has the policy been updated.

As an existing customer, you can't go through a retailer unless you pay for everything. Your best bet might be to wait until the Slimline3 is released.

As far as I know though, the Slimline3 won't be coming to markets that get their (SD) locals from 119, which Portland does.

DirecTech may still install it you can't get LOS to 119, but I wouldn't count on it.

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #6 · Aug 7, 2008

So they would rather lose a customer who doesn't want the SD locals anyway than do the install? Makes no sense to me.

I also thought the SD locals were going to move off 119 so the could go with 99/101/103 only.

The HDDVR must have LOS to activate? Maybe we can try and if no luck escilate the install.

I'm going to call tomorrow. Should I even mention the LOS?

matt

Mertzen

· #7 · Aug 7, 2008

mattmill said:
So they would rather lose a customer who doesn't want the SD locals anyway than do the install? Makes no sense to me.

It's more of a ' we don't want a customer who will complain down the line. Especially from a HSP point of view.

mattmill said:
I also thought the SD locals were going to move off 119 so the could go with 99/101/103 only.

Existing SD locals will stay on 119 for a long time. Only HD locals and brand new SD locals will go on new sats and even then with space soon available they may even put new SD locals on 110 or 119.

mattmill said:
The HDDVR must have LOS to activate? Maybe we can try and if no luck escilate the install.

Yes. The receiver does a diagnostic check on all signals.

joe diamond

· #8 · Aug 7, 2008

Matt,

Consider a tower. You are North of many folks in and the LOS i several degrees lower that in Florida. There are towers and poles that will clear your elevation.

What is the EL for NH anyhow?

You also got mountains up there....a local guy will know.

Joe

Phroz

· #9 · Aug 7, 2008

There's really very little elevation up here.

I want to say it's about 30 degrees for 101 and 20 degrees for 119.

joe diamond

· #10 · Aug 7, 2008

Phroz said:
There's really very little elevation up here.

I want to say it's about 30 degrees for 101 and 20 degrees for 119.

Think trees!

Joe

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #11 · Aug 7, 2008

2

Phroz said:
There's really very little elevation up here.

I want to say it's about 30 degrees for 101 and 20 degrees for 119.

This sounds correct to me. I recall numbers like that back when the original install was done.

Yes, trees are the problem

View from the dish, street is running west in the photo. This was early May for the photo.

and this is a winter view down the street to the west

I guess I am not holding out much hope at this point but will call DirecTV today and try to schedule something.

Fingers crossed...

matt

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paulman182

· #12 · Aug 7, 2008

Our first installer put in my original 3-LNB dish with no 119 LOS because my wife said it was OK to not have our locals and I was not home at the time. They activated it.

Guess what? I came home and called them back in. He moved the dish and found LOS to 119 and did not even need a pole mount.

I would assume this is one reason installers are reluctant to, or maybe now even prevented from, completing the install without full LOS. A customer can change his mind, or the spouse can come home, and either the install has to be redone, or DirecTV has one very dissatisfied customer on its hands.

Even though she approved the bad install, I knew that my wife would have been very unhappy without her locals, which I hardly ever watch.

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #13 · Aug 7, 2008

mattmill said:
I guess I am not holding out much hope at this point but will call DirecTV today and try to schedule something.

Scheuled for Next Friday. Directech is the installer and the CSR told me I would be getting a HR22 or HR23 DVR, what are those? Have not seen mention of them just the 20/21.

matt

Mertzen

· #14 · Aug 7, 2008

mattmill said:
Scheuled for Next Friday. Directech is the installer

The best of luck and let us know how it goes. And if they refuse I'll come up and do it for you.

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #15 · Aug 7, 2008

Phroz said:
DirecTech may still install it you can't get LOS to 119, but I wouldn't count on it.

How much would it cost to [strike]tip[/strike] help change the mind of the installer if I run into troubles? I want to be fair to everyone but also be prepared in the event of troubles.

matt

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #16 · Aug 7, 2008

Mertzen said:
The best of luck and let us know how it goes. And if they refuse I'll come up and do it for you.

I'll call you on 8-16

Mertzen

· #17 · Aug 7, 2008

mattmill said:
How much would it cost to [strike]tip[/strike] help change the mind of the installer if I run into troubles? I want to be fair to everyone but also be prepared in the event of troubles.

Maybe 20-40. Who knows; he might have 5 kids and a *****y wife :lol:

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #18 · Aug 7, 2008

Mertzen said:
Maybe 20-40. Who knows; he might have 5 kids and a *****y wife :lol:

Seems reasonable enough. I was thinking double that.

matt

mattmill

Discussion Starter · #19 · Aug 15, 2008

Mertzen said:
The best of luck and let us know how it goes. And if they refuse I'll come up and do it for you.

Well, I was scheduled for today 12-4 and got a call at 8:30, can we come early the last job was a no install. So I said sure come on up.

Two trucks got to the house and started to look around at all the trees and started to scratch their heads. One asked me how the hell do I get 101 with all the trees?

They keep looking and find a spot on the roof (yea! no more pole in the front yard), but we need to have a few branches trimmed first. So they have to cancel the order for today and after we get the trees trimmed back a little we should be good to go.

Tree guys are coming tomorrow to take a look and hopefully be able to help me out without making the trees look too funny. Wife doesn't care just wants me to make this work somehow. She is ready to switch to Comcast if this won't work.

The techs were both great, explained everything and spent time really looking for a location. Said some others would have just driven down the road and said never. Tried to tip them for the trip since the didn't get paid but they refused and gave me the end of a spool of coax to do my own inside wiring to fish my walls ahead of the revisit. Hopefully I can get the same guys when I call back. The only problem was they didn't believe that ESPN and TNT have moved off 119 yet.

matt

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tkrandall

· #20 · Aug 15, 2008

In the long run, try and get a Slimeline 3 dish if you have LOS to 99/101/103, but not LOS to 119. you won't have your sd locals off of 119 anyway, and the slimeline 3 will work better as far as getting the guide data off of 101 all the time instead of sometimes looking for it on 119 with the slimline 5. Slimline 3's should be available from retailers like solidsignal in a month or so.

Another option for you is to for you to consider DISH's new eastern arc service. I don't think Portland, ME is one of the initial launch markets on 8/20, but I would think it would be available soon enough as I see Portland Maine's HD locals are already on 61.5W. Your DISH look angle to the new DISH service would be pretty much due south with a 33 degree elevation versus SW and a 25 degree elevation for 99/101/103 and DirecTV.

The Eastern Arc service is launching this month and will have ALL of their core programming (non ethnic/latino) and sd locals for eastern markets available off of sats at 61.5w, 72.7w, and 77w using a new 1000.4 dish and all mpeg-4 equipment This mirrors their 110/119 services and is meant for eastern markets. This should greatly improve LOS for markets like Maine, much less Georgia where I live. check out the dish forum if interested.

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