I've read this site occasionally, but this is my first actual post. I'm not a sat expert as you will see, but I do understand a few important things. Here's my situation: I have a Dish setup (standard, not HD) with one dish (twin LNB) to get 110 and 119 (I'm in the northern Rockies--think rural). I have a second dish (dual LNB hardware but it only has one actual LNB on it) to get 61.5 (for TV Japan). Both dishes are the round models.
I got a letter from Dish saying that they needed to "upgrade my satellite antenna" to keep getting TV Japan. A call to Dish revealed that they want me to receive from 118 instead of 61.5. The installer has cancelled twice so far (I also had mucho trouble with them when I first signed up in '05) and the person answering their phone didn't know exactly how they were planning to handle it (big surprise there ). However, I get the sense that they want to re-point the second dish. That seems silly, since I've already got another dish pointing in that general direction.
My questions: Can I receive 110, 118, and 119 from one dish? (I've always hoped to be able to ditch the second dish anyway.) Can I do it with my current round dish, or do I need to get a 500+ or 1000+? (I'm thinking I would need a different dish.) Is there somebody at Dish I should call to discuss it? It's *another* two weeks before the installer is allegedly going to come, so I have an opportunity to work this to my advantage. I'd probably be willing to pay for the installation instead of getting it for free if I could get a more favorable setup, although I would hope to avoid getting locked into a multi-year contract regardless of how it's handled. Alternately, I think I might be able to do the setup myself (with some help--I think my dad installed his own dish a while back) if I had a safe way (don't know if eBay counts!) of ensuring I could get the right hardware.
Other important considerations: 1. Locals finally became available very recently, and I wouldn't want to lose them. 2. I imagine I'll upgrade to HD service at some point in the future. 3. Whether I do the installation myself or have someone else do it, I've read horror stories about people getting charged forever for alleged failure to return equipment to Dish (assuming I could get down to a single dish) because Dish doesn't keep track of anything. I wouldn't want to hand it over to a third-party installer, especially knowing how flaky this one is.
Also, does anyone know when the Japanese programming will officially be axed from 61.5?
P.S. I have a single 322 receiver and will probably eventually want a second receiver.
I got a letter from Dish saying that they needed to "upgrade my satellite antenna" to keep getting TV Japan. A call to Dish revealed that they want me to receive from 118 instead of 61.5. The installer has cancelled twice so far (I also had mucho trouble with them when I first signed up in '05) and the person answering their phone didn't know exactly how they were planning to handle it (big surprise there ). However, I get the sense that they want to re-point the second dish. That seems silly, since I've already got another dish pointing in that general direction.
My questions: Can I receive 110, 118, and 119 from one dish? (I've always hoped to be able to ditch the second dish anyway.) Can I do it with my current round dish, or do I need to get a 500+ or 1000+? (I'm thinking I would need a different dish.) Is there somebody at Dish I should call to discuss it? It's *another* two weeks before the installer is allegedly going to come, so I have an opportunity to work this to my advantage. I'd probably be willing to pay for the installation instead of getting it for free if I could get a more favorable setup, although I would hope to avoid getting locked into a multi-year contract regardless of how it's handled. Alternately, I think I might be able to do the setup myself (with some help--I think my dad installed his own dish a while back) if I had a safe way (don't know if eBay counts!) of ensuring I could get the right hardware.
Other important considerations: 1. Locals finally became available very recently, and I wouldn't want to lose them. 2. I imagine I'll upgrade to HD service at some point in the future. 3. Whether I do the installation myself or have someone else do it, I've read horror stories about people getting charged forever for alleged failure to return equipment to Dish (assuming I could get down to a single dish) because Dish doesn't keep track of anything. I wouldn't want to hand it over to a third-party installer, especially knowing how flaky this one is.
Also, does anyone know when the Japanese programming will officially be axed from 61.5?
P.S. I have a single 322 receiver and will probably eventually want a second receiver.
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