HWS vs H3

[osu1991]

So far, nobody at Dish has done anything useful. They'll give me the H3 for no upgrade fee and no extra commitments, but they won't back down on the increased monthly fee. Their solution has been to try and decrease my programming (I have AEP), which I don't want to do - I actually watch alot of stuff.

The sad thing here - What I pay now between Dish and Cox (for HSI) is about $190 - and that's for 150M internet. The offer they made was the "almost everything" package (which I am fine with, the few that aren't included are not important) and 300M internet for $152 a month @ 12 months, then $172 for 13-24. And yet I'm still willing to pay more for Dish - if they would make this right.

The real kicker - I just looked and if you sign up new with Dish, the DVR service is $15 (vs my current $12) - BUT, you get this gem: "Hopper Savings $5x24 Mo". So that's literally all they have to do to make this right is apply that and I'd even come out cheaper - but I guess they'd rather lose a customer.

If a user review helps. I took the cost savings with Cox just over a year ago, using my Tivo. My sister also changed from Dish to Cox after seeing the offer they gave me. She has the Contour 2 with 6 tuners dvr and 3 contour minis. The Contour 2 with 6 tuners is actually a pretty good dvr. The voice remote works really well. My biggest gripe is no 30 second skip, have to fast forward commercials. The Picture quality in Tulsa is really good.

After 17 years, I had no problems with Dish other than costs skyrocketing. If they had made me some offers before I left, I would have stayed, but I was already gone before they offered the moon to me. The savings now are just too great to go back. I imagine eventually they will even out but for the next few years the Cox bundles win out.

 

[SandFarmer]

Like most people, I got carbon pushed to my HWS this week, and like many, I've grown to hate it quickly.

So far my two biggest issues are 1) recordings being split into multiple fragments, and 2) recordings showing black screen when trying to play back. This is the core function of a DVR, that I pay a monthly service for, and now am not getting that service.

Yes it's slower - I don't like that, but I could learn to deal if I had to.

So, chat with Dish and their answer is "How about upgrading to H3?" which they first offered for $100, then $50, now free. There's still the $3/month fee increase though, and on principal I refuse to pay more to fix what they broke. But it got me thinking - I've seen alot of H3 threads since it launched, which is what kept me from upgrading prior to this. Is it really more stable/faster, or do the same issues apply to it still? What other major bugs exist with it. Any OTA problems?

Thnaks!

I've been having recordings cropped up on my HwS's in S545. So that will be nothing new for us.

 

[pattykay]

So far, nobody at Dish has done anything useful. They'll give me the H3 for no upgrade fee and no extra commitments, but they won't back down on the increased monthly fee. Their solution has been to try and decrease my programming (I have AEP), which I don't want to do - I actually watch alot of stuff.

The sad thing here - What I pay now between Dish and Cox (for HSI) is about $190 - and that's for 150M internet. The offer they made was the "almost everything" package (which I am fine with, the few that aren't included are not important) and 300M internet for $152 a month @ 12 months, then $172 for 13-24. And yet I'm still willing to pay more for Dish - if they would make this right.

The real kicker - I just looked and if you sign up new with Dish, the DVR service is $15 (vs my current $12) - BUT, you get this gem: "Hopper Savings $5x24 Mo". So that's literally all they have to do to make this right is apply that and I'd even come out cheaper - but I guess they'd rather lose a customer.

One way to look at it is that you could drop down to AT250 and then try to get Dish to give you as many free premium channel packages as possible. You would not lose any of your programming, and you would save way more than the $3 increase in the DVR fee would cost you.

 

[MitchDeerfield]

$3 extra a month for 12 months is $36.

$36 times 15 years equals $540. It adds up.

 

[DWS44]

$3 extra a month for 12 months is $36.

$36 times 15 years equals $540. It adds up.

Yeah, that's realistic. I mean, obviously, he otherwise would have been able to continue to use the same receiver until the year 2032, and I'm sure Dish would not consider changing any of its fee structure over the next 15 years.

 

[Jim5506]

Fee decisions are not a long time consideration since they are obviously so fluid.

One must decide how critical that $3 per month is NOW not in 5, 10 or 15 years, especially when there is no guarantee the difference can and probably will disappear at any time.

 

[stardust3]

One way to look at it is that you could drop down to AT250 and then try to get Dish to give you as many free premium channel packages as possible. You would not lose any of your programming, and you would save way more than the $3 increase in the DVR fee would cost you.

I do exactly that. Top 250 with all premiums at a discount.

The key is to set your preferences in mydish to "continue at $XX.XX" after promo ends. Once you click to remove, it will offer another promo.

I know some will say that's too much to keep up with. It's really not, especially with electronic calendars to give us reminders when a promo is up.

 

[dishrich]

My biggest gripe is no 30 second skip, have to fast forward commercials.

Have you tried the same, secret code that works on the Comcast X1 DVR's, of which your Contour 6-tuner is based on?
While watching live TV, just press EXIT, EXIT, EXIT, 0, 0, 3, 0; this should change your PAGE UP key into a 30-sec skip forward key now. (press the keys in a slow, steady, sequence when you do this code)

How to program a 30-second skip button for Xfinity X1

 

[osu1991]

Have you tried the same, secret code that works on the Comcast X1 DVR's, of which your Contour 6-tuner is based on?
While watching live TV, just press EXIT, EXIT, EXIT, 0, 0, 3, 0; this should change your PAGE UP key into a 30-sec skip forward key now. (press the keys in a slow, steady, sequence when you do this code)

How to program a 30-second skip button for Xfinity X1

Thanks
I'm pretty sure I tried it last year when my sister got it, but I will try it again.

 

[pattykay]

I do exactly that. Top 250 with all premiums at a discount.

The key is to set your preferences in mydish to "continue at $XX.XX" after promo ends. Once you click to remove, it will offer another promo.

I know some will say that's too much to keep up with. It's really not, especially with electronic calendars to give us reminders when a promo is up.

I always set my preferences to "Do Not Continue." Of course, I only subscribe to the premium channels when I can get them for free, even if that means doing without them for awhile before I can get them again.

 

[bchandler02]

Thanks all. I got in touch with someone at Dish that made this right. Had the H3 installed yesterday and no change to my DVR fee.

The Cox bundle is damn tempting, but I'm going to hold with Dish for a while longer. When my existing contract is up (I took one early this year to get some promos) I may look at my options then, if cord cutting hasn't caught up to cover my needs by then. Upgrading to 300M internet would be nice, as would saving money in the process. I stopped by a store over the weekend and played with the contour 6 system and it is very nice - MUCH improved over the old SA crap they used to puh.

So far the H3 is solid - much faster as everyone said, and no issues yet. The only issue I've seen so far is I can't set timers via Dish Anywhere as of last night, but it looks like it's working now. No surprise as we all know sometimes everything needs a day or two to settle after an equipment change.