Acquiring satellite signal and pixelation on your HD channels, annoying huh? This is a problem with Dish Networks High Definition Channels coming off the Satellite 129, a problem they refer to as the “129 Drop Out” that have been a problem for quite some months now, and a issue that should be resolved shortly. You will notice it getting worse before the fix and there is nothing technicians can do, so I guess you can just sit back and wait for the new bird to be launched in December and functional hopefully by the end of the year.
I talked about it, i’ve heard about it, but never new when, but Hughes has decided to launch new plans for the Spaceway hn9000 system, still nothing to impressive, but a step in the forward direction. Below is the new plans details, remember that speeds will vary and the Fair Access Policy (FAP) does apply, as you will notice.
I just going to post this photo of a job I went on, theres not much more to say other than, if you do build a structure around your dish and expierence problems immediatly following the last side of the building put on, you may want to remove the section, not just 2″, especially after being told from a certified technician to do so. This kind of stuff voids your warranty, and you may see a charge for the times the tech rolled out, in my case it was twice to this particular job. Too damn funny though, sorry for the picture quality it was taken with my cell phone while we were cracking up.
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A little update on what I have seen in the field and had a few questions answered by an engineer at Hughes. I would like to touch back up on the subject of latency and how it was mentioned that the pings have been seen in the 300’s, while i would like to believe thats the case its not from what I saw; I have been seeing and hearing alot of pings m/s being in the 900’s, from the installs I had done and from my test experiences, I was only seeing the m/s in the 900’s pretty much the same as the good old HN7000 and from my talk with the engineer I was unable to get a number, but an answer that the latency is a tad bit better. Now as far as upgrades, they still will not upgrade customers for free, only if they pay for a whole new system. Now from rumors and what I was being told from distributors, the FAP (fair access policy) was going to be something like double, however this is untrue, the bucket remains the same as what it was with the HN7000, they said they may change this in the future. The KA 9000 system will not be installed for Enterprise customers currently, but every residential will be the new 9000 ku system unless there are line of sight issues. Now as far as dishes there are two manufactures, the Raven (better built in my opinion) and the Prodelin as shown in the photos in previous posts. The last thing that I wanted to touch on, is there will be a faster package relatively soon offering 3.5mbps download, cannot get a straight answer as to whether the upload speeds will be increased with that. This concludes what I have to update, but please comment and share your expeirences with the new Hughes Spaceway hn9000 system, this can be done by commenting on this post, or by writing us at hmm@voop.org.
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With Spaceway out in full throttle I know there are many installers and people for that matter looking to find coordinates by entering a address, well after a bit of searching and digging I have a found the tool for you! This geocoder with give you exact coordinates just by entering a street address, so for you installers have fun and maybe say a bit of time. http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocode
or geocoder.net. For other great tools be sure to click on “Cool Tools You Can Use” under Categories to the right of this post. Have a tool to recommend? Email us hmm@voop.org
Sponsor: Satellite TV from your PC over 3000 Channels!
**UPDATE 5/23/2008***
I’m going to start with a correction, there is still the FAP (Fair Access Policy) apparently its just a bigger bucket to draw from, allowing you twice or so bandwidth usage as what was allowed with the older systems. Speeds are going to be the same as before like i mentioned, only difference being more consistent speeds, however in the future they are saying they will have faster speeds from what I found out today in a meeting, there will be 3mbps and 6mbps packages in the future, supposedly they don’t want to roll out with the such packages in the beginning…??? You will see 2 different types of dishes, one of which is better built than the one i was able to get my hands on. And, lastly every order that is installed shall be a Spaceway system unless there are line of site issues, then the old .74 or .98 will be installed in such circumstances. Hope this better answers most of your questions and eases your concerns. Have questions or comments email us at hmm@voop.org
From: 5/22/2008:
Ok boys and girls, ladies and gents heres what we know as of right now (May 22, 2008). So the new Spaceway service you are going to see a huge increase in reliability and consistent speedsAs far as latency is concerned I have heard readings in the 300ms’s, which is big improvement from the 500ms+ from the ku, this may be a improvement but still don’t expect to be able to play your xbox360 on the Hughes, voip should not have a problem. In response to a recent comment, Spaceway HN9000 equipment is being installed on all orders, HN7000 the old ku equipment is no longer being installed with the exception of customers with line of site issues, so place your order and they will install the new Spaceway equipment. Please continue to check back, as we will continue to update you all as we find out ourselves.
Click here to order the new Spaceway service
Decided to post some pics of the new Hughes Spaceway equipment after finally being able to get my hands on it. With no official training/certification classes in sight in my area, I and a buddy will be be training our selves, so that we will know what we are doing when the next class comes to town. Just want to mention that i’m not a huge fan of the construction of this new dish, seems poorly designed and very flimsy, not quite as previous ka dishes. The new hn9000 modem resembles the hn7000, yet it is a bit smaller and comes in white. I will post new pictures and helpful information on the system as we run into it.
So I receive a text message from a family member last night wondering if her TV was digital and this has been a big topic lately among many and which brings me to writing this short article on digital television. One thing that I would like to first point out, digital and high definition are not the same thing, so don’t panic you do not need a high definition tv by Febuary 17th 2009, but one thing I can say is that you will definitely like watching tv more if you did have HD. Secondly, Directv and DishNetwork customers don’t worry you are 100% digital, so please don’t be convinced by that sales guy at the electronics store that you need to buy something to make it digital. The only people affected by the new digital tv law, are those using cable tv, or free to air systems and if this is you, you should know whether you have digital service by if theres a receiver between your tv and the cable jack or if you have a tv set that has a built in digital tuner. More info on the digital transition and for digital converter coupon you can visits this government web site http://www.dtv.gov/
Finally DirecTV customers with the HR20 and HR21’s can access DirecTV’s library of movies and many of your favorite programs for FREE!! The service requires you to have a broadband internet connection of 750kbps or higher. Click here to find out more about DirecTV OnDemand.
You may be wondering why your receiver says SWM-8 on the sat input of your new Directv R16 or HR21 and wondered what the is, well now we are going to tell you. SWM which stands for “Single Wire Multiswitch”, is what will allow the new R16 and HR21 DVR receivers to have only one cable run to them, and is a system which will accept a special DTV splitter in the line to split the a line and turn one line into multiple lines, basically what you see with splitter used for cable services. Now as much as you would like to have this, it still isn’t available by request except for several markets in which they are still testing this equipment while trying to reduce the huge costs to produce the chips to make these items. Currently if you would like to purchase one you can, but be prepared to pay $299-$499 not including the splitters!
Retailers offering the SWM multiswitches:
WeaKnee $379
TechToolSupply $384.99
SummitSource $384.99