Receiver must be connected to receive OTA?

[RedSavina]

During the last Super Bowl I came across a problem with my 622 that I have not seen anyone else discuss. I recently read a post in another thread that reminded me of the problem.

For the Super Bowl, I took my receiver to a friend's place with the intent of watching the HD OTA broadcast on a bigscreen. What I discovered is that the receiver needs to be connected to a satellite in order to receive OTA signals. (We eventually got it to work by connecting to his Dish satellite for the receiver boot cycle.)

As far as I know, this was not a violation of any law. My friends and I enjoyed the same broadcast on a large screen in HD (OTA) that we would have watched on several smaller screens from various sources.

Does anyone know why this is the case? It seems rather odd. While I grant that this is not a high-incident scenario, it seemed like a deliberate design (would have been just as easy to allow OTA in the absence of satellite signal).

Cheers,
Red

 

[VinceT3]

I wish it would always allow you to watch ota .. if i lose my dish durring the hurricane and I can't watch anything until they get a new one up, I'm going to be irritated to say the least...

 

[boba]

Dish subsidizes the cost of the receiver so they protect thier investment by requiring a satellite subscription so you can't just disconnect the receiver and use it as an OTA receiver. For DISH this has been true since their first HD receiver the 6000.

 

[RedSavina]

Dish subsidizes the cost of the receiver so they protect thier investment by requiring a satellite subscription so you can't just disconnect the receiver and use it as an OTA receiver. For DISH this has been true since their first HD receiver the 6000.

How do you figure? If I purchase the receiver from any of the third party retailers, how is it subsidized - as in for not-new-customers?

I don't have any idea what the real numbers are, but from reading 622 threads for several months I believe there is a significant portion of existing customers who opted for the 622. I wonder how many bought the receiver somewhere BESIDES from E*?