D* HD Locals - Who has them? How are they?

[Bluto]

I'm a D* customer, but haven't upgraded to the 5LNB dish yet.  For those in the area who have, do you have any comments about the quality of the HD locals via D*?  And the locals only consist of 4, 6 and 12 right now, correct?  A carriage aggreement had not been signed with 58, last I heard. And, there are no immediate plans for 10, 18, 24, 30, 36, 41, 55 (who did I miss?).?

[smack]

I would be curious too.....


I'm wating until D* has the HD-DVR w/ mpeg4 before I get the 5 lnb dish.

[Stanley Kritzik]

I'm a D* customer, but haven't upgraded to the 5LNB dish yet.  For those in the area who have, do you have any comments about the quality of the HD locals via D*?  And the locals only consist of 4, 6 and 12 right now, correct?  A carriage aggreement had not been signed with 58, last I heard. And, there are no immediate plans for 10, 18, 24, 30, 36, 41, 55 (who did I miss?).?

And, for that matter, when is D* coming out with their Home Entertainment Center/Tivo-replacement box<  (supposed to be one HD plus four SD sets, as I recall)

SK

[sp44again]

I'm wating until D* has the HD-DVR w/ mpeg4 before I get the 5 lnb dish.

Me too!  

[Talos4]

While on the phone with DTV the other day resolving some other issues.  I went ahead and ordered the AT-9 dish.

Already have an H-20.  

I didn't really get it for the locals, I get all of them just fine OTA.  Just future proofing myself for the inevititable rollout of additional offerings.  

I'm scheduled for installation on Monday 6/19 PM.

BTW, Installation for me is totally free, No shipping and delivery charges, no additional comittment, no installation fee. :rock:

I'll let you guys know how it went and the results early next week.

[sp44again]

I'm waiting for the smaller Slimline dish also.

[gparris]

My brother has a Mits 48" CRT RPTV set and when he got it, he upgraded his Directv service to the new HD receiver and 5LNB dish.
Oddly enough, he didn't want to do OTA reception with an antenna (don't ask...ugh!), so he is wanting to get the local HD stations in HD from the dish.
So far, I ask him how NBC, ABC and FOX primetime look in HD and he says that he doesn't get anything in HD from them despite of the bigger dish, etc.
The component cabling is correctly installed to the DTV 1080i inputs on the set and Discovery HD, etc. is coming through fine enough (even with HD Lite).
The Directv installer has been out more than once, there is a clear path to the sky, so I don't know what to tell him.

Any ideas?

That new dish Directv is coming out with looks very good, a lot better than the current configuration...when is it coming out and can it be swapped out?

[Talos4]

UPDATE:

My dish was installed on Monday Afternoon. (scheduled between 1-5pm)

Premier Communications did the job.  Arrived at 1:00pm and was done by 2:15 pm.

While I haven't gone up on the roof to check the hardware installation a quick look showed me that all of the bracing arms are installed so it looks like a solid installation.

He had no problems with the installation or the inside set up. He did not have a multiswitch (6x8) on his truck.  While he worked on the dish install another tech dropped off a switch before he was done on the roof.  

As far as the PQ,  I do not have the means to check the bit rate, so my impressions are visual only. The H-20's onboard signal strength meter is notoriously low. ( I've heard about 20% lower than actual) Signal strengths are between about  75-100.

Watching NHL/Leno last night, and switching between OTA and DTV the PQ is very close.  I will say that the DTV picture is a bit "softer".  (not getting into the "HD lite" "discussion")  Still very good, No macro blocking during game play. It's not OTA after all.

As far as the issue of audio syncing mentioned by others around the country, I tried hard to notice it but really could not.  

Overall it seems to be very good.  Installation was great. I've never had a problem with Premier Communications and would recommend them to anyone looking for an installation.  


As I said in my earlier post, I didn't get the new dish for the locals more for the future MPEG4 offerings. So the lack of complete local coverage is no big deal to me.

[bubbaridesfast]

While on the phone with DTV the other day resolving some other issues.  I went ahead and ordered the AT-9 dish.

Already have an H-20.  

I didn't really get it for the locals, I get all of them just fine OTA.  Just future proofing myself for the inevititable rollout of additional offerings.  

I'm scheduled for installation on Monday 6/19 PM.

BTW, Installation for me is totally free, No shipping and delivery charges, no additional comittment, no installation fee. :rock:

I'll let you guys know how it went and the results early next week.

Was the dish itself free also? In other words, the new dish, shipping and install all free?

[Talos4]

Yeppers!!!

Zip, Zero, Nada!!! :rock:

I really should have said "Hardware and Installation"

[bubbaridesfast]

Yeppers!!!

Zip, Zero, Nada!!! :rock:

I really should have said "Hardware and Installation"

that's good to know, I called them last month to check and they wanted $100 from me for the box, dish and installation. Did you have to pay for the H-20? That might be why they quoted me $100 because that included the H-20.

[Talos4]

I've had an H20 since Mid-late February.  

And yes, IF I needed a new box, it would have been $100.00 for the complete change out.