Had a tech here yesterday and said I cant get all the satellites tuned in because of a tree on the other side of the apartment complex. My question is I have a single lnb dish now aiming at the 101 with a signal strength of 90 to 96 on the transponders. I seen that the new 5 LNB slimline aims at the 101 and brings in other satellites from the sides. Should I trust this tech on what he is saying or should I see if another tech or a supervisor will come out and take a look at my situation? Yes the tree is visible but I have a big gap in between the tree and the sky I just dont get it. I looked at the dish I have now and its practically pointed to where the tree is at now and I am still getting a good signal. Any advice for me? Also if I cant get the 5 LNB dish can I just get the 3 LNB dish and hook that dish up for the HD channels for the time being? I am going to be moving out of this place around the middle of October when my lease is up.

You need to pick up sats at the 99, 101, 103, 110 and 119 positions.

Thanks mjones, yeah the problem is I dont know which sat they couldnt pick up for me, I get my local channels out of Cleveland which I think is on 99 or 103 right? Also was told if I can pick up the main 101 satellite that 110 and 119 are right by it so those shouldnt be a problem getting. So not sure which one is causing the problem for me. Also I thought that the 101 110 and 119 are main ones you need to pick up and you will be good to go.

Cleveland locals are on 103. It's 119 that is considerably farther west and lower in the sky from your location. Each number indicates degrees west longitude over the equator. 99, 101 and 103 are the close together ones.

If you're moving in two months, why bother ?

why bother? why not I just spent 1400 dollars on a hd tv thats why lol. Guess I have no choice but to wait till I move the way it looks oh well.

You should have waited for labor day or black friday sales.

hey Tmac here's an inexpensive option-maybe.

get a basic cable subscription(no cable box) & just plug the cable drop into your nice shiny new HDTV's antenna input. run a digital ch scan. likely you're going to get your digital locals-if the digital tuner in the TV is QAM-capable. most are-the owner's manual should give you some idea. what model HDTV do you have? keep in mind the digital cable chs it can tune are the unscrambled ones.

is your cableco Time-Warner? if the Ohio markets do the same as the NYC or NC markets you may also get DiscHD Theater & TNT-HD as TWC does not scramble these chs-at least they haven't up to now.

then when you move you can upgrade-the new HD chs D* is supposed to add aren't supposed to launch until sometime in sept. anyway.

why bother? why not I just spent 1400 dollars on a hd tv thats why lol. Guess I have no choice but to wait till I move the way it looks oh well.Have you tried getting anything OTA with an indoor antenna?

That could hold you over for a couple of months, and you'll at least be able to enjoy some HD on your new set.

Hey thanks guys yeah my tv has a QAM tuner in it, yeah I live in Ohio and cable is time warner. I might just go the time warner route so I can get at least possibly my locals in HD for football season and possibly some others till I move. Another question I have is I got roadrunner high speed online for the internet, is there any chance that basic cable comes through that line with the internet or not? might be a dumb question not sure on this. Anyways thanks for the tips very helpful for me. As for the ota antenna I looked on antenna web and I cant get hardly anything where I live besides like pbs and some other channel, hardly any digital broadcasts. Actually just looked on antenna web and put in 500feet for the antenna and gave me red and blue for fox nbc and cbs for ota, vhf and uhf it says, so will this work out if I get an indoor antenna then?

Can't say. I can get pretty much everything from my main market steadily from 41 miles out with an amplified indoor antenna.

You could always try some of those Walmart-type models that are easily returnable.

Cable service CAN come through the same line as your cable modem service - if you're already paying for it. It depends on your local cable company and their policies - but I would not be surprised that any TV options would be blocked out by filters before it gets to your house.

And Antennaweb's blue rating usually mean - Large, outside antenna , possibly with pre-amp. Antenna web does tend to be pretty conservative though.

yeah scooper unfortunately most towers are between 47 to 58 miles from me way it looks now, not sure if an indoor one would pick those up or not pretty far distance. Guess I might try the cable route and if that doesnt work will just have to wait for HD. Also say i get unscrambled channels through cable how will I know if it is HD or not on that station?

If it isn't digital - it isn't HD. You can probably scan for the QAM channels and that should get you your locals (if they are carried unencrypted). Any other "cable-type HD channels" will require their digital HD cablebox or a cable card if the channels are encrypted (and they probably are).

Tmac when I lived in NYC TWC did not scramble DiscHD or TNT-HD-they didn't charge an extra fee, if you had their HD box you got them. TWC has a separate HD tier with UniHD & ESPN-HD et. al. that they do charge extra for-so those chs are scrambled for sure. and you'll only get the digital locals they carry.

I had Roadrunner, basic cable, & D* when i lived there. the barebones, no box cable subscription was like $13-14/mo. Roadrunner was separate. like $60/mo. if you had no TV or only basic service.

but at least you can feed your new TV some HD programming right now. if/when you upgrade to D* HD you'll pay an extra $10/mo. anyway.