I had 2 dishes one being the 61.5 that were replaced for one dish(1k) yesterday. The problem with the new dish is the 129 sat is not locking in. I was told it was my trees..cut those cleared it out and still have the same problem when the installer came out today to check the signal. I'm just pondering maybe to ask for the original setup because of the problems I'm having. I have three receivers if that matters
2 dish vs 1 dish
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They can make adjustments to peoples reciever boxes if you're having trouble. I don't know what they did but the picture is looking better. Right now I'm watching The Haunting of Molly Hartley in HD on Starz and it looks almost as good as if I owned the DVD. I know no satellite or cable TV service has totally crystal clear HD. There is a give and take. I think for the price I'm paying for Dish I'm getting the best quality and maybe better than a more expensive service and have a nice DVR reciever 
I don't know if 61.5 would have a sharper picture (I think it would) and may switch to that again someday but I live near an expressway and the 61.5 dish is facing it and I think it was getting bad interference that's why I had them come to move me to 129 and at that time requested a new Dish and the installer didn't complain and went ahead and put a 1k2 up instead of adding an LNB to my old oval shaped 1000 dish that I started with in 2006.
I don't know if 61.5 would have a sharper picture (I think it would) and may switch to that again someday but I live near an expressway and the 61.5 dish is facing it and I think it was getting bad interference that's why I had them come to move me to 129 and at that time requested a new Dish and the installer didn't complain and went ahead and put a 1k2 up instead of adding an LNB to my old oval shaped 1000 dish that I started with in 2006.
The number of receivers is not the issue. A dish will support 12-24 receivers without issue.
The only real difference that most subscribers would see between 61.5 and 129 is with local channels. Some locals are on both, but many are only on one of the two satellites. If you do not sub to locals it should not matter. There are of course a few channels that are different between the two. 61.5 still has some internationals on it.
The only real difference that most subscribers would see between 61.5 and 129 is with local channels. Some locals are on both, but many are only on one of the two satellites. If you do not sub to locals it should not matter. There are of course a few channels that are different between the two. 61.5 still has some internationals on it.
Give it awhile for everything to sync also. Sometimes it takes awhile for everything to get locked in with the best possible picture. I think having a 1k2 is better than having a wing dish. If you still have the wing dish you can always revert to it at a later date and maybe have both 129 and 61.5 and let them fight to get use.
thanks for all the quick replies. Ill stay pat with the current setup for a day or two to see if syncs up and go from there. If not i think ill just revert to the old setup
SS level on 129
Tell us what signal strength you have on the tps 17 and above on 129. If they are weak you have a problem with them. It is either one of three reasons: 1 LOS issue to 129, 2 The dish isn't peaked well, & 3 bad LNB on 129. If 1st of the 3 the 61.5 is a better option for you.
Tell us what signal strength you have on the tps 17 and above on 129. If they are weak you have a problem with them. It is either one of three reasons: 1 LOS issue to 129, 2 The dish isn't peaked well, & 3 bad LNB on 129. If 1st of the 3 the 61.5 is a better option for you.
Mine are in the high 50's to low 60's on most of the transponders on from 17 on up and a few are coming in at 71 to 77 on 129W.
Give it awhile for everything to sync also. Sometimes it takes awhile for everything to get locked in with the best possible picture. I think having a 1k2 is better than having a wing dish. If you still have the wing dish you can always revert to it at a later date and maybe have both 129 and 61.5 and let them fight to get use.
It doesn't take a while to "sync". If you do a check switch and it isn't there, it's never going to pop in. After the trees were cut they should have done a check switch again, but this doesn't guarantee it would work either since the installer didn't have a 129 signal to tweak the signal on in the first place.
A wing will be better than the 1000.2... I can tell you for a fact since I had a 110/119/61.5 setup before I moved. I brought the setup with me a used 129 instead since there was no LOS to 61.5 at the location where I wanted the dish mounted. So I pointed the wing to 129. So, this gave me a D500 for 110/119 and a wing for 129. I recently switched it out to a D1000.2 and the signals aren't as good as the previous setup. But it's only been a difference of around 10 points or so. No biggie...and it makes the old lady happy that I got rid of a dish.
My picture quality has improved greatly since after I first got the 1000.2 but I did have someone from Dish Network out here who had their tech support note that my picture quality looked crappy even after he gave me a brand new DVR box which I think I needed anyway because the old one was to loud. I can say that it looks the same as the 61.5 satellite setup I had. I don't know if there is much difference. I actually think it may look better.
I had a two dish set up since we first needed it to get locals and it was completely trouble free. No drop outs due to weather and nice strong signals. Then when I had a 722 installed in Sept of 2008 they said I had to have a 1000.2. I was just thrilled to be getting HD that I did not ask any questions. So right now I have a 722 and 625 on the 1000.2 and a 501 on the second dish (500). It doesn't matter how many masts are on the top of the chimney . . .
