Dish CSR please comment on mixed arc set-up for Puerto Rico and USVI customers

[rdavidowski]

Jihaaaaaaa !!!!!!

I got all the platinum channels UP now. They have moved all platinum to 61.5. Lets see what happens? And for free for a year.

 

[englishtycoon]

Jihaaaaaaa !!!!!!

I got all the platinum channels UP now. They have moved all platinum to 61.5. Lets see what happens? And for free for a year.

So either You are gran-fathered in, or Dish is not enforcing there one dish solution or they will just sell you anything wether you can receive it or not.

Left hand meet the right hand

 

[crivera66]

Jihaaaaaaa !!!!!!

I got all the platinum channels UP now. They have moved all platinum to 61.5. Lets see what happens? And for free for a year.

What did you do to get it? I have a 61.5 dish doing nothing right now.

 

[ljdonato]

What did you do to get it? I have a 61.5 dish doing nothing right now.

They are free for a year, so if you have a dish pointing at 61.5 and a recent HD receiver, you should be receiving those channels.

 

[englishtycoon]

They are free for a year, so if you have a dish pointing at 61.5 and a recent HD receiver, you should be receiving those channels.

The question is are you only getting the free ones, are you getting any other sub channels

 

[rdavidowski]

Hi

The only thing I did was talk to a CSR through the chat and asked for my 30th anniversary gift and I asked for the Platinum Pkg. This, I did last month and since I have a dish pointed at 61.5 I had a good quantity of the channels offered in the platinum pkg. But yesterday they added the channels I was missing to 61.5 so since I have Platinum in my account free for a year I get them by default.

 

[englishtycoon]

Hi

The only thing I did was talk to a CSR through the chat and asked for my 30th anniversary gift and I asked for the Platinum Pkg. This, I did last month and since I have a dish pointed at 61.5 I had a good quantity of the channels offered in the platinum pkg. But yesterday they added the channels I was missing to 61.5 so since I have Platinum in my account free for a year I get them by default.

But are you getting any subs off the 61.5. EG do you have HBO one HD feed is on the 110 the balance on the 61.5 Of course the other thing is, how long will the platinum package be on the 61.5

 

[crivera66]

They are free for a year, so if you have a dish pointing at 61.5 and a recent HD receiver, you should be receiving those channels.

Even with a Puerto Rico address? What channels are on platinum?

 

[holy_devil]

Even with a Puerto Rico address? What channels are on platinum?

People who didn't get Starz or Encore for free because they were already subscribe to both, they receive platinum for free. My father got it for free but he barely receive a couple of channels, when Dish move all of them to 61.5, he receive them all. My personal favorite is Epix HD.

I would subscribe to platinium but I don't wanna get used to them, to have them remove by Dish like they did with the premiums. When they were on 72 I didn't know what I was missing, I better stay that way.

 

[ljdonato]

TonyT:

Any news on our issue with the hidden HD from 110?

 

[papita]

Tony T:
It seems Dish is doing something to help us (we got the 4 HD channels missing from the Platinum package) (they put them recently on 61.5). Now if they just got the 36 HD channels we already get from 119/110 out of 61.5 (move them to 72.7), then get the 17 HD channels that are not on 61.5, 119 or 110 and move them from 72.7 to 61.5 and make all the HD channels on 61.5 available to PR (they are blocked like if we are not paying for them and appear red on the guide) we will be equal to US in HD channels (except maybe for HD Payperview channels). But with the extra space on 61.5 (36-17=19 spaces) I am sure they could also fit those HD PPV on 61.5. Here is an updated table FYI.

