Some ??? from a potential customer

[jsq]

Hello, I am new to this forum. I have been reading on another forum about dish, and most seemed to like it. Now that I have been thumbing through some of these threads, I am wondering if I should switch to dish. A few questions that I have are.

I would have a 4 t.v set up. 2 HD and 2 Standard. One HD with DVR and the other without. I understand that I could run 2 standard T.V's from the HD boxes, but would a wire have to be run from the box to the standard T.V.'s?? That would be tough in my house. I do have cable running to every room in the house, but I don't think that I could run new from box to other T.V's.

I live in North eastern PA, right on the border of NJ, NY, and PA. We have cablevision, which is weird, because we live in PA. The next town over, (5 min away,) is serviced by a cable company called Blue Ridge Cable. We used to live there and had their service. With BR cable, we received 2 sets of locals. NYC locals, and Wilkes Barre Sranton locals. It made it nice to receive PA news, and sports teams considering that is were we live, but we also liked receiving NYC locals. Would Dish let us receive the 2 sets of locals? Another big reason for both sets of locals, is NY has Giants and Jets Football, so they are the only games we get to watch every Sunday. When we had PA locals, we also got Eagles and Steelers, plus they also ran a lot of double headers, which you got to see other games also. NY is pretty much just Giants and Jets.

Is it one wire running from Dish to box, or do they have to run a second, for the dual tuner ?

Do you get a 30 day trial, even if you sign the 2 year contract?

Sorry so many questions, but I like to make sure before I get stuck with something. Thank you for any help...

 

[brownover]

Hello, I am new to this forum. I have been reading on another forum about dish, and most seemed to like it. Now that I have been thumbing through some of these threads, I am wondering if I should switch to dish. A few questions that I have are.

I would have a 4 t.v set up. 2 HD and 2 Standard. One HD with DVR and the other without. I understand that I could run 2 standard T.V's from the HD boxes, but would a wire have to be run from the box to the standard T.V.'s?? That would be tough in my house. I do have cable running to every room in the house, but I don't think that I could run new from box to other T.V's.

I live in North eastern PA, right on the border of NJ, NY, and PA. We have cablevision, which is weird, because we live in PA. The next town over, (5 min away,) is serviced by a cable company called Blue Ridge Cable. We used to live there and had their service. With BR cable, we received 2 sets of locals. NYC locals, and Wilkes Barre Sranton locals. It made it nice to receive PA news, and sports teams considering that is were we live, but we also liked receiving NYC locals. Would Dish let us receive the 2 sets of locals? Another big reason for both sets of locals, is NY has Giants and Jets Football, so they are the only games we get to watch every Sunday. When we had PA locals, we also got Eagles and Steelers, plus they also ran a lot of double headers, which you got to see other games also. NY is pretty much just Giants and Jets.

Is it one wire running from Dish to box, or do they have to run a second, for the dual tuner ?

Do you get a 30 day trial, even if you sign the 2 year contract?

Sorry so many questions, but I like to make sure before I get stuck with something. Thank you for any help...

This should answer your questions.1. Existing cable running to each room should work. You may have to change the connections, but it will work. Since the installer will not have to run wire, he could do this for you
2. You will get one set of locals.
3. There will be one cable to each receiver that will operate both tuners using a seperator at the back of the receiver.
4. No 30 day free trial.

 

[Laddyboy]

No 30-day free trial as a general rule. It's more like 3 days usually. I think my agreement was 3-days.

Only one set of locals for whatever DMA in which you reside. That may include stations from different cities if they are in the same DMA.

With the new receivers, likely a 722 and 222 based on your needs, only one line from the sat dish to each of the receivers. A separator is used to connect the line to the double tuners of each receiver.

There must be a line from each of the receivers back to the other SD TV. They often backfeed to the second TV from the receiver using the same line that came in from the satellite. Somewhere there must be a line that splits and goes to the second TV. If your house is already wired and you have a central junction, they may use this. They often run cable on the outside and then go through the outer wall. If you want an elegant solution, you'll likely either need to run the cable yourself or be prepared to hire someone to do it the way you want. Installers don't get apid very much and can't spend all day running and fishing cable.

 

[garys]

In PA you will either get two dishes, one pointed for 110 and 119 sat locations with a second dish pointed at 61.5 or you could get the new 1000.4 dish for what Dish terms as the Eastern Arc (EA) giving you 61.5; 72 and 77 sat locations (since both receiver will be HD, you will possibly get the EA dish. Dish can only give you the locals for your dma, since you are 5 minutes outside of Milford, you will get NYC HD (which is abc, cbs, nbs, fox and cw channels) and sd channels only. Scranton/Wilkes Barre currenly only has WNEP up in HD, so you may not want just the abc in HD. It is also possible to put up an ota antenna to pick up Scranton and receive their HD channels at no additional charge. You can go to AntennaWeb or TV Fool - Home to see what you have to do or if you can get Scranton ota where you are. The HD/digital channels can be scanned into the Dish receiver and will have both guide and dvr functionality but will only be with the HD output and not the second tv unless you want to wait till next month to see if you can get the new HD models which will give you the ota to both tv's. The coax run for the second tv must be run for the receiver location, but there is a way to back feed your existing setup. There are others here much better suited than I to expain how to do this.
You should be able to get Dish Pro Plus equipment which will give you one line to each receiver so you should have no problem there.
You have only 3 days to decide if you want to keep Dish or you will have to pay the early temination fee (figure about $10 a month for the remaining time on your 2 year contract. You can do away with committing to the contract, but that means you have to buy your equipment yourself, install it yourself or pay someone to do it and also pay $90 to activate your account.

