Looking at Directv's web page...

[E55AMG]

Currently a Dish customer, and doing my due diligence to see if I should take the HD plunge! I'm trying to make sense of this whole "local", OTA thing. Looking at Dish, (and some things I've read here) it is not very clear (unless I missed something) regarding the locals and what actually need to get it. Directv's web page however, seemed pretty straight forward and easy to find what you need. did I also see that they will also supply the OTA antenna?

I don't know, maybe I just found the direc web page more friendly to navigate, but being a novice in this subject, that would certainly help me make a decision as to who to go with if I was shopping for a sat. provider.

So, is there really any difference, or maybe a better way to ask, does one make it "easier" than the other?

[GRN]

By "easier", do you mean easier to make the switch over to HD? I've heard horror stories about both DISH and D*, so there's probably no one straight answer. I have DISH, and the switch to HD took about an hour, with the installer swapping out boxes and calling DISH to authorize the new box.

Or do you mean the ease of receiving OTA channels? Be forewarned; from what I have read in other posts on this forum, the OTA antenna that D* provides is one of the "halo" antennas tha you clip on to the satellite dish, which doesn't work for 99% of the people. Unless the towers are right across the street, you'd probably get better reception using a wire hanger.

Both DISH and D* provide local channels in SD through the satellite dish. In order to receive your locals in HD, you WILL need an OTA antenna. DISH provides a CBS-HD feed for customers who qualify; D* provides CBS-HD, NBC-HD, FOX-HD and ABC-HD, again for customers who qualify. Therefore, you should determine what market you are in and whether you qualify for the channels before you make any decision to purchase an OTA antenna.

Also, you make no mention about what kind of TV you have. If your TV has a built-in ATSC(HD) tuner, then you do not need a separate set-top box and can patch the antenna right into the back of your TV. Provided your antenna can pull in the channels, the TV's tuner will descramble the channels for you.

Frankly, I find both D*'s webpage and DISH's webpage sub-standard. But if you're thinking of going with one carrier over the other because of their webpage, then you're doing yourself a serious disservice.

[RonInBigEasy]

Originally Posted by E55AMG

Currently a Dish customer, and doing my due diligence to see if I should take the HD plunge! I'm trying to make sense of this whole "local", OTA thing. Looking at Dish, (and some things I've read here) it is not very clear (unless I missed something) regarding the locals and what actually need to get it. Directv's web page however, seemed pretty straight forward and easy to find what you need. did I also see that they will also supply the OTA antenna?

I don't know, maybe I just found the direc web page more friendly to navigate, but being a novice in this subject, that would certainly help me make a decision as to who to go with if I was shopping for a sat. provider.

So, is there really any difference, or maybe a better way to ask, does one make it "easier" than the other?

There really is not a lot of difference between DirecTV and Dish as far as receiving local channels in HD. The bottom line is that in order to receive (network) HD channels off the dish, be it DirecTV or Dish you have to be on one of the isolated areas that are either designated on their respective websites. The best way to receive these channels is via an off-air antenna or if you live close to the broadcast towers, you can possibly get away with an inside amplified antenna. If you go to this website you'll be able to determine what is the best off-air antenna for your particular area:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Now as far as the off-air antennas you could get through either DirecTV or Dish, you will probably, actually most likely end up with one of those "halo" clip ons to your dish. If you are not very near your broadcast towers, they are pretty useless. I know that DirecTV is offering a bit more network channels then Dish, and once again, only in certain areas of the country and that Dish has purchased one of the Voom satellites which everyone assumes means that they will also begin to expand their HD network channel offerings. But the bottom line is if you want to receive network broadcasts in HD now, and not wait for your area to be open or for Dish to expand their offerings, then the off-air antenna that is taylored to your address is the only sure fire way to begin watching these stations now. Oh and one other factor to consider, you won't have to pay any extra for these channels beyond the expense of the antenna itself.

[GRN]

E55AMG (if I may use your first name ), where are you located? That may help us answer your question more thoroughly......

[kemper]

Originally Posted by E55AMG

Currently a Dish customer, and doing my due diligence to see if I should take the HD plunge! I'm trying to make sense of this whole "local", OTA thing. Looking at Dish, (and some things I've read here) it is not very clear (unless I missed something) regarding the locals and what actually need to get it. Directv's web page however, seemed pretty straight forward and easy to find what you need. did I also see that they will also supply the OTA antenna?

I don't know, maybe I just found the direc web page more friendly to navigate, but being a novice in this subject, that would certainly help me make a decision as to who to go with if I was shopping for a sat. provider.

So, is there really any difference, or maybe a better way to ask, does one make it "easier" than the other?

