Dish Network HDTV - Page 80

Pick the provider that has the channels you want at the cost you want.  Equipment and picture quality is close enough between the two that most will not notice.

EchoStar XVI Launch Declared a Success

Ku-Band Bird Aloft After Liftoff From Kazakhstan

By: MCN Staff Nov 21 2012 - 1:26pm Ku-Band Bird Aloft After Liftoff From Kazakhstan

EchoStar Corp. said the EchoStar XVI satellite built by Space Systems/Loral was successfully launched and placed into geostationary transfer orbit by International Launch Services.

The ILS Proton Breeze M rocket lifted off Nov. 21 at 12:31 a.m. local time (Nov 20 at 1:31 p.m. EST) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. EchoStar XVI was successfully released into geosynchronous transfer orbit after the planned 9-hour-and-12-minute mission.

The satellite is successfully performing post-launch maneuvers and will ultimately be maneuvered into orbit 22,300 miles above the earth at 61.5° west longitude, the companies said.

An all Ku-band satellite with continental United States (CONUS) and spot beam transponders, EchoStar XVI will be fully leased to Dish Network for the delivery of direct-to-home broadcast services to Dish customers in the United States.

Dish did not specify what DTH services it planned to provide with the satellite other than expanding HD program offerings. A Dish spokesman told Multichannel News: "We're always looking for ways to deliver the best quality and variety of programming to our customers. EchoStar XVI gives us added flexibiliy and capacity to do that. To your question, we've not made specific announcements regarding programming."

“Yesterday's launch of EchoStar XVI was a great success and we extend many thanks to our partners at Space Systems Loral, ILS and the very capable ground team in Baikonur for another job well done,” Mike Dugan, president and CEO of EchoStar, said in a release. “EchoStar remains committed to growing our satellite fleet and we look forward to additional successful launch announcements in the future.”

Creative Time also said it launched an archival disc created by artist Trevor Paglen called The Last Pictures on the satellite.

Made of ultra-archival materials, the disc is expected to orbit the earth for billions of years affixed to the exterior of the communications satellite EchoStar XVI.

http://www.multichannel.com/distribution/echostar-xvi-launch-declared-success/140386

I'm switching from DirecTV to Dish on 12/13/2012. They have me set for a VIP-722. Would I be better off with the "Hopper"? I mean, is it faster channel to channel, better PQ, more relieable? Also, does Dish still have 2 dishes on the roof or one now?

One Dish, go for the Hopper, forget the 722.... You'll never regret it!

Moved to CNY and went from Dish to FIOS.

Pros- Internet connection

Cons- everything else

The DVR is seriously the motorola crap I installed when I worked for a cable company back in 2004.

The guide interface? Terrible.
The DVR capabilities? Terrible?
Picture quality? Same as dish.

If I didn't have a strict budget I would have fios Internet and dish for tv. But alas, it just doesn't make sense financially.

I called to add the Hopper & an HD receiver. I was told, last week when I made the order, that this would be $11.00 per month more. They said I would have to pay $21.66. I objected & after being on hold a few minutes she returned & said she got the OK for $11.66. I agreed but when the email arrived it said I was billed $21.66. I called again & when it couldn't be explained, I was passed to another level. This time I demanded cancellation & a full refund. She agreed to refund the original amount but said I'd have to call back after 72 hours for today's charges. None of this makes any sense. Why can't they just credit my account for what they just charge me for? I then demand to speak to someone else & after a slight debate she put me on hold. After 5 minutes the hold music stopped & I was cut off. I have received an email stating the cancellation but not confirming any amounts.

Not a good way to start with Dish.

Sorry you are having the customer service run around. Not sure why you are doing a Hopper and an HD receiver. A Hopper and a Joey might be a fine choice for you. Then the second TV could see anything recorded on the DVR. I have two Hoppers and two Joeys and it is great to be able to see anything from any TV in the house.

I was ok with everything you said until you said that FIOS had the same PQ as Dish. What size TV do you have?

What was the pricing for the Hopper and Joey?

50" Samsung Plasma, i see very little difference in PQ. I would lean towards FIOS being better though, if only slightly.

everything else sucks as I mentioned though. If i wasn't financially responsible id have dish tv service and fios internet. but alas...

Minutes after canceling, I got an email explaining the new changes prior to canceling. I found their $10 mistake & called today & got a correct price for a Hopper with a Joey + Americas 200. With taxes $68.85. When I setup auto pay online I'll get $15 knocked off for the next 12mos making a new total of $53.85. After the 1st yr the price goes up to $78.85 including tax.
I hope Dish billing is better than DirecTVs. Time will tell, but it's hard to imagin that it could be any worse!

Considering that close prximity to a military base can affect some garage door openers, depending upon the frequency, I wouldn't completely rule it out. With all the radar and commications RF going on in those places, it can cause hiccups in a lot of stuff, from WiFi to baby monitors.

