FS: VIP Dish 211k

[HIFI]

Payment sent!

let the "how do I point this darn dish" threads begin.

 

[Mr Tony]

sold

 

[Mr Tony]

let the "how do I point this darn dish" threads begin.

oh no. She's good at aiming dishes. DBS dishes will be simpler than a KU dish to aim

 

[Dee_Ann]

let the "how do I point this darn dish" threads begin.

So, will the little dishes be harder to point than these other big thingies in my back yard?

oh no. She's good at aiming dishes. DBS dishes will be simpler than a KU dish to aim

Yeah, it took me a few years and I know that more than once probably all you guys wanted to choke my neck on several occasions but I eventually figured it out..
And I owe it ALL to you guys, I couldn't have learned this stuff without your help and patience..
Thanks Satelliteguys!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Speaking of subscription packages, I just got a mail out from Dish today that has a few different offers where they are trying to bait you into different packages.

I see they have a America's Top 250 for $35 a month, it goes to $70 a month after a year.
I can afford that. Will they allow me to get the top 250 package without a contract?

 

[Mr Tony]

If you dont go with a contract you have to pay the regular price. The discounted rates do require the 2 year agreement...but you can change packages during that time

 

[Dee_Ann]

If you dont go with a contract you have to pay the regular price. The discounted rates do require the 2 year agreement...but you can change packages during that time

Awesomesauace! Ok, so I don't get a discount but I don't have to do a contract or credit check. I can deal with that. All cards on the table, no snakes in the grass, no fine print or fast talking salesmen.
I pay them $70 a month and I get a lot of good channels and plenty of HD. Works for me.

 

[Mr Tony]

correct
since you own the equipment there is no credit check and no contract. I sent you the info on how to set it up (go through DIRT).
The account is kinda like pre-paid so you pay the 1st month up front and the bill is due the day before your new month starts

So for simplicity....lets say you activate on 2/15 on Dish America for 34.99. You pay 34.99+tax on 2/15
new bill comes around end of month and would be due on 3/14 for the period of 3/15-4/14.

 

[Dee_Ann]

correct
since you own the equipment there is no credit check and no contract. I sent you the info on how to set it up (go through DIRT).
The account is kinda like pre-paid so you pay the 1st month up front and the bill is due the day before your new month starts

So for simplicity....lets say you activate on 2/15 on Dish America for 34.99. You pay 34.99+tax on 2/15
new bill comes around end of month and would be due on 3/14 for the period of 3/15-4/14.

Perfect! I can totally live with that!

So I am going to figure that I'll take February to shop for, obtain, setup and tweak the proper dishes I'll need to get as much HD content as I can then aim for starting up with them on the first of March.
I've also got to figure out how to tie this new stuff into my TV's around the house so that it can co-reside with my FTA stuff. It would be perfect if it could all be in one tuner or all on the PC but I guess that's asking for pie in the sky..
So I'll have to have a switch to flip back and forth between the two systems. I have an idea on how to do it, it's just going to take additional stuff to set it up..
So if I give myself a month to get everything purchased and installed I think I will do ok, I won't be rushing it that way..

I also just realized I'll need to buy a disk for the tuner. Does the disk go inside the tuner or must it be an external disk? Either way is no big deal I suppose.

Thanks so much!

 

[Mr Tony]

its an external drive...has to be externally powered (not powered by the receiver) and up to 2TB is accepted.
Plugs right in the back of the 211k

 

[Dee_Ann]

its an external drive...has to be externally powered (not powered by the receiver) and up to 2TB is accepted.
Plugs right in the back of the 211k

Awesome! Thank you.. Now I know what to shop for..

 

[Mr Tony]

I had a 500gb dive which said 49 hours of HD.....but that number is misleading. Dish for some reason still puts the hours as MPEG2 when HD is now MEPG4.

