I recently switched from D* recently (just this August, right as the TurboHD was launching).
I selected the TurboHD Gold package that includes my RSN although the TurboHD Silver also includes your RSN. TurboHD Bronze doesn't include the RSN, but it can be added for a fee.
Your "free" RSN varies based on your location, but I've Fox Sports NorthWest up here in Seattle (FSN Nortwest). The selections I see for HD RSN's are (I add the full list as other potential customers may be interested):
CSN West (Note, CSN here is COMCAST Sports Network, not College Sports Network. I don't know if that is what you ment or if that is an entirely different channel).
Altitude
FSN Prime Ticket
FSN Rocky Mountain
FSN Arizona
FSN SouthWest
FSN West
FSN MidWest
CSN Bay Area
FSN South
Sun Sports
FSN Florida
CSN Mid-Atlantic
FSN Ohio
FSN NorthWest
FSN Cincinnati
FSN Pittsburgh
CSN Chicago
FSN Detroit
Sports Time Ohio
New England Sports Network
CSN New England
FSN North
Sports South
SportsNet New York
All of the above are HD.
In additon, besides the above RSN networks, TurboHD Silver and TurboHD Gold also receive:
ESPNHD
ESPN2HD
ESPNEWSHD
HD NFL (pretty cool)
BIGTEN Networks HD
Note that BigTen Networks states though: "**Available in: Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and sections of Pennsylvania and Indiana. Available in other areas with Multi Sport Pack for $5.99/mo. "
See
DISH Network -- Dish HD for more of the TurboHD lineups.
Here's the link for the Multi-Sports Package:
DISH Network -- America's Top 180. You basically get all the RSN's plus the NBA and NHL channels too for as little as $5.99 per month.
College Sports TV - Channel 152 is in the Americas Top 200 package and is not yet HD. So you may see this inclusion in the future when an HD format is released into the TurboHD Gold or Premium package. If this is the channel you want, you'll need to subscribe to the TOP 200 package and then add on the Platinum HD package for $10.00 more per month for the HD channels.
As for the equipment. When you subscribe to a TurboHD package (if you only want ALL HD stations only) or a package with the HD in addition, you'll receive the equipment you need for the service.
1. Dish or Dishes: This includes the appropriate dish or dishes combination for your location. Eastern Arc lives, so if you are in that local, you should receive a single 1000.4 EA dish that receives three SATs.
2. Switches: If required, a DISH "separator" was used to allow both tunners on my 722 to use a single RG6 connection.
3. Receivers: ViP 722 HD DVR will satisfy your needs. It has three Tunners (one OTA, two SAT) and can output different Live TV or recordings to two different TV's. 1 HDTV (TV1, via Component or HDMI) and 1 SDTV (composite or coax). Two remotes are provided, one IR for TV1 and one RF for TV2. Works very well in the different rooms in our house, but this may vary based on construction. The ViP 722 can operate in two different modes and is easy to change with a push button on the front of the reciver. These are single mode where both SAT tunners are available to TV1 and allows for Picture-in-Picture as well as Dual-mode, where one tunner is for TV1 and one tunner is for TV2. Dual mode does not have PIP.
For the OTA to provide a guide, you have to subscribe to your locals package. In addition, the DISH installers will not normally hook up the OTA feature for you. You'll likely have to pay for that install separately if you have no OTA setup currently, or have the coax for that connection right next to the reciver for them to connect (what I'd done myself). But it's pretty cool that you can record these shows and the flexibility of having all three tunners is really cool!
I've the TurboHD Gold package with my local HD channels with the DVR for less than $10.00 for the SD package I used to have on D* with an R16 DVR. The differences is night and day for me and I'm extremely pleased. There are a few less channels than I used to receive, but once on HD, I really can't stand SD channels anymore anyways. Why pay for them if you'll likely not watch them?
I'm also excited to see the additional HD content coming over time. DISH is really moving forward hard on their HD plans and have several SAT's coming into play (EchoStar XI just in service or about to be in service and Ciel-2 in November or December). This additional capacity and the move to MPEG 4 should allow them to add even more!
