Missing HD channels D500 61.5 Need equipment upgrade info / advice

[NCMebane]

I’ve been pouring over these forums off-an-on for years and finally registered yesterday. Better late than never. I’m thinking of getting myself involved in what I expect to be a bit of a challenge and cannot think of a better group of people who might be able to arm me with some accurate information.


I live in a development in central NC that is served by Beyond Communications, a reseller of Dish, which the developer signed on with when he began building. Everything about the operation is Dish and they advertise their wares as such.

I have AT250, HD, Platinum, RSNs and Raleigh-Durham locals. I have 3 VIP211 receivers. I do NOT have a dish; rather, there is one headend dish that serves two developments about a mile away from each other. Therefore, each receiver in my townhouse has a Q-box.
When I signed up for Platinum, I noticed that there were some channels missing from what Dish advertises. One thing led to another, and I then discovered that there are a fair number of HD channels that I have been theoretically paying for that I have never received. Below is a list of all the channels that, were I an outright Dish customer with proper equipment, I would be receiving, but am not.


113 Cooking
114 E!
116 GSN
121 History Int’l
130 AMC
135 BBC
149 Fox Soccer
185 Hallmark
190 Nat Geo Wild
191 G4
204 TruTV
273 Galavision
353 Starz Cinema
375 Shorts HD
378 Indie Plex
379 RetroPlex
380 EPIX
395 Sportsman

When I called Beyond Communications, they indicated that not all equipment in the various developments they work with receives all signals, but were generally pretty vague and basically said that I should go to their website to see the HD channels. (Which I did: they only list about half of the ones we actually receive; none of the above missing channels is on the list.) In every instance I can remember, whenever Dish added a channel or moved it to a different package, the flow through to homeowners here has been immediate, just as if we were separate Dish customers.

My scouring of the forums indicates that this is likely (?) a lack of up-to-date equipment at the headend. I have no idea what that equipment is, but I can tell you that my EPG guide shows channel 9900 as “D500” and says “congratulations, you have a dish 500.” Channel 9902 “What’s On Dish?” says: “Congratulations! You are looking at the 61.5 Orbital Location.”

If I read these forums correctly, and now I am really getting out of my league, there needs to be Eastern Arc 1000.4…72.7…129…??? If I read correctly, this would explain the missing channels?

If my assumptions are correct, I am prepared to try to have a conversation around whether Beyond is scheduled to or willing to upgrade. What I need to know is:

1. 1. What do I actually need to ask/request? How expensive might it be, i.e. am I asking them for something relatively minor or something that will be a major capital expenditure for them?
2. 2. If they refuse, does anyone know whether it is possible for me to buy my own dish to supplement what is coming in and patch it in? Technically possible without becoming an official Dish customer? (Don’t want to become an official Dish customer, since HOA dues supplement video services and I get AT250 for $28/mo.) If I became official Dish customer, I’m back at $100+/mo.
3. 3. Any other advice?

Thanks to all.

 

[Juan]

sounds like an upgrade to "eastern arc" is in order. Someone needs to intall a dish that will pick up 61-72-77

 

[Mr Tony]

welcome

Recently dish has been moving HD from the 61.5 slot to 72.7 so yes you are missing HD channels
Normally I would say "yes" you would need an Eastern Arc dish which sees 61.5/72/77. BUT since you mentioned a community dish setup that won't work for the community setup to change to Eastern Arc. Reason is on Eastern Arc you need VIP equipment. While you are set up properly with 211's other folks in the setup may be SD only using older equipment. 110/119 allows that equipment to be used.

That brings us to the issue. Raleigh locals in HD are on 61.5 as is the RSN so its not like they can just move the 61.5 dish to 72.

You could get an EA dish and hook up the receivers directly. The EA dish supports 3 receivers so you could bypass what the community setup is. Also the SD channels will be in MPEG4 which (if you have a hard drive set up to the 211 to use it like a DVR) the MPEG4 channels take up less space on the hard drive. 110/119 is MPEG2

129 while it has all the national HD channels on one satellite doesn't have your locals in HD nor the RSN.

If you can do it, I'd find a Dish 1000.4 (eastern arc dish) on Ebay or a retailer and install it yourself, bypassing the community setup and not having dish out you can keep the existing pricing

 

[Mr Tony]

sounds like an upgrade to "eastern arc" is in order. Someone needs to intall a dish that will pick up 61-72-77

that wont work Juan. Community dishes there are probably folks with SD only equipment (as I posted). So EA wont work unless they upgrade all the receivers that are MPEG2

 

[whatchel1]

I’ve been pouring over these forums off-an-on for years and finally registered yesterday. Better late than never. I’m thinking of getting myself involved in what I expect to be a bit of a challenge and cannot think of a better group of people who might be able to arm me with some accurate information.


