Dish Network Equipment

Very Cool Receivers and DVRs

August, 2008 Update: Dish Network has just raised the stakes in the satellite broadcast industry. They are beginning to roll out upgrades for DVRs and receivers that will provide 1080p HD. If you don't know a lot about HDTV, the simple way to explain it is to say that 1080p is the top-of-the-line HD format, and Dish Network is the only company offering it. DirecTV does not yet offer it and Comcast does not yet offer it, at least not in this area. If you want to read more about 1080p and HDTV in general, check out this site.

The equipment sure has come a long way since I bought my first Dish Network System nine years ago. My old receiver, which is called the 5000, was pretty revolutionary for me at the time, but now it isn't looking that great when compared to all the new stuff they have since come out with and my new VIP622 DVR really puts it to shame.

One of the best features of my old receiver is one that they are still using in today's receivers and that is the caller ID display. There is a telephone jack on the receiver that enables you to connect your receiver to a telephone line for the purposes of accessing pay-per-view programming and probably some other functions as well.

But for me, the best thing about having the receiver connected to the telephone line is the on-screen caller ID feature. When we are watching television and the telephone rings, the caller ID information is displayed at the top of the TV screen. I just love that since we can usually tell who the call is for and one of us does not have to get up to answer it just to end up calling someone else to the phone. A great lazy man's feature for sure!

UPDATE: I have finally upgraded my Dish Network System and moved my TV viewing experience into the 21st Century! The old Dish 5000 receiver has been sent back to Dish Network for credit and in its place sits a brand-new Dish Network VIP622 DVR that's connected to my new 51-inch Hitachi rear-projection HDTV.

You can see a picture of the VIP622 below. It's the silver-colored unit with the two remote controls sitting on top of it.

The Latest Dish Network Receivers and DVRs

Among the nice features the new receivers have is the ability to connect two televisions to one receiver and have each of them tuned in to a different channel. There is also interactive TV that provides access to news, weather sports, games and customer service for Dish Network customers.

DVRs are one of the really nice developments since I got my original system. DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder, and as the name suggests, it allows you to record programs just like a VCR, but with many more features and much better quality.

Features of DVR receivers include the ability to "pause" live TV and not miss any programs due to interruptions. This is possible because the DVR is constantly recording every program you watch on its internal hard drive without you having to do a thing. When you hit the "Pause" button, the recording continues and you can go do something else for up to an hour. When you come back, you can resume watching the program right where you left off. A very nice feature.

You can also do things like recording one program while watching another one and recording a live program while you are watching one that has been recorded. For example, recently I was watching a program I had recorded a few before while the DVR was recording three other programs at the same time! One program being recorded was an over-the-air program from a local TV station and the other two were from the satellite.

Since these DVR receivers can record up to 200 hours of programming, you will have more than enough capacity to record all of your favorite programs and watch them when it is convenient for you. And if that is not enough for you, there are external units that can be purchased that will add more programming capacity to your DVR.

Dish Network receivers also have conventional television receivers inside that allow you to connect your receiver to a standard TV antenna (or even a cable TV system) and watch local programming in addition to the Dish Network Programming. This works very well in my area since we live in a location that is at a fairly high altitude and we get excellent reception from all the digital channels from Boston.

The VIP622 (pictured below) is an amazing piece of technology. I was in love with my new VIP622 as soon as I got it set up and realized what it could do. It is so easy to record any program you want simply by selecting it on the program guide and instructing the VIP622 to record it. You have the option of recording the program once, having it recorded automatically every time it comes on or recording only new episodes! A great way to make sure you won't miss those must-see programs!

The VIP622 is also capable of delivering HD programming, and I am as impressed with that as I am with the other capabilities of the unit. HDTV is as good as you have probably heard it is. I am so amazed by it that I will watch almost anything as long as it is in HD! I'm sure that will wear off, but any doubts I had about buying an HDTV evaporated when I saw my first true HD program.

One of my favorite things about HD is that the colors looks so much more natural and realistic. Someone told me before I got my new HDTV that watching a good HD broadcast was almost like looking through a window at something outside. I wasn't sure I could believe that but I certainly do now. It's just amazing.

