will 811 still work with Dish 1000?

[bunkerbob]

Can someone please help me unravel some confusion from a call I just had with a DISH CSR? I currently have a two-dish setup receiving 110, 119, and 148, and feeding three 301's (2 leased, 1 owned) and one 811 (owned). I subscribe to the HD pack, and also get the west coast CBS HD feed. I am buying a second HDTV, so I need to upgrade one of the 301's to HD, and also want to add DVR capability. So I phoned to ask about getting a 622 to replace one of the 301's. The CSR said that the 622 would only function if my current two-dish setup was replaced with a single new Dish 1000 unit, but that my 811 would no longer function with that dish (at least it would not get HD channels). I thought that the 811 would still get the basic HD channels that I already received, but not the Voom channels. She said no -- that if I wanted to get HD on two different TV's I would need two new receivers; she suggested a 622 (for $299 including installation of Dish 1000) and a 211 (for $49 upgrade fee), and that if I wanted to continue using my 811 (owned, not leased) it would henceforth only function as a SD receiver.

So, did the CSR give me correct info? specifically,
1) do I really have to replace my 2 dishes with new Dish 1000? (couldn't the 148 dish just be re-aimed at 129? or could it be left on 148 and my new vip622 would only get the HD channels on 148?).
2) Will the 811 really no longer be capable of receiving ANY Dish HD content after the Dish 1000/vip622 is installed?
3) if the 811 is no longer receiving Dish HD content, will that mess up it's ability to function as an HD OTA tuner? I live in a really good HD OTA market, so I could probably live without the Dish HD content on one of my two HDTV's. Then again, for $49 maybe I should just roll with it and get the 622 and 211 as the CSR suggests, and be able to get the newer HD channels on both TV's.

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

 

[volkodav]

#1 yes you do need dish 1000 or 61.5 to get new HD programing or you can re aim 148 to 129.
#2 you will be able to watch what you have right now on 811 but 622 will get more HD programing

and right now you have 4 tuners and you planing going to 5 TVs. so you will need different type of switch probably DPP 44. so you can do Dish 1000 upgrade and keep your 148 and have the tech install DPP 44 so that way you don't have to run additional lines

 

[WJMorales]

If you want to recieve current and future HD channels you will need a dish pointing at 129. It could be a Dish 1000 or a single Dish 500 pointing at 129. The 811 will not be able to recieve any channels that are broadcast in Mpeg 4.

I would keep the Dish 500 on 148 and have them add a Dish 1000. My setup is a Dish 1000 for 129, 119, 110 and a Dish 500 for 61.5.

Yes, your 811 will still work, however it will only detect the old HD Pak channels.

In order for the VIP-211/411 and VIP-622 to recieve over there OTA-HD channels you will need to subcribe to one of the new metallic packages. Also, these unit do not recieve OTA-SD channels.

 

[bunkerbob]

thanks vokodav... I should have been more clear -- my new HDTV is replacing an older TV that I'm getting rid of. So I will still be a total of 4 TV's.

 

[BobaBird]

The CSR managed to be wrong on 5 counts in only 3 statements:

• the 622 will function just fine, it just won't get the new HD channels or any of Voom without a dish pointed at 129° or 61.5°
• some parts of the country can't have Dish 1000 due to satellite footprint and line of sight issues so they get a second dish pointed at 61.5° instead
• the 811 (and presumably the 622) will function with any dish configuration of up to 5 satellites
• the 811 will continue to get the HD channels it does now, just not the new ones
• you can not do 2 upgrade offers at once (you could do 1 lease upgrade and 1 purchase)

1) answered
2) answered
3) The 811's OTA tuner can be used if the 811 is receiving a satellite signal

 

[bunkerbob]

Thanks everyone for your input... I like the suggestion of replacing the one dish with the 1000 for 110, 119, and 129 while keeping the other one for 148.

Related question: is the content on 61.5 essentially the same as 148? I'm in Dallas area, somewhere around 97 degrees west, which should be closer to 61.5 than 148, but my roofline blocked the view to 61.5 from my preferred dish location, so my installer aimed at 148 and I ended up with CBS West HD instead of CBS East. Reception signal strength on 148 is around 90, which is much lower than the 115-120 I get for the other two satellites, but it has never been a problem. If I wanted a make-work project (!), I could switch everything to the opposite side of the house and get 61.5. Is there any content available (now or future) on 61.5 that I won't be able to get on 148?

 

[sdh442]

Here's where I get my Satellite info.

Good site for line up info on satellites.


http://lyngsat.com/

Good Luck,
Scott