Questions for Dish (Dishnetwork in particular) users...
 

Moving to a house in Dallas and trying to start deciding on phone service, internet service, TV, etc.

So called SBC and they had a pretty good deal for a package that included Dishnetwork. Talked a little about HD, etc but could get a lot out of the sales person.

Questions?

To get HD on Dish I understand a HD Dish receiver is needed, but what about local TV HD? Does that come across dish or is a OTA needed for that?

How hard is it to hook up multiple TV's?

Local HD channels are OTA only on any of the small dishes.

I was afraid of that.

So not only would I have to wire the rooms I want for Dish, I would also have to run a second wire for the OTA in every room I wanted to pick up an HD signal. Humm, I guess it wouldn't be that hard to run 2 wires at once. Not only different channels for HD signal, but would have to change inputs on the TV as well. Will keep that in mind when comparing to cable.

Was kind of looking to get away from cable. But, guess it is still in the picture.

Not the ordeal you seem to think.

I have two dishes and an ota antenna on my roof. All the LNB's and the antenna go to a 5/4 multiswitch on the back of the dish. I believe all of the DSS dishes that are elliptical come with the multiswitch for just this purpose. All of the signals are combined and come down a single coax into my house to the receiver. Now you will still have to have a cable for each room but you would need that with cable tv as well.

Good luck.

Well that is good news. And the house I'm buying the guy had dish (the dish is still there), so he may have already done that.

But if all the signals are merged to to a single coax how do you switch between the DISH and the OTA? Or is that on the dish receiver?

And if the single coax that carries all signals goes to your attic say, then how to you split it to different rooms? Another multiswitch?

Thanks for all the info. I've always had cable, but not only have I heard a lot of good things about dish, it looks like it is at least $20.00 per month less then cable and dish has promised free install (cable wants a min of $150.00 for install). So I'd at least like to make sure I understand everything prior to making a decision.

The receiver handles the channel selection. On my Sony HD200 receiver for Direct TV, all the channels show up in the list after I have set it up to show me both sets of signals.


Well that is what I was saying, you still need a cable to go to each room/receiver to send a signal there. You still need a receiver for each TV.

OK, think I got it. So it is basically seamless when switching between dish, dish HD, OTA and OTA HD. Perfect. I'm trying to make it as easy for my wife/kids as possible since I travel a lot.

Having a box at each TV is not that big a deal (especially since I have seen a lot of 4 room set ups for free). And since the dish equipment is generally free (except perhaps for the HD receivers) it seems like a better deal then cable since cable charges you for each box (assuming you want digital cable).

Thanks so much for the info.