Can grandfathered customers get old HD Pack with new receiver??

[jsanders]

I suspect I know the answer to this one, but I have to ask if anyone has inquired about this scenario...

If you have an old receiver prior to 2/1/06, you are grandfathered with the old HD Pack price of $10 and $5 for voom.

If you buy a new 622, or a 211, can you choose to keep the old HD pack, or are you forced to pay $30 for the new stand alone HD pack?

The other question is, under the new program, can you get distant HD Locals if you don't live in one of those starting markets? Right now I have the waiver for CBS-HD, and don't care to loose it, but would be okay with replacing it with a distant HD local pack.

 

[Stargazer]

You have to pay the full price with the MPEG-4 receiver, your not grandfathered unless you use only the existing MPEG-2 that you have been using. If you deactivate your MPEG-2 HD receiver you will not be able to activate HD programming back on it.

 

[JohnH]

A waiver for CBS does not get you anything other than CBS.

 

[jsanders]

If you deactivate your MPEG-2 HD receiver you will not be able to activate HD programming back on it.

If you subscribe to programming, they can't deactivate that programming one some receivers and activate it on other receivers if it is all on the same account provided that the receiver is capable of viewing it.

If you deactivate an MPEG-2 HD receiver and cancel the HD pack, then activate it again, you won't be able to subscribe to the HD Pack via that receiver. That doesn't mean you can't get it back on that reciever though! If you activate the HD Pack from an MPEG-4 receiver, you will still receive it on the MPEG-2 HD receiver because you subscribe to it on your account. In other words, they can't prevent you from viewing it on just one receiver on your account.

 

[jsanders]

A waiver for CBS does not get you anything other than CBS.

Maybe I need to ask the question again. Can you subscribe to Distant HD Locals if HD locals are not in your area? They are not in my area. If I can't subscribe to them, then the CBS waiver is beneficial to have. I want to know if I need to keep it or if I can cancel it.

 

[JohnH]

You might need the waiver to get CBS HD since the HD Distants are not automatically qualified for all markets.

 

[Jason Kragt]

I have a 942 that has been active for some time now but I have not elected to purchase the $10 HD package (TNTHD, ESPNHD, HDNET, HDNET Movies, Discovery HD) yet. Can I still purchase that package for $10 per month if I keep the 942?

 

[jsanders]

I have a 942 that has been active for some time now but I have not elected to purchase the $10 HD package (TNTHD, ESPNHD, HDNET, HDNET Movies, Discovery HD) yet. Can I still purchase that package for $10 per month if I keep the 942?

You really should have done that yesterday if you wanted a guarantee.

Go ahead and try it and tell us what happens!

 

[Weezknight]

I suspect I know the answer to this one, but I have to ask if anyone has inquired about this scenario...

If you have an old receiver prior to 2/1/06, you are grandfathered with the old HD Pack price of $10 and $5 for voom.

If you buy a new 622, or a 211, can you choose to keep the old HD pack, or are you forced to pay $30 for the new stand alone HD pack?

The other question is, under the new program, can you get distant HD Locals if you don't live in one of those starting markets? Right now I have the waiver for CBS-HD, and don't care to loose it, but would be okay with replacing it with a distant HD local pack.

I was in contact with the executive offices yesterday and they said they are not doing "equipment only" upgrades. If you want the new receiver you have to upgrade to the so-called "metal" packages.

 

[Jason Kragt]

You really should have done that yesterday if you wanted a guarantee.

Go ahead and try it and tell us what happens!

Trust me, I kicked myself all day yesterday for not thinking of upgrading in time!

It's kind of a dilemma for me. I had the 5-channel HD package when I first got my receiver, but I never really watched it. The picture was beautiful, but the content was weak. TNTHD, ESPNHD and Discovery HD weren't much different from their SD counterparts. The only channels I found moderately interesting were HDNet and HDNet Movies.

Right now the only satellite-delivered HD that I have is HBOHD. I get the major networks in HD over the air. That actually works pretty well for me. Except for Universal HD, the new MPEG4 channels don't look that compelling either. I might just end up downgrading to AT60 + locals and get all of my HD over the air.

The new HD packages that Dish is trying to get us to migrate to seem overpriced. When you combine the fact that in April they are trying to get us to trade in receivers that we purchased for leased ones, and charge us another $100 for a 942 to 622 upgrade and pay significantly more for their bronze, gold and platinum packages than we do for their AT60, AT120 and AT180 counterparts, I wonder if some of us value-oriented consumers will drop them.

I used to be under the impression that the migration to MPEG4 was going to cost Dish and its shareholders a lot of money in the short-term and be kind of a boom for us early adopters because we would get new receivers, but they way things seem now, it looks like they have found a way to pass most of the cost back on us quite quickly.

 

[luckycat]

Trust me, I kicked myself all day yesterday for not thinking of upgrading in time!
...
Right now the only satellite-delivered HD that I have is HBOHD. I get the major networks in HD over the air. That actually works pretty well for me. Except for Universal HD, the new MPEG4 channels don't look that compelling either. I might just end up downgrading to AT60 + locals and get all of my HD over the air.

