# Will a non-authorized 811 still receive OTA?



## robill (May 13, 2005)

I remember reading somewhere that one of the recent sw releases disabled the 811's OTA tuner unless you have an active subscription. I don't know if this was a rumor or a fact.
I believe this is the case with the new VIP receivers, but does anyone know if this nasty feature is also in the 811?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Not that I am aware of, but If recall it might be stated in the user guide that you must have an account active so there is no guarentee that they don't change it in the future. You must have the 811 hooked up to a Satellite and get a signal for the OTA to operate.


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## Skates (Apr 15, 2004)

I tried this when I recently moved and the new dishes weren't installed yet. I rigged a temporary OTA antenna and tried to get it to detect the stations. You can't even get the 811 to function normally - it gives an error and won't do anything.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

The 811 has to have Sat signal to get OTA. That has always been the case.


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## robill (May 13, 2005)

Thanks for the info. I do understand that a sat signal is necessary to enable over the air reception. 
I sure thought I had seen in a post somewhere(I think on the other site) that Dish had disabled the 811's ability to receive OTA in non-subscribed units. I'm glad that info appears to be incorrect.


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## Skates (Apr 15, 2004)

Heck...I had a couple of minutes to kill and figured, before I plugged it directly into my TV, I would plug it into the 811 and see what happened.

Nothing did...


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

What are you saying Skates? Are you saying you plugged the OTA into your 811 that is connected to a Dish Sat and but the 811 is unauthorized and you could not scan and see your OTA?


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## AcuraCL (Dec 12, 2005)

Objection your honor, he's leading the witness.


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## Skates (Apr 15, 2004)

from Ron Barry:



> Are you saying you plugged the OTA into your 811 that is connected to a Dish Sat and but the 811 is unauthorized and you could not scan and see your OTA?


Ron, this was during a period when I didn't even have dishes on the roof yet at my new location. Technically the receiver was authorized, but it wasn't hooked up to any satellite when I plugged in the OTA antenna.


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## afreeman (Feb 18, 2006)

I am using an 811 to receive OTA transmissions without a subscription to
dish network. You must have at least one dish and feed hooked up before 
you can access the receivers functions.
If you use the scan for digital signals, remember that many may not be 
broadcast except during prime time.
We have just started receiving the olympics with HD signals.
Most signals are still standard broadcast format.
afreeman


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## robill (May 13, 2005)

afreeman said:


> I am using an 811 to receive OTA transmissions without a subscription to
> dish network. You must have at least one dish and feed hooked up before
> you can access the receivers functions.
> afreeman


Good deal! I'm considering dropping Dish for at least a while and I was hoping I could at least use the 811 as an OTA tuner. It's bad enough that I won't be able to re-sub to the HD channels if I do sign up again later.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Yep.. must be able to see a Dish Sat at a minimum. At this point the 811 does not have to be authorized.


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## garyfritz (Aug 19, 2006)

I'm trying to use an 811 for HD OTA, but with no Dish HD subscription. I cancelled my HD subscription last spring. Since Dish moved to the MPEG-4 receivers, they don't even want my 811 back. So I have a free receiver -- IF I can get the thing to work. 

It doesn't seem to be very happy that it can't call back to the mothership. I had it working for a while (with intermittent "oh no we lost signal to the satellite" panic messages), but then I made the mistake of looking through the channel guide and trying to connect to a satellite station. Boom, the thing seems hosed now. It periodically flashes an info screen but I can't get it to respond to channel changes or generally even a MENU key.

Since it seemed to be hung, I used the procedure shown on the Dish 811 site (press Select, Cancel, View TV, Power twice, then unplug for 15 secs). That seems to have woken it up, but now if I select MENU 6-1-5 to set up local channels, it says "Data not available" !!?!?

Dish's Tech Portal (h t t p : / / tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/techportal/content/tech/techmischdtvfaq.shtml) says NO subscription is required to use the 811 for OTA. 

The 811 is still hooked up to the dish, but only an SD subscription.

So what does it take to use an 811 for OTA without an HD subscription?
Gary


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## garyfritz (Aug 19, 2006)

After sitting for a day, the "no data" problem on locals setup is gone, but the receiver is still mostly locked up. About all I can get from it is "can't connect to satellite" errors and occasionally a program guide. But it won't respond to channel changes or much of anything else.


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## kb7oeb (Jun 16, 2004)

I'm confused, you say you have an SD subscription, is that on another box?


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

garyfritz said:


> After sitting for a day, the "no data" problem on locals setup is gone, but the receiver is still mostly locked up. About all I can get from it is "can't connect to satellite" errors and occasionally a program guide. But it won't respond to channel changes or much of anything else.


press the skip back button on the 811 remote. What is listed under Device and do you have the green box on each sat location? If not have you cleared and retaught the switch matrix?

