# OTA HD without Satellite Signal?



## vandakeg (Oct 20, 2006)

I am heading up to Northern Michigan this weekend on a hunting trip, and I CANNOT miss games 1 and 2 of the World Series. 

My plan is to take my HDTV, VIP211, and my HD Antenna and leave the Dish at home. HOWEVER, after testing my plan, I see that there is no way for me to get to my OTA Locals without a Signal from the dish. I'm assuming there is a workaround for this b/c how else would you be able to get local news in times of bad weather?

Does anyone know what I have to do to get my OTA Locals w/o Satellite Signal?

THanks


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## shultz (Jun 21, 2006)

You might try connecting your antenna directly to your tv (like back in the old days) and make sure you have the tv set on "antenna" and not "cable" or something for the imput.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

_Your_ OTA locals might be a problem ... You will need to be within range of the stations to pick up their HD broadcasts. As long as the receiver has been subscribed you don't need the satellite signal. You will have to find the stations without the benefit of the EPG (which will run out 44 hours or so after the last satellite download).

The biggest issue is getting the OTA HD signal to the receiver ... especially for your locals. You may have to find another Fox affiliate in the area and add it's digital signal to your receiver to get a picture.


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## vandakeg (Oct 20, 2006)

Well, I'm back, and I missed Game 1. I found out the hard way that there is no way to use an OTA antenna if there is no Satellite signal. I verified this with a call to Dish Network.

If there is no Satellite signal, the VIP211 WILL NOT allow you to use ANY functions of the receiver, including scanning for local channels. The Dish representative was less that sympathetic, and was very short and rude. This has me wondering if Dish is worth keeping.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Technally your subscription allows you to use dish services only at your registered service address ... so taking your dish on the road (without an RV exemption) isn't supported.

It's odd that it wouldn't work - you should have at least been able to manually add a channel.


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## intrac (Apr 2, 2006)

Does your TV have a built-in ATSC tuner?

If it does, then you don't need your 211 for OTA.


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## vandakeg (Oct 20, 2006)

James,

I thought the same thing, but if there is no satellite signal present, you cannot modify ANYTHING in the the menu. Every time you try to select something from the menu, it says: "Menu unavailable: no data found"


And no, my tv does not have a built in tuner


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Odd. Mine works without the sat cable connected (although testing it a moment ago I had to press MENU-1 to get into the program guide instead of just GUIDE).

Perhaps once the EPG has expired it behaves differently.


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## kb7oeb (Jun 16, 2004)

If its like my 811 you can keep watching locals and pull the satellite cable but you can't cold boot and get ota.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

That's the trick. Once unplugged the ViP-211 needs a satellite signal before it will do anything of value.


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## eatonjb (Nov 21, 2006)

do you have a Switch of some kind.. 

take that with you.. might make the system thing there is just no signal but everything is working.


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