Dish Sales guys do not know installation

[johnboy347]

Currently I've got two dish receivers (one is a DVR) and each feeds via RF another TV - so 4 total Tv's hooked to a model 500 satellite dish. I've got a HD sony (tired of HD DVD's) so talked to dish about upgrading my service. I'd keep the non-dvr receiver and upgrade the dvr to Dishes 722 receiver. So today, I have two lines running into the house from the satellite dish. The dish sales rep is telling me that I would need 4 lines running into the house and that RG-6 was no good for HD and I'd need to upgrade it. Not knowing who would show up for an install and faced with some very poor tech info from the sales guy, I just hung up.

Would like to know exactly the minimum number of wires I would need to provide the type of service I descirbed above. And if any swithces, etc would be needed. Not sure what model sat dish would be used, but assumed it would be the 1000. Also, I'm not interested in OTA so am not sure if this was one of the wires in the count of 4 or not.

 

[rich88]

First, RG-6 IS what you need.

Second, as long as you keep the same 2 TVs hooked-up to the same receiver "locations", it should just be a matter of swapping your present DVR to a 722 HD DVR and changing the Dish 500 to a Dish 1000. Hopefully the tech will have line-of-sight to the 129 sat from your present Dish location.

One disclaimer though, if your area receives HD locals from the 61.5, then he likely will leave your Dish 500 in place and mount a 2nd dish aimed at the 61.5 sat to receive HD channels. The 129 sat is NOT used in this situation.

A lot of people don't like 2 dishes on their roof, but that is just the way it is for right now in those areas.

 

[oljim]

johnboy the 722 will work with 1 cable and so will your old rec. all they need to do is add a dish for 61.5, it will be much better than 129. I would rethink OTA, you can get all the stations in Charleston in HD and record them on your 722. All you need is a good UHF antenna

 

[Agonizing Fury]

However, if using OTA, Most techs do not know how to reverse split the OTA signal and backfeed together before diplexing, so they may tell him he needs a second cable to that receiver. Technically he really does, as I don't like using the reverse split situation due to line loss. It becomes even more fun if TV2 is too far away and you need to do a reverse split pigtail.

 

[oljim]

However, if using OTA, Most techs do not know how to reverse split the OTA signal and backfeed together before diplexing, so they may tell him he needs a second cable to that receiver. Technically he really does, as I don't like using the reverse split situation due to line loss. It becomes even more fun if TV2 is too far away and you need to do a reverse split pigtail.

Why bring up this crap, I said he should use OTA to get locals in HD for the 722.
A simple UHF ant, cable from ant to 722 and he is done, no diplexers, splitters or usless signal robbing junk.

 

[johnboy347]

Did some more research on this site and then called dish back. Much better experinece with Dish and got some valid answers to install questions (from what has been shared here). May do OTA later - have brick house - 722 receiver will be in a cornor adjacent to 2nd story porch so I would have to drill the wall but would be right there next to the receiver. I'll see how the basic stuff works out first. By the way, I've about 50 miles outside of Charleton and way back years ago I had a radio shack NASA ground station look alike antenna. Reception was so so.

 

[oljim]

Did some more research on this site and then called dish back. Much better experinece with Dish and got some valid answers to install questions (from what has been shared here). May do OTA later - have brick house - 722 receiver will be in a cornor adjacent to 2nd story porch so I would have to drill the wall but would be right there next to the receiver. I'll see how the basic stuff works out first. By the way, I've about 50 miles outside of Charleton and way back years ago I had a radio shack NASA ground station look alike antenna. Reception was so so.

John all the stations are on two towers 17 miles N of Charleston on US 17, about 30 miles from you. I am 71 miles away and get them all in HD. You shold have no problem now that they are digital and all on UHF, before most were VHF and you needed a much bigger antenna.

 

[wonko]

John all the stations are on two towers 17 miles N of Charleston on US 17, about 30 miles from you. I am 71 miles away and get them all in HD. You shold have no problem now that they are digital and all on UHF, before most were VHF and you needed a much bigger antenna.

It looks like post-transition that the PBS station for Charleston is going back to VHF channel 7.

 

[harshness]

Shame on the OP for asking pointed installation questions of a sales representative and getting all indignant about it when the information was bad. Most of them can't tell you what day it is unless they have a script to that effect.

In any event, there would be a second dish required and a swap out of LNBs on the outside of the house. Everything on the inside stays the same.