In addition to all the cool recording capabilities of the VIP622, the other features I really like include the following:

It saves a few days worth of the programming guide on its internal hard drive so that there are no delays when you want to view programming information. My old 5000 receiver drove me crazy because it would sometimes take as long as 2 or 3 minutes just to view the description of a single program after pressing the "Info" button.

When viewing the programming guide, the program you are currently watching is displayed in a smaller "picture-in-picture" screen above the guide so that you do not miss anything while you are checking the programming guide. Nice.

The VIP622 also has a "picture-in-picture" function so that you can watch another program on a smaller picture that is displayed somewhere over the program you are watching. You only hear the audio from the program you were originally watching but the "Swap" button will reverse that and put the program you were originally watching in the smaller window. There are two sizes available to use for the "picture-in-picture" screen and below you can see what the larger of the two screens looks like.

Personally, I use this feature when I want to avoid commercials. I can watch another program while keeping the original program I was watching on the smaller screen and then switch back to it when I see that the commercials have ended and the program is back on. I am sure those who advertise on television are not too happy with these developments!

A recent upgrade to the software that runs the VIP622 DVR allows it to be connected to the Internet through a broadband connection. This is a very nice upgrade because it allows Dish Network to offer much more on-demand programming and compete with cable TV which always offered much more on-demand programming than satellite TV was able to. This is beginning to change.

As you can probably tell, I am very happy with my new Dish Network VIP622 DVR and my new HDTV. And you might be surprised to learn that I paid only $800 for my brand-new 51-inch Hitachi HDTV. This is due in part to the fact that this TV is not a "flat" LCD or plasma TV, but a CRT-based set that has a picture "tube" much like an older traditional set.

Although there are rumors that manufacturers may soon halt production of CRT-based sets, they are still available and I managed to get mine on sale from Sears. The secret about these CRT-based sets is that the picture quality is as good or better than most of the new flat LCD and plasma sets, but since they do not look as "cool" and cost less, retailers do not market them with the same enthusiasm as they do with the more expensive LCD and plasma sets that are all the rage.

I've got to pay about $20 more per month to have the VIP622 DVR, but to me it is well worth it. It also costs me a bit more for the HD programming, but again, I think it is worth it to have the ability to watch HD programming. I feel that has taken my TV viewing to a whole new level and I really am enjoying it.

By the way, do not use the quality of the pictures in this site to judge what HD-quality programming looks like. The programming on the screen when the pictures were taken is not HD programming and even if it had been, my little 3-megapixel Sony point-and-shoot digital camera would not do justice to an HD picture. And I won't even get into the compression and re-sizing I had to use to get the pictures to fit this page and download reasonably fast for visitors to this page.

For more detailed information and specifications on receivers and DVRs, you can visit AllSat to check them out.

External Equipment

Just like with a standard television, you need some way to get the signal to it so you can watch your favorite programming. With cable TV, it is a wire that the cable company runs into your home and carries the signals, and with a "traditional" television set-up, you need a set of "rabbit ears" (remember those?) or an external antenna mounted on the roof of your house or in some other external location to capture the signals.

With Dish Network and other satellite TV services, you need an external dish antenna to capture the signals that come directly from the satellite that is in a stationary position relative to the earth at around 22,000 miles up above the Equator.

Satellite TV Back In The "Old Days"

A few years back, the only way to get satellite television was to sign up to one of the services that specialized in bringing satellite TV to rural areas where cable TV was not available. My relatives in rural Maine used to have one of these systems and just about everyone else up in that area of the state had one also!

One of the biggest problems with the older satellite service was that you had to find a place to mount the large dish antenna that the system required. If I am not mistaken, at least some of these large dishes were called "C-Band" dishes which was a reference to the frequencies these things operated on.

The old systems were also very expensive, and although my memory of these systems is rather faded, I believe they could cost as much as $3000, and were typically at least $1000.

I don't see too many of the old dishes these days but there are still a few folks around who still have the old "C-Band" service in one form or another. Most of the old-style dishes I see are either sitting on the ground somewhere overgrown with weeds or in some other condition that makes is clear that they are no longer being used.

