[tbonekel]

I just had Dish installed last Friday and I love the HD quality! I can also say I was amazed and surprised at some unexpected blessings I discovered. I am in a location that I consider "deep fringe" for local channels so I have a very large roof mounted antenna. I am approximately 60 to 70 miles away from the majority of broadcast antennas. When I got my new Panasonic HDTV I connected the antenna directly and got pretty much what I thought I would....a few of the stronger stations. Now here's where it gets fun. I hooked up my antenna through my new VIP722 and did a digital channel search and BAM, I had stuff showing up that I never thought I would see. The receiver has a way cool signal strength meter and most of the channels were showing at 70% and above. It's almost as if the 722 has some sort of huge amplifier in it. Not only that but I tried to record the OTA HD signal to the DVR and it WORKS!! I almost fainted. The dish rep said I wouldn't be able to do it. That proves that if you think you can't do something, try it first and you might be surprised.

 

[StillwaterTownie]

Cool. I've been thinking about switching from cable to Dish Net, myself in order to have more HD. My digital locals are closer, so I won't be needing to pay extra for that to Dish. I don't like the downside of relying upon satellite to provide the local digitals since they don't provide the subchannels.


(Hopefully, the OTA signals you're getting are typical and aren't the result of enhanced signal strength due to atmospheric inversions.)

 

[johngro]

I had a similar experience. About a year ago, I got the VIP622 (722 was not out yet, only difference if HDD size AFAIK). A few years before I had spent a long time attempting to get OTA HD channels from a poor location in the bay area (about 50 miles from the tower and at a bad place for multipath interference) with no luck. Multiple antennas, amps, professional pointing, nothing could get better than marginal reception (IOW - the channel would break up every 30 seconds or so).


Because of this, I was expecting to get everything over the sats and nothing OTA. Just for the heck of it, before I went up on the roof to dismantle what was left of my attempts for OTA HD, I hooked up the Channel Master 8 bay bowtie that I had used last, and much to my surprise, I got every channel without any trouble whatsoever. The feeds all look great and it means I have a 3rd tuner when it comes to local channels which are also on the sat.


The VIP622/722 are great STBs, and the outstanding performance of their terrestial tuners just make them even better.