Switching to the dark side...

[ryotgz]

Just signed up for D* today for a scheduled install in about 2 weeks. I'm not here to bash E* or say I never was offered new customer pricing on a new 2 year contract. Because I never attempted to check for pricing and I did enjoy E* programming and equipment when my receivers stopped breaking.

The main reason I am switching because the wife wants our "real" locals and doesn't care if they are HD or not. Well, I want HD locals so my compromise was switching to D* since the local Cable Co. isn't even an option in my opinion. The OTA antenna isn't reliable enough for recording TV shows on all stations. The D* MRV sounds really nice since we have two DVRs and would be easier than transferring the recoding to an external hard drive to watch something in the other room.

That said, I will miss G4 HD until D* picks it up. I was looking forward to having a 922 if they ever got the software right, but my Slingbox A/V will be good enough until the new slingbox HD comes out.

Maybe we'll switch back after our contract is up. Maybe not. Only time will tell.....

 

[kstuart]

I bought two avocados at the market labeled "Managers Special 79 cents each".

When I checked out, they were listed on the receipt at 99 cents, so I had to ask for a refund.

 

[ryotgz]

I bought two avocados at the market labeled "Managers Special 79 cents each".

When I checked out, they were listed on the receipt at 99 cents, so I had to ask for a refund.

Hope they gave you the refund. Or at least the price difference.

 

[Jhon69]

Good Luck!

I always like to say the best Dish subscriber is a previous DirecTV subscriber.

 

[Voyager6]

Good luck with D*. Please report back with your review of D*'s equipment. The Whole House DVR is a great concept. It will give D* a big edge. I hope the E* has been watching and has something similar in the works (not the 922/SlingPlayer kludge).

 

[chargerrich]

Having just left E* myself I really have nothing bad to say about them or their programming. I was initially frustrated at all the higher lease fees (up to $17 per unit per month) but now realize that they simply have no desire to play in that end of the pool.

It is a business strategy that probably keeps the prices lower for the single or two unit homes and, at least to me, it looks like this is the niche's that the two companies may settle into over time.

I think E* is more competitive in the 1-2 unit space and D* is more competitive in the "higher end" space with technophiles that want multi-room HD. The services and programming are otherwise very similiar and reliable.

 

[ryotgz]

At least I got some sophisticated responses besides the first one....

Good luck with D*. Please report back with your review of D*'s equipment. The Whole House DVR is a great concept. It will give D* a big edge. I hope the E* has been watching and has something similar in the works (not the 922/SlingPlayer kludge).

I'll report back with my findings and how the HR24 compares to the 722 & 612.

 

[Tony S]

I bought two avocados at the market labeled "Managers Special 79 cents each".

When I checked out, they were listed on the receipt at 99 cents, so I had to ask for a refund.

kstuart, I can not believe that you actually took the time to post such a ridiculous childish remark. If you are not interested in what ryotgz has to say then ignore it. SatelliteGuys is supposed to be a 'user friendly' board!!!

Anyone that is thinking of switching providers would be interested in what others have to say on the subject. ryotgz, I would be interested hearing about how you think D* compares with E*, so be sure to post about it.

 

[harshness]

The Whole House DVR is a great concept.

As executed by Verizon or uVerse, the Whole House DVR is a great concept. The problem with D*'s implementation is that it only serves "up to" two TVs at a time with recorded content. They're advertising it as a service that will give DVR functionality to every room in the house and that's decidedly overreaching.

With the D* version you don't have the options of pausing live TV nor do you have the option of pressing the record button to record live programming (unless you happen to be watching the TV connected to the HD DVR).

DIRECTV is indeed working on a true Whole Home DVR (prototyped most recently as the HMC30), but they've been tinkering with the idea for over five years now and haven't released a server or client boxes.

 

[SpaethCo]

With the D* version you don't have the options of pausing live TV nor do you have the option of pressing the record button to record live programming (unless you happen to be watching the TV connected to the HD DVR).

When you hit record on a non-DVR you're presented with a menu asking which DVR on the network you'd like to record the program.

You're right you can't pause live TV on non-DVRs, but you can easily solve that problem by just loading up on DVRs. With a $5 lease fee regardless of receiver type, why not?

 

[Voyager6]

As executed by Verizon or uVerse, the Whole House DVR is a great concept. The problem with D*'s implementation is that it only serves "up to" two TVs at a time with recorded content. They're advertising it as a service that will give DVR functionality to every room in the house and that's decidedly overreaching.

Is it the same with the networked version? I know that D* does not officially support this.

With the D* version you don't have the options of pausing live TV .

This is the same as what happens on the 211 with an EHD. No skip back on live TV either.

DIRECTV is indeed working on a true Whole Home DVR (prototyped most recently as the HMC30), but they've been tinkering with the idea for over five years now and haven't released a server or client boxes.

Hopefully D* is getting closer to implementing this.

 

[harshness]

With a $5 lease fee regardless of receiver type, why not?

Lease entry fees?

 

[DodgerKing]

With the D* version you don't have the options of pausing live TV nor do you have the option of pressing the record button to record live programming (unless you happen to be watching the TV connected to the HD DVR).

That is simply remedied by hitting a record button. Afterall, why would you need to watch live TV from a different receiver when you can do so with the current receiver. The point of a whole house DVR is to be able to watch recorded programming on any TV

 

[SpaethCo]

Lease entry fees?

The lease entry fee for an HD DVR is free for the first, $99 for the 2nd, $199 for each after that. The lease fee savings is $12/mo ($17 vs $5), so worst case your $144 savings the first year only leaves it at a $55 premium per receiver for receiver 3+, but you come out way ahead on receiver 2. (both services have free 1st receiver lease, so it's a wash)

This is further offset by the massive discounting on the service that makes it easy to splurge. I was going to wait until after the E*15 launch to see what Dish was going to do with HD RSNs (if anything), but the discounts right now are huge:

Credits
---------
$24/mo (months 1-12) New sub credit (months 13-24 = $14/mo)
$5/mo (months 1-12) Credit for submitting rebate online
$10/mo (life?) HD free for Life credit
$10/mo (months 1-10) Refer-a-friend credit
$5/mo (life?) First receiver lease credit


Charges
-----------
$63.99 Choice Xtra
$10 HD Access
$10 Receiver lease fees (2 x HR24 DVRs)
$7 DVR fee
$3 MRV fee
$4.99 HD Extra pack (really like Palladia)

So for almost the whole first year my $98.98 bill is offset by $54 in credits. In year 2 that goes to $29/mo in credits, then $15/mo in credits perpetually after that. So $44.98, $69.98, $83.98 respective bills.

With Dish I was on AT250 with HD & Platinum (which became just Platinum with HD Free for Life) and a single 722. So my costs were:

$64.99 AT250
$10 HD Platinum (really like Palladia)
$6 DVR Fee

So I'm leaving an $80.99 bill for a bill that will be $83.98 in a couple years. (or comparable after they both do their lock-step price increases) For the next 24 months, however, the savings almost make me question D*'s business model.