Dish Network questions answered here.

[rosco]

I'm a recent addition to the group, and a professional dish network installer by trade.

If I can be of any help to answer questions in regards to dish network and how to set up your AV system with dish network, please call on me , and I will do what I can to help the community.

Regards

Mike (A.k.a.) Rosco

 

[chas_w]

Hi Mike,

I currrently have Dish (just SD) and would like to go HD for the fall tv season. I suppose I have to have a new dish and receiver installed...is there anything to ask for specifically...are there any special offers for current customers I should be aware of?

Thanks.

 

[rosco]

Reply

Hi Mike,

I currrently have Dish (just SD) and would like to go HD for the fall tv season. I suppose I have to have a new dish and receiver installed...is there anything to ask for specifically...are there any special offers for current customers I should be aware of?

Thanks.

More than likely you will need a dish upgrade, unless you live in a market that has the 129 orbital location as part of its service.

So the dish upgrade depends on where you live.

The current promo for HD will cost you around 100 to 150 dollars as a current customer.

One way around that cost is to cry in Dish nets beer a little, and you might get it for little or no cost.

Depending on what you want to do, be it just receive HD or record HD and SD
programming, you can get a stand alone package for JUST HD programming and skip SD, or add an HD package to your current plan for 10 dollars for the basic HD channels that currently accompany your programming package or 20 dollars for the most HD you can get. 10 or 20 dollars a month that is.

Then if you want to record HD and or SD ask for a VIP series DVR (digital Video Recorder) I suggest the VIP 722 as this will give you the most recording time, and allow you to feed other SD tvs in your home an SD signal .

If you went thru Dish net directly for your current installation call Dish net and set it up that way.

If you went thru a local retailer call them and get your upgrade from them, as I work for a little guy and we give better service then the big companies that drive their installers into the ground which makes them not give a crap about how they do the install.

Either way, make sure the installer does the job the right way. (i.e. upgrading any cable to the HD receiver to RG-6 copper clad or solid copper core cable that has been tested to 3 Ghz.)

Don't forget the HDMI cable and or the Digital audio cable for the best video and audio you can get from the receiver.

Hope this answers your questions.

Regards
Rosco

 

[Hi Ho]

I get occasional dropouts on National Geographic HD. I believe this channel is on sat 129 (I'm in Washington State) and I have heard Dish has been having issues with that satellite. The dropouts occur at seemingly random times and my VIP722 receiver says "Satellite Signal Lost". Usually if I channel up/down it comes back right away. When I'm watching a recorded program from this channel (which most of the time) I just get a message saying "Part of the program was lost due to signal loss". Any ideas? It doesn't seem to matter weather it's sunny, snowing, pooring rain, tunder, or simply foggy. The only time I've ever completely lost signal was when my Dish got completely buried in snow. A broom fixed that.

 

[rosco]

Reply

I get occasional dropouts on National Geographic HD. I believe this channel is on sat 129 (I'm in Washington State) and I have heard Dish has been having issues with that satellite. The dropouts occur at seemingly random times and my VIP722 receiver says "Satellite Signal Lost". Usually if I channel up/down it comes back right away. When I'm watching a recorded program from this channel (which most of the time) I just get a message saying "Part of the program was lost due to signal loss". Any ideas? It doesn't seem to matter weather it's sunny, snowing, pooring rain, tunder, or simply foggy. The only time I've ever completely lost signal was when my Dish got completely buried in snow. A broom fixed that.

Yes it is true Dish net is having an problem with the 129 orbital location sat.
This sat is due to be replaced by or around November of 2008.

This drop out may be due to a poor alignment of the dish itself.
On your remote if you goto the dish point screen by pressing Menu 611, then switching the sat portion to 129 and scroll thru the different transponders, you should see a signal readings in the 30s and 40s maybe even into the 50s which is GREAT if your getting 50s on the 129.

Also if the dish is loose or the mast itself is not plumb, meaning perfectly straight side to side and forward and back, you will get low readings on the point dish screen.

Another reason for signal drop out can be the cable used to feed the receiver, or the wall plate core.

All cable should be RG-6 swept tested to 3Ghz, and the center core of the wall plate should have a blue core.
Other center wall plate cores such as white or clear do not pass the correct frequency to the receiver.

As it stands dish net is firing thrusters every so often to bing the sat back into alignment, and its common (for now) to see up and down readings on the 129.

One other thing....some vip722s have a software problem, but I would check the afore mentioned things before I point a finger at the receiver.

I hope this helps

Regards
Rosco

 

[Wandering Man]

Advice for off air antenna?

I'm going to be adding an off-air antenna to my system soon, to pick up the local channels in HD.

I am trying to figure out the best way to get cable from the antennae to my dish reciever with the minimum number of new holes in my house, and least amount of crawling under the house.

Can I piggy-back onto any of the cables already running into the house (maybe at the box outside)?

