welcome pack and ota with 222k - dish says too bad

[Tampa8]

In the case of the OTA adapter, they consider the OTA channels to be exclusively HD channels as well..

That explanation still makes no sense to me, DISH does give locals in HD to the Welcome package, via Satellite. There is no HD advantage to using the adaptor. If DISH is actually saying you need HD for life and to get HD for life you need the top 120 that makes more sense.

 

[the mack]

Total B.S. if you ask me. I wonder if this is true on all receivers. Seems we would of heard something about this from other members?

 

[Tampa8]

Sure seems to me we would have. (I believe the poster, just wonder if there is something else at play)

 

[Hall]

Who said anything about making sense? Found a post from Zach here, https://support.dish.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9335, confirming that HD locals are included with Welcome and Smart. Maybe it's just an oversight by Dish.

 

[Tampa8]

There is no question locals are included in HD via Satellite. Well documented. The question is use of the OTA adaptor to get HD locals. If it is an oversight, that does make sense. What would not make sense is if the OTA module is by DISH rules correctly being denied.

 

[smikolaj]

That explanation still makes no sense to me, DISH does give locals in HD to the Welcome package, via Satellite. There is no HD advantage to using the adaptor. If DISH is actually saying you need HD for life and to get HD for life you need the top 120 that makes more sense.

I get sub channels OTA that I don't think I would get from Dish, like MeTV, Escape, Grit, LAFF, This, etc. so that is why I would use the OTA module.

 

[smikolaj]

Sure seems to me we would have. (I believe the poster, just wonder if there is something else at play)

When I found about about the Welcome pack years ago I purchased a receiver and a dish and set it all up and everything worked great and I was happy. I wound up moving to a new house ~2.5 years ago and after a couple of months after moving and it being winter I never got a chance to set up the dish so I cancelled. Well, here we are a long time later and I finally got around to setting up the dish again. I am in the same area so the locals are still Boston, MA, locals. I was expecting it to work like it did a couple of years ago. Maybe I need a software update or something, It's probably something simple that I am overlooking. The other difference is that I am only looking at 61.5 where before I was looking at 61.5, 110, & 119 (I think those where the 3). I am sure we will eventually figure it out.

 

[the mack]

Sure seems to me we would have. (I believe the poster, just wonder if there is something else at play)

Not doubting poster either. Pretty low down on dishes part.

 

[Tampa8]

When I found about about the Welcome pack years ago I purchased a receiver and a dish and set it all up and everything worked great and I was happy. I wound up moving to a new house ~2.5 years ago and after a couple of months after moving and it being winter I never got a chance to set up the dish so I cancelled. Well, here we are a long time later and I finally got around to setting up the dish again. I am in the same area so the locals are still Boston, MA, locals. I was expecting it to work like it did a couple of years ago. Maybe I need a software update or something, It's probably something simple that I am overlooking. The other difference is that I am only looking at 61.5 where before I was looking at 61.5, 110, & 119 (I think those where the 3). I am sure we will eventually figure it out.

So, the more you post the more little things come up. If you are only looking at 61.5 you are getting the 44HR guide not the 9 day guide which is on 72, a satellite you are supposed to have. I don't know if that would generate this problem, it wouldn't seem so on the surface but you never know. A chance your receiver needed an update, if it didn't get one that could play into it. I don't know if it would get the update from seeing just 61.5. And if you were seeing 110 and 119 along with 61.5 very likely you were provisioned for the Western Arc. With all this new info you posted I would make sure you are provisioned for the Eastern Arc, and you may need to see the 72 satellite also.
All things considered, the CSR answer still seems wrong to me, but you may have issues that a correct set-up, being provisioned correctly, seeing the two satellites and making sure your receiver is updated might fix.

 

[Claude Greiner]

DIRT where are you?

 

[JSheridan]

You pretty much have to have either 72 or 119 for things to work right.

 

[smikolaj]

You pretty much have to have either 72 or 119 for things to work right.

Thanks for this info, also thanks to Tampa8 for also pointing out that not having 72 may be my issue. I will let Zach know this info, like I said it is probably something easily corrected once we find out what is causing the problem.

I have 2 LNBs I can put on the dish, one is the eastern arc one and the other is I believe for 110 & 119, the LNB's are almost 2x the size as the ones on the eastern arc one but there are only 2 (this is what is currently on the dish). When I set up the dish I got 61.5 but didn't get 72, I have LOS to it but I looked up what is on what satellite and it looked like I could get all of my programming off of 61.5 so I thought that was good enough but I guess it may not be. I'll go back to dishpointer and confirm what my skew needs to be and where I have to aim to get the 2. I may not be able to have time to try to repoint the dish for a few days but I'll try that as soon as I can. If these setups are anything like FTA then I think 72 is my true south satellite so skew should be close to 0 but I'll lookup where it needs to be.

Thanks again.

 

[psdstu]

We need to know if someone with the Welcome pack and an OTA adaptor is able to use theirs. If they can, I bet my solution will work. Upgrade to the Top 120, get HD for life, and at some point downgrade back to the welcome package. Seems like if this was their policy someone long before now would have posted about this but it is entirely possible most who have the Welcome package came from having a higher package and HD for life.

