Yeah, even if 118 is still QPSK, the issue is that Dish has deactivated legacy boxes and won't activate legacy boxes, so that should answer the question: they are bricks.
The last time I had my deactivated 501 connected to the satellites in March, it was still capable of getting a few free channels from the 118 satellite. Having said that, the 501 was no longer able to take a guide download, so I don't know how long it would have kept receiving those channels, without any guide information, if I had kept it hooked up. Dish later dropped one of the free channels (RKINO, the Russian channel) leaving only RITTV, the free TV Japan segments, and the "What's on Dish?" slate channel, along with any other unannounced international channel free previews Dish may decide to put on that satellite. So, the QPSK receivers may not be complete bricks, but they are still not very useful unless you are only interested in free international channels. It is also worth noting that the 501, along with the receiver models in the thread title, are all DVRs, so they will still play anything that was already recorded on them before Dish stopped broadcasting in a format that they can handle.
