My thoughts on Dish's HD upgrade plans.

tonyp56

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Supporting Founder
May 13, 2004
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Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Everyone,

IMHO, I don't understand why everyone is sooooo upset about this deal, for one thing, be happy Dish is now the leader in HD, they've only been saying it for what, 3 years, it is about time they lived up to it. For another, just the fact that we are looking to the next generation of technology, should be enough to keep us happy, at least Dish didn't say "it will be another 2 years before we can add more HD."

Just because they only give you 1 receiver on a lease, does not mean they value current customers less than new ones, perhaps, they simply don't want $1,400.00 worth of equipment sitting in someone’s house for only $598 (for two of the 622's for instance--I know that the 211/411 don't cost that much). Would you? Besides, the argument that this means new customers are a priority over existing customers is bunk. If Dish has 12 million subscribers, and let us say, 10% (I would say that is about right, but I am only guessing here, someone else that knows, you are welcome to correct) are HD customers. Then that means 1.2 million Dish customers will be needing a MPEG4 upgrade, not counting new customers, if Dish allows all those 1.2 million to pick up just 2 of those NEW MPEG4 boxes at a cheap $299 (or less for 211)--less than half the retail. That means Dish would have to have 2.4 million boxes ready to go for just existing customers. That, I am sorry is a large number, and if you add to that possible new customers. Based on last years numbers, Dish added 1 million subs, if 10% holds, that means 100,000 new customers would be HD customers (which I’d think would be a low number, considering Dish has added so much HD) for a total of at least 2.5 million--count that on your fingers and toes--new HD boxes. In addition, even if, Dish added 1 million HD only customers, which number is higher? 1.4 million or 1.0 million? So I am sorry the argument that this means new customers are some how getting all of Dish's attention is bunk.

Of course, you can still buy the new MPEG4 receivers, which Dish is more or less using so that they do not sell out of new boxes when they just fill the order of HARD-CORE HD fans—, which likely is only about 10% of all HD customers—they make you buy them past the first one. I personally feel that this is very fair, and really am tired of all the hoop-la about Dish’s upgrade plan, and how Dish is such an evil empire.
 
tonyp56 said:
Everyone,

IMHO, I don't understand why everyone is sooooo upset about this deal, for one thing, be happy Dish is now the leader in HD, they've only been saying it for what, 3 years, it is about time they lived up to it. For another, just the fact that we are looking to the next generation of technology, should be enough to keep us happy, at least Dish didn't say "it will be another 2 years before we can add more HD."

Just because they only give you 1 receiver on a lease, does not mean they value current customers less than new ones, perhaps, they simply don't want $1,400.00 worth of equipment sitting in someone’s house for only $598 (for two of the 622's for instance--I know that the 211/411 don't cost that much). Would you? Besides, the argument that this means new customers are a priority over existing customers is bunk. If Dish has 12 million subscribers, and let us say, 10% (I would say that is about right, but I am only guessing here, someone else that knows, you are welcome to correct) are HD customers. Then that means 1.2 million Dish customers will be needing a MPEG4 upgrade, not counting new customers, if Dish allows all those 1.2 million to pick up just 2 of those NEW MPEG4 boxes at a cheap $299 (or less for 211)--less than half the retail. That means Dish would have to have 2.4 million boxes ready to go for just existing customers. That, I am sorry is a large number, and if you add to that possible new customers. Based on last years numbers, Dish added 1 million subs, if 10% holds, that means 100,000 new customers would be HD customers (which I’d think would be a low number, considering Dish has added so much HD) for a total of at least 2.5 million--count that on your fingers and toes--new HD boxes. In addition, even if, Dish added 1 million HD only customers, which number is higher? 1.4 million or 1.0 million? So I am sorry the argument that this means new customers are some how getting all of Dish's attention is bunk.

Of course, you can still buy the new MPEG4 receivers, which Dish is more or less using so that they do not sell out of new boxes when they just fill the order of HARD-CORE HD fans—, which likely is only about 10% of all HD customers—they make you buy them past the first one. I personally feel that this is very fair, and really am tired of all the hoop-la about Dish’s upgrade plan, and how Dish is such an evil empire.
Im sorry, but as the owner of a SINGLE 811, you really have no say.

