It's not Dish's fault the programs are encrypted. It's the broadcasters forcing them to do this. You will burn everything to DVD, but remember that you'll be watching in SD not HD, as you likely do not have a HD-DVD recorder. Go to a friend's house and use their SA box for a while. You'll see there is no comparison. Also keep in mind if it wasn't for the launch failures, Dish would have new HD up already. If you are willing to give your cable company 18 months to deliver more HD, why wouldn't you give Dish another 12 months? They will likely add more after their 1st new satellite is launched in March and even more later next year. Bye!
I don't need to go to a friend's house to see the SA box. I have two. As I said, I subscribe to Dish and BHN. I have had BHN for over a decade when it was Peragon and then Time Warner. I was unhappy with their HD offerings and lack of channel adds so I subscribed to Dish as a second service to get my fill. Now BHN has pretty much caught up. I agree with you that the Dish DVR is way better than the SA box. I've been dealing with both for a long time. I am a computer guy and could monkey around with building my own DVR with far better capacity, but I just don't want to screw around with it. I want a dedicated DVR. I will miss the 622, but nothing else.