Or should I just place the outdoor antenna closer to my TV and plug directly into the back of Dish's Digital DVR/reciever?

Thanks,

WM

 

[moreira85]

dish

hey rosco, thanks for your offering!

I will be ordering dishnetwork for my new house next month.
A few questions here.

I was looking into the the Dish DVR Advantage package, I am going to get the 722 receiver . I will have it set up in my great room but will i be able to get a signal up to my bedroom as well off this one receiver? the bedroom is all the way on the other side of the house upstairs. the bedroom doesnt need to be hd.
Also it says this package is 49.99, what is the additional cost to add HD programing, the rental for the box, and dvr fee?

 

[Hi Ho]

Can I piggy-back onto any of the cables already running into the house (maybe at the box outside)?

Or should I just place the outdoor antenna closer to my TV and plug directly into the back of Dish's Digital DVR/reciever?

I'm not Rosco but I do know that it is possible to combine all of the required signals for the dish reciever into a single line if you have the proper equipment. You can combine the satellite feed, OTA antenna, and even the TV2 output into a single line using combiners/seperators.

I will have it set up in my great room but will i be able to get a signal up to my bedroom as well off this one receiver? the bedroom is all the way on the other side of the house upstairs.

If I remember from your previous posts, your hous has home runs of coax to each room leading to a centeral location. Correct? If so, you can do what I described above and use seperators/combiners to send the TV2 signal back to the junction box and up to the bedroom.

I'm sure Rosco can get into more specifics.

 

[moreira85]

If I remember from your previous posts, your hous has home runs of coax to each room leading to a centeral location. Correct? If so, you can do what I described above and use seperators/combiners to send the TV2 signal back to the junction box and up to the bedroom.

I'm sure Rosco can get into more specifics.[/QUOTE]

damn you have a good memory.

 

[fox]

Hi Roscoe, question for you. When I connect my DISH VIP622 to my TV via an HDMI cable. I get sound but no picture. The HDMI cable is fine because it works well with a DVD player. I have the DISH connected componet video which is fine with me, I just wondered what your thoughts might be on this? Thank you.

 

[Justsuern]

Scrambled stations in HD only

I have been a Dish customer forever. Last October we upgraded to HD package with the VIP 622 receiver. We had to cut down a huge tree on a hill in order to get the HD package. All was well until the Turbo HD boost. Then we noticed certain (HD only -129 satellite) stations getting scrambled. It didn't happen all the time so I didn't think much of it until it began happening more often. And then the lost signal message (HD only) would come on often. So we had Dish come out and they said it was another tree blocking the signal. I had them take a picture from the roof of the exact tree causing the problem. Paid $125 for the guy to come out and cut down 2 trees and trim another. I watched the signal strength go from 15 to 30 or better on most transponders for the 129 satellite. Everything seemed to be ok for about 2 weeks and now it is back to scrambled HD stations again. At times if I point the dish to check strength, the receiver freezes. (This did this quite often before the first tech came out. They all say that should not happen, but no one has an answer!) I have to do a reboot. Once I was watching a show in HD on TV 1, but was recording it on tv 2. It was fine while watching it. When I played it back though, it was scrambled. So I thought it only did it during dvr playback, but no, now it is doing it during Live tv.
Called Dish and they did the check switch routine, which shows everything to be ok. The guy said he didn't like the strength, that high 20-low 30 was not that good. I said listen here, your first tech person told me anything over 17 was fine. Now I have that and I still have problems. The scrambling is weird. Like today, watching a sports channel, the scoreboard on the side of the screen was fine but the players moving on the field were scrambled. Or the top is totally clear and the bottom of the screen is all scrambled. Or just faces and bodies will scramble. I suggested it was the receiver but of course the tech guy said no. He said if it was the receiver, then all the satellites, 110 and 119 would have problems. So he is sending someone out Wed. to adjust the dish again. If they tell me to cut down another tree, I will scream!
I checked every transponder on the 129 satellite, and most are 25-45%. Transponder 2, 6, and 18 are at 17%. Satellite 110 is over 70% and 119 is around 65%.
Any suggestions I can fire back at these guys when they tell me to get the tree guy out here again? Thanks.

 

[moreira85]

the dukes

what happened to rosco piko train??

 

[allargon]

Not sure what happened to Rosco, but I have a Dish 622. I can tell you that the satellite located at 129 is a total POS near the end of its life. A replacement is scheduled to launch later this year. Hopefully, all goes well.

Sound but no picture on a 622 likely means you have a bad HDMI connection or a bad handshake. A lot of earlier 622's had issues with HDMI ports not being attached properly. My 622 (and my 211) don't have this issue. A lot of people do.

With regard to diplexing OTA signals with satellite signals, I would avoid it. DirectTV already uses all of the bandwidth just about on its signals. Expect Dish to follow suit. Those TERK clip-ons are tempting, but I would personally avoid them.