I live in a development in central NC that is served by Beyond Communications, a reseller of Dish, which the developer signed on with when he began building. Everything about the operation is Dish and they advertise their wares as such.

I have AT250, HD, Platinum, RSNs and Raleigh-Durham locals. I have 3 VIP211 receivers. I do NOT have a dish; rather, there is one headend dish that serves two developments about a mile away from each other. Therefore, each receiver in my townhouse has a Q-box.
When I signed up for Platinum, I noticed that there were some channels missing from what Dish advertises. One thing led to another, and I then discovered that there are a fair number of HD channels that I have been theoretically paying for that I have never received. Below is a list of all the channels that, were I an outright Dish customer with proper equipment, I would be receiving, but am not.


113 Cooking
114 E!
116 GSN
121 History Int’l
130 AMC
135 BBC
149 Fox Soccer
185 Hallmark
190 Nat Geo Wild
191 G4
204 TruTV
273 Galavision
353 Starz Cinema
375 Shorts HD
378 Indie Plex
379 RetroPlex
380 EPIX
395 Sportsman

When I called Beyond Communications, they indicated that not all equipment in the various developments they work with receives all signals, but were generally pretty vague and basically said that I should go to their website to see the HD channels. (Which I did: they only list about half of the ones we actually receive; none of the above missing channels is on the list.) In every instance I can remember, whenever Dish added a channel or moved it to a different package, the flow through to homeowners here has been immediate, just as if we were separate Dish customers.

My scouring of the forums indicates that this is likely (?) a lack of up-to-date equipment at the headend. I have no idea what that equipment is, but I can tell you that my EPG guide shows channel 9900 as “D500” and says “congratulations, you have a dish 500.” Channel 9902 “What’s On Dish?” says: “Congratulations! You are looking at the 61.5 Orbital Location.”

If I read these forums correctly, and now I am really getting out of my league, there needs to be Eastern Arc 1000.4…72.7…129…??? If I read correctly, this would explain the missing channels?

If my assumptions are correct, I am prepared to try to have a conversation around whether Beyond is scheduled to or willing to upgrade. What I need to know is:

1. 1. What do I actually need to ask/request? How expensive might it be, i.e. am I asking them for something relatively minor or something that will be a major capital expenditure for them?
2. 2. If they refuse, does anyone know whether it is possible for me to buy my own dish to supplement what is coming in and patch it in? Technically possible without becoming an official Dish customer? (Don’t want to become an official Dish customer, since HOA dues supplement video services and I get AT250 for $28/mo.) If I became official Dish customer, I’m back at $100+/mo.
3. 3. Any other advice?

Thanks to all.

The equipment needs to be upgraded. They aren't getting the HD channels because they are on 72.7 sat which you don't have. It would be best if they could get things upgraded to MPEG 4 units (VIP receivers). Then they could have an Eastern Arc dish for all the HD channels. Actually if they you aren't in the Wilmington, NC area the dish 500 could be repointed to get 61.5 & 72.7 and get all the channels on those birds. The locals in Wilmington are the only thing that might be needed off 77.

 

[Juan]

that wont work Juan. Community dishes there are probably folks with SD only equipment (as I posted). So EA wont work unless they upgrade all the receivers that are MPEG2

thanks

 

[Mr Tony]

he mentions Raleigh-Durham

Raleigh-Durham locals

and I know he didnt mention it but what happens if others in the community have old equipment and SD only? We're not talking about a one dish subscriber here. We're talking a community setup. I know when I lived in an apartment they had a 48" dish on the roof for 119 only which was useless even back in 2000 as there were channels on 110 and the locals.

 

[whatchel1]

he mentions Raleigh-Durham



and I know he didnt mention it but what happens if others in the community have old equipment and SD only? We're not talking about a one dish subscriber here. We're talking a community setup. I know when I lived in an apartment they had a 48" dish on the roof for 119 only which was useless even back in 2000 as there were channels on 110 and the locals.

Time for them to get of their assets and upgrade there set up. Then they could leave the 110/119 dish and put up a 2nd dish for the 61.5/72.7 for the rest of the HD customers. I guess they would also have to have some new switch set up too.

