May make switch, but first some questions that Dish couldn't answer

[odenwell]

I just got off a chat session with a sales person at Dish. I didn't get a good answer to a few of my questions so I hope someone here will be more knowledgable. Right now I have a Directv HD-DVR that feeds a component signal into a piece of equipment that I own. The equipment splits and trasmits the signal over RG6 to a couple other TV's in different rooms and also to the TV next to the receiver. I have RF remotes in all 3 rooms. This works great except all rooms have to watch the same channel. This is not a big problem. I want to do the same thing with Dish. The sales person could not understand this setup. I am thinking I could get the VIP612 and one Pro remote upgrade kit and two additional Pro remotes. Anyone see a problem with that?

Next, I have a standard def Directv receiver that I move around between our cabin and our travel trailer. The salesperson wanted us to set up an additional account for that. We only use the cabin and RV on rare occasions so I will not pay another account fee, just an additional receiver fee. My question is if I get the Solo 311 receiver, will I be able to use this with the portable satellite dish I use now for Directv? Will I get my local channels with this dish? Right now I can travel pretty far from Denver before I lose my locals with Directv. In fact, I have traveled up to 8 hours away and had no problems. I only assume at some point I would lose them as I understand this comes down over a spot beam. I wonder if this would hold true for Dish?

Lastly is the power consumption issue. Our RV uses solar power so consumption is an issue for us. I asked the sales person what the specs are and she checked each receiver and they were all the same:

Power supply draw: 0.15 - 1.25 amps, average 0.25 amps; 15 - 230 watts, average 60 watts

I am skeptical that all the receivers, HD or standard def, would consume roughly the same amount of power. She looked up the info for VIP722, VIP612, Solo 311, and Solo 211k. How warm does the VIP612 get? How warm does the Solo 311 get? This will give me a better idea of the true power consumption.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Bob

 

[Liquidforce88]

I just got off a chat session with a sales person at Dish. I didn't get a good answer to a few of my questions so I hope someone here will be more knowledgable. Right now I have a Directv HD-DVR that feeds a component signal into a piece of equipment that I own. The equipment splits and trasmits the signal over RG6 to a couple other TV's in different rooms and also to the TV next to the receiver. I have RF remotes in all 3 rooms. This works great except all rooms have to watch the same channel. This is not a big problem. I want to do the same thing with Dish. The sales person could not understand this setup. I am thinking I could get the VIP612 and one Pro remote upgrade kit and two additional Pro remotes. Anyone see a problem with that?

No reason it would not work with a Dish receiver. I would go with a 622 or 722 instead if you are not going to need a 4 room setup. Reason being you way like the ability to do PIP or at some point have a need for a seprate view at another location. It just gives you more options.

Next, I have a standard def Directv receiver that I move around between our cabin and our travel trailer. The salesperson wanted us to set up an additional account for that. We only use the cabin and RV on rare occasions so I will not pay another account fee, just an additional receiver fee. My question is if I get the Solo 311 receiver, will I be able to use this with the portable satellite dish I use now for Directv? Will I get my local channels with this dish? Right now I can travel pretty far from Denver before I lose my locals with Directv. In fact, I have traveled up to 8 hours away and had no problems. I only assume at some point I would lose them as I understand this comes down over a spot beam. I wonder if this would hold true for Dish?

Using the 311 to mover around with the trailer is fine. If it will work with the dish you have depends on what kind of dish you have. Can answer better when we know what you got. As for distance you can go, it just depends on how far the spot beam covers.

Lastly is the power consumption issue. Our RV uses solar power so consumption is an issue for us. I asked the sales person what the specs are and she checked each receiver and they were all the same:

Power supply draw: 0.15 - 1.25 amps, average 0.25 amps; 15 - 230 watts, average 60 watts

I am skeptical that all the receivers, HD or standard def, would consume roughly the same amount of power. She looked up the info for VIP722, VIP612, Solo 311, and Solo 211k. How warm does the VIP612 get? How warm does the Solo 311 get? This will give me a better idea of the true power consumption.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Bob

I am sure that the 311 probably does not use any more power than your standard Direct receiver. The thing is weather you could actually get the 311 as most new installs are now Mpeg4 and the 311 is not part of that. But the 211 would work just the same as a 311 so really noy a big deal.

I really see nothing to hold you back from the change. You may need to get a different dish for the trailer, but that would be it.

 

[Agonizing Fury]

to Satellite guys!!

I just got off a chat session with a sales person at Dish. I didn't get a good answer to a few of my questions so I hope someone here will be more knowledgable. Right now I have a Directv HD-DVR that feeds a component signal into a piece of equipment that I own. The equipment splits and trasmits the signal over RG6 to a couple other TV's in different rooms and also to the TV next to the receiver. I have RF remotes in all 3 rooms. This works great except all rooms have to watch the same channel. This is not a big problem. I want to do the same thing with Dish. The sales person could not understand this setup. I am thinking I could get the VIP612 and one Pro remote upgrade kit and two additional Pro remotes. Anyone see a problem with that?

