Please help me upgrade to HD with existing Dish!!! (1 Viewer)

[John Stockton]

Hi, I am sorry if this has been covered a million times before, but the search function is not working.
My sister purchased a Dish 500 from Dish Network last year. Now that she is buying an HDTV ready television, she wants to upgrade. What exactly is needed?? She lives in the West Coast. Also can you recommend places with the best prices for the upgrade??
Thanks
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[Edited last by John Stockton on August 31, 2001 at 07:55 PM]

 

[Jonathan Tuck]

Check out dishdepot.com. What you'll need is a 2nd dish to point at the sat w/hdtv signals and the model 6000 receiver that will decode them. That's where I got mine. Installing my 2nd dish was pretty straight forward and the 6000 easily connects to both using everything you'll get in the kit...
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[Robert_J]

You need to find our whether the Dish500 has a Twin LNB or two dual LNB's. That will determine the type of switch(es) you need.
-Robert

 

[John Stockton]

Thanks for your input. I do not know what the difference between those two LNBs are?? Can you give me a description of each and then I can figure out which one we have.
Thanks
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[Robert_J]

A Dish500 with two dual LNB's will have a two separate LNB's at the end of the arm, with some type of switch(es) mounted near the dish to combine the signals. Here is an example: http://www.satelliteone.com/dish500.gif
A Twin LNB is really two dual LNB's and a switch built into a single housing. Here is an example: http://www.satelliteone.com/images/DISHPro301system.JPG
-Robert

 

[John Stockton]

Sorry if I took so long. Our dish system is with a Twin LNB like the one here:
http://www.satelliteone.com/images/DISHPro301system.JPG
What kind of switches and other things do I need to upgrade to HD??
And also which one is better?? A twin LNB OR Two Dual LNBs, if I were to get a new system for somewhere else.
Thanks

 

[Robert_J]

And also which one is better?? A twin LNB OR Two Dual LNBs, if I were to get a new system for somewhere else.

It depends on the number of receivers you want. The Twin LNB is limited to two. The new Quad LNB is limited to four. The two dual LNB's aren't limited but Dish will only allow seven receivers on an account.
-Robert