Where is the bird?

[chef-Patrick]

Hi guys,

I am a Voom sub and as you all know I will be in the dark at the end of the month and I am considering my options.

Few questions for you all:

Where is the satellite, I am in Southern NH and I live in tree covered area so I have limited visibility.

How's the HD quality and overall picture quality?

Thanks
Patrick

 

[silversurfer]

Give me your zip and I can give you the exact location but D*s main bird is at 101 degrees and they also have orbital slots at 119, 110 and 72.5. There overall picture quality leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion right now. That might improve once they launch the new satellites over the next several months. It really depends on the size of your TV though. I have a 65 inch so I notice every little artifact but on my kids televisions it looks great. They are also compressing HD right now and it is also suffering in my opinion.

 

[branchbouncer]

We have VOOM and D* and while there is a difference in PQ between the two I don't think it is that bad.We are watching on a Sony 46" and that is quite a bit smaller than the 65 mentioned above.I know that the Hughes HTL-HD stb is a lot better than the Motorola DSR 550,the OTA HD signal the the Hughes processes is far superior to that of the Moto stb,you can see this by switching between the two while viewing a fast movement sports event or where sharpness and color are important.With the demise of VOOM I think that D* is a better choice in the long run,while E* may have the Rainbow 1 sat the new birds going up for D* are far superior and E* has no future plans(at the moment)for satellites

 

[chef-Patrick]

Give me your zip and I can give you the exact location but D*s main bird is at 101 degrees and they also have orbital slots at 119, 110 and 72.5. There overall picture quality leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion right now. That might improve once they launch the new satellites over the next several months. It really depends on the size of your TV though. I have a 65 inch so I notice every little artifact but on my kids televisions it looks great. They are also compressing HD right now and it is also suffering in my opinion.

My zip is 03824.
Thanks for your help

 

[chef-Patrick]

On directv website, if you go to the self-install section, you can enter your zip code and it will give you azimuth and elevation. For me it's right in front of a 60' pine tree and most of the rest of the big trees in my neighborhood

 

[silversurfer]

Your azimuth is 237 and your elevation is 31.9

 

[charper1]

Make note that there will be a slight difference in the setup for a standard single LNB dish and the PhaseII/III multi-LNB dish, which setup will you be installing? The PhaseII/III will be required for HD programming. If you get a new install the PhaseII is no longer availible, but you can buy it online for a self install, but I wouldn't advise that. Also, having a full HD setup MIGHT bump you up higher on the MPEG4 conversion list.

PhaseII/III
Azimuth: 246
Elevation: 27
Skew: 56

Standard:
Azimuth: 237
Elevation: 32
Skew: N/A

 

[chef-Patrick]

Thanks guys but based on your help, the birds are on the worst line of my property for line of sight, the coverage is so bad in that area that I can't even see the sky.

 

[charper1]

Just remember you can run up to 120' or so from dish to receiver, so don't hold all your options to a single dish mount spot. Also, a 6' -7' mount post with your 30deg elevation angle will do wonders to clear massive tree tops. A top-notch installer can do a site survey.

 

[chef-Patrick]

Just remember you can run up to 120' or so from dish to receiver, so don't hold all your options to a single dish mount spot. Also, a 6' -7' mount post with your 30deg elevation angle will do wonders to clear massive tree tops. A top-notch installer can do a site survey.

I might have them come have a look but those trees are 60' high and very wide. Plus I have a single story house. My OTA are on this side and I can barely get my PBS channel that's just over 11 miles in the same tree cluster.