can you get Dish HD service only using the previous Voom satellite?

[bausch]

Jumping in with both feet here.

I had a satellite installer do a site survey at my house about 3 years ago as I desired DirecTV or some satellite service. Unfortunately I sort of live near a forest at a bottom of a hill and according to my installer the neighbors' trees prevented getting to the available satellites at that time (I think these are the 110ish ones). When I finally heard about Voom I was excited b/c of the 61.5 satellite that I think, based upon my own measurements, I can reach. Then Voom dies. I see Dish has this 61.5 satellite now. I called Dish and a CSR indicated I must have a connection to these other satellites and I can't get service only through the old Voom satellite. Can someone here confirm or deny what I was told? I'm really enjoying HDTV on my Sony KD-34XBR960 but I don't have enough HD programming available!

 

[bookwalk]

There are International Channels on 61.5--if you can find out what program packages are available on that--maybe the International Packges will be enough to be able to add the VOOM--ask the CSR about a Latino package or any one that is on 61.5.

 

[SactoCal]

It is my understanding that you cannot get E* with your old VoOm equipment, Dish or STB. The dish could actually be used if you modified the mount to support a different LNB, but otherwise its all different shiznit.

 

[Walter L.]

bausch:
I would just call Dish and order (don't tell them about the survey 3 years ago). Sometimes installers are lazy and/or incompetent. When I ordered VOOM (last year) the 1st installer gave up and reported no line-of-sight. A 2nd installer came one week later and no problem.

 

[Mr Tony]

very true

But if for some reason you cannot get a LOS except for 61.5, the only way to get JUST the HD stuff is to own the equipment

The dish/LNB would work...you'd need a Dish HD receiver

 

[wbuffetta]

OK lets put this question to rest for the last time. If you had VoOm with the 18" VoOm dish & It is still pointing at 61.5 it works. I did it.
#1 There are two sat.s @ 61.5. (Echo3 & Rainbow 1) Echo 3 has International Channels & some sorts PPV. Rainbow 1 has only the VoOm channels. Echo 3 uses even TPs & Rainbow 1 uses odd TPs.
#2 The VoOm dish works with either D* or E* (For E* They Call the LNB A Legacy LNB, So if you use other Dishes for 110 & 119 They will also need to be Legacy LNBs)
#3 The VoOm STB Does not work with E*. I Got a New Dish 811 on Ebay for $190.00 Plus $25 Shipping.
#4 You Can Sub to E* without ordering any Packages. To Get VoOm Call the Activation # Tell them you had VoOm, You have a Dish HD STB, you have a dish pointed @ 61.5 & they will transfer you to the activation department.
#5 To Get VoOm again you have to Sub to the HD Package $9.99, VoOm Pkg. $5.00
Access Fee Because you don't Sub to any Packages $5.00 for a total of $19.99 a month.

 

[ChrisDuncan]

I'm using 2 Voom dishes (one pointed at 61.5 and one at 110) and an SW21 switch to receive just the HD channels. I bought a used 6000 receiver, and it's working fine. Right now I'm just paying $15/month for the 16 HD channels (it'll go up $5 about 5 months from now).

I'm actually considering getting more Dish receivers but I want to wait until I see what they do with MPEG4. If Dish could add the rest of the Voom 21 channels, I think I'd be happy paying $20 or $25 a month and just subscribe to HD programming and use my OTA antenna for network HD.

I also currently have D* but they've made me so mad with their NFL package price increase that I'll be dropping them completely in August when my contract is up.

I could definitely be happy with a low sat bill every month and just watching HD programming. At least Dish gives us this option if you own your own equipment. D* won't let you subscribe to just the HD channels (but they have the worst selection of anybody anyway so it doesn't really matter).

 

[bausch]

Thanks for the replies. I'm the originator of the thread. I'm trying to get up to speed on all the jargon and abbreviations used in this forum! Can someone check to see if I am understanding all the posts above? So, if I own all the equipment myself and can get a dish pointed successfully at the 61.5 satellite, the Dish Network will allow me to get HD programming w/o having any connection to any of their other satellites? And to re-emphasize and expand from my first post: there is just no way I can get LOS to the 110 satellite. Imagine living at the bottom of a hill and from about 80 to 170 degrees I have a forest of which I do not own! You can't even see the sky from my house when looking out near the horizon from 80-170!

 

[JamesJ]

Thanks for the replies. I'm the originator of the thread. I'm trying to get up to speed on all the jargon and abbreviations used in this forum! Can someone check to see if I am understanding all the posts above? So, if I own all the equipment myself and can get a dish pointed successfully at the 61.5 satellite, the Dish Network will allow me to get HD programming w/o having any connection to any of their other satellites? And to re-emphasize and expand from my first post: there is just no way I can get LOS to the 110 satellite. Imagine living at the bottom of a hill and from about 80 to 170 degrees I have a forest of which I do not own! You can't even see the sky from my house when looking out near the horizon from 80-170!

my understanding is you have to pay for the HD pack, now wether or not you connect to that hd pack is another story (that I dont know) so I think if you pay 15 a month you can get the Voom, that is the only way to do it, subscribe to both Voom and HD CHannels, and I dont think that Dish will care if you just want to pay for the HD pack. If I am wrong someone tell me but here is my link
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/hdtv/index.shtml
go to the bottom below the Voom little square where they put the foot notes and you will see this:
**You may order DISH Network HD Pak by itself. However, VOOM Originals HD Pak is only available with a subscription to DISH Network HD Pak. Certain HD channels will require an additional dish antenna purchase at the time of initial installation. (posted on the Dish network site)