HD Locals OTA

[AIA_SMALZ_11]

Hello all,

I recently moved into my first house. The gentleman that i bought the house from had Dish network and had a antenna installed in the attic for his locals back when they did not offer them. I paid the DirecTV guy a few extra $$$ on the side and told him i wanted to be able to recieve my locals in HD when i get the HD box. He hooked it up and i get all my locals crystal clear. The way he hooked it up does not look right. Maybe you guys can help me out or guide me. He has a single line coming from the wall jack into a 2 way splitter and 1 line goes to sat in and the other to antenna in. Is this the correct way or did he need to run 2 individual line. The only way i can watch my locals is if i turn the sat box off. Can you help me out with this? Any help will greatly be appreciated.

 

[boba]

That is not a splitter it is a DIPLEXER the purpose of a diplexer is to combine or separate the satellite signal and a TV antenna on one line. It is a correct method of running both signals. The satellite receiver can't tune in the TV antenna signals they have to be sent to the TV tuner, when you shut off the satellite receiver it passes the TV antenna signal to the TV tuner. When you upgrade to HDTV that receiver has a Tuner built into the stellite receiver so you won't have to shutoff the receiver.

 

[fkostyn]

Correct: that woul be a diplexer - there would be another oone on the other end of the cable to "combine" the signal. Sounds like the installer did the correct job.

 

[AIA_SMALZ_11]

Thanks a lot guys for the info. Greatly appreciate it. Now comes the task of finding a good HD Satelite reciever. I work for Best Buy and all we have there is the Samsung and the Hughes HDDVR. Can't afford $999.99 but the samsung for $299.99 is more in my range. Should i hold out for a better one or do you guys recommend any. I have read a lot of post with the samsung having some issues but that firmware upgrade fixed those problems. Any suggestions?!?!?!?

 

[frog]

I have a Samsung SIRT 160 and it has worked perfectly since I got it in Jan, 04.

 

[cr0mag]

I have the sammy 360 and I have had a few glitches, but after a few software upgrades it works great! It looks like it will be quite a while before the DH tivo units drop significantly in price, so if you don't want to wait I'd get the samsung.

 

[kryten98371]

I have the Hughes HTL-HD receiver and it seems to work fine for me.

 

[LonghornXP]

I'm not sure how long you have been with D* but if its been more than two years total I would call them up and ask them what kind of credits you can get to help offset the cost of the HD Tivo. I would also push if they will budge for free showtime and/or HBO. Also if you get or want Total Choice Premier you might ask if they would give you the 20 bucks off this package for 6 months.

I've been with DirecTV for just about two years now and I called them up about 4 months ago to get my HD Tivo. Just so you know I've always had total choice premier with locals. I also get their NFL Sunday Ticket package as well. I got a 250 dollar hardware credit. They also gave me the 20 bucks off total choice premier for 6 months. They also gave me free Showtime and HBO for 2 bucks a month for 6 months.

They also gave me another 100 dollar credit if I ordered either the MLB EI, NBA LP or the NHL CI package. I ended up ordering the NBA package and they said if I didn't order this package they would take away the credit. Now at that time they couldn't let me order this package. Now I told them I was thinking about getting another package but I might have to wait until next year after getting the HD Tivo but if they could give me a little push I might get it this year. They offered right away a credit.

Also even with getting those credits I was getting the HD package free for 6 months as well.

But I would try and see what you can get. I love the HD Tivo and would never go without it and was going to get a second one but I was going to wait until prices went down because of all the problems they had at first. They wouldn't discount the second HD Tivo not even by 1 buck but I never expected them to either.

If I were you I would hold off on any HD box from D* until the new year because that would be about the right time that a drop in price would happen and if a 300 dollar price drop happens you might have a chance at getting a 150 buck credit and one of the other offers like 20/off Premier or HBO.

If you could get a 150 buck credit and get 20 bucks off total choice premier for 6 months that would be a good deal for ya. That would be 270 bucks off of about 700 dollar box I would guess. That would make it less than 300 bucks more than a plain HD box and that would be the way too go. Its only a little over a month to wait and see if they will drop the price. If they don't or we don't hear anything about a drop by then I might just wait another month and if still nothing I would just buy the HD box. But trust me waiting another three months might be the best move you could ever make and I would give it a chance.

Sorry for going so long on this but I want you to be aware that you can do other things.