What about those of us who have invested a lot of $$$ for MULTIPLE HD-DVRs? I personally have a 942, two 921s and an 811.
 
tonyp56 said:
Just because they only give you 1 receiver on a lease, does not mean they value current customers less than new ones, perhaps, they simply don't want $1,400.00 worth of equipment sitting in someone’s house for only $598 (for two of the 622's for instance--I know that the 211/411 don't cost that much). Would you?
If Charlie is trying to compete with cable, he'll have to allow a sub to lease multiple 622s. I'm sure Comcast would allow me to rent 4 HD DVRs if I chose to. It pisses me off that I have to jump through hoops to get new E* hardware.
 
Dish is nothing now but the leader in HD-Lite, they have more True 1920x1080i HD than Directv(9 vs 0) but with the 15 Voom they now have more HD-Lite than Directv also

sort of a win-lose :(

-Gary
 
Gary Murrell said:
Dish is nothing now but the leader in HD-Lite, they have more True 1920x1080i HD than Directv(9 vs 0) but with the 15 Voom they now have more HD-Lite than Directv also
sort of a win-lose :(
-Gary

Hey Gary. I was wondering if we could do an experiement. I am getting a dvr from comcast and wanted to record say a movie off hbo and then compare the filesize from dish and comcast. Does the motorola dvr tell you how big the filesize is?

I still don't understand how anyone can think what dish is doing is fair. It is rediculous. I just pray that the rest of the comcast hd is as good as the locals they show. Thinking of buying a sony dvr with a 500gb hdd for under $700 and I would be able to buypass any fee for that reciever as I would just add the cablecard for a free monthly lease. That is one thing about cable. Get the cablecard and bypass any monthly fee.
 
chipvideo said:
Thinking of buying a sony dvr with a 500gb hdd for under $700 and I would be able to buypass any fee for that reciever as I would just add the cablecard for a free monthly lease. That is one thing about cable. Get the cablecard and bypass any monthly fee.
I looked at the Sony box this weekend, but why should I fork over $700 when I can rent three (3) Adelphia/Comcast SA8300HD DVRs at $21.00 a month (total), which includes the DVR fees. Plus, the boxes have working firewire and SATA and if it breaks you can just take it back for a replacement.

Positives with my local cable: PQ is excellent - no HD-Lite, HD locals, cheap HD DVRs and as many as I want, Firewire, SATA, cheaper than Dish plus additional bundled savings and promotion discounts, cheap cable card rental ($1.75), cable labs is working on two-way cable card.

Negatives with my local cable: not many HD channels, Cable HD DVR software/hardware is junkie, cable card is one-way, EPG support is questionable if not unreliable, they are still cable (shoot me!).

I just can't justify paying $700 for the Sony box when given the choice of more DishHD or cheaper (perhaps I should say less expensive) cable HD DVRs.
 
riffjim4069 said:
I looked at the Sony box this weekend, but why should I fork over $700 when I can rent three (3) Adelphia/Comcast SA8300HD DVRs at $21.00 a month (total), which includes the DVR fees. Plus, the boxes have working firewire and SATA and if it breaks you can just take it back for a replacement.
Positives with my local cable: PQ is excellent - no HD-Lite, HD locals, cheap HD DVRs and as many as I want, Firewire, SATA, cheaper than Dish plus additional bundled savings and promotion discounts, cheap cable card rental ($1.75), cable labs is working on two-way cable card.
Negatives with my local cable: not many HD channels, Cable HD DVR software/hardware is junkie, cable card is one-way, EPG support is questionable if not unreliable, they are still cable (shoot me!).
I just can't justify paying $700 for the Sony box when given the choice of more DishHD or cheaper (perhaps I should say less expensive) cable HD DVRs.

Your lucky. Where I am at it is $15/month for each hd dvr. That is why I was thinking of just getting one. The only reason why I was thinking of even getting one would to be able to get around 50 great hd movies to my catolog over the next few years until the blue ray rentals are cheap enough.
 

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