I am planning on getting a directv satellite system soon, so I will be able to get NFL Sunday Ticket. And in the near future setting up a home movie theater with HDTV. I have a antenna in my attic, but will it be more worth while to buy the Oval dish instead of relying on antenna. It still works pretty while and I know its pretty big. But will the oval dish be easier and less of a hassle, I would appreciate your comments thank you

If you want High deff from dtv to work at all with your receiver for direct tv you must get an hd dish .Only three HD channels (need more more more channels)

Unless you are going to just use it for the random off air broadcast stuff. Then you should pick up a good uhf antenna .(digital channels are uhf for off air)
and sometimes you need a rotator to fine tune different channels .
I have used the turk (works pretty well) Sucks for vhf
Winegaurd (works pretty well not as well as turk for digital) Works well for vhf though 8600 series

Larry you must admit how tacky 2 dishes look , If the hd dish is set up properly, I defy anyone to get anything but the same signal peak with two dishes . (ok so the hd dish is costly but who said this was a cheap endeavor)

For me there is just not enough programming to warrant HD , (maybe if they do 24/7 on networks I will)

This message was edited by kabster on 07/13/02 02:01.28.

Sport, consider separate round dishes as an alternative to an oval one. They're easier to peak for individual satellites, and you can often get one with each receiver.

Any good antenna, even a Radio Shack one, will suffice if it's high enough, unless you're in a weak-signal, fringe area.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.aom

Larry, the two dishes are a great cheap idea, but now that a third satellite is up there...will there ever be more?

kabster, at some point DTV channels will also be on VHF, like when the present ones go away, so I am still installing VHF/UHF antennas. I like the Winegard GhostKiller best as I have never had a single problem with it, anywhere from 3 miles to 70 miles from the Los Angeles broadcasting towers.

Wait -- I said DTV ! Did I mean Digital TV or DirecTV? I had been in the habit of abbreviating DirecTV as dtv until I recently realized how confusing that can be. See if this makes sense, for clarity --

HDTV means those broadcasts that are in 1080i or 720p, not 480i upconverted, which means it is damn little programming right now. Up to two weeks ago, I was referring to all OTA digital broadcasts as HDTV, but they are not.
DTV means all those channels, now almost all on UHF, that we have been referring to as HDTV, which are digital TV, so, DTV.
DirecTV is, well, DirecTV.

I have 5 dishes. LOL I am taking my 119 single down and replacing it with another Dish 500 for DTV's HD birds as I was not getting the new Showtime on the 110 bird. Yes I have the proper lnb for it before anyone asks. I had the oval dish but the singles do give me more signal strength. I have another Dish 500 and a single at the 61.5 for Dish's 3 birds and another single for Bev. :)

I went to the two rounds for signal strength also now they are both in the high 90's. Just couldn't get that with the oval at least not here in MI. Adjust one ooppps there goes the other.

Gee, I wish I'd said that. : - )

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

At least on the east coast we use 3 separate dishes because the 119 sat has a really low signal strength on the oval and they don't make a cover for the oval. Also if you use the oval here it compromises the strength on all three.

I live in Virginia & get excellent signal with an oval dish. (Terk w/ integrated multiswitch) If you go with oval get the integrated multiswitch model. Sat C is easy to hook up.

I've aligned several round dishes. I have a cheap signal meter to get it close, etc and then peak it on the screen.

When it comes to the oval dish, can I align that, or am I in trouble? What's the normal procedure?

Thanks!
=Tom

I live in Massachussetts...Just set up an oval, and I'm too broke to get a meter so I use my eye, a compass, the reciever's meter, and a co-worker yelling the current reading up to me. I just got nothing less than 80's on all three Sats. Just luck though

All good points. I guess it depends on where you are.

tom, yes, you can align the oval dish, and step-by-step instructions are included. But the challenge is that the three satellites are not all at the same elevation, although they are in a line.* What they do with the oval dish is have you rotate it clockwise or counter so that the three LNBs are parallel to the angle that the three satellites are where you live. It can be tricky, because the rotation is for some reason not always correct. Some of my faster installs have been done where I have tweaked the A LNB in the high 80s and have accepted 70s for the B and C.

*look up "ecliptic" to see why this is