 

[Wandering Man]

I'm not Rosco but I do know that it is possible to combine all of the required signals for the dish reciever into a single line if you have the proper equipment. You can combine the satellite feed, OTA antenna, and even the TV2 output into a single line using combiners/seperators.

Now I have a new question, as I progress in making my antenna happen:

I have one line coming off the antenna. I will need a splitter to send a signal to both of the TV's in my house. Then I'll be putting a diplexer to combine each of the antenna feeds with two of the satellite feeds, and then another diplexer at the other end for each TV to split the signal out again.

Will I loose too much signal strength with all of this hardware?

Would I be better off just crawling under the house with the possums and running new cable, and drilling new holes?

Thanks for any and all opinions.

WM

 

[allargon]

Now I have a new question, as I progress in making my antenna happen:

I have one line coming off the antenna. I will need a splitter to send a signal to both of the TV's in my house. Then I'll be putting a diplexer to combine each of the antenna feeds with two of the satellite feeds, and then another diplexer at the other end for each TV to split the signal out again.

Will I loose too much signal strength with all of this hardware?

Would I be better off just crawling under the house with the possums and running new cable, and drilling new holes?

Thanks for any and all opinions.

WM

Sorry for the late reply.

Yep, you would be better off crawling under the house. Possums? If you said rattlesnakes, black widows, brown recluses, jila monsters, scorpions, tarantulas or badgers I'd be impressed. Even raccoons are much, much meaner than possums.

You can amplify the antenna signal with distribution amp. A two channel one is about $20.

I'm not even commenting on the diplexing. Sorry, I tend to avoid that. Even the guys on satelliteguys.us and dbstalk.com will tell you to abandon diplexing for OTA. Dish does its own diplexing with its dual output receivers and DVR's.

 

[Adam]

Possums? If you said rattlesnakes, black widows, brown recluses, jila monsters, scorpions, tarantulas or badgers I'd be impressed. Even raccoons are much, much meaner than possums.

Hee, hee. There's a Texan for ya.

Personally, I'd be more impressed if he had to crawl under the house and try to avoid Crazy Eddie who no one had seen by daylight in two years. He might be crazy, but it sure is tough to lure him into a live trap.

 

[Wandering Man]

Well its Done!

Homerun under the house to the receiver.

Didn't see any possums, snakes, skunks or 'coons.

Things are working fine.

Remember back in school when you discovered you could get an extra 1/2 point from the teacher just by putting your homework in plastic binder?

That binder just made anything look professional.

Well, now I've learned that same trick with those little plastic zip ties. And if you trim the floppy ends off, you get even more bonus points.

WM

 

[Warpdrv]

Hey Mike, thanks for bringing your expertise to the forum.... its certainly welcome here.... I really enjoy my Dish service far more then Direct I had years ago...

Anywho.... I am looking for suggestions for a good quality OTA HD Antenna.... My 722 receiver is in the basement feeding my first floor bedroom plasma, so I have to make a run outside....? Antenna I would like to be mounted to the side of my house hopefully out of site...

 

[moreira85]

dish network

so rosco started this thread and never returned. I will be ordering dish network when i move into the new house in about 3 weeks, man are we excited to move in. Those of you who have Dish Network do you know if the The Golf Channel comes in HD?

 

[VulcanSoulPatch]

OTA Antenna

Anywho.... I am looking for suggestions for a good quality OTA HD Antenna.... My 722 receiver is in the basement feeding my first floor bedroom plasma, so I have to make a run outside....? Antenna I would like to be mounted to the side of my house hopefully out of site...

Warpdrv, I know this is an old post (I was Googling ViP-722s and I keep hitting articles about ppl with more than one 722... go figure), but I didn't see a response to your question about the antenna. I live in So Cal, and I know that my some of my neighbors have had good reception with standard antennas and even one that uses a boomerang type. I know you want something a little more inconspicuous, so you might want to try the Terk HDTVs. When I was shopping for an antenna about 1.5 years ago, I heard great things about it. I, however, was looking for an indoor antenna and was turned onto Terk's HDTVa or HDTVi antennas, but I could not find one locally to try, so I moved on to another highly recommended antenna.

The set-top antenna I use is the Philips PHDTV1 Silver Sensor UHF/HDTV Digital Indoor TV Antenna (there is also a Zenith version ZHDTV1, also with Silver Sensor in the name). I am about 55 miles due East of the OTA transmitters on Mt Wilson, and I get great reception by pointing my little antenna out the North window of my first floor living room and getting bounced signals off of my neighbor's house. I am guessing that you may not have many windows in your basement, so this may not be that viable. But, you never know. I also tried their amplified version, the PHDTV3, but honestly the signal was not nearly as good. I'm not sure why that was, but in the end it is just one less cord to worry about, so I am happy.

So, if you haven't already found a good antenna, hope this helps.

BTW, I love being able to record 3 programs at the same time on my 722 when I am recording 1 off of the antenna ... only thing is since the signal is uncompressed, the recording ends up being quite a bit larger.

VSP