I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank

"frank1492" wrote in message
...
I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank


Why would you want too?
Are you planning on going with a HD rec soon?

frank1492 wrote:
I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank

It is probably compatible but you should consider that the current line
of DirecTV dishes are 5-LNB slimline units and the older antennas won't
work for their newest satellites which are being put into operation this
month.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

I need this dish for a second vacation house that I have. I will
shuttle the receiver back and forth between houses.
Are these 5-LNB units to be used excusively to receive HD
programming or for more SD? I guess what I should do is get
the 5-LNB dish for my principal residence, since I may go to HD
some day and am there the lion's share of the time. I would
then move my old dish to Maine as it will be used rarely. Does
that make sense?.
Thanks very much!
Frank





On Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:11:44 -0400, John McGaw
wrote:

frank1492 wrote:
I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank

It is probably compatible but you should consider that the current line
of DirecTV dishes are 5-LNB slimline units and the older antennas won't
work for their newest satellites which are being put into operation this
month.

frank1492 wrote:
I need this dish for a second vacation house that I have. I will
shuttle the receiver back and forth between houses.
Are these 5-LNB units to be used excusively to receive HD
programming or for more SD? I guess what I should do is get
the 5-LNB dish for my principal residence, since I may go to HD
some day and am there the lion's share of the time. I would
then move my old dish to Maine as it will be used rarely. Does
that make sense?.


Makes sense to me. Why would you want to have to go up the ladder again to
place a dish when you inevitably upgrade at some point in the future?
Considering the small difference in cost, I'd put up the better dish now and
save myself the trouble later.

I think it's just a matter of time before TV is all high definition anyway.
People used to talk about color TV the same way they talk about HD today... and
look how that took off!



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

Makes sense to me. Why would you want to have to go up the ladder
again to place a dish when you inevitably upgrade at some point in
the future? Considering the small difference in cost, I'd put up the
better dish now and save myself the trouble later.

Don't put the dish where you need a ladder to access it.

Mount the dish on a 6' pole anchored to the ground like a fence post. Or
bolt to a deck railing. Easier to adjust, easier to remove snow, easier to
take down.

The difference between 6' and 16' compared to 25,000 miles is insignificant.

HeyBub wrote:
Don't put the dish where you need a ladder to access it.

Mount the dish on a 6' pole anchored to the ground like a fence post. Or
bolt to a deck railing. Easier to adjust, easier to remove snow, easier to
take down.

The difference between 6' and 16' compared to 25,000 miles is insignificant.


Mine is on a post in the back yard, just as you've suggested. However, I've had
to trim a hell of a lot of vegetation out of the way to keep a clear view of the
bird. Had I mounted it up on the back of the house I probably wouldn't have had
to do any of that.

One particular annoyance was losing the signal in the rain. Not rain fade, mind
you... the water would weigh down branches and then they'd droop down in front
of the dish. It wasn't always obvious which one was the offender and you had to
go out in the rain to fix it. If you waited until it stopped raining then the
branch would dry and spring back to its normal innocent position. A real PITA.
I finally fixed it permanently by cutting the whole damned tree down. No more
signal loss in all but the most torrential of downpours.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

Meat Plow wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 01:52:28 +0000, frank1492 wrote:

I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank

Call someone who installs DTV HD and ask them to be sure but I would
assume there is backwards compatibility from at least one of the LNB's.
I've been a DTV customer since 2000 btw. Also i have a friend who dabbled
with installing a DTV HD unit and he had one hell of a time setting the
dish up. You may consider getting a pro to install it if all possible.

There is no self install anymore. All of the equipment is owned by them.
You buy the service and they send someone over with the equipment and to
set it up.

On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 08:38:08 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

Makes sense to me. Why would you want to have to go up the ladder
again to place a dish when you inevitably upgrade at some point in
the future? Considering the small difference in cost, I'd put up the
better dish now and save myself the trouble later.

Don't put the dish where you need a ladder to access it.

Mount the dish on a 6' pole anchored to the ground like a fence post. Or
bolt to a deck railing. Easier to adjust, easier to remove snow, easier to
take down.

The difference between 6' and 16' compared to 25,000 miles is insignificant.