. . . my neighbors know I am a Techotard. I'm trying to get my brothers old "bow tie" dish from when he beta tested Internet with DISH. That'll really freak the neighbors.
The Winter following the install was very mild and we had no weather that would have caused any problems. But this year right off the top I had 35" of snow in my yard for the first snow. We lost everything and with weather/cloud cover that did not affected us in the past. The dish was completely clean. The more South facing dishes (110/119) get covered with snow and the wing to 129 is always clean and clear. The slight change in direction makes a world of difference. During these last two snows the 500 which had snow on it was working great for the 501 and the 722 and 625 were constantly up and down mainly related to 129. This is something that we have never experienced and I do not like it. Because what do you do when you are snow bound? What TV!
Prior to calling DISH I spent a great deal of time in here reading as much as I could find and realized that I would be better off with my original set up. So I had a tech come out to do the reset and ended up with a field supervisor, great guy, because of a few complications. Anyway, he knew I had scheduled to have the old two config reinstalled but he talked me into trying some tweaks first (which are not matching the advice given here to zero in with a 1000.2). Needless to say they are not working at all. We are having more 129 related issues than ever before even with clear skies.
So I gather from all that has been said here, just to be sure before I call the FS back, that I would be better off with the dual dish set up, correct? I had it once with all the necessary gear and years of trouble free operation.
Any assistance/advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank You . . .
. . . fb
The Winter following the install was very mild and we had no weather that would have caused any problems. But this year right off the top I had 35" of snow in my yard for the first snow. We lost everything and with weather/cloud cover that did not affected us in the past. The dish was completely clean. The more South facing dishes (110/119) get covered with snow and the wing to 129 is always clean and clear. The slight change in direction makes a world of difference. During these last two snows the 500 which had snow on it was working great for the 501 and the 722 and 625 were constantly up and down mainly related to 129. This is something that we have never experienced and I do not like it. Because what do you do when you are snow bound? What TV!
Prior to calling DISH I spent a great deal of time in here reading as much as I could find and realized that I would be better off with my original set up. So I had a tech come out to do the reset and ended up with a field supervisor, great guy, because of a few complications. Anyway, he knew I had scheduled to have the old two config reinstalled but he talked me into trying some tweaks first (which are not matching the advice given here to zero in with a 1000.2). Needless to say they are not working at all. We are having more 129 related issues than ever before even with clear skies.
So I gather from all that has been said here, just to be sure before I call the FS back, that I would be better off with the dual dish set up, correct? I had it once with all the necessary gear and years of trouble free operation.
Any assistance/advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank You . . .
. . . fb
You don't need two dishes. 129 is super strong now so your 1000.2 will work fine. You should have mid 50s to low 70s for signal strength on 129.
> I know no satellite or cable TV service has totally crystal clear HD.
I keep hearing this but I'm not quite believing it yet... I have a strong signal on 129W and a VIP211K receiver putting a 1080i signal out onto a Panasonic 1080P plasma display and there are tons of times when it is crystal clear and gorgeous to the extreme.
Of course it is dependant on the channel encoding method and the source media. For example HBO looks about as good as I could ever ask television to look I think. Obviously something like "Jaws" from 1970's is never going to look like "Star Trek" from 2009, but still even with Jaws you can tell it is very high resolution, and very well encoded, decoded and presented.
If someone gets Dish HD and thinks the picture quality is not all that, I would question their cabling, their display, or obviously, what on Dish they are watching. You should definitely be able to find something which POPS! and looks mindblowing.
Sometimes the shows we watch will appear to be filmed in lower quality (but still HD) and then it will flip to a commercial which is amazingly HD with a great sense of depth and clarity to it, very obviously 1080.
I keep hearing this but I'm not quite believing it yet... I have a strong signal on 129W and a VIP211K receiver putting a 1080i signal out onto a Panasonic 1080P plasma display and there are tons of times when it is crystal clear and gorgeous to the extreme.
Of course it is dependant on the channel encoding method and the source media. For example HBO looks about as good as I could ever ask television to look I think. Obviously something like "Jaws" from 1970's is never going to look like "Star Trek" from 2009, but still even with Jaws you can tell it is very high resolution, and very well encoded, decoded and presented.
If someone gets Dish HD and thinks the picture quality is not all that, I would question their cabling, their display, or obviously, what on Dish they are watching. You should definitely be able to find something which POPS! and looks mindblowing.
Sometimes the shows we watch will appear to be filmed in lower quality (but still HD) and then it will flip to a commercial which is amazingly HD with a great sense of depth and clarity to it, very obviously 1080.
Bingo! If your HD doesn't look good, it is one of the above. Signal strength will never affect picture quality characteristics such as sharpness, depth of color, contrast and graininess.
If the signal strength is on the edge of the "digital cliff" it will be obvious and you will see massive macro-blocking and tiling and the signal will go out and come back.