While it's unlikely you'll be hearing tower instructions to planes in the middle of CSI, it's always possible something could interfere with the Dish signal to the point it makes you more prone to things like rain fade.

Having said that, unlike with garage door oeners and WiFi, the signal you're attempting to receive comes from a pretty good angle up in the sky; meaning ground originating signals from even a few blocks away should not be hitting the dish at an angle to reflect the frequencies into the LNB (angle of reflection=angle of refraction and all that math stuff). Any interfering signal coming from the sky would affect just about everyone with the service for hundreds of miles (the way solar activity can), not just those near the base, so I would assume Dish would make some sort of fuss if that were happening.

You don't say where you are, so I can't know if excessive rain, excessive heat radiating off roofs, etc. might be an issue that could cause trouble at some point. No matter how good your signal is, if it rains hard enough, you may lose your signal. How long tends to vary by location and signal strength. I average about 10 minutes a year. In theory, a hot climate may lead to premature LNB failure or cable issues over time. On the other hand, you may never experience any of that, yet have three poles go down that knock out cable for the neighborhood in one year alone (something that happened to me).

So, odds are the problemspeople you've talked to were having were a) due to them having the service long enough ago (as you noted) to have experienced "HDLite" b) bad installations in the area or c) dissatisfaction with the older pricing plans.

A) is not really an issue anymore.
C) is something you have to decide

B) means you have to be ready to hold the installer accountable for making sure everything is set up and working to your satisfaction before you sign off on it.

Hopefully this means more HD locals.

All in all, I'm very happy with Dish so far. The worst part was the installation took 5 hours as the Hopper was defective right out of the box. We'll have to wait & see if their billing is more accurate than *D's but so far so good.

I'm new to Dish & see that I have Blockbuster for 90 days but wondered just how it worked. There's a large list of movies on Hopper for Blockbuster but at Blockbuster's website I see they offer most current Spiderman movie, The Amazing Spiderman but when I try to search Blockbuster using the Hopper all I get is $6.99 PPV for HD or $4.99 for SD.

How do you get the Blockbuster version?

You have to sign in (or sign up) on Blockbuster's website. I forget if you get there from your online Dish account or the other way around. Once you have a Blockbuster account you need to create a queue of movies you want and they will start mailing you DVDs. The Hopper has nothing to do with it.

Thanks, I'll look into it.

Doesn't Blockbuster have a download service similar to Netflix? .....and this is the Hopper connection??

That's what I thought, Average Guy. I've been busy today but will investigate & report back. After all, Dish does owns Blockbuster now.

OK, here's how Blockbuster@HOME works.

First, you complete your Blockbuster registration @ mydish.com. Once you agree to terms, you'll be sent to the Blockbuster site to select a movie to be mailed. For more DVD/Blu-ray's you must return to mydish.com & on the lower left it says Blockbuster@HOME & below that is says Manage My Queue. Pick that & you are back in your Blockbuster account.

If the movie is listed in the Hopper (don't know if other receivers have this or not?) / Blockbuster@HOME list, you can stream it. Many are in HD. If the movie is still available for PPV you won't see it on the Blockbuster@HOME list but you can have it sent by mail in DVD or Blu-ray formats from your account @ mydish.com.

I know the Blockbuster site offers streaming but I don't know if it coordinates with Dish receivers. Would be nice if it did. Will check further.

Is there a way to recall previous searches on the Hopper?

No...

I've been recording On Demand videos like HBO's "Game of Thrones" series which are downloaded from the internet & have noticed that they frequently skip a few seconds throughout the program. Sometimes I can do a quick rewind & it will play OK through that point or maybe skip at a different point later.

Is this normal or does this feature have a few glitches?

When did HBO On Demand come to Dish? AFAIK, you have to use HBO/Max Go on a smartphone, tablet or PC.

I've got a 211 with external hard drive/DVR and notice right before the end of a show there's a "pixillation/tiling" for about a second and the audio usually drops out. Is Dish or that network (I notice it the worst on MLB Network - but have also seen it on History channel) sending some sort of signal at that time that the DVR doesn't like?

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Well, I'm new to Dish so maybe I'm miss stating. I found these by pressing DVR, My Recordings, Rentals, then using search function. They could be from Blockbuster but is so, it doesn't say. There's no charge for these but I do have HBO & Blockbuster for a 90 day trial so maybe that's why.

Seems to be a Dish thing as many have reported it, happens on the hour and half-hour.

Yep - right at the end of a show... seems like they would fix whatever is causing it - it just started happening earlier this (well actually LAST) year...

I checked & it's definitely On Demand.

What I've noticed is when a skip occurs, hit the step back button & it may play through where it just skipped. To me this means it must be a DVR playback issue. Either the Hopper isn't capable of playing highly compressed video or Dish is over compressing HD video to the point that nothing could play it correctly.

It's not just the Hopper, it's all of the VIPs...