Dish HD Locals Question

[adam61]

Forgive me and point me in the right direction if I've missed it, but there used to be a list of current HD Locals offered, Upcoming HD Locals (Hard Date Planned), and then markets with tentative dates. I've looked all over this forum and the internet in general and am not having a lot of luck finding one for Dish for 2010.

My local cable providers have carried our locals in HD for years and DirecTV for well over a year now. I have no idea why Dish is lagging so far behind. Coupled with the big $17 second reciever fee for 2010 if the HD Locals aren't coming soon I'm considering giving DirecTV a shot.

My locals are Tyler, TX btw if anyone is checking a list they might have for Dish. I'd love to stay, but realistically I pay over $100 a month for all these channels and 70% of my viewing is on the 4 local channels Dish can only provide in SD. I can pick 3/4 up OTA but 1 of those 3 has no guide so the timers are manual and sometimes they cut out and cancel DVR recordings so it's not a perfect solution.

Let me know, Thanks!

 

[Laddyboy]

You can find all the current E* offerings by satellite by clicking The List! tab at the top of this page, clicking Subscription List Home, and then the satellite position. For western arc, yours, the sats would be 110/119/129 and for the eastern arc 61.5/72.7/77. At the present there are no announced planned additions for local markets. Everything is at the to be announced stage as I recall. This will likely change in the very near future as new satellites are positioned. You can always "move" by finding an adjacent DMA with a spot beam that covers you, change your service address to a location for an address in that DMA, leaving your billing address at your real address. You should be well within the Dallas HD locals spotbeam 21 transponder 31 on 110W. Sat providers are not allowed to provide adjacent market stations under current law which gives cablecos an advantage.

 

[moviegk61]

Just curious, I was told by my local DishNetwork provider that the Evansville IN HD locals were next on the list in october, slated for November 18 2009. Well obviously that came and went and I was told they were experiencing problems with the previous market. It is now three months later and no one knows anything. DishNetwork will not answer any of my Emails. I was told 3 years ago we would be getting HD locals out of Evansville "next year". I would have bought an antenna for OTA broadcasts signals long ago if they had been truthful. Anybody know anything? Sorry this turned into a rant! Doug G.

 

[Laddyboy]

Just curious, I was told by my local DishNetwork provider that the Evansville IN HD locals were next on the list in october, slated for November 18 2009. Well obviously that came and went and I was told they were experiencing problems with the previous market. It is now three months later and no one knows anything. DishNetwork will not answer any of my Emails. I was told 3 years ago we would be getting HD locals out of Evansville "next year". I would have bought an antenna for OTA broadcasts signals long ago if they had been truthful. Anybody know anything? Sorry this turned into a rant! Doug G.

The Quad Cities, Evansville, and Paducah were all scheduled for 77W one week and postponed indefinitely the next. Several things have been posited for the delay including power and transponder problems on the eastern arc, E*'s reluctance to put any more HD locals on ConUS beams, and waiting for the new 119W satellite. Take your pick.

 

[moviegk61]

Thanks Laddyboy, not what I was hoping to hear about the postponed indefinitely part anyway. Still, nice to get any response from somebody! Just ran across this Forum, looking forward to chatting with a few like minded individuals. Doug G.

 

[adam61]

To add insult to injury all my recordings from Tyler, TX locals last night were lost because dish turned off my SD Locals due to a dispute with the local broadcaster. How hard is this "pretending" to move to Dallas area? Do I have to do anything to reprogram or repoint my Dish or receiver? Is it hard to get a CSR to accept the fact you just randomly moved and moved all your equipment yourself one day? How do you find an address? Is Dallas the only choice or could I do something like Chicago where I'm originally from or is this impossible due to spotbeams? Thanks for your help it just gets more frustrating with the locals situation by the month here. with 250k+ people in our DMA you'd think we'd have HD Locals by now. If DirecTV can do it in 2008 why can't Dish.

 

[mmmason23]

Adam, did you ever get your question about "moving" answered? I'm in the same boat of my locals being sd only, and I'm getting fed up. How hard is it to "move" and can I just move my address anywhere I please?

 

[Laddyboy]

Adam, did you ever get your question about "moving" answered? I'm in the same boat of my locals being sd only, and I'm getting fed up. How hard is it to "move" and can I just move my address anywhere I please?

