I am looking into getting the Dish Network TurboHD Silver package. That package fits me good as I don't watch many other channels. I noticed they charge $5 extra per month for locals.

My HDTV has an OTA tuner in it. Should I pay the extra $5 per month for Dish Network to give me my locals, or would OTA be good enough? If so, do I need an extra antenna or anything? If so, I would rather pay the $5. Thanks guys!

Do you currently receive your local networks in HD OTA? If so, I don't think you would need an additional antenna, other than whatever you're currently using. Also, did you check to make sure they offer the locals in HD in your location. In my market, they have the locals, but not in HD.

Will you be getting an DVR? If no then you could spend $30 on an antenna and hook it up to your tv. Can you receive your locals reliably?

Do you currently receive your local networks in HD OTA? If so, I don't think you would need an additional antenna, other than whatever you're currently using. Also, did you check to make sure they offer the locals in HD in your location. In my market, they have the locals, but not in HD.

Hi Rocky, thank you for the response! How do I check if they offer locals in HD in my location? Thanks!

I believe you can enter your zip code at their website.

I'd add that that is a big "depends" to all of this. Yup, big depends, just like elderly giants wear.

Why the big depends?

Because if you get into putting up a big outdoor rig, $5/mo starts to look pretty cost effective when you consider paying $50-75 for the antenna, $90 or so for a rotator, $70 for a preamp, etc. Plus, the labor and no guarantees what you actually receive.

On the other hand, if you're close to the towers, you're likely talking the cost of rabbit ears or a single bowtie antenna.

Whatever the case, the great advisory with all electronics stands: keep your receipts.

Will you be getting an DVR? If no then you could spend $30 on an antenna and hook it up to your tv. Can you receive your locals reliably?

I would be getting a DVR. In all honesty, I haven't tried OTA channels yet. I was just made aware of it by a co-worker today. I will go home and check it out. Thanks a lot!

I'd add that that is a big "depends" to all of this. Yup, big depends, just like elderly giants wear.

Why the big depends?

Because if you get into putting up a big outdoor rig, $5/mo starts to look pretty cost effective when you consider paying $50-75 for the antenna, $90 or so for a rotator, $70 for a preamp, etc. Plus, the labor and no guarantees what you actually receive.

On the other hand, if you're close to the towers, you're likely talking the cost of rabbit ears or a single bowtie antenna.

Whatever the case, the great advisory with all electronics stands: keep your receipts.

Wow, do I need all of that to get OTA channels? The $5 sounds great to me. I live in a condo complex and don't want all this extra equipment outside. Thanks for the info!

Hi Rocky, thank you for the response! How do I check if they offer locals in HD in my location? Thanks!
The place to ask for help on OTA reception and antenna selection is the HDTV Technical forum and the local thread for your area in the Locals forum. Check antennaweb.org and/or tvfool.com for a list of what digital stations you should be able to get at your location, depending on antenna placement (indoors, attic, rooftop). Antennaweb is over conservative for digital reception, tvfool.com is more accurate but technical, but they are limited by the accuracy of the FCC database they use.

Why the big depends?

Because if you get into putting up a big outdoor rig, $5/mo starts to look pretty cost effective when you consider paying $50-75 for the antenna, $90 or so for a rotator, $70 for a preamp, etc. Plus, the labor and no guarantees what you actually receive.
Jeez, no need to scare people until we know their situation. :D Besides OTA reception is a handy backup to have and to all the sub-channels, even if one gets cable or sat service for the major local stations.

Wow, do I need all of that to get OTA channels? The $5 sounds great to me. I live in a condo complex and don't want all this extra equipment outside. Thanks for the info!

If you live in a condo, chances are you are close enough to town that an amplified indoor antenna like the Radio Shack UFO will work fine.

You should ask this question in your local thread as well.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45

If you were in Raleigh, the WRAL network would send you an antenna for free. There might be something similar in your region.

You should ask this question in your local thread as well.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45

If you were in Raleigh, the WRAL network would send you an antenna for free. There might be something similar in your region.

Awesome, thanks for the tip! Although, I live in San Diego, CA where they pretty much charge you to breathe. I doubt they will be handing out free antennas. Haha! :p

One thing to note is that if don't subscribe to the locals from Dish, you won't receive any EPG data from those stations.

Guide will say "Digital Service" instead of program listings, it makes recording locals on a DVR somewhat difficult.

Thanks for all of the responses here! Really helpful. I guess while I check into all of this stuff, what do you guys think of the new TurboHD packages on Dish?

