Uncovered- the Model 625 DVR Rip off

[bobj2004]

Did anyone catch the fine print on the slides for todays Retailer chat.
I was at my retailer and they just happened to leave the channel on tonight for the replay.

Not only will the customer have to pay an extra $19.95 to lease the box,

they are also charged an inflated $4.95 instead of $3.95 to watch any On demand shows from the Hard Drive.


Let me see, if I understand this $20 more for the same User recording space as a 522 PLUS $4.95 pay per views from the Hard Drive.

Seems like the price is wrong, after all on the computer market the extra hard drive space is now the same price as the 522 hard drive price from a year ago.

I say lets all boy cot the 625 until they lower the Pay per view price.

Make sure all customers know the truths about the 625 before they order.

 

[larrystotler]

Hmmm, seems this has been posted elsewhere as well............here was my reply:

The $4.95 fee is for PPVs that are already recorded to the drive. You are paying an extra dollar for the convenience of not having to wait for it to start at a certain, but being able to start it right now. Some peope will see no problem with that, while others will think it is BS. To each their own. If I am not mistaken, you can still order a regular PPV for the regular $3.95. Also, E* may start showing PPVs on 1 channel instead of multiple channels with multiple start times, so this is another incentive to pay the extra $$. It would save them some sat space and give the customer quicker access to the programming. Of course, having it delete the PPV after 24hours is a crock unless there is a way to save it to the main storage area. The 625 will also probably be one of the few receivers able to interface with E*'s forthcoming portable media player, so that is another reason to go for it over the 522, which will probably be retired very shortly, so it will be a moot point.

 

[kbohip]

An extra $1.00 for the convenience of having a show start at a different time? Lol, ya whatever. I guess there is a lot of truth to that old saying. "A sucker is born every minute."

Of course who am I to say anything. Some people have a lot more money than others and could care less about the extra $1.00. I just think it's a total waste though.

 

[Mark_AR]

FWIW: You will spend MORE than $4.95 plus that dollar in gas to go to a movie, wait in line, buy popcorn, sit in a crowded theater behind some person that thinks the beehive hairdoo is still in style or near some guy that works for the sanitation department and hasn't had his weekly shower, and then drive home all tired and depressed that you have to get up at 6AM to go to work.

I don't know about your town, but movie admissions are 7.95 each, drinks are 2+ and popcorn is a $2 minimum. Gas is $1.99 a gallon and I live 20 miles from town.

Even if I go to the video rental store it still runs $3.25 for a movie plus the gas and I have to make 2(2way) trips to town, one to pick it up and one to take it back.

What limitations are on the VOD PPV? Is it s single viewing or a 24 hour period(all day movie ticket).

If you invite a few friends over and they bring the soda/chips, you made out ahead.

Am I wrong?

 

[korsjs]

my cable company does not charge me extra to watch ondemand movies.

 

[Cascade]

my cable company does not charge me extra to watch ondemand movies.

Well said
Same here.

If you invite a few friends over and they bring the soda/chips, you made out ahead.

I wouldn't let the MPAA read that, they'd be all over you in a second.

I can see their new strategy, PPE (Pay-Per-Eye) where you're charged a fee for each eye that watches the movie/event.
We'll all have tracking chips implanted into each cornea and a sensor that sits atop the TV screen that monitors each eyeball and charges on a pro-rata basis depending on how much you blink and look down to see where you spilled your milkduds.

The tracking chips will be funded at first by the MPAA and in time will be worked into the viewers monthly statement which will also be subject to a PPE fee unless you sign up for credit card autopay.
If your bill isn't paid on time the satellite company have a clause written into their contract (Which is also PPE) Stating that at any time they are entitled to suspend service to one or both eyes until any outstanding balances are paid.
There will be a $49.99 eye reconnection fee (Per eye).

 

[nuts4scuba]

my cable company does not charge me extra to watch ondemand movies.

I was thinking this too. If they are going down to 1 channel for ppv movies to save sat space, maybe they should give a discount to users of the 625.

 

[waltinvt]

Ok - I'm scratching my head. Must be missing something. You pay $1 extra to have Dish put the PPV on your HD so you don't have to put it on yourself ? Plus they're nice enough to erase it for you too ? I'm still on my first cup of coffee this am, so the logic will probably hit me it a bit.

 

[waltinvt]

FWIW: You will spend MORE than $4.95 plus that dollar in gas to go to a movie, wait in line, buy popcorn, sit in a crowded theater behind some person that thinks the beehive hairdoo is still in style or near some guy that works for the sanitation department and hasn't had his weekly shower, and then drive home all tired and depressed that you have to get up at 6AM to go to work.

I don't know about your town, but movie admissions are 7.95 each, drinks are 2+ and popcorn is a $2 minimum. Gas is $1.99 a gallon and I live 20 miles from town.

Even if I go to the video rental store it still runs $3.25 for a movie plus the gas and I have to make 2(2way) trips to town, one to pick it up and one to take it back.

What limitations are on the VOD PPV? Is it s single viewing or a 24 hour period(all day movie ticket).

If you invite a few friends over and they bring the soda/chips, you made out ahead.

Am I wrong?