The satellite to dish distance is insignificant. The height of this
(dish-sat) line at the dish end isn't. That could make the difference
between a good signal and no signal because of a tree in the way.
--
77 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

frank1492 wrote:
I need this dish for a second vacation house that I have. I will
shuttle the receiver back and forth between houses.
Are these 5-LNB units to be used excusively to receive HD
programming or for more SD? I guess what I should do is get
the 5-LNB dish for my principal residence, since I may go to HD
some day and am there the lion's share of the time. I would
then move my old dish to Maine as it will be used rarely. Does
that make sense?.
Thanks very much!
Frank





On Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:11:44 -0400, John McGaw
wrote:

frank1492 wrote:
I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank
It is probably compatible but you should consider that the current line
of DirecTV dishes are 5-LNB slimline units and the older antennas won't
work for their newest satellites which are being put into operation this
month.


The 5-LNB antennas are used to access the two new satellites but I don't
know if these are to be used for HD exclusively. One quirk is that the
new antenna weighs at least twice what the old ones did and presents a
lot more wind load than the old ones because of their greater area. And
to top it off DirecTV won't just let you have an antenna to install
yourself as they did with the old ones -- they send out a technician for
a no-fee install. There is a big backlog, at least in my area, and the
closest appointment I could get was 45+ days from the request.

As chance would have it my installation call was this morning and it
took the tech at least two hours to get the antenna in with the larger
mount and bracing. I had installed a pair of new cables myself when I
bought the new HD DVR receiver so that didn't come into it. The
technician did have quite a time getting a good aim on the antenna. His
default aiming settings resulted in a really good signal on the 101
satellite which is used for setup but as he was "fine tuning" the aim
the antenna flopped because he didn't have the elevation and azimuth
(and maybe rotation) bolts tight enough and it took a long time to get
back to where he was. But it was probably worth it for the new HD
standard-package channels.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

Meat Plow wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:31:55 -0400, George wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 01:52:28 +0000, frank1492 wrote:

I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank
Call someone who installs DTV HD and ask them to be sure but I would
assume there is backwards compatibility from at least one of the LNB's.
I've been a DTV customer since 2000 btw. Also i have a friend who dabbled
with installing a DTV HD unit and he had one hell of a time setting the
dish up. You may consider getting a pro to install it if all possible.

There is no self install anymore. All of the equipment is owned by them.
You buy the service and they send someone over with the equipment and to
set it up.

You can go to Best Buy or any other chain store offering DTV and purchase
DTV components and install them yourself.. Or you can order new service
and not pay for anything.

My error, you can getjust a few items such as a replacement receiver.
The new install systems and all of the dishes etc are all factory
install only.

Current DTV HD setups consist of the 5-LNB dish, WB-68 multi-switch, H-20
receiver, and an add-on B-Band converter. The 3-LNB dish will work for some
HD content, but not all.

DTV rolled out new HD channels at the end of Sept, none of which are
accessible with the 3-LNB dish. What you have is folks dumping their 3-LNB
dishes on ebay because they upgraded to 5-LNB.

DTV is planning to have 70 HD channels by the end of Oct. and 100 channels
by the end of the year. I have the current DTV HD setup, and the HD looks
*sweet* on my 42" Plasma.




"frank1492" wrote in message
...
I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank

Why not switch to the Dish Network and get free equipment and
installation?


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

George wrote:
There is no self install anymore. All of the equipment is owned by them.
You buy the service and they send someone over with the equipment and to
set it up.


When did this happen? Three years ago I installed a four receiver system at my
father's beach house. The receivers all belong to me.... I got them at Best
Buy, along with the dish.

I needed to be the one to do the installation, rather than them... otherwise
they'd have discovered that my father didn't live in a nearby city as he
claimed. He wanted local stations for City X, 20 miles from his home. Because
he lived in Town Y, they said he lived in a different demographic viewing area
and he would have to get local stations from City Z... 70 miles away... a place
he never goes. Unacceptable.

So we fixed him up with a dummy mailing address; he gets the locals from where
he wanted; DirecTV gets paid online every month. Everybody's happy. Nobody
gets cheated out of money. But obviously their agenda isn't the same as ours.
Too bad for them.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

George wrote:
You can go to Best Buy or any other chain store offering DTV and purchase
DTV components and install them yourself.. Or you can order new service
and not pay for anything.

My error, you can getjust a few items such as a replacement receiver.
The new install systems and all of the dishes etc are all factory
install only.


"Your error" is right. You can order triple LNB multi bird dishes from Circuit
City for $99.99 for DirecTV. Do you need the URL?

I'd tell you how much Best Buy is selling them for right now but their web site
is dragging ass.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

John McGaw wrote:
The 5-LNB antennas are used to access the two new satellites but I don't
know if these are to be used for HD exclusively. One quirk is that the
new antenna weighs at least twice what the old ones did and presents a
lot more wind load than the old ones because of their greater area. And
to top it off DirecTV won't just let you have an antenna to install
yourself as they did with the old ones -- they send out a technician for
a no-fee install. There is a big backlog, at least in my area, and the
closest appointment I could get was 45+ days from the request.



