[Lorax]

I currently have both systems - Dish Network with a DISH500 & two receivers and a DirecTV dish with a Sony reciever....

Currently I subscribe to DISH Network for the "family unit" and DirecTV for my sports packages....

Is it possible and how hard is it convert the DISH500 dish to recieve DirecTV signal?

Could I use both dishes to receive HDTV from DirecTV?

At this point I can commit to either system, but plan to move to HDTV very soon and it seems to me DirecTV might be the best option for me.....Any help or advice would be very much appreciated....

 

[Mark Lamutt]

Hello Lorax, welcome to DBSTalk! :hi:

You can use your dish 500 dish to receive directv from 101 and 110, or 110 and 119, and I believe all you have to do is repoint it to the correct location and elevation. Currently, directv is sending HBO-HD and HDNet from 119, and as of May 1 will be sending Showtime-HD from 110. I'm assuming that your dtv dish is pointed at 101, so you should be able to the 110 and 119 sats with your dish 500. If I'm wrong, I'm sure one of our users will correct me

 

[Fish Man]

If you have a DirecTV "round" dish pointed at 101, and a Dish 500 pointed at 110 and 119, you're already looking at all three DirecTV slots. So, you don't necessarily need any new "metal", but you will need some different switches and LNBs.

If your dish 500 has two "dual output" LNB's (as opposed to a "twin" or a "quad"), you can run the LNB on the DirecTV round dish and the 119 LNB on the dish 500 through a 4X2, 4X4, or 4X8 (or 5X2, 5X4, or 5X8) 22 khz multiswitch to get the 101 and 119 DirecTV birds.

This will give you DirecTV HDTV now.

However, in a few months they will be moving HDTV to 110. A "standard" LNB cannot be used to receive DirecTV's transponder frequencies at 110.

To get DirecTV at 110 (right now there's nothing there, however, as I mentioned, HDTV will be moving there in the future), you will need a special "Sat C" kit that comes with a special "Sat C" LNB and a combiner/splitter to mix the "sat C" signals into the 119 "sat B" signals.

You should be able to put the "Sat C" LNB into the 110 location of your Dish 500. Then' you'd be set up for all three slots.

Note, you can hook up the 101 and 119 LNB's as discribed above and you'll be all set for the next few months. You can later add the "Sat C" kit when they move the HDTV channels.

 

[Fish Man]

Originally posted by Mark Lamutt
and as of May 1 will be sending Showtime-HD from 110.

Woha!

They'll be adding HD content to 110 a lot sooner than I thought!

So, while I believe my answer to technically be correct, Lorax will be needing that Sat C kit in about a week, not months, as I'd indicated!

 

[Lorax]

okay.....although somewhat technically proficient - that is moving just a tad fast for me

As far as the LNB switch on the DISH500 - Can I tell by the setup info or do I have to physically inspect the LNB? And will I see a number or some physical indator of what LNB is currently there?

Can I buy this SAT C kit?

I believe I understand the Multiswitch thing - 4 in and 4 out for getting four receivers and receiving HDTV broadcast?

The current setup is a Dual LNB Dish500 and a single LNB DirecTV if this makes a difference....

Thanks again for the help,
Dave

 

[Mark Lamutt]

You can determine what kind of LNBs your dish 500 dish has by looking at the cables coming out of them. If they are connected to a switch of any kind (sw21, sw42, sw44, sw64) and then cables run from the switch to your receivers, you have 2 dual LNBs. If the cables come out of the dish and run straight to your receivers, then you either have a twin lnb (for 2 receivers) or a quad lnb (for 4 receivers).

Will the satc lnb work with cascaded with a dish network dual lnb? I have no idea...

 

[Fish Man]

Originally posted by Mark Lamutt

Will the satc lnb work with cascaded with a dish network dual lnb? I have no idea...

The answer to this one is definately "yes".

The "standard" DirecTV dual LNB and the Dish dual LNB's are electically identical.

Dish just uses that "D shaped" mounting surface where DirecTV's is rectangular.

 

[Guest]

From reading this I take it I can convert a directv sulti satellite dish for recieving the 2 (100 degree +) dish network satellite feeds?

 

[boba]

From reading this I take it I can convert a directv sulti satellite dish for recieving the 2 (100 degree +) dish network satellite feeds?

If you have the new Phase 3 Directv dish you can't use it due to the LNBs and switching built into the dish. If you have the older oval dish with the separate LNBFs you can make limited use for DISH by putting Legacy LNBFs in the 110 and 119 slots and then using DISH Network switches.

 

[icejoe]

This Post is quite old..

Can I still convert a DISHPro 500 Twin LNBF to Direct TV to watch basic programming?

The receiver I'm using is a D11 Digital Multi-Satellite Receiver.. It has already been "activated" and working at it's original location..

 

[boba]

This Post is quite old..

Can I still convert a DISHPro 500 Twin LNBF to Direct TV to watch basic programming?

The receiver I'm using is a D11 Digital Multi-Satellite Receiver.. It has already been "activated" and working at it's original location..

This is really ridiculous reviving a thread from 2002 just start a new thread..

THE ANSWER IS NO!!!!!!!!! Directv D11 is not compatible with Dish Pro bandstacking and with the TWINs switching signals.:nono2: :nono2: :nono2:

 

[icejoe]

This is really ridiculous reviving a thread from 2002 just start a new thread..

THE ANSWER IS NO!!!!!!!!! Directv D11 is not compatible with Dish Pro bandstacking and with the TWINs switching signals.:nono2: :nono2: :nono2:

Thanks.. Sorry about that. On my other boards it was illegal to start new threads..

What Dish do you recommend for regular programming?