School me on OTA for Dish

If you've never tried OTA, you won't believe all the TV you're missing. Dish only carries the "channel.0" Each channel has several subchannels. Each of them has its own programming. Many are old shows of yesteryear and still beats the heck out of today's line-up. If you've got 5-7 major channels, expect to see your channel scan find over 30 channels total. My favorite is "Decades" TV. Every weekday evening they show re-runs of "Laugh-In" and it's still a hoot! Laugh-In is followed by many great shows from the past.

I get all my local channels through Dish except they've removed the local Fox channel because they are in a contract dispute with them. It's been going on for months. I think I'll do the ota hooked directly to the TV for now and see how I like not having my DVR for just that channel. If it's bothersome I guess I'll have to also buy the adapter for the Hopper. Thanks for all the responses!

By hooking the OTA antenna to the Hopper you would be able to record the OTA signal which is a big advantage over hooking the antenna directly to the TV. As mentioned above, if you have DISH you should be getting all your local channels anyway.

Are you within 30-40 miles of the transmission towers? If so get a portable OTA antenna and connect direct to your TV. We have Dish and when they fight with one of the networks I just connect a portable indoor antenna bought at Walmart for $50 or do.

Your "Dish" should already get local CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS stations, those are typically located below Dish channels 100.

To recieve your local OTA channel directly, you do not need the Dish system, plug in a antenna DIRECTLY to your TV sets ANTENNA/CABLE coax input.

Once you have the antenna connected, change TV from your Dish input (HDMI, Component or Composite and select Antenna/OTA/Cable from your TVs menu.

Once you on the antenna/cable input you need to do a channel scan.

Once scan has completed you now can watch your local OTA channels.

Yes, it means you must switch between inputs and yes, you will not have DVR capability but you now get all of the local channels plus the sub channels and it didn't cost anything other than the antenna..

Install a suitable antenna for your location, install the Dish dual tuner OTA adapter, scan for channels on your Hopper's menu OTA page, and you're good to go...

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Do you not already have an OTA on your RV? If so, just add the Hopper adapter (really, the Hopper does not have an OTA connection?) and run the coax to the adapter.

Sorry. I should have stated that this is on my house. So no OTA.

It’s crazy. Hoppers don’t have an OTA I put.

Why not just connect it directly to your tv?

Do you not already have an OTA on your RV? If so, just add the Hopper adapter (really, the Hopper does not have an OTA connection?) and run the coax to the adapter.

https://www.amazon.com/DUAL-OTA-ADAPTER-HOPPER-WALLY/dp/B01MZG9SON


I'm using a Vip211k with a built-in OTA tuner. After attaching the adapter and rebooting the receiver, you'll need to do a channel scan. After that, add the channels it finds to your "favorites" list. The channels will appear in your guide along with whatever information is available for programming. There's a lot more channels available OTA than Dish can carry. The only trouble I have is getting a good reliable signal with no drop-outs.