08/15/07 - end of MPEG2 (and new upgrade deal)

[Dan Berndt]

This last week I received a flyer from dish stating that my existing receivers would not pick up HD programming after August 15 and that, if I want to continue getting HD programming, I had to replace my receivers. I called Dish up and I was told that Dish would no longer transmit in MPEG 2 after August 2 and that I would have to replace the two 942 receivers I own with 622s. I've had HD only for over a year now and I've been real reluctant to upgrade but the deal they gave me makes having to sallow the A120 package I need to get HD a little more palatable.

Not only is Dish going to upgrade BOTH my 942s for FREE, since I own the 942s, Dish is going to give me ownership of the 622s so I won't have to pay lease fees. In addition I get $100 of HD programming ($10/month for 10 months) and three free months of HBO. Dish said they would give me $10 for each of my 942s if I turn them in to dish.

I scheduled to have the technicians come out August 2 to setup the 622s. The two main issues I had with switching over before now was having to pay for the non-HD channels of A120 and having to pay lease fees when I already owned my equipment. The promotion money will help take some of the sting out of having to pay for A120 channels I will seldom watch.

 

[Gary Murrell]

how much did you get the 622's for ? I currently own a 942 myself and this sounds interesting

-Gary

 

[DWS44]

Not only is Dish going to upgrade BOTH my 942s for FREE, since I own the 942s, Dish is going to give me ownership of the 622s so I won't have to pay lease fees.

Are you absolutely sure they said you would OWN them?!? I think I would call back and confirm this, as I would be surprised if they gave them to you free and them NOT be a lease. Perhaps you just got a lucky deal, but I'd be awful careful of it. You know the old "If it's too good to be true..." adage. Just a suggestion. :up

Also...if they told you ALL MPEG2 HD was going away, they were wrong about that too. Only the VOOM channels in MPEG2 are being switching to MPEG4 on that date.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I bet that by the end of the year that ALL HD in mpeg 2 will go away . It would make sense to go ahead and convert all hd to mpeg 4 and we could get a whole lot more hd channels added. THen by next spring all hd will be mpeg 4 anyway on the new sats ,when they relaunch the entire DISH service in mpeg 4. Besides Scott keeps saying that he has HEARD that this will probably happen by years end. I think that he is probably right.

 

[Yes616]

As far as I know, all Voom channels will go MPEG-4 next month. There will still be a few left after that but I am sure that will change soon after.

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF DISH is to stay on track to upgrade all customers to mpeg 4 in 3 years , which they stated on one of the Charlie/TEch chats last year, they HAVE to turn all hd to mpeg 4 by this year. Then they still have 2 years to upgrade the sd customers to mpeg4 . My bet is , that since they will be relaunching the entire DISH service in mpeg4 by next spring, they will have more time to upgrade all the mpeg 2 receivers, since they will be running the mpeg 2 service at the existing 110/119/129/61.5 /148 sats at the same time as the new sats in mpeg 4 at 86.5/97. Hell Charlie could take upto 5 years or more to upgrade all the sd mpeg 2receivers. But I would hope that CHarlie would think about using the older sats for more hd locals or a west coast version of the mpeg 4 service which would be used for Alaska/Hawaii and the entire west coast time zone of the U.S. .