[Ken C.]

Greetings to the forum. I'm sure this has been covered here but I could not fiind any info so I will ask away. We have a cabin in the Sierras that has a Dish 500 twin LNB dish installed from the previous owners. What I would like to do is to sign up for Dish at my main house in the Bay Area - Hopper & 2 Joeys, then get an SD receiver such as a 322 for the cabin. I want to be able to watch TV up there without having a second account for the cabin. Since there is no cable or internet up there I am told a Hopper won't work and the dish 500 is only SD anyway so that's why looking at the 322. (I have also been told by locals that because of line-of-site issues we can't get HD?) CSR's have told me two differrent stories: 1) won't work, need second account; 2) get the second receiver and it can be activated on my existing account for $7/month or so "additional receiver" fee. I am sure this is done frequently but I would like some input from folks who have experience with this. Thanks for your input!

 

[boba]

Greetings to the forum. I'm sure this has been covered here but I could not fiind any info so I will ask away. We have a cabin in the Sierras that has a Dish 500 twin LNB dish installed from the previous owners. What I would like to do is to sign up for Dish at my main house in the Bay Area - Hopper & 2 Joeys, then get an SD receiver such as a 322 for the cabin. I want to be able to watch TV up there without having a second account for the cabin. Since there is no cable or internet up there I am told a Hopper won't work and the dish 500 is only SD anyway so that's why looking at the 322. (I have also been told by locals that because of line-of-site issues we can't get HD?) CSR's have told me two differrent stories: 1) won't work, need second account; 2) get the second receiver and it can be activated on my existing account for $7/month or so "additional receiver" fee. I am sure this is done frequently but I would like some input from folks who have experience with this. Thanks for your input!

What you are asking to do is a violation of terms of service, that said yes it is done. With a Hopper system only a 211 can be added to the account. You can't use a 322.

 

[Ken C.]

With a Hopper system only a 211 can be added to the account. You can't use a 322.

Thanks for the info. It was a CSR that told me to get the 322 & said I could just call with the number on the box and the card & they could enable it. If I recall, the 211 is a single receiver SD box, is that correct?

 

[boba]

211 is a HD box with single satellite and single OTA tuner. For a $40 fee a hard drive can be added to make it a DVR

 

[jsk]

That should be OK if you change your service address when you are using the cabin. You wouldn't be able to have service at both your main house and your cabin at the same time though.

 

[Ken C.]

211 is a HD box with single satellite and single OTA tuner. For a $40 fee a hard drive can be added to make it a DVR

Will an HD receiver work with the older 500 dual LNB dish that is in place up there?

That should be OK if you change your service address when you are using the cabin. You wouldn't be able to have service at both your main house and your cabin at the same time though.

How easy is that to do? We are usually up there once a month for 3 days to a week.

 

[coldsteel]

HD box will work, but you'd only get a few HD channels off the 119. Depending on how far away the cabin is, I wouldn't worry about changing addresses.

 

[Ken C.]

HD box will work, but you'd only get a few HD channels off the 119. Depending on how far away the cabin is, I wouldn't worry about changing addresses.

Thanks. I'm not too worried about how many HD channels I get, more interested in just getting some channels & the "local" channels. The cabin is 150 miles away from my house.

 

[boba]

Thanks. I'm not too worried about how many HD channels I get, more interested in just getting some channels & the "local" channels. The cabin is 150 miles away from my house.

locals maybe your problem if you are out of the spotbeam for your real home location all you will see is a black screen. If you are still in the spotbeam you will have your locals. Of course that is where the OTA could help.

 

[Ken C.]

locals maybe your problem if you are out of the spotbeam for your real home location all you will see is a black screen. If you are still in the spotbeam you will have your locals. Of course that is where the OTA could help.

OK another greenhorn question... What is the OTA - a regular antenna? I don't know that we would get anything up there. Can you explain the spotbeam? If it's what I'm thinking, roughly how wide is the spotbeam? There are actually two other local markets nearer to my cabin - Sacramento & Reno. My account would be based in the Bay Area.

All that aside, if I did hook up the 211 to my 500 dish would I still be able to get satellite feed, HD or not?

 

[jsk]

HD box will work, but you'd only get a few HD channels off the 119. Depending on how far away the cabin is, I wouldn't worry about changing addresses.