That would be me....... I have the Welcome Pack, and OTA module...... HD for life and all work fine...... I also have the Heartland Package and those channels as well as the Preview Channels all come in HD.

I don't and wouldn't pay the $30 fee

 

[Tampa8]

Then I have ruled in, possibly needing the 72 satellite along with making sure the receiver is updated. I still rule out any extra cost to make the OTA module work. And I also still rule out DISH phone CSRs.

 

[Hall]

HD for life and all work fine......

I also have the Heartland Package

I wonder if the OP lost "HD for life" when he/she stopped their service ? Or, maybe having a package with HD channels, e.g. Heartland, is enough to toggle the switch to allow the OTA channels to appear ?

 

[Tampa8]

There's no indication the OP ever had HD for life. I'm very skeptical you need anything more to get locals in HD with the module if you have the Welcome package. Much more likely not having a correct set-up and not sure the receiver is updated is the problem. Can't rule out needing HD for life but in all this time not one post with this problem makes me think the module works as long as you have a subscription. Somewhere along the line DISH computers probably don't see him as correctly subscribed for the reasons given.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Wouldn't surprise me if dish made a change. Used to be you could use the OTA without a subscription until someone at Dish realized that if a person didn't pay their bill their locals would continue to work.

I remember in the early days I would use a model 6000 without a subscription to pick up just the locals.

I never subscribed it because the box was $600.

Basically used the box in the showroom, would sell that box to a customer and then order another one for the Showroom.

Can't believe I used to get away selling a customer 3 HD channels plus an OTA adaptor for like $1000 and people would be happy

 

[ChadT41]

Wouldn't surprise me if dish made a change. Used to be you could use the OTA without a subscription until someone at Dish realized that if a person didn't pay their bill their locals would continue to work.

I remember in the early days I would use a model 6000 without a subscription to pick up just the locals.

I never subscribed it because the box was $600.

Basically used the box in the showroom, would sell that box to a customer and then order another one for the Showroom.

Can't believe I used to get away selling a customer 3 HD channels plus an OTA adaptor for like $1000 and people would be happy

Oh how far we have come in the last 20 years, with technology.

 

[pattykay]

We need to know if someone with the Welcome pack and an OTA adaptor is able to use theirs. If they can, I bet my solution will work. Upgrade to the Top 120, get HD for life, and at some point downgrade back to the welcome package. Seems like if this was their policy someone long before now would have posted about this but it is entirely possible most who have the Welcome package came from having a higher package and HD for life.

Interestingly enough, I just did exactly that last month, but only to get the HDFFL tag added to my account. I did not have any problems with the OTA adapter before or after doing that.

However, I have seen the message that the OP is talking about on my other receiver, a ViP211, at a time when my account had never been above Locals Only or Welcome Pack. At one point, I had deactivated that receiver on my Dish account, but I still had distant networks from All American Direct. When I only had standard-def distant networks, the receiver would act exactly as the OP describes. I could scan the local channels and save the list in the setup menu, but I would get the pop-up and the channels did not appear in the guide. I subscribed to the HD distant networks when they became available, and that seemed to be enough to authorize the OTA tuner and the HD free preview channels, because they started working at that point. However, the policy must have changed at some point before AAD stopped offering HD distants, because after I was forced to switch back to standard-def distants, the OTA tuner and HD free preview channels continued to work. So, it would seem like any subscription should be enough to authorize the OTA tuner and HD free preview channels. On the other hand, there could simply be a glitch with my receiver, since that receiver is now completely deactivated, and I can still use it to watch OTA channels and HD free preview channels, along with any free standard-def channels.

When I try to just type in the ota channel number it goes to dish channel 72.

Those aren't different versions of your locals, that's their actual channel number designation. Your receiver "maps" them to the channel numbers you're familiar with.

It sounds like his receiver isn't mapping the local channels to the lower channel numbers.

 

[DishSubLA]

Wouldn't surprise me if dish made a change. Used to be you could use the OTA without a subscription until someone at Dish realized that if a person didn't pay their bill their locals would continue to work.

I remember in the early days I would use a model 6000 without a subscription to pick up just the locals.

I never subscribed it because the box was $600.

Basically used the box in the showroom, would sell that box to a customer and then order another one for the Showroom.

Can't believe I used to get away selling a customer 3 HD channels plus an OTA adaptor for like $1000 and people would be happy

Ergen did say in response to a question on a Chat many, many years ago that he did not want to subsidize a relatively expensive satellite box to just have people use it as ONLY an OTA DVR. From his perspective, it did not make economic sense. That was his explanation of why the OTA feature requires some sort of satellite subscription for the OTA feature to work. I know this is not the OP's exact problem, but it provides an insight as to how Dish may view the OTA feature in its economics. Given Dish's thinking, it wouldn't surprise me if today or some point in the future, Dish, indeed, may require a standard package for OTA features to work. I'm just giving you what ol' Charlie said way back then to provide his thinking on the subject.

I do agree, however, that ANY sat subscription, including Welcome, etc., ought to allow for the OTA function to work. This makes it somewhat appealing to "cord cutters" or those who just want the least expensive access to some pay TV channels and get the benefit of all that OTA content out there while subscribing to Dish. It seems like that would be a way of keeping or drawing some of that business, but, perhaps, it does not make sense on the spreadsheets that are Charlie's prayer mat.