I did a test where I recorded various formats (OTA, MPEG4 HD, MPEG2 SD) to see what the numbers would show. Here are the results
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...ternal-hard-drive-capacity-2.html#post2694010

so honestly if I recorded all MPEG4 HD from satellite that 500GB drive gave me over 200 hours of recordings

Here is a list (scroll down) of the approx hours each size HD covers....now note that is what the receiver says..you have to take what I linked to above into consideration too
EKB: Build Your Own DVR

 

[Dee_Ann]

Oh, here's a dumb question.

Say I record stuff on the vip 211k disk. Can I copy those recordings to my PC to keep permanently? Or are they locked into the Dish Network system forever and only viewable through it?

 

[Mr Tony]

You can play it back via the 211k and record it to the PC but I dont think you can hook the hard drive up directly

edit: nope cant do it that way. I just plugged my 500gb drive in to the computer and its searching for the drivers and wants to format it.

 

[Dee_Ann]

You can play it back via the 211k and record it to the PC but I dont think you can hook the hard drive up directly

Hmmm.. Ok.. Well I'll worry about that when I get to that point I suppose. At least I'm getting there now..

 

[Mr Tony]

The 211 has component (R,G,B) and A/V cable outputs and S-Video so I'm sure you can hook the 211k to the computer somehow

 

[dfergie]

Oh, here's a dumb question.

Say I record stuff on the vip 211k disk. Can I copy those recordings to my PC to keep permanently? Or are they locked into the Dish Network system forever and only viewable through it?

Only with a capture device, I use a Hauppauge 1212 to record from my Dish & Directv dvrs (in HD)

 

[Dee_Ann]

Only with a capture device, I use a Hauppauge 1212 to record from my Dish & Directv dvrs (in HD)

Oh wow... So you plug this $200 gadget into the tuner then hit 'play' to play back the recorded video, and it's recorded in real time to the recording gadget?
Seems kind of a pain in the backside but I guess that's just the way it is. I suppose they make it hard like this to stop people from putting videos online.

I wonder, does this tuner enforce DRM over the HDMI cable? I have a 1x4 HDMI video splitter that sends HDMI video/audio to all the screens in my house, will the tuner freak out and balk about my splitter and prevent me from doing that?
If I can only send video to one screen at a time that's gonna s**k big times. I'm also considering that Hauppage has a capture card that has HDMI input that I am looking at. That would be nice if it would work in this scenario but I'm again wondering about DRM.

I have gotten some messages pop up on my PC that my Vizio wasn't running in the proper video mode and was not being DRM compliant thus the PC was going to disable some features and prevent me from doing certain things. I had to change the resolution to something that I did not like to make it all happy. My Vizio TV has a video mode that's not truly compatible with broadcast TV. It's close but it's not right so it crops a little of the screen and it annoys me a lot.
The more I learn about TV the less I like the Vizio. When I bought it it was to help out a friend in distress so I didn't do research on it first, I just gave her cash on the spot for it, it was already a discontinued model when I got it.

I'm going to replace it soon anyway and move it to a room where I never watch TV. It will just be there and maybe used 2-3 times a year... I want more modern sets now. I'm tired of all this old, obsolete stuff, it gives me grief.

Also, I'm looking at dishes and I see they have a 1000.2, a 1000.4 and a 1000+ dish. Should I go for the 1000+ dish? It's twice as much as the others but it picks up 4 satellites and says it gets local HD channels.
The 1000.4 wouldn't work well for me because of trees. The 1000.2 would be a sure bet for a clear line on 110/119 but 129 is gonna be troublesome because of trees. I'll just have to deal with it.
I would really like to have LARGE dishes because I know about rain fade and ku. Maybe I should build my own dishes by converting some of my FTA dishes?

 

[HIFI]

What city do you get your locals from?

 

[Dee_Ann]

What city do you get your locals from?

I suppose that Beaumont, Texas would be it, it's not where I live but it's where all the TV stations are located, about 15 miles from here.