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I've been lurking in this Forum for quite some time and finally can put my order in for Dish tomorrow. First I had to wait for the 622 to come out (glad I didn't just get the 942), then for the deal to get better and for it to be stable enough, then for my wife and I to get through all the stuff we had on our cable PVR (the biggest delay, actually). I have a couple of questions and would appreciate any help that can be provided.

1. I know that San Diego has LiLs, but I want OTA locals for the quality and extra tuner. The roof on my house is above the tree line so I think we can see in any direction. What OTA antennas would be recommended (our zip: 92130)? My wife doesn't really want an antenna, but she will go along with it as long as it isn't too obnoxious. We plan to pay the $5 for sat locals for guide info and for tuner flexibility.

2. The previous owner of my house had Dish but we got cable because no MPEG-4 receivers were available then. Our install should be pretty standard because we have a HDTV in the living room and a SDTV in the master bedroom, so one 622 works. Should I do anything in particular to make the installer's job quicker/easier?

3. Do I need to remove the cable PVR from my entertainment cabinet? My wife doesn't touch any of our setup so if that has to be done for the install I will need to do it before I leave for work. Do I need to be home to hook things up to make sure things are fine or will the installer do that?

4. I was planning to order from Dishstore because of their support for this site (loved the $100 contest thread, I think that got more posts than the HDLite threads for awhile). However, other posts say I should get a local installer. Has anybody in the San Diego area had Dishstore do an install for them? My wife and I are planning to visit a local installer tomorrow, the one day of the week that I work from home.

5. I see that ClubDish avoids the $49 up front fee, but isn't that waived for the 18-month commitment? Does that mean that installing through ClubDish avoids the need for an 18-month commitment?

Having Time Warner Cable in San Diego has been a horrible experience. My SA 8000 had numerous problems, and my SA 8300 now isn't a lot better. I found out from AVS that San Diego appears to be the beta test site for Time Warner, and periodically my 8300 has severe problems. The worst is when the PVR reboots everytime you turn it on, which happens for up to 3 weeks, and kills whatever is being taped at the time. People who complain about stuttering with the 622 have not seen how badly we had it for a couple of weeks, where we couldn't watch anything recorded on our PVR because of the choppiness of audio and video. Time Warner customer service actually called us back when we reported that problem and said that it was a "known problem" and they would fix it...but we got no refund for the 3 weeks of lost programming.

Anyway, our 8300 is now cleared of everything except some Sesame Street episodes for my kids, so I can finally get rid of it. I'd appreciate any help with my questions before I place my order tomorrow.

By the way, we are considered a new customer through my wife, though we did have Dish for 4 years in the Bay Area until we moved 14 months ago. I loved my Dish PVR and the service we had, which was much better than the D* service I had for the 3 years before that.

Garret