SD to HD Swap

Are you sure you can only receive two of the 3 satellites?  Once upon a time, HD service required satellites at 101, 110, and 119ºW. Those were rather far apart in the sky. But modern equipment uses 99, 101, and 103ºW satellites. Those are close together in the sky. 

@Juniper Thank you so much for the response.  That definitely clears things up.  Guess we have a decision to make.

@litzdog911 It's possible I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that is what my husband told me.  But I appreciate the info! 

You can try using dishpointer.com or there are apps for smartphones that may help.

I was on vacation for a week and hadn't had a chance to make a decision on what to do.  Came home last Friday and now NONE of my receivers are getting local channels, even the H21 and H24.  I was under the impression (as per the letter) that only the older D12 receivers were the only ones losing local channels (which I was honestly OK with since those receivers are both in spare rooms).  Tried to get help and explanation from DirecTV last night, but was told all of my equipment needed replaced.  Are the H21 and H24 receivers considered old equipment too?  If so, they should have stated that in the letter.  If not, how do I go about getting them to put local channels back to those receivers? 

@Bakerkk 

This would only be the case if the dish you are using is SD-only and only capable of receiving satellite 101. The Hx Receivers are perfectly compatible and work properly. The Dx Receivers are the ones losing local channels as they are incapable of decoding the HD/MPEG4 content on the HD satellites.

@Bakerkk 

If you Do chose to Upgrade and for some reason you DON"T have a Line of Sight for the 101, 99, 103 --D*TV will cancel your service and refund any Charges.. 

AFAIK the 101 sat will continue to broadcast the nationwide channels in MPEG4 but there will be no local channels on it.  As stated you have to have a SWM slimline dish to get your local channels on the 99/103 sats.

Thanks for the help @detuch254 and @shannon02 .  After more research, I found out we have the old style dish, 18" x 20" which would explain my dilemma.  Guess it's time to replace it.

Replacing the dish is part of the swap offer.

@Juniper thanks for all the info.  I will be asking for the MPEG swap only.  As for the H21 and H24 receivers, we've never had HD service for them. We always tell them we can't get all satellites in order to have HD service.  They understand and have never charged us.

Another possibility if you do not want DVR service is to upgrade to Genie Lite HR44 with a Genie client. The Genie Lite is not a DVR but works with the same clients as a regular Genie.

DTV probably no longer has any to install.

Very happy to report that we finally got the swap done!  They had to put the dish smack dab in the middle of the yard and run a cable to the house in order to get all 3 satellites, but that's fine.  Was a 4.5 hour process and the technician stayed until all was completed (at 9pm).  He was great!  A few minor hiccups, but new dish is installed and we now have the Genie receiver.  After this, my husband was pretty disappointed saying "we did all this work just to be able to have local channels?  No HD?"  I told him no, HD service wasn't part of the free MPEG swap.  We basically just got a new receiver and a new dish.  I hope that's right!  If so, then if we wanted to go ahead and get the HD service but not DVR service (not interested in recording shows right at this moment), is that possible?  If so, any idea what the cost would be?  I don't care about having a 24 month agreement.  We've been with DirecTV forever and where we live they are our only option, so plan to stick with them.  

The whole point of the swap was to get the MPEG4 HD channels.  You are stuck with the Genie but you don't have to record anything if you don't want to.

@Juniper 

Yes, we did see all the HD channels on the guide, but couldn't access them.  It just showed the info screen with the 721 error code.  We called the 1-800 number because the technician that was here said he didn't know what was going on and thought DirecTV changed our channel package since we "lost" all but local channels.  The lady on the phone had us reset the receiver several times, sent signals to the receiver (with no luck), and after a lot of back and forth realized we didn't have HD service before, so had us go into settings and unhide the SD channels.  Then everything was good and all of our channels came back (in SD vice HD).  I assumed that's the way it was supposed to be since we didn't have HD on our account before.  If we are in fact supposed to see the HD channels, then I guess we will have to call them back and find out why we aren't. 

I don't want to revert back to non-DVRs.  Having the Genie is fine.  I'm sure we will use it eventually.

Thanks for all the info and sorry for all the back and forth.  This has been quite the process for us.