Change To HD Sats on DirecTV

[pbahlin]

I have DirecTV service and currently use a 3 LNB dish that picks up satellites 101, 110, and 119. This setup works great for SD (no HD).

I've read that DirecTV is moving to using 99, 101, and 103 for both SD and HD and eventually 110 and 119 which are now just local programming will go away. I've also read that you can just swap out your LNB for the latest and greatest LNB which gets these (99,101,103) and continue to use your same dish.

I'd like to do this because the newest dish they provide for these three sats is much bigger.

Has anybody done this?

[mhs4771]

I've had Direct since 1994 and that's news to me. Guess I have to look into it, but I've already upgraded to the SlimLine dish at the stick house and have the Winegard Travler SlimLine on the Monty, so I guess I'm set until they add more sats.

[William H. Collier]

I have been using the 5 lnb for several years now and it is just a easy to set up as the smaller 3 lnb once you get used to it. It is a quite a bit larger and creates a problem hauling it around. DTV has been changing those channels around constantly and I dont think anyone really knows what they are going to do. You might be able to get the answer you are looking for on the Directv Tech Forum, there are some guys over there that are very informed.

http://forums.directv.com/pe/index.jsp

Bill

[pbahlin]

Yup! The 5 LNB is what I had at my stick house and it was installed about three years ago. If you call for DirecTV hook up now they come with the new slimline (big dish) with a 3 LNB horn setup for 99, 101, and 103. In some very limited markets they continue to require access to 110 and 119 for local programming.

Here in FL, where I am now, that's not the case. They provide a 3 LNB.

[Lije Baley]

There is a long thread over at DBSTalk.com about this modification of the old 3-LNB dish. It's not supported by Directv, but seems to work, if you have the patience to aim the smaller dish at a bigger target.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=139735