942 q's from prospective owner

[horseflesh]

I am considering adding a Dish 942 to my system, but I have some questions for current owners. Many thanks in advance for any enlightenment!

- Assuming I can even get a 942 for the $250 lease deal, what are the other fees? $250 up front just for the privilege of leasing it, plus a monthly lease fee of... how much? Plus a DVR fee of $5? (Plus HD programming fees, of course.)

- It does record OTA HD, right? That is my primary interest. (I have a ReplayTV, which I love, for SD programming off Dish.)

- I assume you can select an output resolution and it will resample content as needed. (My TV only does 480p/i and 1080i, so I would want the 942 in 1080i all the time.)

- If for some reason I stopped being a Dish customer, could I still do manual timed OTA HD recordings?

- Here's a weird question... If I recorded an OTA HD broadcast of a 4:3 show... can the 942 stretch it so it will display full-screen on a 4:3 TV? (I have a Tosh 36" 4:3 CRT HDTV. If I record a 4:3 show on a 16:9 channel, I get a tiny little picture because it is pillar-boxed AND letter-boxed at the same time! I'd like to avoid this, and record all programming that is available OTA OTA, even if it is SD, for the better picture quality.)

-I have 1 Dish500 dish right now, with a legacy switch, and a model 300 receiver. Can the 300 and the 942 be fed off the same Dish500, or do I need to lose the legacy gear?

I've never had to mess with SuperDish or multi-dish stuff before. I have always been a Dish500 + 1 receiver kind of guy so these more advanced installations are uncharted territory for me.

Thanks again!

 

[BobaBird]

- Lease fee is $5.

- Right, though if you don't subscribe to LIL you won't have guide data and will have to build your timers VCR-style.

- That's the only way it works. Choices are 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i.

- No, leased property has to be returned. If you own, I believe you should be able to as long as you keep it hooked up to a satellite feed.

- Not sure but would think so.

- Once we know your current configuration and plans we can tell you what to add and/or replace. IIRC, your 300 is actually a 301. All DishPro receivers can use legacy switches, which do you have? The 942 will take 2 lines so need a 4-output switch like a Quad, SW44 or SW64. Will you be adding a dish for Voom? You mentioned SuperDISH, are you adding that for locals or intl?

 

[horseflesh]

Big thanks for the help.

What is LIL? Got a link?

My current gear is a 301 receiver, a Dish500 dish, and a legacy switch. I get my locals off the Dish 500, though if I got a 942 I would want to add a VOOM dish. (I need to find the ZIP code calculator to see if I have a clean shot at it.)

I have 1 cable run in place and I would much prefer to buy upgraded switches/LNBs if that will let me cram everything onto it. My OTA antenna is currently indoor but if there is a way to piggyback it on the Dish coax I would place it outside in a jiffy.

Since the 942 is dual-tuner, can it drive a second TV with a different channel? Say, record an OTA HD show while displaying some other channel?

My ideal scenario is using the 942 to record all HD, and using the second video output to record SD from the 942 on my ReplayTV. If I can do 2 different channels at once, so much the better, but I can live without it.

I know I am rambling, thanks again for your patience.

 

[formerx]

What is LIL? Got a link?
Your local broadcast stations via DBS.
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/locals/index.asp

 

[BobaBird]

LIL stands for "local into local."

Replace whatever is on your Dish500 with a DP Plus Twin. Add another dish with a DP Single or DP Dual, run that line to the DPP Twin's input. One output will go to the 942 where you will use the DPP Separator that come with it. The other output will go to the 301. There's no getting around having a separate line for each receiver.

In dual mode the 942 can record OTA HDTV plus 2 satellite HDTV channels while playing back a different pre-recorded event to TV1 and TV2. TV2 could be a live channel being played into the Replay box. Until the 942 is upgraded to accept IR to control TV2 you will have to program timers on each device.

 

[horseflesh]

Beautiful, thanks for the help!