OK, I'm going to go with HD sometime soon. That will entail the following:

- a new rooftop auto dish - open air.
- a new DVR
- a new ground-mounted dish
- a new TV

Not a cheap undertaking. I'll buy a Samsung 500 series 32" TV, and go with Winegard for the auto dish. Those are a given - at least at the moment.

The questionable items are which provider, and how to mount the ground dish.

I like the equipment I see from Dish. I currently only have one reciever, but if I was to add another I like the way Dish does it. But the main thing is I can get Dish free and DTV is going to charge me big time.

Now for my questions:

- I want the network stations. East and west coast feeds - I don't care from what cities. Do you still have to use the separate company to get these? How is that working out for people, and can you automatically deduct that from your account. I WILL NOT deal with any company where I can not do auto deductions. Online payment does not count.

- I saw some instructions for building up a tripod system for the dish that can handle the new 2" posts. Anyone have a handy reference for that?

Any other advice? Thanks...

Jack,

DTV claims more HD. I think that is more in the sports area. Dish will be easier due to": 1) single cable feed to each receiver, 2) 3 birds vice 5 birds for DTV and 3) Dish seems to be more responsive to the customers based comments here.
I did read your review of the two dishes, Motosat and Winegard, and thanks for the post.
Bill
MCI 102A3 towing a little red Tracker

We went with a Vizio 32" HDTV that we mounted in the front of our 2006 Bounder 35E. We paid about $600 for it after comparing it with several other more expensive models. I could buy two Vizios for what I would pay for a "higher end" model.

We already had DirecTV using a roof mounted dish, but the roof mounted units were just coming out when we made our purchase so we opted for a tripod based system. We also decided to go with the DVR because we became so dependent on it when we were still roof mounted.

If you go with a tripod, I recommend that you go with an industrial construction tripod like the one sold on eBay by H&G Enterprises. Being able to easily get your platform perfectly level before worrying about elevation and azimuth.

I generally have very little trouble getting a signal even with having to find 3 satellites.

Curt

Jack
If you go with Dish you will need MyDistantNetworks.com to get your network stations, both East and West Coast. I pay $10.89 per month for all four networks from Atlanta and San Francisco.
By the way, if you go with Dish you will need only one cable, and one receiver, for both of your TVs (assuming living room and bedroom) by using a Dish Network Separator.
I had a MotoSat MD1000.2 installed in the spring. Because my entertainment system was installed in a slideout they could not run a coax from the MotoSat to my Dish receiver. They ran the coax down into my bedroom, where they located the Nomad 2 controller, and diplexed the signal through the living room/bedroom cable to the Dish receiver, via the Separator. For me nothing changed, including any of my switching. I can still use my outside portable dish connection, my MotoSat or my roof top antenna. It all works great.
Jerry

Jack,

Staying with DTV should not cost you big time. I had a two receiver system, including a DVR. I wanted to upgrade to HD, including the 5 LNB Slimline and a new HD DVR. When I did the change a few months ago I called in and told them what I wanted to do and I did not expect to pay for it. They said they could not do that, so I asked to speak with a "customer retention specialist". They are people who deal with exactly this kind of request. I told them what I wanted and that if they were not willing to do it all for free, I would become a Dish customer. He said they did not want to lose me as a customer, and I got everything I asked for.

I did have to play a little game to make it all work out. They took the payment for the DVR but gave me a $100 credit on my bill each of the next three months to pay it off. My net cost was zero.

This of course, has nothing to do with the technical comparison of the two systems, but you shouldn't have to let cost become part of the equation.

I built my own ground mount out of a piece of marine grade plywood and some PVC pipe. I mounted the regular mount that came with the Slimline on the plywood. It breaks down or goes together in just a couple minutes and is easy to store when taken apart. I just drilled holes through the connections where I wanted it to come apart, and used 1/4 inch galvanized bolts through the holes to hold it together. At first I used nuts and washers, but I soon discovered I just needed to push the bolt through and it needed nothing to hold it in place. I have been using it for over six months now. It is simple, crude and cheap but very stable.

The DishTV VIP 622/722 is the best satellite DVR available as rated by the satellite nerds who really get into TV.

With the 622/722, you only need one box as Jer said. Either TV can watch recorded events as well as separate live feeds.

The DNS via MyDistantNetworks works just fine. The channels are integrated into the DishTV electronic guide. The only difference between the DishTV solution and DirecTV is a separate credit card billing for the DNS for Atlanta/San Francisco for DishTV compared to integrated billing for New York/Los Angeles for DirecTV.

The Dish 1000 dish for DishTV (lot of Dish's in the description) still uses a 1-5/8" mast but you need a more substantial tripod. The new H&G Tripod is very good. The DirecTV Slimline 5-head uses a 2" mast and there are not many tripod offerings for that. But the H&G does handle both mast sizes.

As for HD content, DirecTV is on an advertising rant about having the most HD channels. This is after being significantly behind for the three+ years that HD has been available. Charlie Ergen at DishTV is adding more HD channels as they can rotate around transponder space. DishTV has started a program to convert all HD receivers to the MPG4 compression which allows more channels per transponder. All I know is that there are more than enough channels for me.

