HDTV Forum

I don't think Dish charges extra to get OTA channels - I know DirecTV doesn't.

As to why use it instead of the TV tuner? Simple - program guide and the ability to record OTA.

Morning akirby -


Yes, at least in our market, DISH ( not DIRECT ) does access a small monthly fee & absolutely, that recording is one good reason. But, with his OTA coax hooked directly into the set, they'd be out of the loop, at least.
eli whitney

Dish is charging you for using the OTA tuner


To be clear, not locals via sat but OTA HDTV via your own OTA antenna...?

Hi Richard --

Unfortunately - ( our youngest is still 'learning', apparently ) - in order to have those locals go thru that DISH Recorder unit, he is being charged an additional or extra small monthly fee + their $49.99 originally for the actual additional OTA antenna itself !

But, as members of the "over-the-hill" bunch, we couldn't explain it. Obviously, " we couldn't understand."

By-the-way --- their explanation was it goes back to their (out in space unit) & then is fed back...

You have to go into setup, then local channels (9), then scan for channels. No zip codes needed. It will add all locals HD and STD, then you can add or delete the one you don't want.

That is what I tried, several times. The scanned failed to find anything.

Jay

Boy I never paid DISH 50 bucks for hooking up my OTA antenna. Just hooked it up, changed the setup, did the scan, picked my channels and was off and running. I still have one channel where the program guide sez "Digital programming " or some such. Otherwise it works fine.

I live in an area surrounded by stations so I have to do some manual scanning. Set the antenna in a different direction and then go through the channels (if you're not sure the "real" numbers) and watch for 'em to lock in. Takes some time but not a bigdeal.

Jerry

I have noticed that the Dish Receivers "dampen" the signal from OTA. Direct to TV the signal is much stronger than going through the receiver. It shouldn't be that way.

After scanning for 8VSB HD channels make sure your program guide is set to "all channels" or "all subscribed channels", if it's set to a favorites and you haven't manually added the new channels to your favorites you will not see the new channels in the program guide.

The Dish 622 does not support NTSC analog, it has an 8VSB HD tuner only.

DISH does not charge for use of the 8VSB tuner, however the HD 8VSB locals will not populate the program guide with data (shame on you DISH, DirecTV is doing this today without forcing consumers to pay for local into local.) Only way around this is to subscribe to the local into local for your area (either SD or HD if available in your area.)

Someone asked why connect the OTA antenna into your Vip 622s tuner input, to use the DVR function!

There are advantages to running the antenna straight into the TV and advantages to running it into my DVR (VIP 622) so I do both. I ran the coax cable from the antenna into my den and then attached a splitter so I could run the signal directly into the coax input on my TV and also to run it separately into my receiver. When watching the signal straight from the antenna on my HDTV, I notice that the picture and audio is better since I guess the signal is completely uncompressed. However, the picture and sound are still great when I watch the OTA channels through my DVR, maybe just a little softer but certainly comparable to DISH's own HD programming, but this way I can record OTA programming on the DVR and I can also pause programming just like I can programs from the satellite.