DIY Setup

[tyler47]

Hi i'm new on the form so excuse me if i do anything wrong or say something stupid.

I'm attend college at Virginia Tech and have been renting a house in town with some roommates for about a year. We have been interested in getting a tv hookup for our house but don't wanna spend a lot or be tied down to contract. We've been doing OTA for now but with 5 channels there isn't much there. Comcast down right sucks in this town at least so we ruled them out. Some guy in town is selling a Dish Network 500 package which includes the follow:
DISH Network Satellite Rcvrs ( 5 )w/ Dish 500 $75..00
Dishplayer, Model# 3000, 4900, 301 & 501

Assuming the serials are clean with no holds on the account i was thinking of purchasing it and setting it up on our house with Dish (No contract). I called dish and they couldn't give me any details on packages with that setup and gave me a number of a local retailer to call ( i thought that was weird).

If i can figure out a package that works, is the above system worth buying or is it too old. We don't need HD but would be a nice plus i was thinking of buying a newer receiver for one of our tvs but i'm not sure if the dish itself will support HD.

Any suggestions are welcome.. Also i've done many in home cable setups before and i assume i could wire up the dish with little to no fuss.
Thanks,
Tyler

 

[navychop]

Those models are discontinued garbage, of no value whatsoever.

You likely need to be on the Eastern Arc for Dish. That requires ViP series receivers. Even for Western Arc, those non-8PSK receivers have been or are being phased out.

 

[osu1991]

Those receivers are being phased out and are boat anchors now as they can't be activated any longer.

You will need a Dish 1000.2 for HD. Buy a 211 from Claude at the Dishstore link at the top of the forum page. It will get SD/HD and has an antenna input so you can get your locals in HD over the air too. For a one time $40 fee you can add your own external hard drive to the 211 and turn it into a dvr too.

 

[sethwell]

i would suggest looking for a retailer located in your town and seeing what type of system they could install. It might be just as inexpensive, maybe a little more. Also you might just wait a little while until Dish comes out with the Hopper/joey units. The pricing that has been rumored for new customers might make it worth your while.

 

[tyler47]

Thanks for the response guys, i appreciate it.
I had a feeling that the package would be too old. Too good of a deal to be true.

I'm going to try finding a local retailer. I don't want to sign a contract and rather just own a cheap setup as we are just college students. Would going through a retailer really by cheaper and is there any money to be saved by doing the install yourself as a DIY?

I'll be hunting around Dishstore for some deals. Thanks!

 

[TheKrell]

I don't believe either Dish or a retailer will give you a better deal if you won't agree to a 2-yr contract.

The cheapest SD receiver Dish has is probably the 111. The cheapest HD receiver is the 211. The 211, as mentioned before, has two big benefits other than HD: a built in ATSC tuner and ability to convert it to a DVR for a one-time fee. Any other Dish DVR will cost $6/account/mo.

 

[steve4810]

DIY isn't too hard for the Dish500 dish. It has two lnbs and goes up and aims fairly easily. BUT, the 3 lnb 1000.2 and 1000.4 are a whole new can of worms. With 3 lnbs setting the skew(on the back of the dish) is critical and a pro can sometimes take more than "a few minutes" himself. I did it once and it took the whole afternoon and I've put up Dish500s several dozen times. When we "RV" around I set one up every night. Your location on the planet determines the arc the satellites inscribe over your head and since between the end lnbs on 1000.2 or .4 is twice the distance between a 110-119 degree (also used for 119-129) satellite 2lnb Dish500 you have to match that arc precisely with the dish or one end or the other won't lock.

A good choice if money is very tight and roommates could be a hazard to the health of electronics try the classifieds here. I don't know if you can post a "wanted" ad but if you did I'm sure someone could give you a great deal. But if your not that poor of a college student The Dishstore here is your best DIY source.

 

[steve4810]

Oh, BTW you need a 1000.2 or 4 to get ALL HD but there is a whole b**load of HD on 110, 119 and 129. If you go home in the summer (like back in the day) you wouldn't want to leave your equipment unattended that long which means you would have to wrestle with that 1000 dish each fall. If you look around here or Dish's web site you can find tables that show what stations are on what satellites.

 

[tyler47]

Question about the 1000.2 Dish setup. I've been reading and it has a built in switch with 3 drops for support of three stb. I cannot run any new wires into my house per the rental agreement. I have been comparing dish and directv and have noticed that the equipment is very similarly priced, directv is a little more pricey per month. The benefit i've notice is with the directv dish is i can have one line coming from the dish going into the house on the existing input and then once in the house go into a power insert into a swm switch distributed to three receivers on the existing jacks. To me that is very similar to a traditional Cable Tv setup. Is such a setup available for Dish Network? Thanks!

 

[boba]

Question about the 1000.2 Dish setup. I've been reading and it has a built in switch with 3 drops for support of three stb. I cannot run any new wires into my house per the rental agreement. I have been comparing dish and directv and have noticed that the equipment is very similarly priced, directv is a little more pricey per month. The benefit i've notice is with the directv dish is i can have one line coming from the dish going into the house on the existing input and then once in the house go into a power insert into a swm switch distributed to three receivers on the existing jacks. To me that is very similar to a traditional Cable Tv setup. Is such a setup available for Dish Network? Thanks!

NO DISH does not offer SWM.

 

[tyler47]

alright then i guess directv it is. Thanks.

 

[navychop]

Actually, Dish 's Hopper system coming out in about a month will do what you want. And may be cheaper. Heck, for a new customer, maybe free.

BTW, there is the same amount of national HD on 61.5/72/77 as on 110/119/129. Which you get will depend on where your locals are first, and LoS second.

And most would agree that Dish has more national HD channels than DirecTV. You'd get different amounts with different packages, of course. You can't really go wrong with either satco.

DirecTV might offer you a free year of Sunday Ticket. Could be a good deal for you; read the fine print (whoever you go with).

 

[tyler47]

Ended up signing up with Directv 2 year agreement. I decided to go ahead and spend $99 upfront to get the HR34 seemed like a pretty sweet deal compare to what they make current subscribers pay. So the HR34 and one HD Box with Choice Xtra @40.99 plus taxes a month and then after 10 months $50.99 my uncle was able to refer me and i sign up through costco and got the $120 card, i just hope i did it right and it comes. I like G4 and directv doesn't have it and its gonna be my one regret i know it. They come to install at noon tomorrow so i guess i have between now and then to change my mind. I'm just really unhappy with the second year price hike.