question about transponders and mirror channels...

I'm obviously new at this but I am wondering. What is a transponder? I have researched it and still don't understand fully. How do I find out which one I'm on and do different areas go to different ones?

Are these mirror channels on different satellites? I notice I have the same channels twice. In the upper hundreds I have the same ones.

I'm wondering if those are located on a different satellite. If I don't get one in the 100's or 200's very clear would it be more clear in the upper hundreds? Meaning maybe it's on a satellite I'm pointed at better?

What is the point of these mirror channels? Shouldn't they use that space to put something else?

I asked this in another thread but it might be more proper here. My dp plus LNB, is that the best for HD or should I get something else?

final question. Explain to me what channels are on each satellite. What is on 110? What is on 119? And what is on 129? Is 129 Hd channels and local channels? that's what I'm gathering here but I'm not positive.

Look at www.dishuser.org.

The yellow box has a listing of each satellite and each channel and which transponder(s) it is on.

Okay so the 110 satellite DOES have a lot of HD programming but it's not on the 100 channels it's on the upper hundreds.

So what this means, is since the 129 satellite doesnt get a really strong signal I should watch my hd programming on the Hd channels that are on the 110 satellite in order to get a better picture?

Signal strength has nothing to do with picture quality. You either have picture or you don't.

Signal strength has nothing to do with picture quality. You either have picture or you don't.

Absolutely wrong.

In order to see all the HD channels to which you are subscribed, you need all three satellites.

129 has most of the HD channels, 110 has a few HD channels and 119 has very few if any, but they are not duplicated from 129 to 110 to 129, so if you miss one satellite, you miss all the channels on that satellite.

Some channels may appear to be dupicated from 129 and 110, but the ones on 110 are speciality markets like Alsaka, Puerto Rico , etc. and are not available to general customers.

Channels in the lower numbers are digitally remapped within your receiver, you really only receive a specific channel on one satellite channel and the reciever does the magic moving on the channel list.

For instance ESPN-HD is transmitted on channel 9424 and you receiver can display it on 9424 and/or 140, depending on how you have set up the receiver.

Okay I finally got home and did a signal test. I got a really good signal on the 129. So thank god for that. the 110 and 119 were pretty good too but I see the installer got the best out of the 129 because he knew that was where most of my watching would be.

Also signal strength does matter when it comes to quality.

On directv at one time the hd channels didn't look that great. They came out and repointed the dish and the directv hd channels improved dramatically. I was having drop outs every time it rained and even on a sunny day the hd didn't look as good as I knew it should. Once I got my signal in the 90's over the 70's I was able to get better quality.

With dish network it seems like no one is in the 90's when it comes to the 129 and the 129 is the most important satellite right now. All I watch are hd channels and locals. 98% of the time anyway.

It seems dish should have put it in a better location because of all the people not able to get it and people who do don't get the best quality with it.

Again, does directv have 5 satellites? Because I had a 5 lnb with directv? Amazing that they can catch 5 satellites with one dish.

Looks like I won't need 2 dishes with dish network after all! Thank god. The 110 and 119 came in, in the 70's btw. Which I know isn't the greatest but I watch those the least and I imagine if the satellite was turned to get the 110 and 119 better then I would sacrifice my 129 which I don't want to do. My 129 is in the upper 60's and from what I've read on here that is awesome. Most places I'm reading people are only getting around 39 or so with the 129.

Also I still don't understand transponders really. My satellite will automatically have it set on the right ones right?

Are there no reason to get 61.5 satellite? does 129 have all of it's channels? 61.5 for people who can't get 129?

Also I still don't understand transponders really. My satellite will automatically have it set on the right ones right?

Are there no reason to get 61.5 satellite? does 129 have all of it's channels? 61.5 for people who can't get 129?

Only HD not on both 61.5 and 129 are rsn's and spotbeamed locals. If you don't care if you don't have either or subscribe to them or you have the ones you want on 129, you do not need 61.5.

A transponder is a broad band transmitter on the satellite that carries up to 8 HD channels or up to 14-16 SD channels or even a mixture of both.

Since this is digital transmission all those channels can be multiplexed on one transponder and the receiver will seperate them out properly.

A transponder might be remotely analagous to a digital TV channel, where the station can broadcast multiple sub-channels on that frequency range, like 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, etc.

All those digital channels are within the 6MHZ frequency of channel 7 (assuming that is the "REAL" channel number) but are seperated out by the digital receiver as different channels.

Thanks for the help! I've never known any of this stuff really. But I just got Dish so I decided I should learn how it works. And to make sure I'm getting the best signal where I need it.

My satellite will automatically have it set on the right ones right?

You don't have a satellite at your home. You have a satellite dish.

You don't have a satellite at your home. You have a satellite dish.

Dude seriously? I think we know that. People call it satellite tv and satellite for short. People don't ask, do you have cable or satellite dish? They ask do you have cable or satellite.

That was about the lamest thing I've seen on here so far. lol Save your comments.