Wouldn't he have to change the service address to avoid violating the TOS?

 

[Stewart Vernon]

They aren't going to allow you to add just any receiver to an account that has Hopper/Joey on it. That's a Dish restriction... so if you go Hopper/Joey, the only official exception right now seems to be if they allow a 211 on the same account.

Beyond that... it is a terms-of-service violation to try and have service at two different homes on a single account.

You can, for example with a summer/winter home, call Dish and say you are going to a different home and switch your service address every time you move as long as you disable the receivers from being used at two different locations at the same time... in other words, you can't leave the kids home to watch the Hopper and you go to the cabin and watch on the 211.

I don't know how frequently they permit this kind of service change... so you might run into some resistance if you do it too frequently... like every weekend or something.

 

[Ken C.]

You can, for example with a summer/winter home, call Dish and say you are going to a different home and switch your service address every time you move as long as you disable the receivers from being used at two different locations at the same time... in other words, you can't leave the kids home to watch the Hopper and you go to the cabin and watch on the 211.

I don't know how frequently they permit this kind of service change... so you might run into some resistance if you do it too frequently... like every weekend or something.

Thanks Stewart, that is probably why the CSR told me to simply call Dish and have them "activate" the second box each time we went up, which like I said is usually once a month but mostly only for three to six days at a time. (The one remaining kid we have at home can fend for himself!!)

I am surprised the CSR told me to get a 322 to use at the cabin though if Dish does not allow one of those on the same account as a Hopper. I don't need a dual receiver up there so a 311 or 211 would be fine, I am just concerned about running the 211 on an SD satellite dish. I have been told by someone up there that HD is not available because we don't have line-of-site to the HD satellite(?) so it might not make sense to upgrade the Dish 500 that is there.

 

[Stewart Vernon]

The receiver itself will work without seeing 129 (since you are talking about the 110/119/129 western arc config)... it just obviously would not have the channels from the satellite it can't see.

Dish typically doesn't install something like the Hopper unless they can install a dish for all the necessary satellite locations... but as long as your dish at the cabin is already installed... and you're willing to live without the missing channels when you are there... then that should be ok.

I don't know about your locals... the SD ones probably are on 110/119, but the HD ones probably are on 129 so you might be getting them in SD-only... but then if you were prepared to use an SD receiver in the first place, it doesn't sound like that would be a problem to you.

 

[Ken C.]

Thanks again Stewart, and averyone else for your help! This whole saga started when we found out our neighbor up there has D* and told us he just brings his receiver up with him, plugs it in up there and has service. I have not asked many specifics about it because we don't see him that much.

I guess if I didn't go with the Hopper at my main home this would be alot easier? Do I really need a Hopper & Joeys at home (we have 3 HD tv's in the house) or would this be alot easier if I just went with "older" equipment & standard DVR? We currently have U-verse service with HD & DVR.

 

[swissy]

Why couldn't he do something like the Tailgater?

http://www.mydish.com/upgrades/products/tailgater/

 

[Ken C.]

Why couldn't he do something like the Tailgater?

I had seen that but didn't want to spend that kind of $ on something that's only going to be used a couple of nights each month. Not to mention having to deal with setting it up in the snow!

 

[dmspen]

Maybe you could get another DISH account for the cabin and suspend it the time you're not there.

I have no idea the financial aspect of this or if DISH has a specific amount of time an account can be suspended.

 

[swissy]

I had seen that but didn't want to spend that kind of $ on something that's only going to be used a couple of nights each month. Not to mention having to deal with setting it up in the snow!

You would be able to use the current dish. You would only need the 211.

 

[Ken C.]

Why couldn't he do something like the Tailgater?

http://www.mydish.com/upgrades/products/tailgater/

You would be able to use the current dish. You would only need the 211.

Interesting. . . I just read the FAQ for the system and it says it can be activated "on-demand" for a $7/month outlet fee. The Dish CSR I was last talking to had mentioned just calling up & activating the cabin receiver for $7/month. I wonder if this is what he had in mind? If I can get the "on-demand" service to use with the existing dish that is up there (i.e. not having to buy the portable antenna), that's exactly what I'm trying to do!