 

[Mr Tony]

its unknown if the tenants/home owners pay for the equipment and upgrades or does the reseller?

 

[NCMebane]

Wow. You guys are good. I hardly expected a bunch of responses within the hour. The way it works here is that basic service, about 75 channels, is incorporated into the HOA dues. Anything beyond that, you pay for, but at discounted rates. AT250, which I have, for example, is $27.99 mo. You cannot buy the receivers; they must be rented. The first one is free. Beyond that, $7 a pop. HD is $10 extra; Platinum is $10 extra. I can't complain about the rates.

I've been here for two years. They were passing out VIP211s for non-DVR equipment even then. The development has been here for only 4 years or so; don't know whether VIP class receivers are the norm.

I have e-mailed (for starters) Beyond and asked if they have any plans to upgrade and, if so, when, asking for a date definite. If not, I asked if I could buy a 1000.4 for use at my personal residence to access the 18 missing channels and still remain a Beyond customer at their rates, as opposed to Dish's retail rates. As Dish continues to move HDs to 72.7, it seems it'll only get worse.

The setup here is odd, in that this is FTTH community. The FTTH was built by Connexions Technologies, which has a master contract with the developer that lasts for 10 years. It's about half up. Connexions gets to CHOOSE providers. So...they have chosen Beyond (and therefore Dish) for video, CenturyTel for high-speed Internet and phone service. (Internet is included in HOA dues.) After 10 years, we own the infrastructure and can negotiate with anyone we want as an HOA, I believe, but have to live with this for about 5 more years.

Again...THANKS to all of you. I think I have enough to pursue this and see what happens. I'm not beyond moving from e-mail, where I told the CSR who receives to bump it up immediately, to finding the CEO at some point and harassing him or her.

 

[Mr Tony]

Since the "community" hands out the receivers you might want to ask them a couple questions. The answers they give would help with options
-What model receivers do they give out if a home owner only wants SD?
-are there 3 dishes set up and if so how big?

If they give out say 211's as a minimum and 3 dishes then they could move the 110 & 119 dish over to 72 & 77 and you guys would be all set (well except everyone would have to do a check switch on the receivers to be able to see 61.5, 72, 77).
If they give out like 301/311, 625 etc then it would have to stay as is.

If you use a D1000.4 I dont see why you couldnt stay on their rate structure (sounds like they get a commercial rate discount) since all you're doing is switching the dish for you.

 

[NCMebane]

Iceberg, you've been great. Thank you.
On a side note, I'm a BC grad. #1 in most recent college hockey poll, knock on wood. Looking to repeat

 

[Mr Tony]

NC
Has there been any update from the community setup?

 

[TheForce]

I've been getting calls, letters and e-mail about this for over a month. I have an HD1000.4 dish aimed properly as well as an auxillary 28" dish for added signal on 61.5 because when I set up this system the 1000.4 61.5 signal was very weak.

I have a VIP722 and a VIP 722K with the 77/72/61.5 EA. Why do they keep calling telling me my equipment is out of date and they want to send someone out to change it or I will lose my HD channels?

Finally I asked the last guy who called Monday to make a note on my file that I don't need an upgrade. The messages and calls have stopped.

 

[NCMebane]

Success!

NC
Has there been any update from the community setup?

I have to acknowledge that I am amazed. Sent e-mails to both Beyond Communications and Connexions Technology (the latter being the infrastructure provider of the FTTH to the development) the day after you responded. Two days ago...around March 4...voila...ALL of the missing channels appeared. No one ever responded to my e-mails, nor has anyone even tried to claim bragging rights for a quick response and solution, a solution I certainly did not anticipate any time soon, if at all. I was rather thinking that we would have to wait until the 10-year contract was up like in the old days with cable company local franchise renewals and try to incorporate the issue into the negotiations. In any event, the community's contract has 3-4 years to go. So imagine my surprise that, within a couple of weeks, I now have all of the missing HD channels I referenced. I have always had channel 9900 (congratulations, you have a dish 500), but I now have a new channel 9901 that did not exist before that says: "Congratulations! You are pointed at the 129 orbital location."

Thanks again for everything. I am curious as to what they did...added Eastern Arc and plugged 61.5 into it?

 

[DishTechPA]

Probably added a 1000.2 and added 61.5 to it which all of your national hd would be coming from 129 and your hd locals are coming from 61.5. Since the 1000.2 will work with mpeg2 receivers.