First Night With Dish Network

[satjay]

Hello all, today is my first day with Dish after nine years with Directv, Here is my small review after a few hours of getting to know Dish

My Equipment 722 & 612: I like the way the program guide is set up, a more cleaner look then Directv. Its nice to channel surf and get to channel faster and I like the way the channels are set up, now I just have to get used to what channel is what. The Dish itself appears to be smaller then my Directv dish. It has a "Turbo HD" logo on it.

Programming: I have Classic gold 250/HD Gold, HBO/Starz for three months, Cinemax for a penny and signed up for platinum for free for three months. I enjoy having travel in HD and ESPNU in the package, it would be great down the road if they get it in HD. I also look foward to catching some Cubs games in HD on WGN

Picture Quality: HD wise, I think its comparable to Directv. HBO and ESPN seem to look as good as they did on Directv. I am surprised with SD, on my 42 inch plasma SD picture looks much better then Directv. I have not watched much yet on my 52 projection to see if its the same for SD.

DVR: DVR is nice, the 30 second skip and slow mo are nice features

You know, I read alot of frustration posts on dish, and I am sure down the road I will have my fair share, they got some good things going here, if they could work on the issues they have they could have a solid product, I can see how many do get frustrated becouse they see what Dish could be. I wont lie, come September it will be a bit weird without Sunday Ticket but I was not watching the sunday games to make it worth the investment.

Anyways sorry for the long post, look to adding future posts on the Dish side!!

Oh, also Kudos to Claude over at Dishstore Tech was solid, sounded like he had a long and busy day but did a great job and took his time in getting my equipment going!

 

[HIFI]

cool! glad you are having a good experience with dish

 

[bebop]

Well, you know the place to ask to keep your frustration down. Enjoy.



My recommendations:

• Lock out & hide the duplicates or unwatched channels on both tuners to keep down on the channel clutter. (Menu-5-2)
• Connect the internet and test connection (there are a bunch of free DishOnline downloads and see the last one below).
• Watch HD channels on your SD TV if possible.
• Connect an OTA antenna & scan for locals - for one more recording source (build your own if you don't have one, it's easy).
• Change your remote code if your neighbor's remote starts messing up your TV2.
• Connect an EHD if you start running out of DVR space.($40 on time fee)
• Install a quiet, small (~80mm) fan on the side of your receiver to keep the temperatures down (Menu-6-3-Counters-HDD Temp).

Oh, and best of all - use the dish.sling.com web-site for searching for movies/shows. The interface is great visually and organized and you can search by genres/filters with one click.

 

[satjay]

Well, you know the place to ask to keep your frustration down. Enjoy.



My recommendations:

• Lock out & hide the duplicates or unwatched channels on both tuners to keep down on the channel clutter. (Menu-5-2)
• Connect the internet and test connection (there are a bunch of free DishOnline downloads and see the last one below).
• Watch HD channels on your SD TV if possible.
• Connect an OTA antenna & scan for locals - for one more recording source (build your own if you don't have one, it's easy).
• Change your remote code if your neighbor's remote starts messing up your TV2.
• Connect an EHD if you start running out of DVR space.($40 on time fee)
• Install a quiet, small (~80mm) fan on the side of your receiver to keep the temperatures down (Menu-6-3-Counters-HDD Temp).

Oh, and best of all - use the dish.sling.com web-site for searching for movies/shows. The interface is great visually and organized and you can search by genres/filters with one click.

Thanks for the info. I have done a few of the recomendations. Connected to the internet and have connected to the Dish/sling DVR set up!

OTA is next on the list

 

[bebop]

Error found if you click on the last post link for this thread in the Dish Network Forum. It keeps looping a page-reload and then crashes IE7.

EDIT: It's fire-fixed

 

[HIFI]

Error found if you click on the last post link for this thread in the Dish Network Forum. It keeps looping a page-reload and then crashes IE7.

I have had that same problem on numerous occasions on the welcome new members thread

 

[digiblur]

I dont remember my 722 temps but they were not high at all. It is in open style entertainment tower so it gets plenty air on the sides and front. I am really suprised how quiet it is. Never hear it.

