Some Dish Info

[boogerbear]

Fortunately my wife has been very good about Lifetime's demise on Dish. I asked her if this would make her want to switch over to D* and she gave me a short quick no. She said it was really no big deal - she likes the channels but wouldn't miss them.

We are getting Halmark movie channel on 187, that should help some. I would much rather watch old Hallmark movies then what was on lifetime movies.

I was thinking about upgrading to Hd, but after reading all of this, I think I will wait a while longer. My 32in screen, with my 510 receiver is not looking so bad right now.

 

[samatha6]

We are getting Halmark movie channel on 187, that should help some. I would much rather watch old Hallmark movies then what was on lifetime movies.

I was thinking about upgrading to Hd, but after reading all of this, I think I will wait a while longer. My 32in screen, with my 510 receiver is not looking so bad right now.

There are other options.. You can always buy a HD TV with built in tuner and get all the OTA HD right now. In many ways, the OTA content is way better then alot of the HD stations coming down from dish.. Voom repeats alot of their programming.. In fact, much of the stuff on HDNET, HDNET movies etc.. is redundant and not very good as far as I am concerned.. I had the regular HD pack and found it not even worth the 10 dollars a month..

The first step is to see what kind of antenna you need and if you have line of site issues... Signal strength is more of an issue.. and direction with antenna placement. I am lucky I have a clear view of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque.. I just bought a cheap indoor antenna and I get all the OTA digital stations.. Unless Charlie breaks these HD packs down to size.. price wise.. I am not interested. The way it stands it looks like another 20 bucks a month with the new mpeg4 receiver.

Go here to see what kind of antenna you need and if you are in postition to receive OTA HD.. http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

 

[Stargazer]

I think it would be a great service for $20 a month. It is simple and cheap. This would be great for someone on a budget.

 

[samatha6]

I think it would be a great service for $20 a month. It is simple and cheap. This would be great for someone on a budget.

On top of the AT120 that brings my total to 70 dollars.. I pay 50 now and get all the OTA HD free.. I don't see paying 30 percent more to get charlies HD content. I still think the major networks have better HD content then the HD channels on Dish. The only one I would be interested in is UHD. I would do a la carte for that. Thats all I am saying.. its all or nothing now with Dish on HD.. At least before you could do HD pack at 10 dollars. OR add Voom for another 5. Now your basically doubling the rate for the entry level HD from 10 dollars to 20 dollars. I really think Dish will sell more if they unbundle this HD more. I am hoping that the current bronze/silver etc.. HD packs are not set in stone.

 

[boogerbear]

Signal strenght

The first step is to see what kind of antenna you need and if you have line of site issues... Signal strength is more of an issue..

I live at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountians. Beautiful view, clean water, great air, I love the snow blowing off the mountian, but the signal strenght just plain sucks. I was happy to get my regular locals from Dish because they are always clear.
But thanks for the advice.

 

[samatha6]

The first step is to see what kind of antenna you need and if you have line of site issues... Signal strength is more of an issue..

I live at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountians. Beautiful view, clean water, great air, I love the snow blowing off the mountian, but the signal strenght just plain sucks. I was happy to get my regular locals from Dish because they are always clear.
But thanks for the advice.

Well with Digital OTA.. line of site is a pretty big factor. Thats why people are going higher on their roofs and using bigger antennas. Generally speaking, higher and bigger the better for Digital. When analog broadcasts go off the air there are going to be alot of folks upset. Mainly because many who can get half crappy analog signals now.. won't get anything with digital.. with digital... you got to get about 70 percent by my figures to lock in. So many areas that can do analog now will be dead. I can hear the outcry now.

 

[JohnC]

My Digital is Better Than My Analog

Well with Digital OTA.. line of site is a pretty big factor. Thats why people are going higher on their roofs and using bigger antennas. Generally speaking, higher and bigger the better for Digital. When analog broadcasts go off the air there are going to be alot of folks upset. Mainly because many who can get half crappy analog signals now.. won't get anything with digital.. with digital... you got to get about 70 percent by my figures to lock in. So many areas that can do analog now will be dead. I can hear the outcry now.

My experience is completely different. I am 62 miles from the Atlanta Digital Antennas and receive half crappy analog but perfect digital reception on all of the Atlanta HD stations except NBC DT 10. With my ancient 6000, anything higher than a 47% signal strength is perfect. I had perfect reception of DT 10 until about 4 months ago, but with some apparent multi-path because the signal strength fluctuated from 70% down to about 58% every 4 seconds. About 4 months ago the multi-path (or whatever) became worse so that most of the time the signal goes from 70% to 0% about every 4 seconds. However, about 20% of the time the signal is rock solid at 70% with a perfect signal. I tried a Motorola OTA receiver and obtained the same results. Except for multi-path problems, digital reception for me is much better than analog.

 

[Stargazer]

Looks like there's going to be many people looking to get cable or satellite when analog OTA locals gets shut off. There's so many trees and hills here that I do not see how we will accomplish line of site.

 

[mike123abc]

One of the big problems in smaller markets is that the the stations are using a light bulb for the transmitter. I would be happy if my stations would at least get up to 25% of the licensed power. One station here is at about 3% of their licensed digital power.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Yup - I'm thinking that they will use their existing high power expensive analog transmitter for digital. We're not going to see them swap until the big day.