Some channels not available in HD on Eastern Arc?

[David Taylor]

Guys,

I've got a Dish guy that just showed up to replace my rusted pole. He said I might get a better line of sight with Eastern Arc, but that there were a few channels that might not be in HD like some Cinemax and BBCA...or so he thought. He called and talked to a supervisor and that's what the supervisor told him. Is this true? Regardless, we decided to stay with Western Arc. Mistake? Thoughts?

 

[thomasjk]

NO I don't believe that is true. I'm on EA and BBCA is in HD. Its possible he was referring to you locals but even that is not likely.

 

[David Taylor]

That is good to hear. I watch BBCA regularly (Top Gear FTW!). Anyway, he just came back to the door and said he really needs to do Eastern Arc for line of sight reasons (even though I was getting WA for 10 years...). Hopefully I won't notice anything negative from the switch. If someone knows something I don't, please respond ASAP! Thanks!

 

[Mr Tony]

I think the only national channel on WA only is Ion West. There were a couple threads about that when folks switched to EA

 

[Mr Tony]

BBC America HD is on 72W TP3 according to the list
http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?search=dnsatsdn61dn72dn77&sub=true

 

[David Taylor]

This may be a silly question, but all of my DVR timers will still work as-is on my 612s and 722 right? In other words, the receivers are smart enough not to get confused by the switch from western to eastern arc, correct?

 

[Mr Tony]

since the channel numbers don't change by switching from WA to EA you will be fine

I assume you had HD locals before it switched to EA? If so you should be fine (unless you had some weird timer that recorded the SD version of a local. On Eastern Arc if there is a HD feed of a local that is all that there is. There is no SD local unless Dish doesnt carry the HD version)

 

[dvrexpander]

Guys,

I've got a Dish guy that just showed up to replace my rusted pole. He said I might get a better line of sight with Eastern Arc, but that there were a few channels that might not be in HD like some Cinemax and BBCA...or so he thought. He called and talked to a supervisor and that's what the supervisor told him. Is this true? Regardless, we decided to stay with Western Arc. Mistake? Thoughts?

There is no "Might be a better line of sight" it either is a LOS with proper clearance (5 degrees) around each sat from moving obstructions like trees or it isn't. Sounds like this guy didn't know what he was talking about but now without standing outside and looking myself there could be tree growth into that 5 degree range around a few of the sats or just one of the western arc since it was installed. See this is where inspections come into play and he may be trying to ensure he doesn't fail one but then again he should have pointed it out either way.

 

[KazooGuy]

I was moved from WA to EA a couple of weeks ago because DISH said I needed to be on the EA after having been on the WA since 2003, and I have not noticed anything different and my timers were fine. Other than the signal levels sucking!

 

[garys]

I think the only national channel on WA only is Ion West. There were a couple threads about that when folks switched to EA

And neither the east or west feed is in HD.

 

[Tampa8]

There is no "Might be a better line of sight"

Not in my experiences. We (the Installer and myself) had to decide between the WA and EA - WA has a good LOS - but as pointed out by the installer a tree not on my property at some point could interfere over time though not soon. EA was in the clear but the DISH had to be more to the front of the house. That's just one example of "might be a better line of sight." My Sister In Law had a good line of sight to the WA, however it was pointed to where a new Downtown project is being built and the Installer was afraid a building high enough could block 129, so they went with the EA. (Like myself it meant putting the DISH in a more visible spot.

I can imagine many times you could have one direction that meets specs for an install, but another direction is even more in the clear.

 

[Tampa8]

There are no channels on the WA in HD that are not on the EA, locals and Internationals excluded. Timers won't be affected. Sometimes I get USA on the WA, sometimes on the EA (Same for HBO and a couple of others) so I know for sure there is no effect on timers.

 

[David Taylor]

Not in my experiences. We (the Installer and myself) had to decide between the WA and EA - WA has a good LOS - but as pointed out by the installer a tree not on my property at some point could interfere over time though not soon. EA was in the clear but the DISH had to be more to the front of the house. That's just one example of "might be a better line of sight." My Sister In Law had a good line of sight to the WA, however it was pointed to where a new Downtown project is being built and the Installer was afraid a building high enough could block 129, so they went with the EA. (Like myself it meant putting the DISH in a more visible spot.

I can imagine many times you could have one direction that meets specs for an install, but another direction is even more in the clear.

Yeah, that was basically what we had to do. We could have left it on WA, but the pole he brought to replace mine was a good deal shorter and that brought trees into play. Of course, the trees would likely be in play in a few years anyway even if he had installed a longer pole. EA had much more clearance from trees if mounted on the house so we just mounted it on the roof and didn't bother with another pole. Back when my pole was originally installed 10+ years ago there was no EA option, so that was why we did what we did with the pole. It was the only place on the property that would work. If EA had been available 10 years ago, I'm sure they would've gone that route.

Anyway, everything seemed fine TV wise last night. Signal levels are good (over 70 on one of the SATs) and have had no rain fade (rained last night). So far so good....except that the guy was still installing when Bob's Burgers came on, so my DVR missed it. :-(

 

[dwarren2]

I was moved from WA to EA a couple of weeks ago because DISH said I needed to be on the EA after having been on the WA since 2003, and I have not noticed anything different and my timers were fine. Other than the signal levels sucking!

When I was switched a few years ago, the tech told me that the signal levels would be lower, but that was OK. I haven't had any reception problems.

 

[David Taylor]

Oh, and I got one of the slick black dishes that I've seen here and there. I guess those are specifically for EA? Or are all new Dish dishes black?

 

[David Taylor]

One more question: why is my new EA setup only connected to two satellites instead of 3 like my WA setup? I assume that is correct. Do they just need less bandwidth due to MPEG4?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Eastern Arc looks at 61.5 72.7 and 77.

However looking at your DISH it looks as though its only looking at 2 satellites because 61.5 and 72.7 are really close together.

 

[David Taylor]

Ok, cool. I thought it might be something like that. That's a bit confusing. Everything online talks about 61.5, 72.7 and 77, but looking on my receiver I only see 2 SATs. Of course, I was getting all my channels so I figured SOMETHING was up. Thanks for the info. You da man.

 

[LER]

I got a black one for WA here in Austin last summer, so they all are black, FWIW.

 

[David Taylor]

Looks nice...but the bird crap will stand out even more than on my gray dish. And it looked camo!