Undecided on which service

[dbshadow]

Sorry about the sort of long post. I am about to enter the realm of satellite television. When my wife and I built our house last year we always intended on satellite tv since the cable company never ran the cable down our street, we also only have dial up for our internet access because DSL is not available. Taking that into consideration I have a few questions.

1. I have a line of very mature tress along my south property line which are not on my property and cannot be cut down or trimmed, I have one gap in the trees that if I pole mount a dish next to my deck I have have clear sky from 198 degrees to 229 degrees and from about 29 degrees up, can I receive the satellite signals from both D* or E*? I am in the 44256 zip code.

2. We take family camping trips in our trailer, while watching television is not our primary activity, when the weather is bad, it is a nice diversion for the Kids, Which service is more RV friendly, I don't want to get socked with E*'s $5.00 every time i take a receiver with me camping.

3. When I went to B* B*y this weekend they indicated that they have all of the equipment except the dish and that you have to get professional installation to get the dish, I would like to self install the system and was wondering will either one give you the dish and any required switches to self install?

4. I would like a 3 room system with PVR capabilities in two of the rooms, how many cables would be required to run from the satellite into the house and how many cables would be required to each receiver?

Thank You in advance for the answers.

 

[navychop]

1. You need to see 110 & 119 for E*, and add 101 for D*. You may need to mount on a tower on your roof. Seeing 61.5 would be nice for E* but this may change in a very few months. Seeing all these from OH should normally be easy.
2. I take my E* 301 receiver with me whenever I go RVing. I've never been hit with a $5 fee, or any other fee. Short periods of time with no phone connection are fine. I believe E* has historically been more "RV aware" but now there's not much difference on this score between E* & D*. Use a tripod with the screw in the ground center (bungee & coil).
3. Forget BB, forget the self install. You can have it professionally installed for free- definitely at less cost than doing it yourself. And I can give you a Club Dish card that will save both of us money.
4. This depends upon which receiver you want. And do you want HD? You can get a 942 DVR, which includes HD, and can feed two rooms (second room is SD). This can be feed from the dish with two coax, or using a new gadget they have, one coax. Most two tuner units like the 721 & 942 have required two coax, but now just one is said to suffice. So one coax to the 942, one from the 942 to the second TV (or use S-video, etc). Then get a 322 (or 411 if you can wait) for the third TV, which would need one coax from the dish. Use only good quality RG-6, not "59." There are many options and ways of doing this- we need to know exactly what kind of viewing you want to do (HD?).

"5." I am happy with E*. Today it seems D* compresses and bit starves more, to the point where they are charged with delivering "HD-Lite." So the PQ on E* is better. But this could change in future years. If you MUST have the NFL Sunday Ticket, then D* is your only option. Otherwise, you'd likely be happier with E*. The E* 942 DVR is very highly rated, and "soon" the 962 will be out, which is the MPEG-4 version of the 942.

PM me for more info. This may be my first post here, but I usually hang out at AVS Forum and post there.

 

[boba]

For your zip code a DISH 500 is 231deg. elevation of 31 and a skew of 122.
Directv Phase 3 is 228 degrees 34 elev. and a tilt of 61. From your post Directv may be just barely usable Dish would be out of limits.

 

[dbshadow]

Thank you both for your replies. Will D* or E* come out for free and let me know if they can see the satellites? I would hate to make a commitment without knowing if I can receive service. Also the fee $5.00 dollar fee I was talking about was for a 625 or 322 dual tuner receiver if not connected to a phone line.

Since from boba post it appears that D* is potentially my only choice I have one other question, i have read on several satellite provider sites that D* will only let a new customer have one PVR. I would like to have two PVR's and one Standard Receiver, but still get the installation for free. Do you know if that is possible? I realize that I will probably have to pay for the PVR's.

 

[Jared Twomey]

you could set up the install with either company, and when they come out to do the install... if there is no line of sight, you are under no contract.. your commitment to them starts when the receivers get hooked up and activated...

 

[boba]

You can have as many DVRs from Directv as you are willing to pay for. Rebate for new customer is limited to one DVR. No matter how many DVRs you have with Directv you only pay one $4.99 fee per account, DISH charges $4.98 per DVR.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

You will not get charged for taking a dish and receiver camping. I take a 311 and one 811 all the time. I just have a Dual LNB dish I hit 119 with, it's too much trouble trying to get get both through all the trees.

My neighbor had DirectTV for several years, and switched to Dish back about 8 months ago. He said he wished he had made the move sooner.

You will need a decent tripod to take them on the road, camping World has a few models.

Good luck on your decision.

If you go the everything pack, DVR fees are waved, so you can have 4 of them if you want. I have two SD DVR's and one HD DVR. The kids keep them cranking all the time.

 

[dbshadow]

I called a local installer for E* and was told they would charge me $30.00 to verify line of sight, since they would have to schedule a tech, incur travel time , take time away from another install, etc.

Is this typical? And would I have any charges if I schedule an install and have to cancel once on site because of no line of sight?