I don't want to spend a lot of money on TV programming. I also want to take advantage of my TV. I do love sports, but I only watch football on the locals and then ESPN. All in all, the TurboHD Silver package seems to fit my girlfriend and I pretty well.

It only offers 32 channels, but they are the channels that we would watch the most. What do you guys think of it?

Any opinions on TurboHD? Also, I forgot to mention....if I plan on recording a lot of shows on the local channels, should I just pay the $5 per month for locals so I can just record them on the DVR more easily?

Any opinions on TurboHD? Also, I forgot to mention....if I plan on recording a lot of shows on the local channels, should I just pay the $5 per month for locals so I can just record them on the DVR more easily?

Yes. Manual timers are so 80's.

If you can pull in all your local stations over the air, then do that. The Dish HD DVR has a digital tuner built into it (no need to use the TV's digital tuner). So all you need to do is buy an antenna (I got a Terk from Best buy) and just connect that to the Dish DVR. Go throught the setup menu and search for all the over the air channels. The dish dvr will then place those channels in the correct spot (Channel number ie.. 004-01) and it will list all programs on the guide for that channel. You can also record/pause/ff/Rw and scroll just like normal. That is the way I have my setup. I do pay the extra $5 for local service just because I am unable to pick up CBS OTA because I live further away from Downtown and Dish does not provide NBC HD in San Antonio.

If you can pull in all your local stations over the air, then do that. The Dish HD DVR has a digital tuner built into it (no need to use the TV's digital tuner). So all you need to do is buy an antenna (I got a Terk from Best buy) and just connect that to the Dish DVR. Go throught the setup menu and search for all the over the air channels. The dish dvr will then place those channels in the correct spot (Channel number ie.. 004-01) and it will list all programs on the guide for that channel. You can also record/pause/ff/Rw and scroll just like normal. That is the way I have my setup. I do pay the extra $5 for local service just because I am unable to pick up CBS OTA because I live further away from Downtown and Dish does not provide NBC HD in San Antonio.

That's great to know. Should I just order the service without locals and try that out first? Then if it doesn't work, can I add locals? Or should I test it out first?

I am looking into getting the Dish Network TurboHD Silver package. That package fits me good as I don't watch many other channels. I noticed they charge $5 extra per month for locals.

My HDTV has an OTA tuner in it. Should I pay the extra $5 per month for Dish Network to give me my locals, or would OTA be good enough? If so, do I need an extra antenna or anything? If so, I would rather pay the $5. Thanks guys!

I use an indoor antenna made by Zenith called the Silver Sensor. It is no bigger than a desk top dictionary and is very effective in getting my locals. I have seen it on eBay for around $25.00.

http://store.snapstreamstore.com/phdtv1.html

What I would do is test it out first with your TV. If you are able to pull in the channels with a strong enough signal, then it will be the same with the dish tuner. I originally bought a cheap (walmart) antenna for $19 and I was only able to pull in some channels so I then bought the Terk at BB (little expensive at $75, but I had some rewardzone discounts and a coupon) it made a huge difference. The only reason I am unable to get CBS all the time is because I have it facing the direction that allows me to get NBC at full100% power since Dish does not provide NBC HD. I've been very happy with the connection.

What I would do is test it out first with your TV. If you are able to pull in the channels with a strong enough signal, then it will be the same with the dish tuner. I originally bought a cheap (walmart) antenna for $19 and I was only able to pull in some channels so I then bought the Terk at BB (little expensive at $75, but I had some rewardzone discounts and a coupon) it made a huge difference. The only reason I am unable to get CBS all the time is because I have it facing the direction that allows me to get NBC at full100% power since Dish does not provide NBC HD. I've been very happy with the connection.

Actually the tuner of my 622 is weaker and much more fussy about weak signals than the tuner in my Mitsubishi 57732. The tuner of my 211 is slightly better than the tuner of my Westinghouse W32W6.

BTW, there is an entire indoor antenna ratings thread stickied in the HDTV Technical section. (Hint: Go to Radio Shack and get the UFO antenna!)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1037779

I use an indoor antenna made by Zenith called the Silver Sensor. It is no bigger than a desk top dictionary and is very effective in getting my locals. I have seen it on eBay for around $25.00.
The OP is in San Diego where the local stations are in widely different locations. Some are across the border in Mexico, some in the US. The Silver Sensor is pretty much a UHF only antenna and somewhat directional. KFMB-DT CBS 8 is currently on VHF 7 (switching back to VHF 8 next February) and KGTV-DT ABC 10 will move from UHF 25 to VHF 10 next February. He needs to get an indoor antenna that can receive upper VHF which means rabbit ears at a minimum. The Radio Shack mushroom antenna is not a bad suggestion, but depending on his location (such as a higher floor in the condo), a $15 rabbit ear and UHF loop antenna might do the job.

