Super Dish or Not?

[Hawkeyee]

Ok I have a 811 receiver and I get my off air locals fine, but now they are also avaliable on Sat if I get the Super Dish installed. I really do not need my locals for I get them off air , but it is free upgrade for me. I just found out this Super Dish is 36" wide, that is huge! I was also told that they really do not like to put the super dish on the house because of the size of the dish so they prefer to put it on a pole in the yard.

My question is simple do you think the super dish will be needed in the future, when they add more HD channels? If not I would never even consider puting that big of an eye sore in my yard or house. I personally think if people in the future will be forced to switch to the Big Dish for more HD a lot of people will be going to Direct TV.

 

[RBBrittain]

Hard to say, but I doubt it will work out that way. Though the SuperDish was first conceived for HD, it ended up being used for small-market locals and certain internationals. It also poses its own technical issues besides mere size:

(a) It uses only DishPro LNBs, making existing legacy switch installations useless.
(b) It requires different LNBs depending on the location of the FSS satellite (105 or 121) and the "type" or design of the SuperDish (there are two different designs).
(c) Because it covers three satellite positions, even single-receiver installs require one of the two DishPro multi-receiver switches--the DP34 (most common) or the DPP44.
(d) Fine-tuning its aim is very important because the FSS signal is weaker (which is why the SuperDish is so big).
(e) Signal strength on one of the FSS satellites (I think it's 105) in some of the more northerly markets has been sub-par, though reportedly a new satellite should solve that problem.

Of course, it's hard to say what E* will end up doing, especially if Congress orders an end to the "two-dish solution", which is now considered likely. Other solutions, such as tighter compression on spotbeams or making 148/157 the West Coast equivalent of 110/119, are now thought more likely than moving HD to the SuperDish. But it all depends on what services are offered where in the future; I doubt even Charlie knows the answer to that one right now.