I'm in the same boat, although I do like Discovery HD. I have a 942 now w/HD Pack (NOT VOOM). Most of my HD viewing is OTA, and it works great. I am very interested in Universal HD, though, but to get that I have no choice but to get a 622 and an HD Metal package. I'll probably get HD Bronze, but there are a few channels that I would like..so that takes me up to HD Silver to match what I have now, plus new HD programming.

My current bill:
AMERICA'S TOP 120 WITH LOCALS 42.99
DISH NETWORK DVR SERVICEFEE 4.98
LEASED RECEIVER FEE 5.0
DISH NETWORK HD PACKAGE 9.99
EXTENDED WARRANTY 1.99
Total: 64.99

New bill:
HD Silver 59.99 (increase from 120+HDPack of about $7)
DVR Fee 4.98
Leased Receiver Fee 5.0
Extended Warranty 1.99 (assuming I'm still grandfathered)
Total: $71.96

Roughtly $7 extra per month; some would consider not bad taking into account the additional HD content.

So I may go with HD Bronze to keep all of the HD but shave off $10... or drop Dish entirely and just go with an off-the-air HD OTA system.

 

[jsanders]

I was in contact with the executive offices yesterday and they said they are not doing "equipment only" upgrades. If you want the new receiver you have to upgrade to the so-called "metal" packages.

Thank you Weezknight. While that is not what I wanted to hear, that is the answer I was looking for.

 

[jsanders]

... or drop Dish entirely and just go with an off-the-air HD OTA system.

I'm also considering that....

Check out SageTV.com.

They sell DVR software. 14 day guide data with no subscription fees! Just put in as many ATSC tuner cards as you want, and it transforms your PC into an HD OTA DVR. You can expand as you want. Add a bigger hard drive, add blu-ray DVD when it comes out as an upgrade.

You can also look at MythTV, free DVR software that parses zap2it.com listings for its free guide data with an xmlTv modue. It is harder to install, cuz you need to install it on Linux.

The only drawback is you don't have the extra dish programming, but there are NO monthly fees!

 

[k4106]

If they try to force me to sub. to a metal package when they move the Mpeg2 HD over to Mpeg4, I probably won't go for it. I would rather invest my money in an OTA antenna upgrade.

 

[kb7oeb]

I think if you lease a mpeg4 they require a new hd pack. If you purchase your mpeg4 receiver I bet you can keep the old hd pack as long as you still have it active on your account.

 

[Weezknight]

I think if you lease a mpeg4 they require a new hd pack. If you purchase your mpeg4 receiver I bet you can keep the old hd pack as long as you still have it active on your account.

It would be interesting to find this out. I have a feeling though, just like they won't activate new HD content on 811's they will not activate a 211 / 622 without the new package upgrade. Those who did this prior to 2/1 did the right thing in getting their 211's up and running prior to the switchover.

 

[kb7oeb]

If you still have the 811 and buy a 211 I think they might activate because there is talk about them charging $6 extra if you don't take a hd pack on the mpeg4 boxes.

 

[jsanders]

I think if you lease a mpeg4 they require a new hd pack. If you purchase your mpeg4 receiver I bet you can keep the old hd pack as long as you still have it active on your account.

I called dish today, and the CSR told me the same thing. I'm purchasing the 622, so I am good. I was very distrustful of the info, so I had the CSR write a note onto my account with her supervisor's operator ID so that I could refer to it when I try to actually do this.

I sold my 942, and the CSR kept my account active by activating an old receiver which I do not own to keep me grandfathered with the old package! So, that when my 622 arrives, I will be able to continue subscribing to the old HD Package!

Just one more reason as to why owning can be better than leasing! It was complicated to do it, and I had to subscribe to the old pack before 2/1/06, which I did!

Whew!

 

[Dishpointer]

I subscribed to the old HD pack and Voom last week when my 211 came in. I did this on purpose because I didn't want to be forced into the new HD package. I was hoping my purchased 211 came in on time and it did. I really didn't want the 211 but because the 622 wasn't available yet I didn't have a choice. Now when the 622 becomes available I will sell my 211 receiver and keep my current HD pack and Voom. I also did it this way because I wanted to take advantage of the old promotion of 6 months of the HD pack free with Voom only costing $5. After 6 months is up I will probably get the stand alone HD pack without locals.

 

[dlsnyder]

I subscribed to the old HD pack and Voom last week when my 211 came in. I did this on purpose because I didn't want to be forced into the new HD package. I was hoping my purchased 211 came in on time and it did. I really didn't want the 211 but because the 622 wasn't available yet I didn't have a choice. Now when the 622 becomes available I will sell my 211 receiver and keep my current HD pack and Voom. I also did it this way because I wanted to take advantage of the old promotion of 6 months of the HD pack free with Voom only costing $5. After 6 months is up I will probably get the stand alone HD pack without locals.

So now that you have the old HD pack set up on your new 211 can you still only see the old channels, or are the new ones active now too?