Today the dish antennas used for satellite TV reception are usually between 18 and 20 inches or so. That's quite a difference from the old monster dishes that made some homes look like some kind of government communications installation.

Today's Dish: Smaller, Easier, Better

I've seen some pretty creative dish installations in my travels, and some of them actually make me wonder if I could have had Dish Network service at my old house even though there were some tall pine trees behind my house that I thought would have obstructed the signal completely.

Since then I have seen other Dish Network installations that appeared to be blocked by trees as well, but apparently are working fine for the people who live there. I guess I will never know if I suffered with cable TV for more years than necessary while residing at my previous house!

Even though I live in a rural area and don't have any practical reason to be wondering, I always assumed that it would be very difficult to get satellite reception in any kind of city setting, where tall buildings or other houses would block the satellite signal. Pictured here are a few installations in city areas that must be working just fine.

I am sure there are indeed locations where trees or buildings do completely block any possibility of receiving a satellite signal, but I was a little surprised to see as many dishes in city areas as I have. I guess that just shows that even in the city, where people are likely to have access to the best cable TV programming, there are people that prefer the lower prices and better service that's available from satellite television.

When I first signed up for Dish Network, you could choose the option of installing the whole system yourself, and that is exactly what I did. All the equipment was delivered to my door and it was not a terribly difficult job to get it working.

I enjoy projects like that and have some experience with installing radio equipment and antennas, so it might have been a bit easier for me than it was for others who had not played with that kind of thing as much as I had. I had fun installing the system and wish that they still offered that option today, but as far as I know, they do not.

Today's receivers are more sophisticated and can receive signals from more than one satellite at a time, so I suspect there may be more expertise required than there was when I installed my system. Although I have adjusted my dish antenna not that long ago just to be sure I was getting the best signal possible and found I was able to do it, but it was more complicated and time-consuming that with the old dish that was capable of receiving programming from only one satellite.

Along with the free equipment, you can also get free professional installation with your new Dish Network system these days, so you should not have to worry about installation charges. For more details on installation and the equipment that is currently available, you can check out the AllSat site. They often have great deals for free systems and free installation as well as sometimes offering very nice free gifts you can get just for signing up.

Dish Network And Trees

A lot of people seem to show up here looking for information on whether or not Dish Network will function with trees between the satellite and the dish antenna. From the research I have done and various installations I have seen, the answer seems to be "maybe."

Before I bore you with more details, the short answer to this question is to schedule a technician for a visit and have them do a site survey for you. They will have equipment that they can walk around your property with and measure the strength of the satellite signal at various locations.

From what I have heard, each situation involving trees is unique and there is no standard answer for whether or not you will be able to receive a good enough signal through trees to watch television.

Your geographic location will determine how high up in the sky a satellite dish antenna will have to be pointed in order to receive a signal from the satellite. All satellites are in orbit above the equator, which is necessary to maintain an geosynchronous orbit, in other words, the satellite stays in the same location relative to the surface of the Earth at all times.

The further north you go, the lower in the sky you will have to point your satellite dish in order to receive a signal. Here in New Hampshire, we have to aim the dish pretty low, but if you live in Florida or Texas, you will probably be aiming that dish significantly higher in the sky than I do.

If you are going to call and have a technician come out for a site survey, I suggest you do it during the summer if the trees in question are the type that drop their leaves in the winter. A good, honest technician will know this and tell you that a signal that might be good enough in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees may not be good enough once the leaves are all grown back during the warmer months.

Another option might be locating your dish antenna on your property in a location that has a clear view of the sky. I have heard of installations where the dish antenna is 100 or more feet from the house, so it may be possible to solve a problem with trees with an installation that is a little more work (and probably more money) than a typical installation.

I have seen dish antennas mounted on trees as well as on poles that are sunk into the ground. There are quite a few options for mounting a dish antenna but it will probably depend on how creative and ambitious the technician is that they send out.

See my Dish Network Deals page if you are considering Dish Network and you have a potential problem with trees. The folks at AllSat can set you up with a visit from a technician to answer your questions and determine if Dish Network will work properly for you.