# New dish needed to get AMC HD?



## delrayser (Sep 9, 2010)

I have had Dish 200 HD for years, have a two-dish setup on my roof that has always worked just fine. (One oval facing W, one round facing E. I'm in DC.) I just happened to go by Dish's website today and saw that AMC HD was being offered in my package. Funny, I watch AMC all the time and never noticed.

I log in to my account and go pack to the package listings, and -poof- AMC HD isn't there anymore. So not only did they not tell me the channel was available, they're actively hiding the channel from me so I don't find out. Not happy about that.

I did an online chat with a CSR to figure out what's going on, and he said I needed a new dish, because this one channel (and possibily others, but he had no way of telling me, and how would I know myself?) is coming from a different satellite that my current equipment can't receive from. Is this true? It seems like Dish would have told me if they changed satellites and my current equipment was obsolete.

Of course, on top of it all, they want $95 for a tech to come out to change over the dish. For a change in satellite that they initiated. I'm not happy about this. Anyone had a similar experience?


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

It is possible that some special deal may be offered to help you upgrade to a single dish EA setup, but yes ... you need more than 119-110 plus 61.5 to get all of the HD channels. You need one complete arc (61.5-72.7-77 in your case) to get all of the HD channels.


----------



## delrayser (Sep 9, 2010)

EA is Eastern Arc, right? When did that happen? How long have I been limping along on an out-of-date 2-dish setup?

Does anyone know what channels are available on the EA that aren't available on the old satellite array? It really bugs me that Dish made this move without informing me I was missing channels. I assume no one else got notice, either?


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

delrayser said:


> EA is Eastern Arc, right? When did that happen? How long have I been limping along on an out-of-date 2-dish setup?
> 
> Does anyone know what channels are available on the EA that aren't available on the old satellite array? It really bugs me that Dish made this move without informing me I was missing channels. I assume no one else got notice, either?


You have been missing channels since February.
See http://jameslong.name/splitarc.html for HD channel locations.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

This is an area where Dish is very bad...

#1 didn't properly inform people of the change in their mirroring of channels between the arcs.
#2 not working better with people who previously had Dish-approved configs.

It's one thing if I setup my own config and I pick a non-standard config and Dish wants to charge for a re-point... but for years Dish was setting people up with 110/119/61.5 so to my thinking they should be doing re-points for free to those people to get them on a proper east/west arc.


----------



## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

delrayser - You can change over to the Eastern Arc setup, but this also requires that all your receivers on your account be a VIP series (the current HD models, both DVR and non-DVR).


----------



## RASCAL01 (Aug 2, 2006)

delrayser said:


> EA is Eastern Arc, right? When did that happen? How long have I been limping along on an out-of-date 2-dish setup?
> 
> Does anyone know what channels are available on the EA that aren't available on the old satellite array? It really bugs me that Dish made this move without informing me I was missing channels. I assume no one else got notice, either?


I am in the same boat. Do not receive AMC, BBC, etc. I quess that I will need to call dish or repoint the 61.5:nono:


----------



## wolfjc (Oct 4, 2006)

scooper said:


> delrayser - You can change over to the Eastern Arc setup, but this also requires that all your receivers on your account be a VIP series (the current HD models, both DVR and non-DVR).


I upgraded to a VIP211 and EA via a 1000.4 and get all the stations that you are missing.
I did have to commit to a 2 year contract but other than that I did NOT pay anything for the upgrade.


----------



## delrayser (Sep 9, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the replies. I was able to finally get a satisfactory response from Dish after I griped about the situation on Twitter and mentioned @dishnetwork in the tweet.

Of course, the Twitter CSR still tried to get me to sign up for the $6 a month service plan in exchange for dropping the visit charge to $15. I said no, that the service plan was for malfunctioning equipment and this was a change in service. He tried the "this is like leasing a car, you're responsible for the maintenance" line on me, which is ridiculous b/c this isn't maintenance. It's more like the manufacturer changing their oil filter configuration so it will only work if you replace your engine with a new model, and then charging you to install the new engine.

Anyway, situation resolved. I'm still pissed they made this change w/o notifying existing customers that they would be paying for a package that included channels they couldn't actually get. The Twitter CSR tried to excuse that by saying "we didn't raise the price on the package, so it's not like you're being charged for the channels you were missing," which is obviously ridiculous. I'm sufficiently annoyed about this that I might write a letter to Dish about it so they'll hopefully let other customers in the area know about the change. Anyone have an email address at Dish that has shown results if you send something to it?


----------



## bloom (Jul 29, 2004)

I had this problem and called and complained two weeks ago. I said that I was paying for programming that I didn't seem to get, mentioning specifically Indie Plex and AMC HD. The CSR I spoke with had me search for several channels by number, and when these failed, concluded that I needed a new dish installation for the Eastern Arc satellite. She scheduled a new installation two days later, with no charge. Perhaps I got lucky, but you shouldn't have to pay for the proper dish installation when you are paying for the programming.


----------



## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

I am in the same basic situation with you guys......except I can't receive my HD locals. THey are on EA, while the SD locals are on SD. I have complained several times, but haven't gotten much help.

Is EA more prone to rain fade than WA? I do not want that problem.


----------

