I Have 1 HD and possibly may add another in my house. I have D* but do not have the HD package. Aside from less selection and questionable quality I've read about on this forum, I also have been hesitant to upgrade to HD because I don't want, what the D* representative referred to as "The Monster" 5-lnb dish. Does anyone know if the regular 3-lnb dish is or ever will be able to receive HD signals?

The 3 lnb dish can receive mpeg 2 HD channels. The bad quality is greatly exaggerated.

The regular 3LNB dish will receive any MPEG2 HD signals (ESPN1 and 2, Discovery, TNT, UHD,HBO/Showtime, HDNet/HDNMovie). It will not get any of the new MPEG4 channels -- currently some/most of the HD Local channels and presumably most of the upcoming additional National HD channels. There is a significant amount of speculation that all the current MPEG2 HD's will eventually be moved to the MPEG4 level and then the 3LNB dish will lose any HD channels.

I Have 1 HD and possibly may add another in my house. I have D* but do not have the HD package. Aside from less selection and questionable quality I've read about on this forum, I also have been hesitant to upgrade to HD because I don't want, what the D* representative referred to as "The Monster" 5-lnb dish. Does anyone know if the regular 3-lnb dish is or ever will be able to receive HD signals?
The dish isn't significantly larger than the 3 LNB dish. Bigger, yes. Monster sized? It sounds like that CSR needs to quit reading from the Burger King manual. It is a heck of a lot bigger than the old round dish, though.

Monster dish , no. Funny looking feedhorn config. - yes. It is called an AT9 and works fine for me with the HD20 but I think the feedhorn design was done by committee. <g>

Moved to the Hardware forum.

Get ready for a screen full of pulsing, moving artifacts.

Monster dish , no. Funny looking feedhorn config. - yes. It is called an AT9 <g>
The new one available is the AU9, also called the Slimline, which doesn't have the feedhorn that looks like it is made of spare parts.

Yes, the new dish is bigger. But the size difference is not that earth shattering to me.

However, when I had the dish installed, I also had two new HD dvrs installed as well.

I moved the HD Tivo to another room.

The HD picture, to my eyes, is much better with the new boxes. And that is on the same channels (hdnet, discovery etc...) on the same television.

Plus the reception seems better so far as well. We had a nasty thunderstorm last night, and I never lost signal.

In the past we lost signal frequently during inclement weather.

Of course YMMV

I Have 1 HD and possibly may add another in my house. I have D* but do not have the HD package. Aside from less selection and questionable quality I've read about on this forum, I also have been hesitant to upgrade to HD because I don't want, what the D* representative referred to as "The Monster" 5-lnb dish. Does anyone know if the regular 3-lnb dish is or ever will be able to receive HD signals?

I've called with many D* technicians, and I've seen the LNB's on my dish , each one says 101º, 119º, 110º, 99º and 103º these are on KaKu dish, or 5 LNB's.

The Kaku dish is used when there are HD local channels availables only, because these are providing by satellite 103º or 99º but if there are not HD local channels availables on your are you do not need this dish, you can get HD channels with the 3 LNB's dish because the HD channels from D* (74-79) are providing from satellite 110º (3 LNB's on this dish gets programming from satellites 101º, 119º and 110º, HD channels are providing from satellite 110º) :)

If you do not buy the HD packages called HD Access you will be able to see HD locals channels only, but if you want to see channels from 74 to 79 you'll need to buy this package

Regards,

Sam

I've called with many D* technicians, and I've seen the LNB's on my dish , each one says 101º, 119º, 110º, 99º and 103º these are on KaKu dish, or 5 LNB's.

The Kaku dish is used when there are HD local channels availables only, because these are providing by satellite 103º or 99º but if there are not HD local channels availables on your are you do not need this dish, you can get HD channels with the 3 LNB's dish because the HD channels from D* (74-79) are providing from satellite 110º (3 LNB's on this dish gets programming from satellites 101º, 119º and 110º, HD channels are providing from satellite 110º) :)

If you do not buy the HD packages called HD Access you will be able to see HD locals channels only, but if you want to see channels from 74 to 79 you'll need to buy this package

Regards,

Sam

Apart from a couple of things this is sort of true, but does not represent the real situation. All new HD channels, which will start to become available later this year, will be on new satellites which are going to be launched to the 99 and 103 satellite locations (same positions as the two existing Spaceway satellites which carry local HD). Without the 5-lnb dish (either the AT-9 or the AU-9 "slimline"), and either the H20 receiver or the HR20 DVR, you will not be able to receive ANY of these channels. And even the existing HD channels will be moving to the new satellites at some time in the future (maybe even by the end of 1998) and then you will not be able to receive ANY HD with the old 3-lnb dish.

1998? I better get upgrading.. :D