Upgrading to Dish HD

[chatterly]

We plan to upgrade to Dish HD and want to make sure it will work for us before we make the leap.
For three years we have used Dish 500 on a tripod with one DVR for two TVs. We fulltime and when changing locations, notify Dish of a change in service address to get the local channels of the new area.
Will HD change any of this? Is it harder to find the satellites? Will the one dish work for one DVR and two TVs? Will the local channels be HD? Thanks for any light you can shed.

[Jobert]

I am no expert but here are my experiences. The 1000 dish is not much harder to aim than the 500. We us it and a vip722 DVR for 2 TV's. It is wired slightly different in that you need the HDMI cable to the front TV for HD and the tv out will go to your switch box for regular tv in the rear. Local channels will be HD only if they are brodcasting in hd locally. Ours where we are right now broadcast in both regular and HD with a digital number. I do not know if everyplace does that. The single wire input of the 1000 to the vip722 would not go in the house cable input because there is a splitter in the line and I could not get at it. I had to run my own new line. If your setup is working on one wire in right now, your rig may be ok. Also, HD only goes to one tv, the other is in regular def even though you may have a wide screen tv. We changed both of ours over and it still works OK.

Hope this may help. Do they give you any static about changing your location on a regular basis, we have been tempted to do that and see what happens. We will be a month in MO and then on to Texas for 3 1/2 months and then on the road for 3 months, at which time, we just depend on the long distant channels.

Have a great day Happy Trails Bert

[chatterly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jobert I am no expert but here are my experiences. The 1000 dish is not much harder to aim than the 500. We us it and a vip722 DVR for 2 TV's. It is wired slightly different in that you need the HDMI cable to the front TV for HD and the tv out will go to your switch box for regular tv in the rear. Local channels will be HD only if they are brodcasting in hd locally. Ours where we are right now broadcast in both regular and HD with a digital number. I do not know if everyplace does that. The single wire input of the 1000 to the vip722 would not go in the house cable input because there is a splitter in the line and I could not get at it. I had to run my own new line. If your setup is working on one wire in right now, your rig may be ok. Also, HD only goes to one tv, the other is in regular def even though you may have a wide screen tv. We changed both of ours over and it still works OK. Hope this may help. Do they give you any static about changing your location on a regular basis, we have been tempted to do that and see what happens. We will be a month in MO and then on to Texas for 3 1/2 months and then on the road for 3 months, at which time, we just depend on the long distant channels. Have a great day Happy Trails Bert

Thanks, you answered all my questions. In answer to yours, here is a copy of my post to another thread on that.

"To change to the locals of the area where you are physically located, use this procedure. First setup the dish and tune in the channels (110 and 119). If it isn’t setup when they send the signal, you will have to repeat the call. Call the regular Dish line and tell them you need to change your physical (service) address. Say you have moved and have set up your satellite dish on your own. This will steer them away from trying to set up an appointment with an installer. Make sure they understand that your billing address does not change. At the end of the call ask them where your local channels will be coming from. This will remind them to adjust your locals. No need to mention anything about being in an RV, as a new CSR may misunderstand and think you are trying to get distant locals. It can through them into a tizzy. If you change locations or return to a stick house, just repeat the process. When we had a traveling job, we called in a change every week for four months with no problem. Usually takes about 5 minutes on the phone and 10 minutes for the locals to show up."