Channels that I have signal right now and are blocked (either on 61.5, 110 or 119):
Channel Mapdown Letters Full Name
9540 403 NHLN NHL Network
9527 111 DIY Do It Yourself Network*
9507 162 VH1 Video Hits One
9505 340 ENCOR Encore**
9495 152 CBS CCBS College Sports**
9493 166 CMT Country Music TV
9490 193 SCI Science Channel
9481 327 TMC-E The Movie Channel East**
9477 205 FXNWS Fox News
9471 109 LMN Lifetime Movie Network
9466 151 VS. Versus
9457 194 GREEN Planet Green*
9444 187 HMC Hallmark Movie Channel
9443 119 BIO Biography Channel
9428 115 STYLE Style
9525 121 HISTI History International
9483 395 SPMAN Sportsman's Channel

* Have it right now ONLY because it is in Free Preview
** 110 satellite position and are blocked !!!!

Channels that I do not have because they are not on 61.5, 110 or 119:
9529 130 AMC American Movie Classics
9526 192 ID Investigation Discovery
9524 202 HLN Headline News
9523 132 TCM Turner Classic Movies
9447 113 COOK Cooking Channel HD
9476 206 FOXB Fox Business
9408 191 G4 G4 - Video Game Channel
9482 185 HLMRK Hallmark Channel
9430 204 TRU truTV
9512 319 SHO-W Showtime (West)
9498 351 STRZW Starz (West)
9496 352 SEDGE Starz Edge
9486 354 STZC Starz Comedy
9455 301 HBO2E HBO 2 East
9451 307 HBOCY HBO Comedy
9453 305 HBOFM HBO Family
9449 231 RFDTV RFD TV


Channels on 61.5 we already have on 119/110:
9511 MSNBC
9510 BET
9508 NBATV
9506 Spike
9499 TBS
9492 BRAVO
9491 HIST
9489 APL
9488 TLC
9487 DISC
9485 CMDY
9484 MTV
9475 FX
9473 GOLF
9469 PLDIA
9468 SPEED
9463 TOON
9462 FOOD
9461 HGTV
9446 WGN
9442 TENIS
9439 CNBC
9438 TWC
9437 TRV
9436 CNN
9432 SYFY
9431 USA
9429 NTGEO
9426 NFL
9425 ESPN2
9424 ESPN
9423 HDNMV
9421 HDTHR
9420 TNT
9419 A&E
9416 NICK

 

[Tampa8]

That actually would work for some others in the US also, except it goes against the one ARC Dish wants. But in theory if you could put all HD on 72 that is not on 119/110, and put the remaining HD on 61.5 that helps PR, but also those that have trouble seeing 129. You could have 119/110 and 61.5 if you needed to. Unless I'm missing something, again in theory that would work.

But it does bring up a couple of problems. As mentioned, that would be promoting mixed ARC use, so dish would have to be ok with that to actually make the changes specifically to allow that kind of use. And it still may somewhat make adding channels harder as that is one more thing to worry about when you need to move a channel especially on the WA Arc. It would make moving a channel off 119/110 to 129 cumbersome.
Second, that is mixing Mpeg2 and Mpeg4 Sats. Fine if you have an Mpeg4 receiver, not fine if you don't.

If Dish does not want to deviate from the two ARC system, and they do not see a connection between 119/110 and 61.5, then I don't see them officially doing this. But will it work? Yes I think it would.

 

[englishtycoon]

That actually would work for some others in the US also, except it goes against the one ARC Dish wants. But in theory if you could put all HD on 72 that is not on 119/110, and put the remaining HD on 61.5 that helps PR, but also those that have trouble seeing 129. You could have 119/110 and 61.5 if you needed to. Unless I'm missing something, again in theory that would work.

But it does bring up a couple of problems. As mentioned, that would be promoting mixed ARC use, so dish would have to be ok with that to actually make the changes specifically to allow that kind of use. And it still may somewhat make adding channels harder as that is one more thing to worry about when you need to move a channel especially on the WA Arc. It would make moving a channel off 119/110 to 129 cumbersome.
Second, that is mixing Mpeg2 and Mpeg4 Sats. Fine if you have an Mpeg4 receiver, not fine if you don't.

