I told the first person that I wanted to close my account, she immediately moved me up the chain.
I told them about the plasma concepts rebate (ends today) and that I could get in for basically nothing and they offered me the 622/new dish for $50. Good enough for me. D* clearly has the edge with HD - but except for USA, this will get me what I need, which is basically means locals in HD plus ESPNHD. I can't get OTA without a big antenna array ($90) - too far from the metro area.
I guess I'll trust that more HD will come along. If the HD only package ever gets Disney for the kids and USA we'll move to that.
2 years is a long time, but the cancellation is $10/mo. D* would have been similar monthly price for one year and then ~$20/mo more after that for channels I mostly won't use. Also, without any DVR function for the 2nd room.
What made my mind up for me is that I can get the 2 tuner DVR without any extra fees, and that the 2nd TV can access the DVR, so it's basically a two room DVR setup- which would have cost an additional $100 installation and ~$5/mo from D*. We like to have the kids watch TV upstairs (36" SD tube) and we watch the HD downstairs. With the EHD option, storage isn't an issue, I have extra drives lying around. Plus $20 less/mo for the 2nd year is money in my pocket. No promotional pricing. And we've been very happy with Dish in general. My dad has D*, and granted I don't spend much time with it, I hate his DVR setup. PIP on the 622 is nice as well. UHF remote is a plus as well as I have the plasma in a different room from the components. The Dish hardware just won me over.
Install is tomorrow, can't wait.