Wow, this is all starting to seem confusing. Should I just do the $5 per month and let Dish Network deal with it? After all, if I am paying $50+ for antenna equipment, I won't start seeing savings until year 2.

Why don't you just get the locals, and just try the antenna thing at your own pace and leisure if you still want? If you then feel that you're getting satisfactory results, and you don't feel the extra 5 bucks is worth it, or you just want to counteract the yearly February price increases, or you just plain prefer the picture quality of the OTA locals over theirs, you can drop the locals. That's usually how most people go about it. It's no big deal to order them now and drop them later. People do it with ease all the time.

What's so confusing? Seems like you answered yourself in that last post.

Why don't you just get the locals, and just try the antenna thing at your own pace and leisure if you still want? If you then feel that you're getting satisfactory results, and you don't feel the extra 5 bucks is worth it, or you just want to counteract the yearly February price increases, or you just plain prefer the picture quality of the OTA locals over theirs, you can drop the locals. That's usually how most people go about it. It's no big deal to order them now and drop them later. People do it with ease all the time.

What's so confusing? Seems like you answered yourself in that last post.

You are correct, I didn't know it was easy to drop them at anytime. I will definitely do that! What is the February price increases that you refer to?

The SD packages, which naturally have been around a lot longer, generally go up by about $3.00 per year now (used to be $2.00, and before that it was a couple of bucks about every 2 years - but those days are probably long gone). As far as the HD ones, it probably depends on how many new channels they've added, but it shouldn't really go up much more than that. Now that they've actually got tiered HD-only packages, the increases should run about the same, unless they want to further break them off into more tiers (which means you could eventually be paying more for the same amount or less channels than you are now).

But as HD-only packages become more commonplace, you'll probably see more like the same patterns as the SD ones traditionally had - meaning basically the same channels, but a couple or so bucks more every February. If you feel it gets to be too much you always have the option of knocking off the locals, dropping a receiver, or downgrading to Bronze to save a few bucks. You might even be able to add-on your RSN for an extra cost to the Bronze package eventually, like you can do with their Top 100 SD package.

The SD packages, which naturally have been around a lot longer, generally go up by about $3.00 per year now (used to be $2.00, and before that it was a couple of bucks about every 2 years - but those days are probably long gone). As far as the HD ones, it probably depends on how many new channels they've added, but it shouldn't really go up much more than that. Now that they've actually got tiered HD-only packages, the increases should run about the same, unless they want to further break them off into more tiers (which means you could eventually be paying more for the same amount or less channels than you are now).

But as HD-only packages become more commonplace, you'll probably see more like the same patterns as the SD ones traditionally had - meaning basically the same channels, but a couple or so bucks more every February. If you feel it gets to be too much you always have the option of knocking off the locals, dropping a receiver, or downgrading to Bronze to save a few bucks. You might even be able to add-on your RSN for an extra cost to the Bronze package eventually, like you can do with their Top 100 SD package.

If I sign on as a new subscriber to Dish with a two year commitment, do they have the right to raise prices on me during that initial two year period? I'm looking at HD turbo package, but haven't seen the fine print. In fact, I don't remember seeing a link to the fine print anywhere on their website.

Wow, this is all starting to seem confusing. Should I just do the $5 per month and let Dish Network deal with it? After all, if I am paying $50+ for antenna equipment, I won't start seeing savings until year 2.

Well, with the $5/mo. the chances are strong that you won't get any ATSC subchannels, the CW in HD, PBS in HD, MyNetwork TV in HD or digital broadcasts of Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura, etc.

If I sign on as a new subscriber to Dish with a two year commitment, do they have the right to raise prices on me during that initial two year period? I'm looking at HD turbo package, but haven't seen the fine print. In fact, I don't remember seeing a link to the fine print anywhere on their website.Unless it specifies it in the fine print that they won't and that some introductory price is guaranteed during a specific time, then they almost assuredly will, come February or March, when they have their yearly price hikes.

The standard def packages have been going up 2-3 dollars a year in recent times - so now that they have actual "HD-only" packages that are comparatively modeled, I'd expect at least the same. (There are exceptions, though, where occasionally one or more of the packages won't go up - I think that was the case last year. But at least be prepared for it to happen.)

Now, before anyone sarcastically asks if I'm clairavoyant, no, I'm not - but it's just common sense, and they way they do things - their pattern.