Last I checked, the 811 did not need to be authorized for the 8VSB tuner to be active, but it was always said that it would eventually need to be subbed. You must have a valid switch config and visibility to the sats.

YMMV.


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## LaTropa64 (May 28, 2006)

I've been looking for a cheap alternative to buying an OTA HD box. I think my brother has one of these 811 receivers he's no longer using. I might give it a try.

Does anyone know if the 811 also supports QAM? I would like to be able to hook up my cable to it and get the HD channels from them. I only have the basic of basic cable packages but supposedly if you have a QAM compatible box you can get the local HD channels for no extra cost.


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## Kazy (Mar 4, 2004)

LaTropa64 said:


> I've been looking for a cheap alternative to buying an OTA HD box.
> 
> I believe there are a few VOOM boxes on EBay that will receive terrestrial HD.
> 
> Kazy


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## LaTropa64 (May 28, 2006)

But do they support QAM? I want the option of hooking it up to either an antenna or my cable.

All the HDTV Tuners with QAM that I'm finding are $200 locally and about $130 on eBay. A free 811 would make more sense... if it works.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

LaTropa64 said:


> But do they support QAM? I want the option of hooking it up to either an antenna or my cable.
> 
> All the HDTV Tuners with QAM that I'm finding are $200 locally and about $130 on eBay. A free 811 would make more sense... if it works.


The 811 supports MDU QAM. Not the QAM modulation used by most cable co's however, only MDU.


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## garyfritz (Aug 19, 2006)

k7oeb, I have an SD sub, and I guess yes, it's on another box. I have an SD receiver upstairs.

Jason, on what page am I supposed to hit Skip Back? At one point I got it to respond to Skip Back and it went to System Info - One. The Device is DPP-Twin-1. All 3 satellites are red. How do I clear and reteach? I don't see any likely candidates in the Install/Setup menu or anywhere else.

Thanks!


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

garyfritz said:


> Jason, on what page am I supposed to hit Skip Back? At one point I got it to respond to Skip Back and it went to System Info - One. The Device is DPP-Twin-1. All 3 satellites are red. How do I clear and reteach? I don't see any likely candidates in the Install/Setup menu or anywhere else.
> 
> Thanks!


You hit Skip back from just plain ole watching TV.

If all 3 sats are red that tells me it doesn't see any satellites at all. And for the 8VSB OTA tuner to be active, you need to see the stream from at least 1 bird.

To reteach the switch matrix press 'Menu-6-1-1-CheckSwitch-Test'


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## garyfritz (Aug 19, 2006)

OK, after the reteach, it sees one bird, 110. It's not a great signal (80-85) but that may be because it's a cloudy/misty day today. Unfortunately the System Info still shows red for that satellite, and it loses signal when it tries to download the program guide. I'll try it again when the weather clears.

EDIT: OK, the clouds are gone and it's a crystal-clear blue sky. Signal strength is still 85. The Check Switch page says it can lock onto the signal, but I still get a red X on the System Info page. Can't download the program guide.

Is this because I'm not paying $5/mo for a second receiver? Is it therefore impossible for this box to talk to Dish for the program guide, and it won't work for OTA unless it can do that? Would all the problems go away if I paid the $5 second-receiver fee?

What's really frustrating was that it was WORKING for a while, if you didn't mind the occasional "lost signal" complaint. Then I made the mistake of tuning away from the local channels to a channel in the 200's, which hosed it, and I can't get it to pay attention to channel-change attempts to get it back to the locals.


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## kb7oeb (Jun 16, 2004)

Do you have this hooked up to a Dish500? I thought I read one of the software updates fixes a condition where the 811 locks up the lnb.

I'd try pulling the power on all your boxes to reset everything and if that doesn't work I would try connecting it where your working box is.

The point dish screen should work authorized or not. You should get channel 101 and maybe a couple others.


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## LaTropa64 (May 28, 2006)

Jason Nipp said:


> The 811 supports MDU QAM. Not the QAM modulation used by most cable co's however, only MDU.


Thanks for the info. I guess it's back to scouring eBay for an HD tuner.


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## bear paws (Jan 11, 2006)

LaTropa64 said:


> Thanks for the info. I guess it's back to scouring eBay for an HD tuner.


If you can find find out if a Voom box will work for you I have 4.

Bear!


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## garyfritz (Aug 19, 2006)

OK! I unplugged both receivers overnight, plugged the 811 in for an hour for it to wake up & call home, retaught the switch, got 3 greens, and then I successfully downloaded the program guide! Now I just need to re-mount my antenna and I think I'm good to go. Thanks for the help!

(BTW it's a Dish 1000, kb7oeb.)
Gary


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