How much difference between SD and HD

[PennyPA]

We can't find a carry-out antenna that will support DirecTV HD. How much difference is there in the clarity between SD and HD?

[lostdog]

PennyPA...have you sold that tripod yet? If it's the heavy duty aluminum one I may be interested. PM me please.

[docj]

Bill.Satellite wrote:


I guess I am going to need to search out the last name of Joel and Sandy and post it here. Maybe you are referring to Bill.Satellite?

Sorry Bill. On some forums your name is used openly I didn't realize that on others it isn't. My identity is open since I have my Facebook page link in my signature. No offense intended.

Joel

[PennyPA]

Yes, I was referring to Bill.Satellite because he is the one that asked the question about what model receiver I had.

Joel goes by the name of docj and I was answering his comments. Just gotta' follow the thread.

[Bill_Satellite]

docj wrote:

PennyPA wrote:
This is getting entirely too complicated at this point especially since I don't know how we'd tell whether the skew was off in addition to the azimuth.

I get the sense that you're trying to point your dish without much of an understanding of what you are doing and are then getting frustrated as a result. If you understood the process you would know that azimuth and skew are not related and that the setting for one is completely separate from the other. For the newer SWM dishes skew is not that big a deal since the LNBs for 99 and 103 are located so close to the 101 LNB. I can get quite a few HD channels without even setting the skew and simply pointing the dish at 101.

I honestly think Bill.xxxxxxxx is correct and that you have a faulty component in your system which is preventing you from getting a signal. That's what happened to me last year, the first time I was setting up my tripod dish. I had a bad coax connector and, as a result, no signal was getting to the receiver. I got a DirecTV installer to come out (to my RV) and he was able to get me up and running in less than 10 minutes once he found the bad connector.

I guess I am going to need to search out the last name of Joel and Sandy and post it here. Maybe you are referring to Bill.Satellite?

[PennyPA]

Well, we solved the problem. We cancelled our DirecTV account and will be going with Dish and a carry-out receiver.

Now, anyone else on Dish and, if so, what antenna do you use? 🙂

[docj]

PennyPA wrote:
Skew...that's whether the dish is straight or on an angle but don't know the why of that.

You're aiming at 3-5 satellites positioned in different orbital locations. Even though they all are at 26,199 miles above the Earth's surface the fact that they are over different positions along the equator means that they will appear to an observer on earth to be on a slant; they won't be positioned along a horizontal line but will appear to be along an arc pointing downward (at least if you're in the eastern part of the US). The "slant" of that arc is the skew angle. In the eastern US satellites at larger longitudes are lower in the sky than those at smaller longitudes.

I hope this helps explain it a bit.

[PennyPA]

Bill, I have an HR24/500 receiver. Does that help or do you need something else?

Joel, Direct won't come out because we're in an RV. I've been over this with them for the past week and they won't come out. I'll try calling them again and tell them there is something wrong with the dish. The coax connector was replaced on July 9th by a DirecTV technician.

I know azimuth is a compass setting towards which the dish must be pointed. Skew...that's whether the dish is straight or on an angle but don't know the why of that. Altitude, how much up and down. We were getting absolutely nothing...nada...zilch. We were aiming at 101. And yes, we are TOTALLY frustrated!! 🙂 Although we do truly appreciate all the help we've gotten from this discussion.

[docj]

PennyPA wrote:
This is getting entirely too complicated at this point especially since I don't know how we'd tell whether the skew was off in addition to the azimuth.

I get the sense that you're trying to point your dish without much of an understanding of what you are doing and are then getting frustrated as a result. If you understood the process you would know that azimuth and skew are not related and that the setting for one is completely separate from the other. For the newer SWM dishes skew is not that big a deal since the LNBs for 99 and 103 are located so close to the 101 LNB. I can get quite a few HD channels without even setting the skew and simply pointing the dish at 101.

I honestly think Bill Adams is correct and that you have a faulty component in your system which is preventing you from getting a signal. That's what happened to me last year, the first time I was setting up my tripod dish. I had a bad coax connector and, as a result, no signal was getting to the receiver. I got a DirecTV installer to come out (to my RV) and he was able to get me up and running in less than 10 minutes once he found the bad connector.

[Bill_Satellite]

PennyPA wrote:
Well, we had a dish installer out and using the numbers the receiver gave us, nothing happened. This is getting entirely too complicated at this point especially since I don't know how we'd tell whether the skew was off in addition to the azimuth. The only sure thing we knew was that the post was plumb and level! I'm going to see if we can get out of this contract and switch to Dish since DirecTV won't come help us out.

If you had a Dish installer come out and he could not point your antenna you either have a faulty antenna/LNB or your "installer" is an idiot! Anyone who has setup a portable antenna a couple of times can have themselves watching TV in 10 minutes or less after the initial setup. What model DirecTV receiver are you using?

[PennyPA]

Since our RV is our home, we do like having the TV. Ditto with computer, cell phones, etc. And since our kids are scattered around the country with their own families (Las Vegas, Rochester NY, Utica NY, PA, and NJ), we spend quality time with them when we visit those areas.

[camperfamily]

Well, in the RV we normally avoid the TV being on. We're out to get away from all the electronic distractions and spend quality time with our kids. Their electronic games are severely limited also. Laptop as needed for weather, planning/searching for a outing or (uhg) work.

As for HD vs SD -- well the picture on the old 20" tube sure looks crappy. And SD on a 60" plasma is terrible. Quality HD 1080 signal is the only way to go. But then I'm in the camp where a 20MB internet connection is marginal; expect ions are high as I have to move large files regularly.

[TechWriter]

PennyPA wrote:
I'm going to see if we can get out of this contract and switch to Dish since DirecTV won't come help us out.

If you switch to DISH, consider getting the Pathway X2. It's an automatic DISH HD portable.

Also, with DISH you can sign up for Pay-As-You-Go without a long-term contract.

[PennyPA]

Well, we had a dish installer out and using the numbers the receiver gave us, nothing happened. This is getting entirely too complicated at this point especially since I don't know how we'd tell whether the skew was off in addition to the azimuth. The only sure thing we knew was that the post was plumb and level! I'm going to see if we can get out of this contract and switch to Dish since DirecTV won't come help us out.

[Bill_Satellite]

PennyPA wrote:
So, I guess, if we don't learn to point that dish the next couple of times, we're going with a Winegard Carry-Out or their other dome one. This dish is making me feel so stupid!

I got Dishpointer Pro and it shows azimuth as 150.5 while the TV (by zip code) shows 133.0. That's a big difference. The tilt is the about the same and the elevation is just a point or two off. Which do I believe? I tend to think the Dishpointer Pro because it's homing in on our campsite whereas the zip code might be 5 or 10 miles from where we are.

Believe the receiver as this is the information that the satellite installers depend upon. It's only a starting point and not an exact. Use that to get started and scan 10-15 degrees on each side of that number. If you are using an HD dish (multiple LNB's even if those happen to be in one housing like and SL3) setting the skew is also critical as well as ensuring the post the antenna is mounted to is perfectly plumb and level.