I still have 3x VIP211 and a VIP722K all happily working.
Blast from the past
- Thread starter Jim5506
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Here’s one straight out of the museum.
My neighbor has 2-211Ks and 1-211. They are all doing just fine.
That's encouraging. Somehow I got the idea into my head that they had a 9 or 10 year lifespan.
That 211 was installed Feb, 2007 so it is pushing 14 years!
My 211 was installed in August 2006, and it lasted a little over 10 years before it died. I haven't had a 211k die yet, though.
I’m getting OLD!
I started in the early/mid 90’s with the Ku band at our lake house. Kids always bitched about being bored at night during lake trips. I installed giant yagi’s and bow tie type antennas but snow was the norm. Once they had consumer Ku band I jumped on it. Back then the number of available channels was awesome. You could always find a movie or show that would keep the family happy. If not they had hours of fun exploring the various channels even though most were crap.
Don’t remember the names/model#’s of the receivers I had but when HD became a reality I know I had the only Dish receiver that got HD and the only channel was NASA. Beautiful space footage but pretty much nothing else was HD. Might have been around 99’ish.
The advancements made in the last 20 years are incredible. So happy I was an early adopter.
I started in the early/mid 90’s with the Ku band at our lake house. Kids always bitched about being bored at night during lake trips. I installed giant yagi’s and bow tie type antennas but snow was the norm. Once they had consumer Ku band I jumped on it. Back then the number of available channels was awesome. You could always find a movie or show that would keep the family happy. If not they had hours of fun exploring the various channels even though most were crap.
Don’t remember the names/model#’s of the receivers I had but when HD became a reality I know I had the only Dish receiver that got HD and the only channel was NASA. Beautiful space footage but pretty much nothing else was HD. Might have been around 99’ish.
The advancements made in the last 20 years are incredible. So happy I was an early adopter.
Had to be the 5000 with the 8VSB HD module that slid in the back.
I believe that’s right. Sounds correct.
I remember having my friends come over and we’d sit there and watch the same footage on NASA over and over and over again. It was outstanding. Maybe even better than today’s HD.
Was that the module that:
- Is still working even without a sub to Dish?
- Had only component HD outputs?
The 5000 had an OTA tuner that would work without a subscription but it was SD only and was meant to integrate locals into the STB and guide. It was released before locals were offered as a way to have a seamless experience between locals and satellite. It was pricey so there weren't many out there, this was back in the days when you had to purchase the equipment.
The 8VSB module that plugged into the back of the 5000 connected to the OTA tuner of an HDTV and sent a modulated HD signal over standard coax to channel 3-1. It was quirky but I was impressed they managed to cobble it together. Then the 6000 came out and there was finally a true HD receiver.
I'll take that as a "Yes". Or do you mean to say that the built-in SD tuner was the only one that you could use after you un-subscribed to Dish?
What do you mean by use after you unsubscribed? I think I might know where you're going with this.
You mean the same thing I do, to this day, with a deactivated 512, to keep track of the free preview channels?
By the way, if NASA was the only channel available in HD back then, it was probably in the clear, even on deactivated receivers. I know for sure that the SD feed was in the clear, but now no longer is.
You mean the same thing I do, to this day, with a deactivated 512, to keep track of the free preview channels?
By the way, if NASA was the only channel available in HD back then, it was probably in the clear, even on deactivated receivers. I know for sure that the SD feed was in the clear, but now no longer is.
There was a trick a long time ago with the first generation or two of smart cards. If the receiver was removed from the data stream before the deactivation hit was sent, after a couple of weeks they would stop sending the hit. You could plug the receiver back in and all the channels would continue to work indefinitely. No need to try this today, quit working almost 20 years ago!
Now even if you have a valid subscription, keeping the receiver out of the data stream will deactivate it and you'll need to wake it up with a rehit.
I meant that you could still view the OTA channels even though the receiver was obsolete and no longer subscribed. Am I using the wrong words?
You can still do that today, even with non-obsolete receivers. OTA is my main use for my deactivated Hopper Duo these days. Earlier this year, I hooked up a ViP211k that had been disconnected and stored in a closet for over two years. It surprised me that this ViP211k still worked for the OTA channels and some free channels on satellite (the "What's On Dish?" slate channels) without needing a re-hit. Normally, that would not be the case.
Oh I had no idea. For a few years there if you didn't have service, they'd disable the OTA tuner. Do the DVR functions on the Duo still work?
