Some dish wisdom please

[racerx]

OK all you experts out there, I have another question for y'all. I am in SE Texas, about 90 miles northwest of Houston. After some fits and false starts, I have finally gotten scheduled for an upgrade to a (leased) 622. My current situation is this--a 301 and a 6000 receiver (3 years old) and 2 dishes (also 3years old) that receive 61.5, 110, and 119 very nicely, with an OTA attenna for the local HD CBS (some other HD locals from the Big City are on 110 --that's phase 2). One of the dishes I know is a 500, the other I'm not sure of, but both are on the roof with wiring through the attic and down through some walls behind the HDTV--an install done by the local custom AV shop that even my too damn picky for her own good wife likes. Well the knucklehead Dish subcontractor installer wants to put a third dish on the corner of the house and run more wires under the eaves and through a wall and along the baseboard, defeating the purpose of the hidden wiring. A CSR at Dish told me that all new dish customers have 3 dishes on their roofs, which I find very hard to believe. So my questions to the experts are these: Can a person get by without 3 freaking dishes on his roof, i.e., can I use the existing dishes with the 622? If not, would replacing one of them with another dish be a good idea? If so, which one? Will Dish let me do the install myself (and by that I mean hire the AV guys in town)? I've gotten 3 different answers from CSRs, and I'm about to go postal on their asses. How would this best be handled? Can you anticipate any of the objections I am sure to hear from the sub or Dish?

Thanks a ton

X

 

[boba]

An educated guess is you are looking at 110 & 119 with a dish 500 and you have a second dish aimed at 61.5. This is all you should need for the current HD packages. If you needed a 4th satellite location it would be 129 which would be handled with a dish 1000, this would replace your dish 500. No new wiring should be needed.

 

[toto]

129 HD offering is mirrored on 61.5. So you may be able to drop to 1 dish or keep what you have. That would probably be best at your location.

 

[racerx]

OK, an update....

The installer came out and said that the 622 will only work with the Dish 1000. He still only wants to put the 1000 up next to the other 2 antennae. I told him no thanks.

Tech support at Dish tells me that the 622 uses MPEG 4 technology and that the receiver will not support MPEG 2, which according to her is what the 61.5 satellite broadcasts. She stated that for this reason, a dish 1000 is needed for the 622. Is this the case? There has got to be another way!

Thanks for the input.

X

 

[jimboeau]

Tech support at Dish tells me that the 622 uses MPEG 4 technology and that the receiver will not support MPEG 2, which according to her is what the 61.5 satellite broadcasts. She stated that for this reason, a dish 1000 is needed for the 622. Is this the case? There has got to be another way!

Thanks for the input.

X

She's full of sh*t

 

[racerx]

Yeah, I figured they were both FoS. I am still screwed though--the installer won't do it any other way and I don't want 3 dishes on my roof. Dish CSRs have been useless--they won't even let me request a second different installer to look at things--it's apparently a random process, according to Dish. One local dealer wouldn't agree to do the install because they didn't do the first install. Another has no 622's. WTF is going on with Dish??? Freaking cable is looking better and better.

X,
AKA Ben Tover

 

[dfergie]

Bypass CSR's and go to Tech, request to go to HD Tech and explain...

 

[DWS44]

bypass all of them and send an email to the executive office ceo@echostar.com. Make sure you include a phone number that they can contact you with. They will typically call back in 1-2 days. Explain the morons you've dealt with so far and they will probably help you get it straightened out. FYI...I have the same setup as you do with seperate dish for 61.5, and my 622 is working nicely.

 

[Frank Jr.]

Damn. I hate it when a customer has to go through all that mess. Really doesn't do Dishnetworks reputation any good either,and causes problems with the spouse as well. Do what defergie said, call for a tech. Get an advanced Tech if you can get one, but stand your ground. There should be no reason to re-wire your house and put up a third dish. May need to replace one with a 1000. Obtw like other posters have said the 622 supports both mpeg2 and 4.

 

[boba]

To further clarify all of DISH's SD broadcasting is MPEG2 so the 622 wouldn't be able to pick up anything except the new HD if it wasn't MPEG 2 compatible. With your experience so far I would also suggest CEO@ECHOSTAR.COM but suggest including the threat of leaving for cable if 3 dishes are needed to receive their programming.

 

[Jim5506]

If you have a Dish Pro 500 pointed at 110 and 119 plus another dish pro 500 pointed at 61.5, all you need to do is plug the 622 in and call Dish tech support to get it activated. What type of switch do you have? That might be all you need to upgrade.

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF you have the dish pro plus twin then you would be all set since the switch is built in to the lnb. Just plug the 61.5 dish into the dish pro plus twin and you are good to go, after you run the check switch of course.