This Letter from EchoStar on MPeg4 Compliancy!

[edp]

Just received this email from Echostar on if the Dish 942 was MPeg-4 Complaint and if not, when a DishNetwork DVR would be available with MPeg-4:

"Thank you for your e-mail. The migration of any services to MPEG4 will
be made far enough in the future that it will allow us to create a
transition plan for customers to receive any new services offered on
MPEG-4. At this point, no announcements have been made about this plan.
However, it should be of comfort to DISH Network customers that the
company has historically accommodated its customers during any similar
transitions, dating back as the transition from QPSK to 8PSK on our
model 6000s. At that time, we implemented a plan that allowed an
affordable upgrade path for existing customers with no disruption of
services."

Lets hope the email notice above gives us some comfort that DishNetwork will offer fair upgrade pricing from the Dish 942 when they come out with MPeg-4 DVR's!

 

[bcshields]

You'll get some flak if it ain't free... the transition will be painful on their ears and wallet I'll be sure...

 

[CJPC]

Yeah, but id rather pay a fee (ie short money, around ~50) than lock into an additional 'contract', just limits the future, and its not like you can say ' you dropped xyz channel dish, i want out'

So I'd rather either pay a bit, or hope verizon comes around within a year or so (here is to hoping, hah!)

 

[jmd102354]

Just received this email from Echostar on if the Dish 942 was MPeg-4 Complaint and if not, when a DishNetwork DVR would be available with MPeg-4:

"Thank you for your e-mail. The migration of any services to MPEG4 will
be made far enough in the future that it will allow us to create a
transition plan for customers to receive any new services offered on
MPEG-4. At this point, no announcements have been made about this plan.
However, it should be of comfort to DISH Network customers that the
company has historically accommodated its customers during any similar
transitions, dating back as the transition from QPSK to 8PSK on our
model 6000s. At that time, we implemented a plan that allowed an
affordable upgrade path for existing customers with no disruption of
services."

Lets hope the email notice above gives us some comfort that DishNetwork will offer fair upgrade pricing from the Dish 942 when they come out with MPeg-4 DVR's!

I received the same e-mail months ago.

 

[riffjim4069]

I received a similar Blah, Blah, Blah, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda response from EchoStar Executive Services as well. I would pull the trigger on a 942 if E* would tell us what they're doing with MPEG-4, and tell me when my existing leased and newly purchased 942 would be upgraded to the 962. FiOS may be a reality in my area next summer and I am certainly going to dump Adelphia and subscribe to FiOS broadband Internet. If E* continues to drag their feet, switching to FiOS TV will be a no-brainer.

 

[Purogamer]

You'll be paying, and contract locked, when you upgrade to mpeg 4...wait and see...

 

[bcshields]

They look at you guys as high end customers.. if you're willing to pay $250 for an upgrade fee to lease a piece of equipment, you all can pay an upgrade fee (I'm thinking $99 w/contract, $199 without) for MPEG4 upgrades.

 

[riffjim4069]

The pay through-the-teeth and commit out-the-ass mentality won't fly much longer IMO:

1. D* is rolling out National HD and HD LIL in my area (DC DMA)

2. Verizon FiOS TV in coming to my area offering plenty of HD and will let me rent three HD DVRs with competitive pricing to E*, D* and Cable with addition discounts for landline, broadband and perhaps even wireless phone service.

3. Adelphia (soon to be Comcast) let me rent three low-cost HD DVRs in the two weeks I had them post VOOM DBS. Although their service sucked at the time, they recently rebuilt the cable headend and will soon be digitally simulcasting...thus, creating room for lots more HD. The SA8300HD DVR was a horrible piece or garbage, but future models and software should hopefully be coming out this spring. Plus, I can simply plug in an external SATA drive (less than $120 for 250MB drive and enclosure) and effectively double my storage. Plus, they have additional dump-the-dish programs with significant programming discounts for up to 12 months.

I will simply have too many choices in coming months and refuse to be held hostage - I suspect that I will not be alone. I am very satisfied with my E* service and would purchase another 942 if E* would guarantee a free upgrade to the 962/MPEG-4 HD DVR or inexpensive ($49) upgrade with no commitment.

 

[BobMurdoch]

My guess on the upgrade path.....

1. Year One - They release the receivers and add a few channels that can ONLY be seen with the new boxes. Early Adopters pay full price.

2. Year Two - In exchange for a two year commit, they sell you one for $250.

3. Year Three - They start phasing out the old boxes and sell the swap for $99 or free if they want the transition to happen faster.

 

[Stargazer]

Customers will just switch service providers (to DirecTv for example) and get their offerings before paying Dish Network for an upgrade.

 

[M Sparks]

Bob, I totally agree with you, but I think "phases" instead of "years". I think the first phase will be reletively short. They'll dangle a few juicy carrots in MPEG-4 and see who bites. When full price sales die off (pretty quick, because the people willing to pay aren't going to wait around), they'll go to a discounted swap.

I also still feel that the 942 was designed with factory upgrading in mind. People trade in their 942s, which get turned into 962s, and traded for 942s, and so on. Someone pointed out that the only identifying markings on the 942 are on the removable doors. (One says 942, one says MPEG-2.)

I still think this is why they've made it difficult to get a 942, to minimize the swap-out program.

 

[Sarang]

The pay through-the-teeth and commit out-the-ass mentality won't fly much longer IMO:

1. D* is rolling out National HD and HD LIL in my area (DC DMA)

2. Verizon FiOS TV in coming to my area offering plenty of HD and will let me rent three HD DVRs with competitive pricing to E*, D* and Cable with addition discounts for landline, broadband and perhaps even wireless phone service.