You have to be within the beam carrying HD locals of interest. The List is your friend:

SatelliteGuys.US - Subscription List Home

There are some HD locals on nearly all the sats, but most are on 61.5 and 129. There are some local HD on 77W that are currently ConUS but you'll need a 1000.4 or D500 pointed at it. Find a market that is adjacent to you in The List and then click on the spot beam to see if the spot beam for that market covers you. If it does, go to your receiver and press Menu 6 1 1, change to the satellite of interest, and change Transponder to the number of the transponder that carries the locals for the market you identified on The List. "Transponder" will change to "Spotbeam" if you are within the beam. Also note the signal strength from the meter. You will then need an address in that market to use as your "Moved" service address. Should you need service from E*, you'll have to move back.

 

[mmmason23]

So i looked up my previous addresses in Kenosha,wi, Ann arbor,mi and round lake beach,il. Kenosha is on 61.5, the other two on 129 on transponders 9,12 which I don't get. how hard is it to move a dish to get any of these? Or is iteven possible where I'm located in Marquette,mi thanks

 

[Laddyboy]

So i looked up my previous addresses in Kenosha,wi, Ann arbor,mi and round lake beach,il. Kenosha is on 61.5, the other two on 129 on transponders 9,12 which I don't get. how hard is it to move a dish to get any of these? Or is iteven possible where I'm located in Marquette,mi thanks

You cannot move an antenna to get a spotbeam. Either the spot beam from the in orbit satellite covers you or it doesn't. All you can do is point toward an in orbit satellite.

I do not see any 129W spot beams that cover Marquette that have HD locals. It appears SB15 is the only one that covers well. SB16 catches you barely but it also only has SD on it. I don't think any of the 61.5 spot beams hit you either. About your only choice would be one of the cities currently on a ConUS beam on 77W if you're in the footprint. You would need a D500 with single or dual lnb pointed at 77W. Another possibility would be AAD (All American Direct). You would need to be in one of the areas not receiving locals. Search the forum for locations that would qualify for AAD distants. They are expensive, relatively speaking.

 

[finniganps]

This problem would cause me to change vendors. I didn't add Dish until I found out they had my locals in 1999. In your case you want it in HD...to me that's a good reason to move vendors if you watch a lot of HD. Tell Dish that is why you're leaving...be sure to check out the quality of the DVRs for cable and Direct before moving so you know what you are getting when you switch.

 

[mmmason23]

I would gladly switch to direct, they have Marquette locals in HD. But I just signed my dish contract in December. I messed up when I signed up, I mistakenly assumed dish would have HD locals if direct did, since dish got the locals up and running first. I didn't think they would waste their time only uplinking sd, silly me. I envy the people who don't have any locals, they can get HD network programming, I would much rather have that than sd locals boo! I do have a dish 500 and I seem to hit transponders 2,8,10,12,15-32 on 129, but I don't see a city that would work for me there

 

[mmmason23]

So I was perusing the listings on 110,119,129 and came across Chicago,il locals in HD on 110 on a conus beam. If I "moved" to an address that gets serviced with Chicago locals, would I get these? Or are they only for all American direct? Thanks for the help

 

[Laddyboy]

So I was perusing the listings on 110,119,129 and came across Chicago,il locals in HD on 110 on a conus beam. If I "moved" to an address that gets serviced with Chicago locals, would I get these? Or are they only for all American direct? Thanks for the help

I believe those are the AAD feeds. The Chicago HD locals are on 129W and 61.5W. You may have to put up a D500 wing dish and grab 77W which has some ConUS HD locals (at least for now).

 

[mmmason23]

I see milwaukee locals on 110 in sd mpeg2, does that matter. I was looking at Chicago so I could tune into comcast sportsnet. Kenosha is serviced by Milwaukee locals but falls within comcast sporstnet coverage area. I found a place to move for HD locals, but no comcast. I have to decide which is more important I guess.

 

[tigershere]

this sucks as i checked out the chart

the mobile spotbeam for me is 57 and NO is around 31 yet the trans I am on now is just upper 20's on a clear day :/

I'd love to move to NO as it has CW in HD and i get a little better signal on it than the spot i am on now and mobile has a very strong signal of 57 but no CW in HD

my nephew actually lives in Mobile but not about to ask him for info to move as he won't know wtf it's about

 

[BobaBird]

Forgive me and point me in the right direction if I've missed it, but there used to be a list of current HD Locals offered, Upcoming HD Locals (Hard Date Planned), and then markets with tentative dates. I've looked all over this forum and the internet in general and am not having a lot of luck finding one for Dish for 2010.

See http://www.dishuser.org/hdlocal.php. There were a few future markets announced on the last Charlie Chat. The page has missed several months of updates as I've been too busy to keep up with uplink activity and no one has sent any corrections.