Making the jump to HD. What do I want/need?

[Zorlac]

Hello all. So my family is finally making the jump to HD. Our 2 CRT sets are showing their age. We've been a Dish subscriber since 2004.

However Im a bit confused as to what we need, so heres some questions I have. Sorry for the n00biness, but I wanna be as informed as possible , so please excuse the long post

This is what my monthly bill looks like as of now:

International Access: 10.00
Americas Top 250 : 69.99
HBO & Max : 24.00
Polish: Super: 29.99
Starz - 30th Anniv: 0.00
Solo Receiver: 7.00
Solo Receiver: 7.00
Protection Plan: 6.00
Tax: 9.30

Total: 163.28

We have 3 DP311 receivers. Like I said 2 CRTs that are dying, and 1 19" HDTV that we got to replace the old little CRT, and watching SD on an HDTV is quite awful.

My parents are thinking about dropping the international package with Polish channels, as they are interested in trying out the PolTV decoder box that streams a bunch more Polish channels over the internet for the same price that Dish offers.

So here are my questions:

1) Do I contact dish directly or do I go through our dealer that installed our Dish setup? Frankly I wasn't to thrilled with our installer as iirc it took a day and a half to install the Dish. Also what promotions (if any) are there for a customer looking to upgrade to HD? Are there any installation costs?

2) I understand the Dish and switch have to be changed. We have 3 TVs like I said, and only 1 dish so please tell me I need 2 separate Dishes on top of our house for HD.

3) Im confused about HD free for life offer. How many HD channels do I get? Is it comparable to the AT250 HD package? I'm finding it really hard to understand. Does the HD free for Life offer include channels from AT250, or is it the most basic package thats offered for free and I’ll have to pay for more channels?

We'll need HBO HD for sure, and Im interested in the Platinum pack, mainly for Discovery HD Theater. However I've read HD Theater is changing to Velocity. Will this still remain in the Platinum package? This is probably the most confusing part for me.
This is of course assuming we even qualify. I see you have to either use Auto renew with Paperless billing or pay $100 one time fee. Is there *any* reason not to do either of these?


4) We need 3 HD receivers. One for the main TV in our den. One for the living room, and one for a bedroom. The den and living room receivers need to have DVR functionality. The bedroom receiver just needs to be a basic HD set, nothing fancy.

How do I choose receivers? I’ve been reading up a lot on the 612, 722 and 922k receivers. Given the lack of features and performance of the 311’s we currently have (lock ups, Error messages about some channels not being displayed sometimes, general ugliness of the UI), we want a *good* receiver this time around.

We don't care at all about Sling. Our upload speeds wouldn't be able to provide a decent picture and even if it did we’d have zero use for it. The only reason I’ve been thinking about the 922k is the UI. Is there any hope of the 722k or 612 having an updated UI that mimics the 922k?

The price of the 922k is very steep however, and the 722k looks pretty good for the Den room. The living room would just need the basic HD box with DVR which Im guessing is the 612 or 211k? I read that the 211 has external HD support to turn it into a DVR? If so is there a fee? I know theres a DVR fee for the other boxes, but if Im spending money on my own EHD and going thru the motions of setting it up, I dont think a fee for that is fair. I do have an external USB HD enclosure (a MacAlly) with a 320gb HD which I’d use either to turn a box into a DVR, or use it with a 722k or whatever to archive shows. If there is a fee to use EHD, would it be wiser just to get a 722k and a 612k?

Im still reading up as much as I can about the receivers so excuse any questions that seem obvious. Also, how do I actually choose what receivers I want? When i try to order a package on the Dish website to see what the prices are, it tells me I can only get 2 612’s and 1 211. Whats the process of choosing your own receiver. I dont wanna be stuck with whatever the tech who installs this stuff has in the back of the truck when he shows up.



Anyway that should cover it for now. I’ll post another thread regarding the more techy bits about the receivers in the Tech forum when I choose what I want.

We’d like to stay with Dish, but we are considering DirectTV if we can get a good price. The 2 main things that Im trying to figure out are the HD programming options and Receiver choices. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[dfergie]

Not knowing your location, you could check with Claude at the Dishstore (one of our Gold sponsors at the top of the page) or pm one of the Dish Internet Team here (look at the bottom of the forums page, their names are listed in red and names will say at dish network)

 

[Jimmerinwi]

Go through the DIRT team or deal directly with Dish. I personally wouldn't deal with a retailer. 722 would work if you plan on keeping one of the CRT tv's for tv2. If you plan on three hdtv's then you'll need 3 receivers.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[MaryB@SlingTV]

Please send anyone from DIRT a PM with your account information and we will review your account and let you know exactly what it will take to get you upgraded to HD!

