WHUP615 Email/Calls from Dish for upgrade

[edfiero]

So I finally called Dish today after about a dozen calls and several emails from them to find out what this WHUP615 upgrade was about. Guy tells me I need to have my dish repointed or replaced, he wasn't even sure.

He'd told me I'd get "Better Quality HD off the new satellite". Is there any truth at all to this? I have never seen this mentioned before in dicussions about the shift from 61.5 to the 72/129 birds.

Also I was told I'd need a new smart card. WHY? I have a VIP 622 already and I understand that it will not need to change. What is the new card going to for me (to me)?

Thanks

 

[CK SatGuy]

Do you have a mixed arc? If you do, then you'll need to migrate to full Eastern Arc or full Western Arc. As to having better HD quality on the new satellite, that's not really true. Have no idea about the smart card.

 

[MaryB@SlingTV]

So I finally called Dish today after about a dozen calls and several emails from them to find out what this WHUP615 upgrade was about. Guy tells me I need to have my dish repointed or replaced, he wasn't even sure.

He'd told me I'd get "Better Quality HD off the new satellite". Is there any truth at all to this? I have never seen this mentioned before in dicussions about the shift from 61.5 to the 72/129 birds.

Also I was told I'd need a new smart card. WHY? I have a VIP 622 already and I understand that it will not need to change. What is the new card going to for me (to me)?

Thanks

Can you please please check your satellites, Menu 6-1-3 and let us know which ones you show? This will determine what needs to be corrected on your account. The WHUP615 is an upgrade for customer who show they are on a mixed arc. If you have the 119,110 & 61.5, you will need to have your dish upgraded so you do not lose HD programming that is being moved off the 61.5 sat. I can also check the smart card situation but that does not sound right. If you had an issue with your smart card you would not be able to access programming. I will be happy to check your account if you would like to PM me your account info/phone#. Thank you!

 

[dwarren2]

You don't say where you live. Most probably they want to change you to 61.5 72 and 77 called the Eastern ARC. They are mpeg4. This requires a single 1000.4 dish.

 

[edfiero]

Location = Philadelphia. Yes, I have 119,110 & 61.5.

 

[CK SatGuy]

Then most likely you will need to be switched to Eastern Arc. (61.5, 72.7 and 77)

 

[n1wbd]

Not trying to be a killjoy but beware depending on the part of the country you're in you'll have much lower signal strengths with the EA dish and problems with premature rain/snow fade. I did the "upgrade" this past March and been having problems with rain/snow fade ever since. The Dish techs have been 5 times since March trying to cure this problem.

To be fair, TonyT from DIRT has been fantastic and has bent over backwards to try to cure this including having my 1000.4 changed to a larger Dish 500+ which helped some to increase the signal but not really enough to cure the issue. IMHO hold off switching to EA dish till the last possible moment if you can. The EA dish is just a poor design for the Northeast.

So I finally called Dish today after about a dozen calls and several emails from them to find out what this WHUP615 upgrade was about. Guy tells me I need to have my dish repointed or replaced, he wasn't even sure.

He'd told me I'd get "Better Quality HD off the new satellite". Is there any truth at all to this? I have never seen this mentioned before in dicussions about the shift from 61.5 to the 72/129 birds.

Also I was told I'd need a new smart card. WHY? I have a VIP 622 already and I understand that it will not need to change. What is the new card going to for me (to me)?

Thanks

 

[CK SatGuy]

Average signal levels for Philadelphia

Just for the hell of it, I'll post the average signal levels the OP's area.

61.5:
TP 10-52
TP 14-56
TP 29-64
TP 31-52

72.7:
TP 15-56
TP 17-58
TP 19-56
TP 21-59

77:
TP 13-51
TP 16-51
TP 20-50
TP 21-52

 

[Teehar]

Either way you do need to upgrade in order to get all the HD programming you subscribe to.Whether that means a 1000.4 eastern arc dish or possibly re-pointing the 61.5 to 129.

 

[edfiero]

Thanks for the replies, but could someone comment on either 1. Why a new smart card is needed in the 622? or 2. If the HD quality is better after the upgrade, as I was told? Is there perhaps less compression on the new satellite??

 

[Jimmerinwi]

I doubt you need a new smart card. As far as pic quality, you won't see much if any difference.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[Teehar]

Thanks for the replies, but could someone comment on either 1. Why a new smart card is needed in the 622? or 2. If the HD quality is better after the upgrade, as I was told? Is there perhaps less compression on the new satellite??

You shouldn't require a new smartcard.The HD quality should be the same.

 

[dwarren2]

Supposedly, mpeg4 takes up less space on the HD. So you can get more storage. As far as rain fade, I've not had much of problem here in WNY. And as far as sginal strength, my installer said it would show up as a bit lower, but it would not make a difference. As far as I have seen, it hasn't.

 

[theedge103]

The WHUP615 is an upgrade for customer who show they are on a mixed arc. If you have the 119,110 & 61.5, you will need to have your dish upgraded so you do not lose HD programming that is being moved off the 61.5 sat.

I just did this test and talked to Dish through Online Chat...I am in Buffalo NY and have 119, 110 and 61.5 - he told me everything is fine with this setup. But I have to move off 61.5?

 

[dwarren2]

The WHUP615 is an upgrade for customer who show they are on a mixed arc. If you have the 119,110 & 61.5, you will need to have your dish upgraded so you do not lose HD programming that is being moved off the 61.5 sat.

I just did this test and talked to Dish through Online Chat...I am in Buffalo NY and have 119, 110 and 61.5 - he told me everything is fine with this setup. But I have to move off 61.5?

Look at your programming package. You will find that there are channels that you should get in HD that are only is SD. For instance HI at 121.

 

[MaryB@SlingTV]

I just did this test and talked to Dish through Online Chat...I am in Buffalo NY and have 119, 110 and 61.5 - he told me everything is fine with this setup. But I have to move off 61.5?

The chat agent was not correct. If these are your satellites you will be losing HD programming and need to have an upgrade done.

 

[dwarren2]

The chat agent was not correct. If these are your satellites you will be losing HD programming and need to have an upgrade done.

I agree. I'm in the Rochester DMA and gained a number of national HD channels when I was switched to the EARC.

 

[Jim S.]

The WHUP615 is an upgrade for customer who show they are on a mixed arc. If you have the 119,110 & 61.5, you will need to have your dish upgraded so you do not lose HD programming that is being moved off the 61.5 sat.

I just did this test and talked to Dish through Online Chat...I am in Buffalo NY and have 119, 110 and 61.5 - he told me everything is fine with this setup. But I have to move off 61.5?

Well, you're not losing 61.5, you're adding 72 and 77 in place of 119 and 110.

But...

The Dish CSRs have no idea what they're talking about. They tried to tell me I had to switch to 129 instead of Eastern Arc.

 

[sophysdad]

To answer your questions, 1: you do not need a new smartcard. All smartcards have been upgraded to the most current version as of about two years ago. 2: There will be zero picture quality difference by switching over to the eastern arc. The purpose of the move is to prevent loss of HD channel feeds. Dish is going to start agressively moving HD feeds off the 61.5 and onto the 72.7 for the specific purpose of getting people who have either ignored or refused the change to switch. As has been previously discussed, getting the constellation broken into two mutually exclusive arcs is essential for guaranteeing the bandwidth availability for future content growth.