If Dish does not want to deviate from the two ARC system, and they do not see a connection between 119/110 and 61.5, then I don't see them officially doing this. But will it work? Yes I think it would.

This is why I like the idea of getting the 119/110 converted over to mpeg4 to free up space, they could also move some of the other local HD. Then we would have plenty od room for us with a one dish solution. Of course that would mean an upgrade receiver for some people still using mpeg2, but moving the local HD to another sat and making then Conus doesn't damage anyone

 

[Faw]

TonyT:

Any news on our issue with the hidden HD from 110?

Nothing?

 

[jimdandyvi]

We even get screwed on Dish free previews.

While Dish is offering everyone HD screens of AMC, DIY and Sony Movies all we get in the USVI is SD versions of AMC, DIY and Sony Movies isn't available in either format.

Jim

 

[ljdonato]

Another week's gone by....

TonyT: any news? Are the techs still trying to figure this out?
Are you still here?

 

[englishtycoon]

Another week's gone by....

TonyT: any news? Are the techs still trying to figure this out?
Are you still here?

It's either called stalling or the CSR have no clout what so ever, making them useless to our needs. We are either supposed to get the channels or not it is as simple as taking the block of our zip codes. Strange how they have no problem about running banner ads about when they think content providers are over charging them, but they are not willing to do anything about over charging us. Maybe I need to write on the memo of the monthly check.
" being ripped off for channels I don't get"

 

[englishtycoon]

It's either called stalling or the CSR have no clout what so ever, making them useless to our needs. We are either supposed to get the channels or not it is as simple as taking the block of our zip codes. Strange how they have no problem about running banner ads about when they think content providers are over charging them, but they are not willing to do anything about over charging us. Maybe I need to write on the memo of the monthly check.
" being ripped off for channels I don't get"

PS Dish thanks for the National Championship in SD

 

[TonyT@DISH Network]

Another week's gone by....TonyT: any news? Are the techs still trying to figure this out? Are you still here?

Still here, and still working hard to get channels for you. Its slow going and I wish I had an update. My fear is that until the channels stop getting shuffled around, there will not be an answer or permanent fix. I am still working on this though, and will try to be better about posting information, even if its just a "no change" post.

Tony T:
It seems Dish is doing something to help us (we got the 4 HD channels missing from the Platinum package) (they put them recently on 61.5). Now if they just got the 36 HD channels we already get from 119/110 out of 61.5 (move them to 72.7), then get the 17 HD channels that are not on 61.5, 119 or 110 and move them from 72.7 to 61.5 and make all the HD channels on 61.5 available to PR (they are blocked like if we are not paying for them and appear red on the guide) we will be equal to US in HD channels (except maybe for HD Payperview channels). But with the extra space on 61.5 (36-17=19 spaces) I am sure they could also fit those HD PPV on 61.5.

While I like the enthusiasm behind the opening sentence, I think it may be false hope. DISH Platinum is not available to non-CONUS customers, and that has been since its creation, regardless of name. Hopefully no agent has placed that on a Puerto Rico, USVI, Alaska, or Hawaii account, but I am a bit worried that someone did by your statement.
Also, 61.5 is still not supported as an HD source in PR/VI. That being said, you are likely going to see channels coming and going the way of the others. My hope, however, is that I can provoke action on 'blocked' channels that are not going to move from 119/110, the officially supported HD/SD core setups in the area. Still chugging away though to get answers and hopefully action as well.

 

[TonyT@DISH Network]

Update: Forgive me for not realizing implications in an email sooner then now, but I did receive some word on the HD channels on 119/110 that are showing red in the guide. Apparently they are in transition and may be moving off of those orbitals. Still awaiting word on that as a certainty.

The reasoning behind them showing red and not being available was to avoid confusion. Providing them for a short time while on the satellites 119 and 110, with the intention of migrating them off again, would prompt phone calls assuming there was a technical issue. They are 'blocked' to avoid that confusion.