 

[Mr Tony]

One thing I noticed is you're being billed extra

International Access: 10.00
Americas Top 250 : 69.99
HBO & Max : 24.00
Polish: Super: 29.99

The Int'l access is ONLY if you dont subscribe to a basic English or Spanish package and have an international programming package. You have AT250 which qualifies. That $10 charge should not be there

 

[Zorlac]

One thing I noticed is you're being billed extra

The Int'l access is ONLY if you dont subscribe to a basic English or Spanish package and have an international programming package. You have AT250 which qualifies. That $10 charge should not be there

Whoa really? Thats very surprising. I never knew that if thats really the case. Why would Dish charge us extra for no reason? If this really is the case Im not very happy about it. I have PM'd a member of the DIRT (maryb@dishnetwork) with my questions. Hopefully I will get some answers, but the extra billing is really disturbing. I wonder if thats been going on since we moved to Dish back in 2004 since afaik we've had the AT250 and Polish Super package since we signed up from day one. If so thats a A LOT of money lost.

 

[Mr Tony]

I know there was a glitch with it.
You havent been billed it that long. Use to be a $6 (or $7 I forget) fee for no basic package. I found the thread....as of Nov 2010 you were billed $10 if no basic package. But AT250 covers that
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...ternational-price-changes-coming-11-11-a.html

and I made a post back then to make it easy

If you just sub to Int'l and nothing else.....$10 BS fee...exception is Great Wall and Chinese Elite package
If you have Int'l + locals only....no Fee (locals are $10 already)
Int'l and other packages (120, 200, etc)....no fee

 

[Zorlac]

Ok good to know. I've sent PMs back and forth to maryb@dishnetwork and got the international access fee dropped as well as credit. Shoot, had I known I would have done this ages ago. Tomorrow I will be going to the local stores (BB, Walmart, Sams Club etc) to have a look at some HDTVs (55" goodness, that Sony EX500 sounds nice). As soon as we get the TVs in place I'll order the Dish upgrade and get it sorted.

Still have 1 question though, what about the actual Dish/Switch situation? Will I need more than 1 Dish for any reason?

 

[CK SatGuy]

Ok good to know. I've sent PMs back and forth to maryb@dishnetwork and got the international access fee dropped as well as credit. Shoot, had I known I would have done this ages ago. Tomorrow I will be going to the local stores (BB, Walmart, Sams Club etc) to have a look at some HDTVs (55" goodness, that Sony EX500 sounds nice). As soon as we get the TVs in place I'll order the Dish upgrade and get it sorted.

Still have 1 question though, what about the actual Dish/Switch situation? Will I need more than 1 Dish for any reason?

The only situation I can think of is if you receive Davenport HD locals and you're still keeping your Polish international package. If that's not the case, then you would only need one dish.

 

[dwarren2]

Do you have an over the air antenna for locals? If so, here's a suggestion. A 722 for the living room and a 211 for the other 2 rooms. You can add an external hd to each of the 211, turning them into dvr's without the fee. There is a 1 time fee of $40/account for the 211 to activated the ehd's. There is no charge to add an ehd to the 722. It makes no sense to purchase, since the monthly fees are the same.

This mornings Today show showed some hdtv's on sale at Sears. They had a 60 inch plasma for under $1000.

 

[Zorlac]

Im in Dubuque, and get Dubuque locals, 1 dish. Just wanted to be sure. I am interested in the OTA module for the 722k, only to have in case the dish goes down during a storm, would be nice to watch local news for weather. We dont have an antenna though (like on the side or on top of the house), so would it be worth it without having one?

Also, is it worth connecting the 722k/211 to broadband? I might as well as I'll be hooking up other things. One thing I wonder is can you download program guides thru internet, since it takes a long time? One thing (well ONLY thing) I miss about cable is that you can go like a week in advance to see whats coming up.

 

[Mr Tony]

With Dubuque locals (thats part of the Cedar Rapids market if I remember right) then you'll get one Dish setup called the Dish 1000+. That dish sees 110, 119 (SD networks), 129 (HD Nets and your locals in HD) and 118.7 (for the Polish pack)
The Big 4 networks will be in HD and the rest in SD

 

[holy_devil]

He been rip off with $10 access fee, he should demand a refund. With the refund he could get a 922.

 

[Mr Tony]

He been rip off with $10 access fee, he should demand a refund. With the refund he could get a 922.

Thanks for playing but your a few days late on that. Read posts 5-8
And the refund is only about 80 bucks not 200....the $10 fee started in November 2010

 

[whatchel1]

Im in Dubuque, and get Dubuque locals, 1 dish. Just wanted to be sure. I am interested in the OTA module for the 722k, only to have in case the dish goes down during a storm, would be nice to watch local news for weather. We dont have an antenna though (like on the side or on top of the house), so would it be worth it without having one?

Also, is it worth connecting the 722k/211 to broadband? I might as well as I'll be hooking up other things. One thing I wonder is can you download program guides thru internet, since it takes a long time? One thing (well ONLY thing) I miss about cable is that you can go like a week in advance to see whats coming up.

Personally I would go w/ a 722k w/ a module for the main room. Then 211k w/EHD for one room then a 211k only for the last room. In fact if you do that you could by paying the $40 activation fee you could move that EHD between the 2 211k's.