Discussions on tripods, dishes (have to update Winegard), and wiring at Full-Timing TV

I have Dish on our stick house and have had trouble getting HD consistently from satellite 129. During the afternoons the signal comes and goes. About a month ago Dish decided it was a heat sensitive LNB and replaced it. Today they are coming back again to see what is the real problem.

I do not have a DVR, instead I have a 222 receiver and believe that may be part of the problem. At least two times the receiver would not turn on without disconnecting the power first then rebooting it.


I have found that using the internet to trouble shoot is a waste of time as you get all canned replies. Just call and talk to someone and they are usually helpful.

TJ
I reboot my VIP222 every morning when I first turn it on to take care of most problems. I'm not real impressed with it. They don't make the VIP622 any more but the VIP722 is the same with a large hard drive(more recording space).
You only aim at "one" sat, the 119. The 110 and 129 will/should then come in. There is simply no aiming at 2 or 3 sats unless you live in one of the 4 corners of the USA and have to use a separate dish for HD.

Ron

Thanks for the replies.

As to this aiming thing...I used to have Dish 500. I had no problem aiming it and pulling in what I needed. I think that most of the channels I wanted were on 110 (from memory - it might have been 119). I would just aim for that and if I did not get 119 things would still work, but I would just be missing channels. Does it still work the same way? If I aim in a tight tree area and can only get 2 of the sats, will the receiver still function and just give me the stations it can "see", or will it lock the entire thing out?

Rif, customer retention says no....have to pay. I'll try again, but if they put the "no" in my customer records I'll probably get the same answer.

Mark, do you have a link for the tripod source? Or is it on your website? Hopefully, with the autodish I will not have to use it much...but the 3 birds makes the autodish more likely to be blocked. I wonder if the autodish will "set up" with a sat missing.....??? Anyone using the Winegard HD autodish know??

H&G Heavy Duty tripod..

The issue with DishTV satellite 129 is that is wobbles a little in space. The satellite is near the end of its life and will be replaced later this year.

The coming and going of 129 is more sensitive the farther south you are. The only time we had an issue with 129 was in Mission Texas.

Also 129 is too low in the horizon for the East coast. We couldn't get it in Maryland. But in Ohio we were fine. Local East coast users use a dish aimed at 67.5 instead pf 129. Using a Dish 1000 dish only means the East coast will be limited to 119/110.

We have had times were we were just skimming over the tree tops and could get 119/110 but not 129 because it was in the trees. If we need 129, then we move to a spot with more tree clearance.

Aiming the dish 1000 is exactly like the Dish 500 with a slightly different table. You aim for 119 and with skew set and a vertical mast (very critical), all three satellites will be in focus.

Jack, if customer retention says no, the decision would be a simple one for me.

Well they arrived early after calling first and changed the dish. Old was a 500? I believe and the new one is 1000. Old LNBs had a twin then the 129 LNB sorta added on to the side but connected to the twin.

New dish is wider and had all three LNBs in one holder. Signal strength is the best it has ever been on 129.

Tech said if the 222 receiver messes up again call and they would replace it because it might have been getting conflicting info from and didn't know what to do and tried to shut down.

Oh well, didn't cost anything so lets see how it goes now.

Jack:
There are a couple of points that haven't been mentioned yet.
- Do you get the national feeds in HD on Dish now? One of the factors in my change from Dish to DTV was the fact that at the time there were no plans for MyDistantNetworks to transmit in HD. On DTV I get the east coast feeds in HD and the west coast in 'regular' definition.
- When we switched to the HD service I had to change our physical address with DTV to Miami, where we were for the winter. IIRC we also started getting the local channels in HD via the satellite. I can't check it until I get back to Miami, tho.
- I had absolutely no problems converting to the 2-inch mast for the slimline dish, thanks to one of our neighbors. I had the tripod for the smaller mast, and he cut a 4-inch long piece of PVC with a 2-inch outside diameter. If you slit the PVC it slips right over the smaller mast and fits the two-inch LNB assembly perfectly. The parts of the mast inside the tripod assembly are still the smaller diameter. I'm still using the smaller tripod, use large nails to secure the feet and haven't had a problem yet.
- I haven't had any more trouble locating five satellites than I had finding three; in fact it may be easier. I pay a LOT more attention to making sure the mast is level now than I used to, though.
Good luck!!

Roger

PS: the real reason I switched from Dish to DTV was that I got so tired of having the Dish reps lie to me, telling me that DTV was also losing the national feeds. It happened too many times to be an accident, and I just got tired of it.

Jack, my experience limited as it is, is that if you loose one satellite the others will work just fine. I would loose 129 and HD but 110 and 119 would be fine. My locals (Phoenix) are spot beamed are not on 129 so I would get the HD there just fine.

The reason I went with Dish was no contract for a specific time but after I changed my movie package then I had an eighteen month contract.

I also liked the feature that one receiver can control two TVs both with a separate channel.

So with DNS on either provider, will I have HD for the national networks??

I hear that Fox is also not in HD on either provider?? If I can't have the networks or Fox in HD...what the heck am I getting?? I guess I have to do more research to see what I am actually getting. Sports in HD means nothing to me - I NEVER watch ANY sports. Not even the superbowl....

Also, does the fancy Dish receiver have an OTA passthru?