I agree with you E55AMG . the dish website does not give any good details about local channels in HD. directv makes it clear you need an antenna. voom says they will give you an antenna for free. dish says nothing about how to get local HD. I went to two different radio shack stores and asked the guy workign there about it. they each got on the phone with DISH and confirmed that if you get the local channel package and the HD package from DISH, then if a show was broadcast in HD you would just "get it" automatically. i was very skeptical because thats not how it works for directv or voom. i had HD through local cable company and it required going to the HD version of the channel you want. NBC-HD vs just NBC. i made a call to DISH myself and yet another tech told me the HD broadcast would just appear on my local channel. so with a third affirmative vote i took the plunge and got DISH.
of course, it did not work as descibed. local channels in HD are available only through an antenna. i do notlive in one of the 15 major markets where CBS-HD is available via DISH

so now i am evaluating my tenth antenna trying to find one that will consistently get FOX so i can watch the superbowl. march madness is coming up soon. If I can't get CBS in HD I am going to be furious.

other than that, i think DISH is great. I have never had sattelite before.

[RonInBigEasy]

Originally Posted by kemper

I agree with you E55AMG . the dish website does not give any good details about local channels in HD. directv makes it clear you need an antenna. voom says they will give you an antenna for free. dish says nothing about how to get local HD. I went to two different radio shack stores and asked the guy workign there about it. they each got on the phone with DISH and confirmed that if you get the local channel package and the HD package from DISH, then if a show was broadcast in HD you would just "get it" automatically. i was very skeptical because thats not how it works for directv or voom. i had HD through local cable company and it required going to the HD version of the channel you want. NBC-HD vs just NBC. i made a call to DISH myself and yet another tech told me the HD broadcast would just appear on my local channel. so with a third affirmative vote i took the plunge and got DISH.
of course, it did not work as descibed. local channels in HD are available only through an antenna. i do notlive in one of the 15 major markets where CBS-HD is available via DISH

so now i am evaluating my tenth antenna trying to find one that will consistently get FOX so i can watch the superbowl. march madness is coming up soon. If I can't get CBS in HD I am going to be furious.

other than that, i think DISH is great. I have never had sattelite before.

Call Dish up TODAY and complain. Their customer service reps told me the same thing about the ability of getting HD network stations if I was receiving local stations via their dish. I knew better. I called today and complained about the misinformation and they gave HBO and Showtime for free for a month. When you call, ask them to talk to someone in their "corporate" office. The guy I talked to told me that he was unaware that their customer service people were telling individuals that. I told him that I"m on this forum and I am NOT ALONE in getting this bad info. I strongly encourage you to call and complain and hope you can get some free programing for your troubles as well. Below is a copy and paste of the email I sent to Dish Network the day after I got my stuff installed. It was sent a week ago yesterday and stilll no reply, that's what motivated me to call today.

Here is the email I just sent to Dish Network.....what a nightmare!!!

Thankfully, I wasn't your average uninformed individual.

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a new Dish Network customer, who was a DirecTV customer for the past 10 years. I have to admit that the limited exposure I have had with your company makes me regret the fact that I ever moved to Dish Network. The only reason that I considered moving from DirecTV to Dish was the fact that I was interested in your high definition package and promotion whereas I would not have to pay anything extra for the equipment, where DirecTV wanted to charge me $299.00. After what has transpired to date, I think the $299.00 would have been well worth the investment to avoid all the problems I have encountered with your company. Below is a list of what has occurred to the best of my memory.

1. I contacted your customer service line with questions about your packages along with questions about your high definition package. During the course of the conversation, I was told specifically that I WOULD be able to receive my local network channels in high definition if the broadcast was in high definition. Now I found that very hard to believe considering the fact that I did do extensive research on receiving high definition and did not find any satellite company that offered this service. I always understood that yes, there would be some limited high definition channels available off the satellite, but any network broadcasts in high definition, i.e. ABC, CBS, NBC etc would only be received via an off-air antenna. But I took your customer service rep's word on it.

2. I called a day or two later because I began to have doubts about this claim of having the ability to receive network broadcasts in high definition via your dish. Once again the customer service rep informed me of the same thing the last one did, and that was that if I was receiving network local channels via my Dish Network dish and they were broadcast in high definition, then I would receive them in high definition. He insisted that "we have new technology that will allow us to do that". Again, I said ok, I'll take your word for it.

3. About a day later, I called and this time selected your technical support, and asked them the same question. This time I received the RIGHT answer and that was that I was correct all along, the only channels I would receive in high definition would be the ones you advertise as part of your package, that any network channels would need an off-air antenna.

