Dish network, through the first month and a half

[JamesJ]

Hey everyone This post is suppose to be informitive, and for those people who are reading this and are kinda iffy about dish network.

My story. I have had Directv, Time warner, and Now Dish Network. Hd locals in my book was huge, hince the switch from Directv, to Time warner. I had no qualms with Directv, their product was good, I had several billing issues, but guess what with any company you will have billing issues!. with Time warner, they had a great business model, and a very nice picture in my area for the first two weeks, I got all my locals in High def and was excited, I got to watch my Ohio State Buckeyes in Hd, A little slice of heaven in my books. Anywho after the first two weeks, my wife and I started to play a game, what HD channel was going to go out today! We lost at random one station per day, Time warner techs couldnt figure it out, so I took my money elsewhere, it didnt work out for me. I made the switch to Dish, especially after I heard they had voom channels. the install was very smooth, I had a 625 and a 811, for two tvs, the 625 is hooked up to both tvs so I can access my recordings while I am downstairs. The Pq has been fantastic! the HD is very very comparable to time warner, and the Sd is well very much ahead, I love my selection of channels, and it is alot cheaper then what I was paying for time warner, The Csrs have been great, and very helpful. I have not had a lick of hardware trouble. The only problem I was having was no locals in Hd, I was very very sad, until tonight, I dont know much about OTA, I am really a rookie in it, but my local radio shack had a outdoor antenna on sale, so I thought whtat the heck, i had a dual rg6 run in my upstairs, and only one was being use for the 625 as it was diplexed so I stuck the antenna in the attic, took the other end of the run, and ran it to my 811, plug it in, and guess what all channels now come in nice and strong for OTA, I thought I was too far away and it would be really really rough to hook some of this stuff up, I was WRONG, if you havent tried to recieve OTA, give it a shot its worth it, as right now I dont care if DIsh puts my locals up over the Dish, I hope they get more National HD channels! so there you have it, I am very very pleased with Dish



Note: this is my experience yours may vary, please condier searching the ANTENNAWEB.ORG site to see if OTA is right for you, its really not that hard, everyone should look into it!

 

[Devil24]

Glad to hear that you're happy with Dish . I kind of followed the same route, and from what is worth, I'm also very happy with what Dish has to offer.

 

[John Corn]

I should get an OTA antenna and try it in my garage attic, wife doesn't want it on the roof, now you have me thinking!

 

[BobMurdoch]

Stuart,

Any idea how far you are from the transmitters? I too am kicking around the idea of getting an antenna for OTA, but I am 45 miles from NYC and 62 miles from Philly and want to know what I should expect......

 

[JamesJ]

I am 30 miles from the towers, in fact I am by john corn up there, he lives about another 10 from me I am guessing, the antenna I got was 60 bucks, and it pulls in things up to 90 miles away, so it says, I would say at 45 miles you would be fine with the antenna I have, should be like I said, OTA is suppose to be touchy, but for me, it was throwing the antenna up in the attic (which we dont use for anything at all) pointing it towards to towers, going downstairs and scanning the digitals, it picked them all up on the first try, I am sure with tweaking I can get better signals, but right now I am in the mid 70's to high 80's at 65 the 811 starts to get a pixalated picture, but I am far from the 65 on any of my channels! it really was easy for me, and I pissed and moaned for so long because I didnt know how to do OTA, and like john said, wife didnt want another antenna on the roof, and I didnt want to fidget with it, but then, I saw this attic antenna, and thought what the heck I already have a rg6 run, it was really that easy for me!

 

[JamesJ]

john let me know what you deicde to do, I would look at the radio shack antenna I got first, it works like a charm, but def. study up, as OTA is very worth it!

 

[Poke]

Man I might half to go get me one! Im about 30-40 miles from our major local networks here in Oklahoma. Thanks for the info and glad things worked out for you with Dish. I love Dish will never go back to Cox Cable!

