I always find it interesting when a new product, which is better, begins to come into market reality. Everyone wants it, but we do not like the hardship that it brings. A new 622 in our house means leaving behind our 942's, 921's, 6000's, and 811's.
All of us remember when HD first came on the scene as a new technology. Everyone wanted a new HDTV, but the cost of the new technology was too expensive. People complained, especially those that had just purchased new and quite expensive large screen rear projection SD tv's. They felt lied to and short changed by Sony and Mitsubishi in particular.
Now, here we are a few years later HD tv is now an accepted technology that people are willing to pay for. And though we stagger when we see the prices of the really large display plasmas and LCD's, the technology has been accepted, and we don't look at their existence as being a hard thing to accept.
I believe this transition to the new MPEG4 boxes is an instance of the same type of hardship in the hands of what is good for the consumer in the long run.
One other thing. I recently attended a leadership training seminar on how people deal with Change. I learned that all of us like advancements and progress, but what we don't like is the feeling of loss for what we once had. Until recently, those of us with the MPEG2 HD receivers had the best out there. We paid for this luxury and the loss of having the best is HARD. And if we don't feel like we are being brought along in the process of this change, we become ANGRY!
I believe that Dish Network understands that we have invested a great deal of our hard earned money on MPEG2 technology. And I also believe they value us for doing so. Therefore it would not be in their best interest to short change us in this transition. Good business sense, no, even average business sense would not allow for it.
Enjoy the ride guys.

: MPEG4 is a good thing, even though the transition is hard