Regular sat TV vs HD TV service

[mobilcastle]

Is HD dish setup (locking onto the satellite) different than regular dish sat TV. I see some people using no tripod and some using very expensive ones? Thanks for the education.
Steve

 

[danemayer]

Azimuth and Elevation aiming are the same. There's also a skew adjustment. A HD dish can be more difficult to aim, but many of us do it. The more expensive tripod makes it easier and faster to aim.

 

[hogan]

I am on lookout for a smaller HD antenna before I convert. Direct non HD is simple. Anyone found a suitable HD dish?

 

[mobilcastle]

I have another question. If you use Dish TV do you only have to line up with one or two satellites to get HD? I think I read if you use Direct you have to line up with two. Please educate me as I am going to choose one of these company's to set up with. I want to be able to have 2 HD DVR's-one I can take with me from home on the road. If we go full time I want to be able to use two HD DVR's one for each HD TV we have in the 5ver. I plan to use a satellite dish that you site in manually(TV 4 RV).
Thanks for info,
Steve

 

[codycarver]

We have Dish HD. As I understand it dish HD uses three satellites. Echo star 110, 119 , and 129. You will need the correct receivers and reflector from dish. Using the TV4RV set up makes it fairly easy to set up. I use Dishpointer's web site to get my alignment information and a good meter will come in handy. There are many available from analog to digital. Here is a link to one type.

 

[danemayer]

I have Directv and have never tried with DISH, but I doubt there's any significant difference in difficulty of manual aiming.

 

[codycarver]

Something else I wanted to add. With Dish most if not all your channels will come from echostar 110 &119. your HD will come from 129. The reason I mention this is sometimes, due to line of sight obstacles you may find you can't lock on all three satellites. This doesn't mean you can't get TV reception but your programming may be limited. The last trip we took I had a tree in the way, I was able to lock on to 110&119 but could not get 129. We had all our programming we just didn't have any HD at that campground. Also, if you want local channels you'll need to contact Dish to let them know where you are and they will unlock those for you.

With the Dishpointer link I provided you need to know what system you have. Ours is Dish 1000.2 (110W 119W 129W) enter the address your at and it gives you the Elevation, azimuth and skew you need.

 

[Gaffer]

Non HD with the round dish and only 1 LNB makes aiming very easy. One sat (Direct 101W) to find and no skew to mess with.

 

[beasleyrl]

... With Dish most if not all your channels will come from echostar 110 &119. your HD will come from 129. The reason I mention this is sometimes, due to line of sight obstacles you may find you can't lock on all three satellites...

Dish Network actually now has 2 arcs - an eastern and western arc. Depending upon where you are in the country, you may be able to use both. Here on the east coast, we can use both and it is very handy.

I actually have a single 1000.2 dish with 2 different lnb's (1 specific for each arc). The big advantage is that you have 2 options depending upon where the trees are around you. The western arc is as described above. The eastern arc uses a 2 satellites now at 61.5 and 72.7. Both have HD programming. Some of the locals are different depending upon which arc you use.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

I believe with DirecTV you no longer need 2 HD DVR's. With their new SWM system, the DVR recordings can be viewed and set from either TV/remote. There is an additional HD receiver for the 2nd TV for normal viewing but the DVR can be viewed on either TV. When I set up my slimline dish, I only aim using the coordinates given to me on the receiver set up program. I've never had a problem and all stations come in. Sadly, I don't have the new SWM technology yet.

 

[danemayer]

You're right about SWM. Any receiver in the house can watch anything on the DVR. I think tthey charge $3/month which is probably a better deal than 2DVRs.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[mobilcastle]

Thanks for all the answers. I want 2 DVR's so I can take one with me on the road and leave one in my house all connected to my stereo equipment. I believe DVR's are $6 a month.
Steve

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Thanks for all the answers. I want 2 DVR's so I can take one with me on the road and leave one in my house all connected to my stereo equipment. I believe DVR's are $6 a month.
Steve

We just take our home DVR with us. Only a few plugs to do. I bought an extra power supply cord so moving the DVR from house to Rv takes less than a few minutes. 2 coax, 1 HDMI, 1 digital audio and one power cord.

 

[mobilcastle]

Just some info I found out- If you have Hopper with Dish TV I was told you have to use Joeys and you will not be allowed to have a separate receiver. I don't know yet about Direct and Genie. I now understand from this thread why the TV 4RV tripod would help greatly to line up HD tv. Thanks for the education! If I set up with Direct what second receiver model would be good to take with me in the RV to pick up HD? Will direct give me a second dish for the RV or do I need to buy one?

 

[danemayer]

If I set up with Direct what second receiver model would be good to take with me in the RV to pick up HD? Will direct give me a second dish for the RV or do I need to buy one?

Last June Directv told me that due to changes in FCC regs, they could no longer give me Distant Network Services or change my service address on the RV, using my home receivers while traveling. Instead, they made me add 2 additional receivers for the RV. I know many people still manage to keep RV out of the discussion and get them to change service address so they can get the local station at their destination, but as soon as they figured out I had an RV, the situation changed for me.

They gave me a new Slimline-3 dish with SWM LNB (I had to provide the tripod), the SWM splitter and power supply, an HR24-500 DVR HD SWM/Multiswitch receiver, and an H24-100 HD SWM only receiver. They created a 2nd account # and merged the new account with the home account so I could use the home account's programming on the new receivers. They charged a total of $20 which was called a relocation fee. The extra receivers are $6/month.

 

[cookie]

In your previous posts you mentioned that you will want to have two DVRs in your trailer.
There are some things to consider. Depending on your LNB set up you may need two coax running to each DVR. If you have a SWM you can get buy with only one.
Any HD receiver from DTV will do the job. We have two that we use. One is DVR and the other is just a plain HD with no recording. H20 I think.
Will DTV give you a second dish? I doubt it. One thing you could do is when you see a DTV installer truck, stop and offer to buy one from him or her.
I did that once and $20 was the price. But I only had $8 in my pocket. So no sale for me.
And I use the TV4RV tripod set-up. I think it's great.

Peace
Dave

 

[jdfishing]

Is HD dish setup (locking onto the satellite) different than regular dish sat TV. I see some people using no tripod and some using very expensive ones? Thanks for the education.
Steve

Hi Mobilcastle: I noticed you are from Ohio and since I grew up there, I checked your profile and was very surprized. I also am from Ravenna, but moved west, thanks to the USMC, a number of years ago. If you want, send me a PM and we can chat. Regarding your sat. dish, I would stay with a non-HD on a portable. With the HD, you are looking for up to five satellites. Skew is very important. With non-HD, you only have to find one and skew doesn't matter. Also, the HD sat. is heavy and you'll need a substantial tripod. I have HD on the roof, and quite frankly, I see little difference in the reception between it and my portable for most programing. PS: Ravenna High, Class of 64.

 

[Wharton]

Both Dish and Direct require for 3 satellites for HD. The Direct sats are closer together so easier to lock on to all 3 if shooting thrugh trees. If you want DNS service from Dish you now need(as of 11/15) to go to a third party provider, Direct still provides DNS service.