I had a Dish 500 with 811 HD receiver installed Dec. 05 when I moved out to a property I owned in rural SE AZ, about 60 miles from Tucson. I went with the Top 60, locals, and the old $9.99 per month HD package, with the HD package free for 6 months. I have a Sony 57" RP HDTV. I was appalled at the PQ of E*'s SD programing, especially the compressed SD quality of network ("locals") channels. Although assured by antennaweb.org & neighbors that I was too far out to get Tucson locals OTA, I researched and tried a Winegard HD9095P UHF only antenna paired with a Winegard Channel Master 7777 preamp. It worked! I get all the Tucson HD / digital channels about 95% of the time.
Now that my 6 months free E* HD has ended, I keep debating whether to cancel the service because I use it so little. 90% of my viewing time is on OTA or movies on DVD / HD DVD. 8% is spent on E*'s HD channels - TNT & HD Movienet. 2% is spent on the SD "Top 60" I'm paying $30 / mo. for. Not a good return on money spent.
One alternative to cancelling completely was to go with E*'s $29.99 / mo. HD Stand Alone Pak. I called Dish today to find about. After much wrangling with a CSR in India I could barely understand she told me I would have to upgrade to a 211 for the $49 fee. While not wild about paying $49 to upgrade a dish & receiver that is only 6 mos. old, I knew from reading the threads here that an 18 month committment was required. I asked the CSR about this, and after a few minutes' search, she confirmed it. I told her that I paid the $50 activation fee in December to avoid any contract committment. Would that be refunded if they were now requiring a new 18 month comittment? After a much longer wait she came back and said No!
The HD Stand Alone Pak does have several more HD channels than I have now, and would eliminate the cost of the SD Top 60 I rarely watch. My questions are:
- Is it absolutely necessary to have the new 211 receiver and new dish to get the add'l HD channels? (I thought Mpeg4 isn't implemented yet, so my mpeg2 811 receiver should be adequate for now)
- There's no way around that new 18 month committment to upgrade to the 211, even though I paid the activation fee to avaoid any contract committments?
If the answer to question 2 is "yes", they're history. Another alternative I'm looking into is getting a Canadian satellite service. I have a brother who lives in Vancouver who I can use for a service activation address. They seem alot more reasonable for selecting a basic programing package and then selectively adding a few channels at a time at for $1- $2. Unlike E*'s bundling scam. With Top 60 I get CNN & CNN Headline News. OH? You want to watch Fox News? That's another $10 for the Top 120, with 59 more channels I never watch.
In anticipation of flames, yes - I have been accused of being cheap before.
I prefer to think of as insisting on value for the amount spent.
Now that my 6 months free E* HD has ended, I keep debating whether to cancel the service because I use it so little. 90% of my viewing time is on OTA or movies on DVD / HD DVD. 8% is spent on E*'s HD channels - TNT & HD Movienet. 2% is spent on the SD "Top 60" I'm paying $30 / mo. for. Not a good return on money spent.
One alternative to cancelling completely was to go with E*'s $29.99 / mo. HD Stand Alone Pak. I called Dish today to find about. After much wrangling with a CSR in India I could barely understand she told me I would have to upgrade to a 211 for the $49 fee. While not wild about paying $49 to upgrade a dish & receiver that is only 6 mos. old, I knew from reading the threads here that an 18 month committment was required. I asked the CSR about this, and after a few minutes' search, she confirmed it. I told her that I paid the $50 activation fee in December to avoid any contract committment. Would that be refunded if they were now requiring a new 18 month comittment? After a much longer wait she came back and said No!
The HD Stand Alone Pak does have several more HD channels than I have now, and would eliminate the cost of the SD Top 60 I rarely watch. My questions are:
- Is it absolutely necessary to have the new 211 receiver and new dish to get the add'l HD channels? (I thought Mpeg4 isn't implemented yet, so my mpeg2 811 receiver should be adequate for now)
- There's no way around that new 18 month committment to upgrade to the 211, even though I paid the activation fee to avaoid any contract committments?
If the answer to question 2 is "yes", they're history. Another alternative I'm looking into is getting a Canadian satellite service. I have a brother who lives in Vancouver who I can use for a service activation address. They seem alot more reasonable for selecting a basic programing package and then selectively adding a few channels at a time at for $1- $2. Unlike E*'s bundling scam. With Top 60 I get CNN & CNN Headline News. OH? You want to watch Fox News? That's another $10 for the Top 120, with 59 more channels I never watch.
In anticipation of flames, yes - I have been accused of being cheap before.
I prefer to think of as insisting on value for the amount spent.
