The Truth behind Dish DVR's and TiVo...
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I have a 722k and the top 250 WITH Dvr pack and save .98 cents. WHOOPPIEEE!! I also have the 211k that I paid the 39.99 fee to upgrade it to a dvr with my own external hard drive. So I pay no monthly dvr fee for that one at all. This is my way to get around the dvr fees as best I could. The only other way is to upgrade to AEP , but that is way too expensive to do now days.
The cost of litigation, which is unfortunately a big part of the cost of doing business in America, is figured into everyone's bills. It doesn't matter if it is your health insurance, car payment, cable, telephone, sat tv or utility bill. They all have legal costs factored in. In E*'s case, the TIVO litigation has probably added a few cents to everyone's monthly bill. The last DVR fee increase could probably be attributed to the costs of the DVR software redesign.
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It's a lose-lose. No Tivo suit, no legal fees. But instead Dish would be paying licensing fees to Tivo, again costing us more. So, we are not paying more because of the Tivo suit. We are paying more because of a stupid PTO system.
On the flip side, if there is no lawsuits, i.e. no law, no PTO, i.e. no IP protection, no innovation, it will be like China or Russia. Even in those countries they are catching up with law and IP.
But even if without this lawsuit I wouldn't be sure the DVR fees would be much less. Businesses will make profit whenever they can get away with. Although there is certainly motivation to at least match the DirecTV DVR fee in order to compete. Now here is the answer for those who believe DBS merge is a good thing
Competition is the only effective way to keep businesses from getting away with everything, and this is not just DISH.
If you add a hard drive via the USB port to a 211, don't you get a DVR without a DVR fee now?
As to the DVR fee from Dish, it is strictly a "because we can" fee. No amount of explanations, reasons, excuses or double-talk will change that fact.
As to the DVR fee from Dish, it is strictly a "because we can" fee. No amount of explanations, reasons, excuses or double-talk will change that fact.
The DVR fee is really a fee to make up for the extra cost of a DVR over a regular receiver. Yes, they charge an up front upgrade fee on the DVR, that probably covers 1/2 the cost. They then collect the montly fee or you subscribe to AEP where they make money. After a while of course the monthly fee + the original upgrade lease charge you paid makes up for the cost of the DVR and they just pocket the DVR fee as extra income.
Since everyone does it Dish may as well do it also. Your cable company will rent you a box for $15. Dish will charge you a $7/month (HD) extra receiver fee (or included on first box) and $5.98 DVR fee or $12.98/month. Just a bit less than a lot of cable companies charge, but you had to pay up front, so Dish comes out ahead of the cable companies.
It is all a game, companies know you want to see a low headline price. Just like airlines they try to get you in with a low rate then charge you for luggage.
Since everyone does it Dish may as well do it also. Your cable company will rent you a box for $15. Dish will charge you a $7/month (HD) extra receiver fee (or included on first box) and $5.98 DVR fee or $12.98/month. Just a bit less than a lot of cable companies charge, but you had to pay up front, so Dish comes out ahead of the cable companies.
It is all a game, companies know you want to see a low headline price. Just like airlines they try to get you in with a low rate then charge you for luggage.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have patents, I'm saying the system needs fixed. People should not have patents on ideas, just real things. Tivo has a patent on 1 DVR method. After they were sued, Dish came up with a new method. It should be over. But sadly some are convinced Tivo has "the" patent on the DVR, and the courts are almost siding with Tivo.
You guys do realize that Tivo charges like $12/mo even AFTER your purchase your DVR, right?
I can understand feeling that you're nickled and dimed. However, you can just get a 211 and an EHD if the fees bother you that much.
Dish may charge more for its monthly DVR fees than Direct, but they do not charge more than most cable cos.
I can understand feeling that you're nickled and dimed. However, you can just get a 211 and an EHD if the fees bother you that much.
Dish may charge more for its monthly DVR fees than Direct, but they do not charge more than most cable cos.
Any good parent would respond: "If everyone else wanted to jump off the Empire State Building would you think it was a good idea?"
Because "everyone" is doing it doesn't work as a reason to charge a "because we can" fee.
Dish is doing it only because they can to help the bottom line. Everything else is a rationalization to make it seem that the "because we can" fee isn't just that.
BTW if you get a TiVo machine and do not have anything else, TiVo charges for the guide info. The guide info is already part of the subscription cost on DirecTV and Dish's regular subscriptions.
It's a "because we can" fee for Dish. Or a "help our bottom line by paying for something we used to provide for free" fee.
So switch to DirecTv.
You look at your total bill and what you get for it. Then you look at DirecTv and how much they would charge for the same level of service. Pick the lowest and go for it.
I will never have DirecTV again,
DirecTV has terrible customer service and there satellite equipment
is horrible compared to Dish Network equipment.
I was just saying, why am I paying more for my two DVR's with Dish
when DirecTV charges per account, Dish per DVR...
because of the TiVo lawsuit?
No one can tell you if this is true or not, I suspect even Charlie cannot say that. The fact is E* charges more DVR fees than DirecTV does, but less than cable, even TiVo.
Can you then conclude cable is sued by TiVo? How about TiVo, is TiVo suing itself which caused the high $12/mo. TiVo DVR fee?
That said, I do see your point, and in fact as I said previously the E* DVR fees certainly have something to do with the TiVo case because TiVo used E*'s higher DVR fees to argue that E* should pay TiVo a higher damage rate. So there is your connection.
But I need to correct what I said previously regarding TiVo suing ATT/Verizon for infringing its "MRV patent". After further reading one of the two TiVo new patents, it does not appear an MRV invention rather a PIP invention so a single user can control a two-tuner DVR to display one live program, and one pre-recorded program at the same time, each displayed individually and he can also perform DVR trick plays on each output separately.
But the above patent does not cover an MRV situation where two users can watch separate live or recorded programming from the same DVR with separate outputs to separate TV screens. So I take back the MRV theory
1 fee
You were given the suggestion to join the DVR advantage program and only pay a single fee for all of the DVR's on one account. So that would be about the same a D8 only charging the single fee.
You were given the suggestion to join the DVR advantage program and only pay a single fee for all of the DVR's on one account. So that would be about the same a D8 only charging the single fee.
I knew back then this program only reduced the DVR fee on the second DVR. Did they improve the deal so if you have 3 or 4 DVRs still one DVR fee?
Sorry, but the newly-renamed "with DVR" package only covers the 1st DVR on your account. Subsequent DVRs cost the extra fee each. :rant:I know this first hand since I have 3 HD DVRs.
No, it only covered the first DVR and in the past couple of years gave a small break on the second and additional DVRs, $5 instead of $5.98.