Sounds like it's probably good to go. If I understand you correctly you are basically using a component splitter to "mirror" your main TV to the rest of the TVs. Note that dish will charge you $60 per mirror if you have them set it up, so best bet would be to let them install it to one TV, and you can set it up to the rest yourself. A well trained installer may be able to do it himself, and may do it for free, but this is up to the installer, not the sales person. If a sales person tells you it will be done for free, thank them, but don't count on it being a definate. The 612 would work, but as stated before, a 722/722k would be better as it gives you more recording time, PIP capability (in single mode only which is what you indicated you want), and more flexability for other options in the future. 722/722k receivers are also much more stable than 612 receivers in my experience. For the remotes, it will depend on which receiver you get. 722 best bet is the 6.3 or 6.4 UHF Pro remote kit. This remote will work with the 722k for most features, but if you get the 722k I would recommend 21.0 UHF Pro remotes for the mirrored rooms. Again the 21.0 remote will work for the 722 as well, but it's best if you stick with the correct remote for the receiver you end up with.

Next, I have a standard def Directv receiver that I move around between our cabin and our travel trailer. The salesperson wanted us to set up an additional account for that. We only use the cabin and RV on rare occasions so I will not pay another account fee, just an additional receiver fee. My question is if I get the Solo 311 receiver, will I be able to use this with the portable satellite dish I use now for Directv? Will I get my local channels with this dish? Right now I can travel pretty far from Denver before I lose my locals with Directv. In fact, I have traveled up to 8 hours away and had no problems. I only assume at some point I would lose them as I understand this comes down over a spot beam. I wonder if this would hold true for Dish?

First off, as was stated you will probably not get a 311 receiver (unless you purchase it yourself). I haven't seen a 311 on a work order (or actually seen one in our warehouse) in more than 6 months. You will probably get a 211 or 211k (possibly a 381, but more than likely not)

Second, as far as the cabin/trailer option, you need to be very careful as this can skirt the line of what is called account stacking. You cannot lawfully receive service in two locations at the same time, period. So, if you want a receiver for your cabin/RV, I would recommend that you have a TV in your house that it can stay connected to at all times except when you plan to vacation. Note that it is still considered account stacking, and you would need an additional account if someone is staying at the house and using the service while you are away using the other receiver. It is imperative that you keep this recevier connected to a TV at all times, as dish has a verification team that will occasionally dial random accounts and ask you to read some numbers off the screen that change every few minutes. If you take too long to answer, or can't answer (because it's sitting at the cabin) they will permanently disable that receiver, and will only allow it to be re-enabled on a 2nd account as the primary receiver.

Third, again as stated before, we need to know what existing dish you are using for direcTV. The only situation where you will be able to use this dish is if it is a single LNB dish. if it has more than one LNB (The white circular eyes) it more than likely cannot be use with dish receivers. Locals availability with the existing dish will be limited if it is a single LNB dish. Best bet would be to purchase the extra dish from one of our proud gold sponsers at the top of the page (They pay to keep the servers running). The good news, is that if your locals are Denver, CO (as indicated by your stated location from your account), then you will have no problem picking some of the locals up anywhere in the country (for now) they are carried on a conUS beam on the 119 satellite (the same satellite that carries the majority of dish network Standard Definition programming. Others are carried on the 110 satellite (some conUS, some spotbeamed) and the HD Locals are on 129 (all spotbeamed). To see details click on the "The List!" tab above, then click on "Subscription List Home" then click on "Dish Network ALL". do a browser search (CTRL + F in firefox, not sure about IE) and search for either "Denver, Co" or the 4 character call sign of the channel in question (ex: KWGN) to see which locals are carried on what. Also note that thanks to DigiBlur's hard work you can actually click on the spotbeam number and see a Google Earth overlay of the spotbeam coverage, so you'll know exactly where you will be able to get each local channel.

Lastly is the power consumption issue. Our RV uses solar power so consumption is an issue for us. I asked the sales person what the specs are and she checked each receiver and they were all the same:

Power supply draw: 0.15 - 1.25 amps, average 0.25 amps; 15 - 230 watts, average 60 watts

I am skeptical that all the receivers, HD or standard def, would consume roughly the same amount of power. She looked up the info for VIP722, VIP612, Solo 311, and Solo 211k. How warm does the VIP612 get? How warm does the Solo 311 get? This will give me a better idea of the true power consumption.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Bob

This will vary greatly depending on which single tuner dish ends up giving you, and which dish you are using (different dishes have different power consumption levels and since the receiver powers the dish this will affect it's overall power usage). Stay away from DVRs.

Best of luck to you, if you have any other questions or need clarification, please feel free to ask, and someone should reply for you.

 

[odenwell]

Thanks for the replies. They were very helpful. I ended up with a 722k plus an OTA tuner. The installer gave me a 6.4 UHF remote and I bought 4 more on ebay. They are all working with the 722k which is running in single mode. BTW, this thing runs a lot cooler than the Directv H20 that I was using. For the RV they gave me a 211 and a UHF upgrade kit. This works fine. Seems to run pretty cool so I guess the power consumption is low. I had been with Directv sine the early 90's. I remember buying my first Directv receiver, a Sony SAT-A1, for $600 at Best Buy. So far I am a happy customer with Dish.