Although the new dish has five LNBs, it has only four feeds. If you figure that LNB A and B are actually each dual LNBs, the new dish has seven LNBs. I believe that the two new LNBs use lower IF frequencies which are combined with the other existing feeds. I think that is the reason that you cannot diplex cable or antenna on to the same feeds--the IF frequency conflicts with upper cable frequencies.

I have also looked at the new 6-input multi-switch. The two additional inputs are labled as auxillary feeds, and are not necessary to hook up the new dish.

Although I have installed one of the new dishes, I can't be sure that it works properly with the newer channels. The dish I installed was for future HD upgrade, with only conventional SD receivers presently being used. It was distributed to a series of offices through a series of amplifiers, splitters, and multi-switches. I used conventional 4X8 multi-switches, which work fine for it's present use, and I believe will work when the MPEG-4 channels are received.

I haven't found anyone who knows much about the new dish. The local satellite distributor hasn't had much experience with it. The satellite specialists that I know also haven't used it yet. I called DirecTV for some technical information and came up with a void-- a complete void (big surprise).

If anyone has experience with it, I would like to hear about it. Are there different dishes necessary for different parts of the country? The dish that I installed was about 30" diameter, had the normal triple-LNB, and two additional side-kick LNBs.

I wouldn't be surprised if the new dish will become unnecessary in a couple of years. It's too big and I don't think customers want that big turkey on their roof.