If you have more questions, just ask. Please note that I am in Greentown and very close to you.

 

[jsq]

First off thanks for all of the answers, but of course they brought up a few more questions.
Do I have to ask for a single dish, as this is what I would like to have VS 2 dishes mounted on the house. Are there pro's and con's to a single dish vs a 2 dish system? Will the NY ABC, NBC, FOX, NY locals be in HD? Do I have to ask for Dish Pro Plus Equipment? How does an OVTA antenna work with the Dish. Do they install it on the dish, or do I have to buy one and install myself? What are the new HD models coming out next month? Should I wait until then? On the DVR box, if someone is watching on the second T.V., does that do away with my ability to record 2 programs at once? If so, do they charge extra to put a standard receiver on that T.V. instead of running it off of the DVR? If I went that route, can I still get the larger Hard drive 722, or would they send me back to the next model down?
I should be good with the hookup, as I do have a central spot where all of the cables are split with cablevision. It will be great if they can backfeed the signal to the standard T.V.'s. Does back feeding through the line lower the signal strength? I remember when I had dish about 7 years ago, and they didn't have any contracts. Three days is not a lot of time.
Gary, what locals do you get in Greentown? I live in Matamoras, and am stuck with cablevison. The software they use is terrible. Makes the guide and menu's painfully slow and useless. No search function and no way to customize the guide. HD picture is not very good either. Able to live with it at the promo price, but when they jacked my price up over $40 per month, it's time to say goodbye.

Again, thanks for everyones help...

 

[garys]

Usually which dish you get depends on your line of sight, if all are open you should be able to ask for the 1000.4 for the EA setup. Only pro to using two dishes is to gain a better signal strength, but in this area that is usually not a problem. Only con to the EA dish is that it is new and the installers may not be that familiar with pointing it. They could still do a good job but it may take them a little longer doing it. You can ask for Dish Pro Plus but they may try to charge you should you need DPP44 switch (with 1 or 2 receivers, you shouldn't have to worry about it as you should not need it). If they want to install Dish Pro lnb's would just mean that two coax lines have to be run for dual tuner receivers instead of one when a DPP lnb is used. Matamoras is in the NYC dma and that is the set of locals you will get, you will get the entire sd lineup that Dish has and ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CW in HD as well (all locals are one cost reguardless of whether you can get the HD ones or not). OTA just needs to be connected to the proper in on the receiver and you will get the digital/HD feeds it picks up, you will not get analog. Installing the ota is usually up to the installer, you will probably have to pay them to set it up for you, but you should check to see if you will get any ota at your home. You can check at AntennaWeb or TV Fool - Home and supply your info, if you can get any ota, you will be given info on the type of antenna needed and the direction it would need ot be pointed. You should still be able to get a 722 even if you need a second receiver, and a model 722k will be introduced in December, major difference would be ota would be available for tv2 output and having a seperate ota tuner for tv1 (allows you to record two ota channels at the same time, current models will only do one.)
Note: Greentown being in Pike Co as are you gets NYC dma for locals (only county in PA that is in NY dma). Very good search and menu and guide can be customized as to how many channels show at once, whether or not you want tv picture while using guide, favorites can be set up and you can also use locks as a way to hide locked channels from the guides and searches.

 

[jsq]

Gary, just one more quick question. I realize you can lose signal in a heavy rainstorm, but what about snow storms? If you get 12 to 18" of snow, do you lose signal for most of the day? I do realize that you have to keep the dish itself clear of snow and Ice, but I am a little worried about the storms themselves.

 

[garys]

Depends on the type of snow, dry non-sticky type doesn't effect the signal enough unless it gets too deep. Wet sticky snow does more to signal loss, cleaning off the dish brings the signal right back. People have used non-stick coating spray or dish heaters to help prevent loss of this type. Only times I heard of when loss was due to amount of snow is when the dish is mounted where the snow can accumulate to the point of burying the dish. Mounting the dish at a spot where 2 feet or more space is below the dish really cuts down of this type of weather causing the loss of signal. I usually have longer losses during heavy downpours since nothing to do to bring the signal back any sooner.

 

[jsq]

Going to dishpointer, I would have no problems whith line of site for the 110 and 119, but the 61.5 I have some trees that are not on my property in the way. Is there any other alternatives?

 

[garys]

The dish pointed at 61.5 does not need to near the other dish, hopefully you can find a line of sight somewhere on your property. My brother recently added 61.5 to his setup and that dish is 75 ft. from his dish 500 and has no problems. Also note that the 61.5 dish is pointed a lot higher the the dish 500 in the northeast.

 

[pfan1981]

I wouldn't worry about snow, I live near Green Bay "the frozen tundra" and haven't had a problem in 3 years.

I would get two hd dual tuners. You would have HD at the immediate TVs and these receivers would talk to your other two TVs with standard def.

That's our set up and we love it!

We have a vip622 and vip612.

pfan

 

[jsq]

Thanks for everyones help. I called today and am getting a 722 and another HD receiver to run 4 T.V.s. They are coming out on Wensday morning. I'm a little nervous about my son being on the 722 with us. I hope he wont screw up any of our recordings. If we are recording 2 things at once, he would have to be watching one of them, correct? If I got a regular receiver for the 2 standard def t.v's, would that be an extra lease fee on that receiver?