I recently subscribed to Dish and am scheduled for an install. In the email confirmation they said I would get a Dish 500 for orbital locations 129.0 110.0 119.0.
Will this allow me to get the HD channels when they are finally live? Or is the Dish 1000 required?
I'd question that right off the bat. A
Dish 500 only sees 110 & 119. A regular
Dish 1000 sees 110, 119, & 129. Another option is that some folks have
two Dish 500s, one aimed @110/119, and a second aimed specifically at 129.
In THIS case, however, since CLT HD Locals were placed on the satellite at 118.7, you will have two options:
1. A
Dish 1000 PLUS dish, which is made to look at 110, 118.7, 119, & 129
OR
2. A
Dish 500 PLUS, which sees 110, 118.7, and 119 AND a second normal Dish 500pointed at 129.
The difference in the regular and "PLUS" dishes are that the PLUS dishes add the necessary equipment to receive signals from 118.7, and i think they are a little bit larger. Confused yet? It's kinda a rough time to sort it out too. Since they are uplinked, but not available, you'd probably never find a CSR that even knows about the CLT HD locals yet, and that might make it difficult to get a Dish 1000 PLUS as part of the install. You might want to email
ceo@echostar.com and explain your situation. That is the executive offices of Dish Network, and they are generally very responsive. If you email them, be sure to include a phone number that they can contact you on.