Direct vs. Dish HD Sat placements

[DaveInPhilly]

Hi all - I am new to world of Sat TV. I just got Dish installed last weekend. My problem is that while I have perfect line of site for the regular Dish satellite my view of the HD sat is blocked by a big ol' tree (neighbor's can't cut down/prune). I can still get a handful of HD channels through the regular dish, but not too many, and no HD locals.

Can anyone tell me if I might have better luck with D-TV? Do they need similar lines of sight, or might I be able to find the D-TV birds with a little less problems. I am in Northwest Philly if that helps.

 

[charper1]

What is your zip code? With this we can post the look angle (azimuth) and you can compare to your current and perform your own site survey; likely even changing where the mast is placed currently.

 

[DaveInPhilly]

19119 - thats about all I got from your post - the rest went over my head.

 

[osu1991]

Did the dish installer put up two dishes, because Philly can not see 129 and would require a second dish for 61.5 to get hd and hd locals. If you are seeing 110 and 119 ok then check your view to the east of the current dish, if it is ok then you can probably get all the directv hd.

 

[shadyB]

Yes, you would have better luck at getting the locals in HD through directv. Since you are getting the 110 & 119 already, you 'should' get 103, 101, and 99 as well.

You will still only have the same handful of other HD channels as what you are getting with Dish Network though. This is until around September when directv's next sat should be operational if everything goes well with the launch.

 

[DaveInPhilly]

Did the dish installer put up two dishes, because Philly can not see 129 and would require a second dish for 61.5 to get hd and hd locals. If you are seeing 110 and 119 ok then check your view to the east of the current dish, if it is ok then you can probably get all the directv hd.

Yes, he put both dishes up, but there is a big tree blocking the HD dish. When it was hooked up, I couldn't get anything out of either, but when he disconnected it everything but the HDs came in fine.

 

[osu1991]

I would have dish come back out,as it is they will probably charge you a disconnect fee to get out of the commitment, and your install should be guaranteed for a certain time. The installer should not have left it like that. There is an off chance you might get 129 which also has all the national hd channels,if you have good line of sight. You are right at the edge of getting 129, but your locals are on 61.5 so you would need an antenna for locals. Otherwise I would switch to Directv.