 

[am7crew]

Error found if you click on the last post link for this thread in the Dish Network Forum. It keeps looping a page-reload and then crashes IE7.

people still use IE? jk

 

[DishSubLA]

Thanks for letting us know what you think. I know there are a lot of haters out there against either service. However, Direct TV is a good product, but for me, I prefer Dish. Their STB technology is the best right now. While I've had my minor annoyances that required the Executive Offices to fix, then have always done so. The only reason Dish was late to the HD party was because of some very bad luck that was not their fault: AMC 14 booster fail. Now, both Direct TV and Dish are about equal in the HD game. Charlie and Dish have almost always been first with every innovation along the years, and the forthcoming ViP 922 is evidence that they still strive for the cutting edge. Now that Charlie is back in the saddle of day-to-day, we should see more improvement regarding customer service.

Enjoy your TV.

 

[DodgerKing]

Sorry to see you leave Direct. Hope your Dish experience is a good one for you.

 

[Sadoun]

Hello all, today is my first day with Dish

Congratulations and enjoy your new service.

 

[bebop]

people still use IE? jk

lol. I use both IE and Fire-ox.

 

[satjay]

Sorry to see you leave Direct. Hope your Dish experience is a good one for you.

Thanks Dodger. No hateing for me on Directv its a good service. Its going to be strange without Sunday Ticket!

I will still be lurking on the other side seeing whats going on

 

[satjay]

Something I am not used to, the Tech mentioned to turn the recivevers off when you are not watching TV. Mentioned that helps the life span of the recievers. I asked if the DVR would still work if I had some shows to record. He said they would. Is turning them off, kind of like a sleep mode?

 

[nsafreak]

Something I am not used to, the Tech mentioned to turn the recivevers off when you are not watching TV. Mentioned that helps the life span of the recievers. I asked if the DVR would still work if I had some shows to record. He said they would. Is turning them off, kind of like a sleep mode?

When you turn the receivers off they aren't being completely powered down, kindof put into a standby mode where they consume less power. Not quite sure how much but I'm sure somebody has a Kill-a-watt (really should get one myself) and can tell you the load differences. But yes its a good idea to turn them off when you aren't watching them and the timers will fire even when the unit is "off".

I myself just joined back up with Dish after using Comcast for a while. In my area Dish has a fair amount more HD programming than Comcast and the Dish 722k that I got to replace the Motorola DCH-3412 is so far ahead of the Comcast unit that it's not even funny. Minor annoyance is that there's no way to change the channel in the PIP without doing a swap but considering that the Comcast unit doesn't even have PIP enabled I'll live.

 

[garys]

You can change the pip without using the swap. You press the browse button (and it does not matter if pip window is open or not), change the browse to the channel you want, then press the pip button. TV2 is changed.

 

[DodgerKing]

Thanks Dodger. No hateing for me on Directv its a good service. Its going to be strange without Sunday Ticket!

I know. Both are good services. One is usually better for ones needs than the other. That is what is great about having both options.

I will still be lurking on the other side seeing whats going on

Just added DLB on this weeks CE. A lot of people have been waiting for this.

 

[bebop]

Something I am not used to, the Tech mentioned to turn the recivevers off when you are not watching TV. Mentioned that helps the life span of the recievers. I asked if the DVR would still work if I had some shows to record. He said they would. Is turning them off, kind of like a sleep mode?

To be clear - they meant the power button on the remote/front panel, and NOT disrupting the AC power from the outlet (ie. don't unplug it, don't turn off a power strip, etc.).

 

[Lt Disher]

Now that Charlie is back in the saddle of day-to-day, we should see more improvement regarding customer service.

Enjoy your TV.

Can you fill me in on the rest of the story? Was Charlie gone for a while? Who was minding the ship?

 

[raysmith]

You can change the pip without using the swap. You press the browse button (and it does not matter if pip window is open or not), change the browse to the channel you want, then press the pip button. TV2 is changed.

Wow - I had no idea you could do this. Thanks for pointing it out! It works great.

Ray Smith