Lost Lots Of HD Channels

[AirTate]

So today we lost a bunch of the HD channels we watch the most (FX, Discovery, etc) and have previously lost a few others (ie Food) or have had them move around. I assumed it was just an outage, but having done a little research it seems that we have a "mixed arc" setup and need to get that fixed or we will lose more channels.

Based on diagnostics we currently see 110, 119 and 61.5. The 61.5 was added when we upgraded to HD and were unable to get LOS on the 129 bird because of the relation of the previous dish to the house -- it would have required installing a dish on an area of the house we did not want. Judging by the current setup, and still not wanting to install a dish on the very front of the house to see the 129 bird my question is this:

How feasible would it be to switch away from the 110/119 bird and move to the "eastern arc" and pickup the 72.7/77 birds to round out our reception? Using the pointer tool and some guestimating on tree height I am pretty confident that we could get the two new satellites without a problem. This would also be the easiest solution since it wouldn't require a new installation somewhere else on the house.

We live ~40 miles NW of Minneapolis, so the question would be can we get our locals if we use the 61.5/72.7/77 trio? If that is the case how easy would it be to schedule an appointment to do that instead of getting the run-around and having to wait forever for a tech to come out? Any tricks?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[MattG@DISH]

We live ~40 miles NW of Minneapolis, so the question would be can we get our locals if we use the 61.5/72.7/77 trio? If that is the case how easy would it be to schedule an appointment to do that instead of getting the run-around and having to wait forever for a tech to come out? Any tricks?

Send me a PM with your phone number or account number.

Minneappolis locals (SD and HD) are available on either arc, so I won't have a problem setting up an eastern arc install for you.

SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - Dish Network Minneapolis, MN

 

[Mr Tony]

yep Minneapolis can be either arc. Although new installs are back to Western Arc I still see a few EA dishes around here (5 miles from Mystic Lake Casino)

Send Matt the info he needs. He can get ya set up pretty quick

 

[AirTate]

Matt did indeed get me all set up with an appointment in the very near future.

Thank you very much Matt!

 

[MattG@DISH]

Matt did indeed get me all set up with an appointment in the very near future.

Thank you very much Matt!

You're very welcome. I sent you a PM with some more info as well

 

[CRL1]

Will Dish Network send you the Eastern Arc setup let you install it yourself??

 

[MattG@DISH]

Will Dish Network send you the Eastern Arc setup let you install it yourself??

No, but if you want to install it yourself, you may be able to buy the kit from a retailer

 

[CRL1]

I thought maybe Dish would send you one, since it would be a lot cheaper than having to come out and do an installation.

 

[Mr Tony]

Dish would rather have a "pro" install it then have someone fumble though and call Dish 12 times
most self installers just come here though for info

 

[CRL1]

Not the norm Iceberg but my system has been installed and maintained by myself since day one ('99 I believe).
Started with single dish at 119 and 2 receivers, did the Dish 500 upgrade.
Then a DP twin LNBF and DPP 44 switch with a 921DVR and 3 receivers.
Added a wing dish at 61.5 the last time they moved all the HD around along with 2 Vip612's.
That is my current setup today. All the equipment with the exception of the 612's I own.
Dish Network has never been to my house.

 

[Pepper]

Not the norm Iceberg but my system has been installed and maintained by myself since day one ('99 I believe).
Started with single dish at 119 and 2 receivers, did the Dish 500 upgrade.
Then a DP twin LNBF and DPP 44 switch with a 921DVR and 3 receivers.
Added a wing dish at 61.5 the last time they moved all the HD around along with 2 Vip612's.
That is my current setup today. All the equipment with the exception of the 612's I own.
Dish Network has never been to my house.

In that case you could repoint the wing to 77 and use the 500 for 61 and 72. It's eleven instead of nine degree spacing but some people have reported that it works. Worst case, with a few spare parts you could end up with three separate antennas.

 

[navychop]

As we said in the Nav, "15% never get the word." But at least it seems this time is a quick and easy fix.

 

[beantown]

I apologize if this has been covered but I'm afraid a simple search might not get the results I'm looking for.

I have a tech coming to do my Eastern Arc Upgrade on Saturday. They will actually be completing the work that another installer had started a number of months ago (another story explained below). My question is will I still receive my locals in HD? I live in the Boston area. I've read some things about people not getting their locals in HD but I'm not sure if that only applies to certain areas. Also, has anyone noticed more outages with the Eastern Arc setup from storms or stuff like that?