My issues are only with stuff coming off of 129 and are large block pixelation, banding, picture tearing, channels dropping, picture and audio skipping and dropout, jutter and Loss of Signal under simple cloud cover. Of which we did not have prior to the "tweaks" that were done on the dish. Cabling is not going to cause this, especially since it's doing this on two separate receivers that have straight runs from the dish and isolated to fair off 129. Both sets of cables can't all of a sudden be bad right after work was done on the dish.
I was waiting until after the next storm to see what happens, but this is happening first on perfectly clear days. I can only imagine what will happen with a storm.
Well, I'm suppose to call the FS back with an update and I will let him know of these new developments and see what he has to say. From what I read here the two dish route, since I have the capability, might be the way to go. But if 129 is as strong as is being said, then it looks like my dish needs further "tweaking".
Thanks.
I was waiting until after the next storm to see what happens, but this is happening first on perfectly clear days. I can only imagine what will happen with a storm.
Well, I'm suppose to call the FS back with an update and I will let him know of these new developments and see what he has to say. From what I read here the two dish route, since I have the capability, might be the way to go. But if 129 is as strong as is being said, then it looks like my dish needs further "tweaking".
Thanks.
A perfect description of symptoms of a poorly aimed dish.
Absolutely, positively your dish needs a proper aiming. As I said, 129 should come in mid 50s to mid 70s on the signal strength meter. My guess is you are at about 20 - 30.
Right now under perfectly clear skies I am getting 49-52 cross the board, except for Trans 21 which is at 62. Something else I noticed, it may not matter though, but the 129 meter results take a lot longer to come up and come and go compared to 110 and 119 that pop right up and stay there.
I originally had the appointment set up to do a simple realignment. But the Level 2-3 Tech (CSR) that I talked to at the time recommended the two dish set up for my area. Which was in the back of my mind all along. I see the logic and merits in it and understand what others have come up with in the limitations of the 1000.2 config. When I brought this up to the FS, he agreed that this may be stretching the capability of the 1000.2. He left it to me to decide which way to go and I chose the "tweak" for now and reserved the dual install for later. I'm just fishing for info, but recent physical happenings may dictate the situation for me.
equipment problem
It is sounding more like the dish doesn't have a peaking problem but an LNB, or switch. Two E* dishes are not going to give you any higher signal levels than what you are reporting.
It is sounding more like the dish doesn't have a peaking problem but an LNB, or switch. Two E* dishes are not going to give you any higher signal levels than what you are reporting.
But it will give me more accurate targeting of 110/119 and 129 if separate. As from what I am hearing from DISH, is that as you move to the center of the country, this is what they are doing to resolve this. I had the dual set up and there is no problems going back to it. Even if doesn't solve the problem. But it can't hurt to try.
I just talked to the FS (Field Supervisor) and he agrees that something is not right and that the next step is to try the dual dish set up and see what happens. My neighbors are curious about this too. It looks as thought they are having the same problems with the same equipment. So we'll see.
Were they all install by same ppl & same time?
Were all of these dishes installed by the same company and close to the same time? Did E* install or a local company? I'm wondering if there may have been a bad run of 1000.2 LNB/switch set ups. The only way to get more accurate targeting is to go with 3 dishes. Then each has a single LNB centered on each dish. I have that but the dishes are not made by E*. I have a 24" on 72.7, 32" on 77, & 36 on 129. I will switch the 36 & the 32 after I move in the future since I really don't need the largest one on 129. I put it up 1st when 129 was still a very weak bird. I use the larger dishes because of the heavy thunderstorms that we get here in TX.
Were all of these dishes installed by the same company and close to the same time? Did E* install or a local company? I'm wondering if there may have been a bad run of 1000.2 LNB/switch set ups. The only way to get more accurate targeting is to go with 3 dishes. Then each has a single LNB centered on each dish. I have that but the dishes are not made by E*. I have a 24" on 72.7, 32" on 77, & 36 on 129. I will switch the 36 & the 32 after I move in the future since I really don't need the largest one on 129. I put it up 1st when 129 was still a very weak bird. I use the larger dishes because of the heavy thunderstorms that we get here in TX.
The mounts I installed and DISH has put whatever dish was necessary for that particular application, after my initial install. Since 1994 we have never had any of the issues that we are having now and since the install of 1000.2. With 300 and 500's for years it has been smooth sailing. Now after a year with a 1000.2 issues are arising and will need to be addressed. Until now, as I have said, I have not had any weather issues. So, to me, the first logical step would to go back to what worked the best for all these years and go from there. And that is what we are going to do.
Next Spring we're scraping the house and rebuilding. I have a special place on the new roof designed especially for dishes. And at that time, I will have the most over kill (within reason) set up. So, yes, larger dishes are on the forefront. I'm just looking to get through the Winter. Since it looks like it's going to be a nasty one.
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