3. Adelphia (soon to be Comcast) let me rent three low-cost HD DVRs in the two weeks I had them post VOOM DBS. Although their service sucked at the time, they recently rebuilt the cable headend and will soon be digitally simulcasting...thus, creating room for lots more HD. The SA8300HD DVR was a horrible piece or garbage, but future models and software should hopefully be coming out this spring. Plus, I can simply plug in an external SATA drive (less than $120 for 250MB drive and enclosure) and effectively double my storage. Plus, they have additional dump-the-dish programs with significant programming discounts for up to 12 months.

I will simply have too many choices in coming months and refuse to be held hostage - I suspect that I will not be alone. I am very satisfied with my E* service and would purchase another 942 if E* would guarantee a free upgrade to the 962/MPEG-4 HD DVR or inexpensive ($49) upgrade with no commitment.

Why do you wanna bother renting and get screwed? Cable and these other companies need to cut the crap on the rental nonsense. I should have the option to buy my equipment instead of playing this "Rentway" poor person bs.

 

[riffjim4069]

Why do you wanna bother renting and get screwed? Cable and these other companies need to cut the crap on the rental nonsense. I should have the option to buy my equipment instead of playing this "Rentway" poor person bs.

How would I get "screwed" by renting low-cost rental equipment, which I do not own? Especially in light of my not having to maintain a minimum programming obligation; just turn in the equipment and leave if I don't like the services offered. Granted, existing Cable boxes need work, but they have been improving and now you have experienced players involved like UCentric, Tivo and Microsoft (to name just three) in addition to Scientific-Atlanta, Motorola and others getting into the market.

Cable should cut the crap on the rental nonsense? Ok, I have absolutely no idea what point you are trying to make. Are you saying that Cable and Satellite should continue charging outlandishly high prices, even as the technology improves and economy of scale makes these devices more affordable each and every day? For example, it used to cost $300-$400 for a basic ATSC tuner, but soon they will be under $60.

As far as renting these digital cable boxes....I'm not sure why we can't buy them, but I would suspect it has something to do with the expense, the high turnover of this developing technology, and the fact it is easier to the SAs and Motorola's to focus on the dealing with the Cable Company and not a few million unhappy customers. Hopefully things will change as the technology improves in stability and reliability...but who knows.

Given the current environment, I don't why anyone would want to own their equipment if given an option to rent a low-cost STB. Just my opinion...

 

[Tekken]

What are you guys talking about? Obviously the Echostar rep is thinking of MPEG4 as a new chipset and doesn't know what they are talking about because MPEG4 is only a compressed file format or Algorithm. What do you think will be so expensive about updating software when everyone can do it at the same time?

 

[Sarang]

How would I get "screwed" by renting low-cost rental equipment, which I do not own? Especially in light of my not having to maintain a minimum programming obligation; just turn in the equipment and leave if I don't like the services offered. Granted, existing Cable boxes need work, but they have been improving and now you have experienced players involved like UCentric, Tivo and Microsoft (to name just three) in addition to Scientific-Atlanta, Motorola and others getting into the market.

Cable should cut the crap on the rental nonsense? Ok, I have absolutely no idea what point you are trying to make. Are you saying that Cable and Satellite should continue charging outlandishly high prices, even as the technology improves and economy of scale makes these devices more affordable each and every day? For example, it used to cost $300-$400 for a basic ATSC tuner, but soon they will be under $60.

As far as renting these digital cable boxes....I'm not sure why we can't buy them, but I would suspect it has something to do with the expense, the high turnover of this developing technology, and the fact it is easier to the SAs and Motorola's to focus on the dealing with the Cable Company and not a few million unhappy customers. Hopefully things will change as the technology improves in stability and reliability...but who knows.

Given the current environment, I don't why anyone would want to own their equipment if given an option to rent a low-cost STB. Just my opinion...

Because I don't want to end up having paid for a DVR/cable box in rental fees after I've had it for a couple of years. No I agree that Dish products are overpriced and E* needs to cut the crap and start selling their equipment in urban areas to really compete with D*. Also after the local HD bit comes to fruition I think E* needs to make locals cheaper for people who own their own equipment because D* beats E* with locals pricewise. Right now some people may not care because they have HD OTA but in the future the majority of people may want HD LiL's because I've heard people talking about the signal cutting out for HD OTA's so Dish may want to include it into the price to make it more affordable. I know I'm gonna get shredded for saying that.

 

[Smith P.]

What are you guys talking about? Obviously the Echostar rep is thinking of MPEG4 as a new chipset and doesn't know what they are talking about because MPEG4 is only a compressed file format or Algorithm. What do you think will be so expensive about updating software when everyone can do it at the same time?

Seems to me you're from same crowd . If you so confident, then why not start from count Video RAM size of current receivers ? Or you so confident in that Algorithm what could escape from physical boundaries ?
Sounds like a coder here, hehe.

 

[chaddux]

If you so confident, then why not start from count Video RAM size of current receivers ?

Huh?

Or you so confident in that Algorithm what could escape from physical boundaries ?

Huh?

 

[Smith P.]

Huh !

 

[chaddux]

Huh !

Well, that was helpful. Are you not even going to try to explain your previous post that didn't make any sense at all?

 

[rthomp03]

I don't think he can believe he said what he said!!