Calling E* direct I was told that it is up to the installer if they would charge. I don't want to throw money away if I cannot get service.

 

[korsjs]

1. You need to see 110 & 119 for E*, and add 101 for D*. You may need to mount on a tower on your roof. Seeing 61.5 would be nice for E* but this may change in a very few months. Seeing all these from OH should normally be easy.
2. I take my E* 301 receiver with me whenever I go RVing. I've never been hit with a $5 fee, or any other fee. Short periods of time with no phone connection are fine. I believe E* has historically been more "RV aware" but now there's not much difference on this score between E* & D*. Use a tripod with the screw in the ground center (bungee & coil).
3. Forget BB, forget the self install. You can have it professionally installed for free- definitely at less cost than doing it yourself. And I can give you a Club Dish card that will save both of us money.
4. This depends upon which receiver you want. And do you want HD? You can get a 942 DVR, which includes HD, and can feed two rooms (second room is SD). This can be feed from the dish with two coax, or using a new gadget they have, one coax. Most two tuner units like the 721 & 942 have required two coax, but now just one is said to suffice. So one coax to the 942, one from the 942 to the second TV (or use S-video, etc). Then get a 322 (or 411 if you can wait) for the third TV, which would need one coax from the dish. Use only good quality RG-6, not "59." There are many options and ways of doing this- we need to know exactly what kind of viewing you want to do (HD?).

"5." I am happy with E*. Today it seems D* compresses and bit starves more, to the point where they are charged with delivering "HD-Lite." So the PQ on E* is better. But this could change in future years. If you MUST have the NFL Sunday Ticket, then D* is your only option. Otherwise, you'd likely be happier with E*. The E* 942 DVR is very highly rated, and "soon" the 962 will be out, which is the MPEG-4 version of the 942.

PM me for more info. This may be my first post here, but I usually hang out at AVS Forum and post there.

suppo, asuppo, fso, s1, s3. welcome to the site.

 

[navychop]

DB- Call another installer. I've never heard of one charging for an unsuccessful line of sight. Assuming no charge, you'd be ahead to try DISH first, and then if no luck, try D*. I should have entered your zip to get your LOS, rather than "assume" something, which we all know makes an.........

S6. And thank you.

 

[lvkewlkid]

i have just switched from direcTV to dish network yesterday, i like dish better, i have more channels that I like and some more movie channels, the installer was quick, nice, and knowledgeable. One thing I have noticed with dish network is that the picture quality is much better than direcTV. I also have the 625 and it is great. direcTV customer support never helped us out, or even acted very nice, fortunately, i havent had any problems to warrant a support call with dish network.

 

[dbshadow]

I called another E* installer, who said they had another install in the area on Sunday and would stop and check the line of sight for free, they must of showed up when nobody was home and left a note, no line of sight for E*, D* is probable. It looks like my only choice is D*. I'll let everyone know what ends up happening.

 

[rad]

If you have any interest in HD programming you might want to wait and see what D*'s going to be doing with their new satellites and MPEG4 receivers. Rumor is that they'll announce something in August, or when Spaceway 2 makes it to orbit.

And while D*'s main programming is at 101, depening on your locals they may also be on 119 and a few HD channels are at 110.

 

[tonyp56]

I didn't see this above, so here it goes. How far are the line of trees from your house. Are you talking about 10 feet or 50, 60 ...100 feet? You've got to remember that if the trees are far enough away from your house the satellite signal won't be affected by them because the signal will come in at an angle and will pass over them.

Beyond that, I like Dish; however, there are things about DirecTV that I liked as well. (was a DirecTV customer for 7 years) It will come down to your own personal decision as to which one you get. They both offer good new customer promotions, and they both have their share of HD, basic cable channels, and movie channels (Dish has some that Direct doesn't, and Direct has some that Dish don't, it will come down to which channels you want and which ones you don't care to have). DirecTV has the NFL Sunday Ticket, and Dish doesn't. But most other sports are on both.

 

[dbshadow]

The trees are about 40 feet from the house and are approximately 120' tall. It just so happens that there is one gap in the trees where a couple of tress died and the adjoining property owner cut them down and replaced them with a privit hedge which is about 25 to thirty feet tall. So I borrowed the survey equipment from work and that is how I arrived at the angles mentioned above.

Also I PMed Robert @ valueelectronics last thursday with a few questions but I am not sure I did it correctly. How long does it usually take him to respond?

 

[navychop]

You might be ahead to call him at 800 789-5050. He was very helpful to me- I bought an LG LST-4200A from him.

 

[dbshadow]

Well we finally decided on D*. B* B* was having a sale with a $50.00 instant rebate on the R10 DVR on top of D* 49.99 rebate. So when you add it up it works out to a free DVR. I was also able to pick up a phase III tripple NLB dish for under $50.00. Now I just have to wait until Monday for the Installer to show up with the SD receiver and Dish. I called D* and they told me I cannot activate my two DVR until I have the Third unit. I tried calling Robert but I kept getting a busy signal.