 

[Poke]

Ok went to that site say and they said that I need to look for this mark which is lite green color. Which stands for "Large Multi-directional or Small Directional w/pre-amp. So which is best the Small Directional I guess and OKC are the main networks they are this far away from me.


CBS OKLAHOMA CITY OK 205° 44.4 9
NBC OKLAHOMA CITY OK 206° 43.0 4
PBS OKLAHOMA CITY OK 205° 44.4 13
UPN OKLAHOMA CITY OK 206° 41.6 43
WB OKLAHOMA CITY OK 205° 44.1 34
ABC OKLAHOMA CITY OK 206° 43.4 5
FOX OKLAHOMA CITY OK 205° 44.1 25

So looks like they are all in the 40 mile range. Would the attic antenna work for me?

 

[cclement]

I should get an OTA antenna and try it in my garage attic, wife doesn't want it on the roof, now you have me thinking!

That's where I have mine and it's works great. I was worried about the snow on the roof in the winter, but never had a problem.

 

[JamesJ]

I will show you where my stations are, and you can compare
from antennaweb.org
yellow - uhf WVPX-DT 59 PAX AKRON OH TBD 290° 10.9 59
* yellow - uhf WQHS-DT 61.1 UNI Cleveland OH 333° 29.5 34
* yellow - uhf WDLI-DT 39.1 TBN CANTON OH 286° 11.3 39
* yellow - uhf WEAO-DT 50.1 PBS AKRON OH 293° 13.7 50
* yellow - uhf WEWS-DT 5.1 ABC CLEVELAND OH 331° 29.5 15
* yellow - uhf WJW-DT 8.1 FOX CLEVELAND OH 330° 28.8 31
* yellow - uhf WBNX-DT 30 WB AKRON OH TBD 334° 29.3 30
* lt green - vhf WOIO-DT 19.1 CBS SHAKER HEIGHTS OH 334° 29.5 10
* red - vhf WKYC-DT 3.1 NBC CLEVELAND OH 334° 29.3 2
* red - uhf WUAB-DT 43.1 UPN LORAIN OH 331° 29.8 28
* blue - uhf WOAC-DT 47.1 SAH CANTON OH 30° 5.7 47
* violet - uhf WKBN-DT 41 CBS YOUNGSTOWN OH Awaiting FCC Permit 95° 38.2 41

I pick up all the way to the blue, I have not messed or tweaked for the cbs in youngstown, but because of my antenna which is this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F001%5F002%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D2152

I would have to turn my antenna the opposite way, thankfully all my towers are in one area so its a straight shot for my towers, but there are def. different attic antennas, I am just glad this was easier, alot easier then I thought, and think everyone should give it a try, we complain about dish network not having our locals, but I am willing to be that majority of us are in OTA areas, for one maybe even 2 sets of locals!

 

[osu1991]

Hey Poke I just set my relatives up in Seminole with a small outdoor antenna from radio shack, and we were getting all the OKC channels and most of the Tulsa stations. You should not have any problems. Look at the website hdtvok for people around you doing the same thing. OTA is the way to go since Cox is only carrying channels 4,5, and 9 in HD.

 

[grb]

If you have an HD tv, you GOTTA have an OTA antenna! I live in Southern Califiornia, 26 miles from L.A. and I get 43 OTA channels, including 8 HD channels from the OTA antenna installed by Voom. The HD's include all the networks and 2 PBS. The PQ is superb! OTA reception has always been a problem here with the terrain, but they put a transmittor on Mount Wilson and the Voom installers just aimed the antenna there.

BTW, if you lose an HD channel for a few hours, or a day or two, it may be the channel, NOT your service. Warner Bros. (KTLA) was out for a few days recently...

 

[gammadude]

Getting locals over OTA is great for HD PQ since the signal isn't retransmitted and starved for bandwidth (unless your local is multicasting) through a secondary provider. Most stations are relatively easy to receive unless they are broadcasting at reduced power. I am about 25-30 miles from my local towers and receive most stations without a problem.