4. About 4-5 days prior to my installation, I again called your customer service line and asked them if they had assigned the local installer. You see, I wanted to call the individual installing my dish and wanted to know if they would also install an off-air antenna at the same time and I would be willing to pay extra for this service. Your customer service person informed me that they did not know who the installer was and they would not be assigned until later on that week. I told your customer service individual the reason I wanted to talk to this person, that I was looking to also have an off-air antenna installed at the same time as my dish so I could get network broadcasts in high definition. She informed me that Dish Network offered off-air antennas for an additional cost of $50.00. I asked her what type of antenna it was since I know that based on where I live I need an antenna with a range of at least 50 miles or it would be useless. She told me "there are 3 different types that we offer, I'm not sure what one you would receive, but I'm sure that the individual doing your install would give you the right one". I said ok, please add the $50.00 to my bill and I'll take the off-air antenna that you are offering.

5. Based on the misinformation I received earlier regarding network high definition channels, I called customer service every day up to the Saturday in an effort to ensure that the off-air antenna I was being charged $50.00 would actually be the right antenna to receive network broadcasts in my area. Each time I was told that the installer was still not yet assigned and that I should be confident that I would not be charged $50.00 for a useless antenna. Finally, on Saturday, January 15th, after several attempts, I was given the number to the individual who would do my dish install. I contacted him directly and asked him about the off-air antenna. He informed me that the ONLY off-air antenna he installs is the "halo". I told him that I know I need an antenna with a range of at least 50 miles and I know, based on my own personal research, the "halo" would not work. He agreed with me and we cancelled the order for the off-air antenna.

6. Now the day of my installation finally arrives. The installer arrives at my house at about 1:15 PM. Now keep in mind that my house already was wired for DireTV in 3 rooms. He didn't leave my house until almost 7 PM. I have no idea what took him so long for the installation. And not only did it take him almost 6 hours, but I did NOT have any sound coming from my TV along with a bad picture. I informed him that there was no sound coming from the TV and asked him what the problem could be. His answer was something like "I connected it the way you had it with DirecTV, I don't have anything to do with the sound".

7. The last problem I had was the inability to receive a channel that I was told I WOULD receive in one of the many calls to your customer service reps. Once we began flipping through our channel selection we noticed that channel 9408 was not on the selection and would not come in. I specifically asked if I would receive ALL the channels listed on the 120 list on your website. I was told YES. Even the list on your website does NOT tell any customer that I would not receive this channel. The only way you know for sure is by clicking on it and reading the individual channel's fine print and unfortunately, it's too late to change satellite providers since I didn't realize that I would not actually receive this station until my system was installed.

The bottom line in all of this is the fact that I am a customer service supervisor for a national company myself, and am shocked and dismayed of the lack of correct information your representatives provide potential and current customers. I don't know what can be done at this point, since I have already made a huge commitment to your company in both time and money. I hope that my email would at least bring some attention to the obvious deficiencies in your customer service department

[E55AMG]

Originally Posted by GRN

E55AMG (if I may use your first name ), where are you located? That may help us answer your question more thoroughly......

You may certainly use my first name! (Chris). I'm in Long Island, NY ( zip code 11787). I agree, picking a provider because of their web page is silly. I was not saying I was doing that. Just seemed that Direc's page was more clear.

As far as the TV, I haven't bought it yet! It will be plasma, will be 50", and deciding between Panny 7UY, NEC XR4, or the Fujitsu 50/40. I guess you can throw the Pioneer elite 1120 into the mix. Saw both the 1120 and the fuji. side by side and I thought the fuji. was better. Also about 3K more than the Panny and NEC. Not sure if it's 3K better though.

And my main concern is getting my locals in HD, and what exactly I need to do that. Based on what i've read here, relying on the sat. companies for the info. might not be a good idea.

Chris

[rickbbb]

I had Directv breifly for about 3 days.When I made my telephone order they told me I could get OTA reception for HD channels where I live.They charged me $50 for the antenna.When the installers came to my place they told me they would'nt put the antenna up because they said in my area I don't receive OTA reception.So I was'nt charged for the antenna-it was deducted from my bill.
I later phone Directv about their mistake-their reaction surprized me.
They were very smug about it..saying it was up to me if I wanted to order the antenna or not-they said they are not technicians.
I pointed out to them that they must have other people from my area who place orders..and since the Directv people do this customer service job for a living FOR Directv..they should know which citys gets OTA reception and which ones don't.The installer who came to my house told me that my whole city does'nt get OTA reception..and the city north of it does'nt either.
Should'nt customer service KNOW this???!!!!
Anyway,I'm pretty happy with my current satelite company -Dish Network..though they're pretty slow at cranking out enough HD channels and new digital channels.