You mean like this one? http://bestwaysatellite.com/inc/sdetail/12966.

"Multi-Satellite Directv 5-LNB Dish For HDTV Including KA Band for locals in
HD. - $99.95"



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

On Oct 9, 1:45 pm, Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 08:38:08 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

Makes sense to me. Why would you want to have to go up the ladder
again to place a dish when you inevitably upgrade at some point in
the future? Considering the small difference in cost, I'd put up the
better dish now and save myself the trouble later.

Don't put the dish where you need a ladder to access it.

Mount the dish on a 6' pole anchored to the ground like a fence post. Or
bolt to a deck railing. Easier to adjust, easier to remove snow, easier to
take down.

The difference between 6' and 16' compared to 25,000 miles is insignificant.

The satellite to dish distance is insignificant. The height of this
(dish-sat) line at the dish end isn't. That could make the difference
between a good signal and no signal because of a tree in the way.
--
77 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloydhttp://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father,
expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even
infinitely above it."
--Benjamin Franklin

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:13:46 -0400, John McGaw
wrote:

frank1492 wrote:
I need this dish for a second vacation house that I have. I will
shuttle the receiver back and forth between houses.
Are these 5-LNB units to be used excusively to receive HD
programming or for more SD? I guess what I should do is get
the 5-LNB dish for my principal residence, since I may go to HD
some day and am there the lion's share of the time. I would
then move my old dish to Maine as it will be used rarely. Does
that make sense?.
Thanks very much!
Frank





On Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:11:44 -0400, John McGaw
wrote:

frank1492 wrote:
I am considering purchase of a DirecTv dish, described as follows on
EBay:

NEW Direct TV HD TRIPLE LNB Satellite Dish DirecTV FTA

I currently have a SD DirecTv subscription and use one of the early
RCA receivers.

Is there any reason why I could not substitute this dish for my
current dish, which is an early single LNB model? I assume there
is backward compatibility of this dish with my equipment, but
just wanted to be sure.

Thanks very much for your help!
Frank
It is probably compatible but you should consider that the current line
of DirecTV dishes are 5-LNB slimline units and the older antennas won't
work for their newest satellites which are being put into operation this
month.


The 5-LNB antennas are used to access the two new satellites but I don't
know if these are to be used for HD exclusively.

IIRC, according to the Lyngsat site the only non-HD channels using the
new sats are locals for Alaska and Hawaii.

One quirk is that the
new antenna weighs at least twice what the old ones did and presents a
lot more wind load than the old ones because of their greater area.

BTW, maybe you know the dish itself isn't an antenna but a reflector.
The actual antennas are little things located in the LNBs.

And
to top it off DirecTV won't just let you have an antenna to install
yourself as they did with the old ones -- they send out a technician for
a no-fee install. There is a big backlog, at least in my area, and the
closest appointment I could get was 45+ days from the request.

As chance would have it my installation call was this morning and it
took the tech at least two hours to get the antenna in with the larger
mount and bracing. I had installed a pair of new cables myself when I
bought the new HD DVR receiver so that didn't come into it. The
technician did have quite a time getting a good aim on the antenna. His
default aiming settings resulted in a really good signal on the 101
satellite which is used for setup but as he was "fine tuning" the aim
the antenna flopped because he didn't have the elevation and azimuth
(and maybe rotation) bolts tight enough and it took a long time to get
back to where he was. But it was probably worth it for the new HD
standard-package channels.
--
76 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:23:03 -0700, wrote:

[snip]


"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father,
expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even
infinitely above it."
--Benjamin Franklin

That reminds me of why most scientists don't admit to being atheist.
They need money from the ignorant masses.

&&&

WARNING: The following sig should not be read by the humor-impaired,
such as religious fundamentalists.

--
Eat JEEZUS PLEEZERS: Tiny little bits of imitation meat on a stick
resembling an ancient torture device.

" Eat JEEZUS PLEEZERS: Tiny little bits of imitation meat on a stick
resembling an ancient torture device."

Maybe I would be offended if I knew what this meant!?

The stick is the cross used for crucifixion, but the tiny bits of
imitation meat...why tiny bits? Are you referring to Communion or the
Host? Does imitation mean it is not believable?

You need to dumb this down a bit for it to be insulting on a larger
scale.

b_d