I originally wrote this article back in 2016. To be honest, pretty much everything about it wasn’t accurate. So, let’s start again, and I’m happy to give you the straight dope as it exists now.
A little history of over-the-air TV with satellite
Both DIRECTV and DISH started broadcasting in the late 20th century. At that time, there was just no way to provide local channels over satellite. Neither company had a satellite fleet big enough, and there was no legal way to do it. So, all satellite customers had one of two choices. If they lived in an area where over-the-air reception was possible, they were encouraged to use an antenna. If they didn’t, they got a small selection of channels from a city somewhere in the US.
In 1999, Congress passed SHVIA, the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act, which allowed satellite companies to negotiate for carriage of local channels. It’s no surprise that satellite TV took off in the early 2000s as a result. However, over-the-air tuners were still considered a “must-have” in many homes. Those receivers that didn’t have them at least allowed for a passthrough.
By the mid-2000s, both DIRECTV and DISH had aggressively added locals throughout the country, in order to satisfy the requirements of SHVIA and later, STELA and STAVRA which were successors to SHVIA. The cost of an additional over-the-air tuner, especially one that could work with high-definition signals, was pretty high and the number of people who used them was fairly low.
Starting in the late ’00s, both DIRECTV and DISH discontinued over-the-air tuners from their DVRs and receivers, but offered add-on modules to bring that capability back for those few who wanted it.
The state of things today
Over-the-air television has continued to be popular, especially among cord-cutters who don’t want to pay for a live streaming package. However, its use among satellite fans has kept dropping. DIRECTV continued offering its tuner for many years, and we at Solid Signal were among the last places to get one. DIRECTV followed up with something called the Local Channel Connector but these were never available publicly. They were only sent to a small number of people during channel blackouts.
On the DISH side though, things stayed a bit more optimistic. DISH continued to offer its MT2 module for ViP series DVRs and receivers for many years. Since most of that series has been discontinued, so has the MT2. However, they still offer an adapter for Hopper and Wally devices which gives people the ability to record up to two over-the-air channels at the same time. As I write this, DISH’s adapter for Hopper is the only way to record over-the-air channels using a satellite DVR.
Are there other options?
Yes there are, although Solid Signal doesn’t offer all of them. From time to time, we are able to get low-priced converter boxes which can record over-the-air TV using a hard drive you supply. DISH’s Sling subsidiary offers a box to do this, as do Amazon and TiVo. At Solid Signal, we’ve found that the demand is too low to allow us to offer these products at a fair price.
For those with an occasional need, we offer a low-priced video capture adapter. This device allows for pass-through to the TV and you can use OBS or any other free capture software on a computer to get what you need.
If you’re looking for a more permanent solution for industrial use, give us a call! There are options out there that will allow this sort of thing but they do tend to be expensive. If you’d like to know more, call 888-233-7563. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below.
