[ZBoomer]

Upgraded my system last week, had Dish come out and install a wing dish to get our HD locals off 61.5. (They converted my Dish 1000 to get only 110 and 119, and I installed a D500 getting 61.5 for HD Locals and other HD now.)

I have to say I think the quality is very good, better than I was expecting. I've been watching college football all day, and there is no discernible difference between OTA and HD Local on Dish, and I switched back and forth quite a few times.

I haven't sat there and put a microscope on it and went out of my way to find problems, but I think it looks GREAT from my normal seating distance. All four of the local HD's look great.

Just wanted to post something positive, so many negative posts lately. (Including some from me.)

It's SO nice with HD locals on dish too; instead of being able to record a single HD local at a time with OTA, now can do THREE, awesome.

The dual dishes are kinda kludgy looking, but it sure works good.

VIP722, Pioneer PDP6010.

 

[kpaustin]

Quick question: Do you have both Dish HD locals and OTA HD locals, as well as Dish SD locals showing up at the same time on your guide/receiver? I've been curious about if you record Dish HD locals does it use one of the two SAT tuners or the OTA tuner...in other words would you be able to record 1 OTA HD local and 1 different Dish HD local at the same time? I have OTA locals in HD and they work very well, been mulling adding the free Dish local HD install, but don't want to fix it since it ain't broken...unless I gain something from it. Thanks in advance!

 

[puckwithahalo]

Quick question: Do you have both Dish HD locals and OTA HD locals, as well as Dish SD locals showing up at the same time on your guide/receiver? I've been curious about if you record Dish HD locals does it use one of the two SAT tuners or the OTA tuner...in other words would you be able to record 1 OTA HD local and 1 different Dish HD local at the same time? I have OTA locals in HD and they work very well, been mulling adding the free Dish local HD install, but don't want to fix it since it ain't broken...unless I gain something from it. Thanks in advance!

If you have HD locals, and OTA locals, and a dual tuner receiver, you can record two locals on satellite, and one off the OTA. In other words, you could record three different local channels at the same time, all in HD.

 

[epontius]

If you have HD locals, and OTA locals, and a dual tuner receiver, you can record two locals on satellite, and one off the OTA. In other words, you could record three different local channels at the same time, all in HD.

I'm in very north Austin. I mounted a Wineguard Square Shooter to the roof, then connected this to my Vip 722. I get all the local Austin stations at 100 or close to it. I can record three programs at once. The other advantage is that the signal is more stable during weather where the dish might cut out.
I also recently had a VIP622 go out. I was still able to watch my locals in HD, by just switching the OTA coax over to my HDTV's tuner.

 

[mraviator]

I'm a recent Dish signup (installed two weeks ago) in the Austin area as well (Georgetown actually). I've been enjoying the reception so far, but have been having occasional issues connecting to HD channels on the 61.5 satellite.

I can receive the feed for the equivalent SD channel (different satellite), but sometimes I must wait 10-15 minutes before the HD feed comes through (acquiring satellite signal...). During the install, the technician said signal strengths to both dishes were strong. I use the ViP722 with this setup.

Are you experiencing this issue with 61.5 as well?

thanks

 

[ZBoomer]

KPAustin, like they said, when you have an OTA antenna, and HD locals off satellite, you get the "big 4" channels three times each; HD OTA, HD Sat, and SD SAT. You can go into the setup and determine how these display in the guide. I turned off Sat SD in the guide, so now I see the yellow OTA entry, and the Sat HD channel right next to it.

Like they said, with only OTA you can record just ONE HD channel at a time. When you add Sat HD, you can do up to THREE in HD at the same time. It rocks man, big time.

MRAviator; I'm getting great performance from 61.5, at least as good or better than I got on 129. The issues you are seeing are NOT normal. You need your dish tweaked or something. It may have gotten moved after the installer left? My HD channels come in instantly off 61.5.

 

[kpaustin]

Awesome, thanks for all the replies. If they're still doing the free upgrade I'll go with it.