When the installer originally came out to my house months ago to do my Eastern Arc Upgrade he told me that he was getting alot of unhappy customers because they would lose service more frequently after the upgrade. He told me that I wouldn't lose any channels for the forseeable future so rather than eliminate my current setup he simply installed another dish that runs to a 722 that then runs 2 tv's in my house. The 2 tv's that are on the Eastern Arc are 2 of the least watched tv's in my house. I plan on telling the installer that's coming on Saturday all he needs to do is take the connection going to my dual dish setup and run it to the other dish the previous installer setup. I just keep thinking about the stuff the original installer told me and that's why I ask the two questions above.

 

[CRL1]

In that case you could repoint the wing to 77 and use the 500 for 61 and 72. It's eleven instead of nine degree spacing but some people have reported that it works. Worst case, with a few spare parts you could end up with three separate antennas.

Had looked into that sometime back but I still need the 500 setup for my other 2 boxes besides the 612's. They are the old MPEG-2 boxes. Thought maybe Dish would give me the Eastern Arc setup in lieu of coming out and doing the installation. Want to change the minimum and not have to sign another 2 year agreement at this time. FIOS has become available where I live and have been looking into that but bundles offered are way more than I need. Probably just look around and see what the Eastern Arc setup will cost me for now.

 

[AirTate]

Just wanted to post a follow-up and let everyone know what happened.

Thanks to Matt a tech was at my house right at 8am. He attempted a few locations to get a view of the 129 bird to keep us on the western arc but could not find a good spot to get a strong signal. Thankfully we had a clear shot at everything in the eastern arc so our single dish that was pulling in 61.5 was upgraded to get the full eastern arc and the one that was getting 110/119 was removed.

While, initially, we were a little upset because we didn't get any kind of notification as to why we had channels moving around and disappearing; the resolution to the problem has left me very impressed with Dish and the people I interacted with. It turns out that we didn't get notifications because our account was not flagged as a mixed arc install (I am assuming the tech that installed the HD dish forgot to update it when he couldn't see 129 and got 61.5 instead). Both the tech that came out and Matt himself were great; especially since they were willing to answer some of the random technical questions I had for nothing other than to satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps the largest surprise to me was the turnaround time. I posted my initial question here at nearly midnight in my timezone; shortly after that Matt contacted me and we got everything setup and the tech finished up his work at 10:30am the next morning. I was fully expecting to be waiting a few days for everything to be resolved.

All-in-all, I went from initial late-night post to problem completely resolved (including a tech appointment and visit) in less than 12 hours; very impressive! Thanks again to Matt for taking care of me.

 

[MattG@DISH]

You're very welcome

Please let me know if you ever need anything

 

[Mr Tony]

Glad to hear they got you set up so quickly

 

[Young C]

Can somebody please help me? I have a bunch of HD-Channels that are red outlined in my EPG.
Here is a couple channels that are now red and I'm not receiving them.

MGM-HD (channel 385)
EPIX2-HD (channel 381)
EPIX1-HD (channel 380)
Retro-HD (channel 379)
Indie-HD (channe 378)
SMC-HD (channel 386)
Sundance-HD (Channel 389)

etc.

Thank you for any help.

 

[MikeD-C05]

What dish set up do you have : Eastern arc(77/72.7/61.5) OR Western arc(110/119/129)? Or do you have a mixed sat configuration with some of both? IF so that would explain the missing hd channels. You have to have either arc ,but not a mixture any longer.

 

[MaryB@SlingTV]

I apologize if this has been covered but I'm afraid a simple search might not get the results I'm looking for.

I have a tech coming to do my Eastern Arc Upgrade on Saturday. They will actually be completing the work that another installer had started a number of months ago (another story explained below). My question is will I still receive my locals in HD? I live in the Boston area. I've read some things about people not getting their locals in HD but I'm not sure if that only applies to certain areas. Also, has anyone noticed more outages with the Eastern Arc setup from storms or stuff like that?

When the installer originally came out to my house months ago to do my Eastern Arc Upgrade he told me that he was getting alot of unhappy customers because they would lose service more frequently after the upgrade. He told me that I wouldn't lose any channels for the forseeable future so rather than eliminate my current setup he simply installed another dish that runs to a 722 that then runs 2 tv's in my house. The 2 tv's that are on the Eastern Arc are 2 of the least watched tv's in my house. I plan on telling the installer that's coming on Saturday all he needs to do is take the connection going to my dual dish setup and run it to the other dish the previous installer setup. I just keep thinking about the stuff the original installer told me and that's why I ask the two questions above.

Hi, I am sorry you have had so many issues with your DISH Network installations. In the Boston area, you will have ABC, CBS, NBC, & FOX all in HD! If you would like my assistance with any outstanding issues, please PM your account information and I will be happy to help in any way that I can.