A Little Background History
A little over a year ago I purchased the HR20 HD-DVR. The tech, at the time, moved my DirecTV (D*) TiVo DVR to the master living room and installed my HR20 in the den. He said my current dish was fine for HD viewing but stated that in the future, I would need a newer dish. The tech gave me the dish (and I stored in my garage) to keep just in case I ever needed it. Since I had HD channels (Channel numbers in the 70’s) I was happy. So was he because he didn’t have to swap the dish, I guess.
News Flash!
D* announces new HD programming (real actual channels). I start investigating and realize my dish doesn’t have a B-band Converter. So I call D* to ask them what I need to get the new channels. They said all I needed were the converters. I begin to tell them about the dish in storage, in my garage. I pull out the paper to describe it and it says it’s a Ka/Ku Multi-Satellite Dish Antenna. D* then tells me I should have had this installed a long time ago, instead I tell them I have the standard dish to which they schedule my HD dish upgrade.
The Install
This weekend the D* installation tech comes by with the wrong service order. He tells me the service order was for a new drop. I said it was fine and that I just needed to upgrade my dish and that I had the new dish in my garage. He took one look at it and said he had NEVER seen this dish configuration before, he said this must be an old dish and that the new ones have the two LNBs combined, not separated like mine. We have since rescheduled and he will be bringing me the dish for HD.
My Questions
A little over a year ago I purchased the HR20 HD-DVR. The tech, at the time, moved my DirecTV (D*) TiVo DVR to the master living room and installed my HR20 in the den. He said my current dish was fine for HD viewing but stated that in the future, I would need a newer dish. The tech gave me the dish (and I stored in my garage) to keep just in case I ever needed it. Since I had HD channels (Channel numbers in the 70’s) I was happy. So was he because he didn’t have to swap the dish, I guess.
News Flash!
D* announces new HD programming (real actual channels). I start investigating and realize my dish doesn’t have a B-band Converter. So I call D* to ask them what I need to get the new channels. They said all I needed were the converters. I begin to tell them about the dish in storage, in my garage. I pull out the paper to describe it and it says it’s a Ka/Ku Multi-Satellite Dish Antenna. D* then tells me I should have had this installed a long time ago, instead I tell them I have the standard dish to which they schedule my HD dish upgrade.
The Install
This weekend the D* installation tech comes by with the wrong service order. He tells me the service order was for a new drop. I said it was fine and that I just needed to upgrade my dish and that I had the new dish in my garage. He took one look at it and said he had NEVER seen this dish configuration before, he said this must be an old dish and that the new ones have the two LNBs combined, not separated like mine. We have since rescheduled and he will be bringing me the dish for HD.
My Questions
- After looking at the pictures of the owner’s manual, what dish do I have? (it's hard to tell, but there are some hyperlinks in the text above)
- Will the dish that was in my garage work in getting me the new HD channels?
- Is this one recommended over the newer (combined LNB?) dishes? I just want to make sure I get the best one.
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