Doesn't sound like apples to apples here. Wouldn't it be more like paying Dish extra $ for them to record PPV to your HD rather than do it yourself ? Either way, you can start it whenever the f*** you want. Plus when you manage your own HD, you can erase it whenever the f*** you want instead of them taking it off. Like I said in the other post - I've got to be missing something here.

 

[bbtkd]

...
I wouldn't let the MPAA read that, they'd be all over you in a second.
....

They have nothing to say whether I invite friends over for a movie unless I charge them. Chips and beer couldn't really be called payment...

 

[ScottChez]

"Alert Alert Alert"

I think that if enough people pay the $4.95 Pay Per View fee Dish will CUT the number of Pay Per View $3.95 regular channels. This will free up more band width for even Shopping channels, thus they will make even more Money.

Please, NO ONE order any $4.95 movie. It will effect us all.

My cable only charges $3.95 for instant on demand movies.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

And if you order a PPV from a regular Dish network PPV Channel and record it on your DVR it stays there until you delete it (or until you are hit with another Dish Network software bug)

On the VOD PPV Movies they are only stored on your drive for 3 days after you order it after that they are automatically deleted.

 

[gredneck]

Not only will the customer have to pay an extra $19.95 to lease the box,

they are also charged an inflated $4.95 instead of $3.95 to watch any On demand shows from the Hard Drive.

no one has addressed the 19.95 lease fee, everybody has gone on the extra dollar for there movies.

has anyone confirmed the 19.95 lease fee?

 

[maximum]

Let's see. Dish wants us to pay an extra $19.95/month for a DVR that will *eventually* download movies so we can watch them without waiting for the start time. Plus they want us to pay an extra $1 when we watch it.

Based on experience with the 522, these VOD/PPV movies will be laced with audio dropouts and video artifacts. Then they will be automatically deleted after we watch them.

I wonder how many suckers they will get to buy into this scam?

 

[glenn z]

Ever heard of Netflix?

FWIW: You will spend MORE than $4.95 plus that dollar in gas to go to a movie, wait in line, buy popcorn, sit in a crowded theater behind some person that thinks the beehive hairdoo is still in style or near some guy that works for the sanitation department and hasn't had his weekly shower, and then drive home all tired and depressed that you have to get up at 6AM to go to work.

I don't know about your town, but movie admissions are 7.95 each, drinks are 2+ and popcorn is a $2 minimum. Gas is $1.99 a gallon and I live 20 miles from town.

Even if I go to the video rental store it still runs $3.25 for a movie plus the gas and I have to make 2(2way) trips to town, one to pick it up and one to take it back.

What limitations are on the VOD PPV? Is it s single viewing or a 24 hour period(all day movie ticket).

If you invite a few friends over and they bring the soda/chips, you made out ahead.

Am I wrong?

 

[onsiteSat]

I dont believe it is a extra 19.99 monthy fee for the 625 reciever, it is a Lease upgrade fee. The one biggest advantage I can see is under the DHA Promotion you can now lease a 625/522 combo get dvr on 4 tvs for only:

$??.?? AT whatever
+
$4.98 1st dvr
$5.00 2nd box lease fee
$4.98 2nd dvr
$14.96 Extra monthy charges

Upfront:
$49.99 Activation
$19.99 Lease upgrade
$69.98 Upfront total

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

 

[ScottChez]

With Direct TV they Have Starz on Demand on the Direct TV.

It was FREE if you had Starz. Starz would download the top 2 Movies each week to the hard drive. They were the first to be auto deleted by Tivo if space was needed.

If Dish could do some kind of FREE if you have Starz option, then maybe the 625 would be worth it.

I know there just doing movies for now, anyone hear of other options for the future?

If not, I would have to agree, the 625 is a bad thing.

I just checked, the extra Hard Drive space found in the 625 realy is the same price now as the hard drive in the 522 (hard drive) from a year ago. This is true. WOW Hard Drive prices have dropped in the last year a lot!

 

[kbohip]

FWIW: You will spend MORE than $4.95 plus that dollar in gas to go to a movie, wait in line, buy popcorn, sit in a crowded theater behind some person that thinks the beehive hairdoo is still in style or near some guy that works for the sanitation department and hasn't had his weekly shower, and then drive home all tired and depressed that you have to get up at 6AM to go to work.

I don't know about your town, but movie admissions are 7.95 each, drinks are 2+ and popcorn is a $2 minimum. Gas is $1.99 a gallon and I live 20 miles from town.

Even if I go to the video rental store it still runs $3.25 for a movie plus the gas and I have to make 2(2way) trips to town, one to pick it up and one to take it back.

What limitations are on the VOD PPV? Is it s single viewing or a 24 hour period(all day movie ticket).

If you invite a few friends over and they bring the soda/chips, you made out ahead.

Am I wrong?

I hardly ever pay the premium to go to a movie when it first comes out. I belong to Blockbuster.com so I can rent as many DVD's as I want in a month for $15.That's a much better deal than paying $4.95 each for less than DVD quality movies. If the 625 is anything like the 522 that means audio dropouts and pixelization.

This is why I'm starting to really hate Dish. It used to be Charlie was very interested in giving his customers the most service for the least amount of money. I mean when I originally got Dish back in '98 they were a lot cheaper than the comaprable Directv package. Now they are the exact same price. I'll bet Directv customers didn't lose all those channels last year while their CEO negotiated with the networks either.

How about instead of coming out with completely useless DVR's like the 625 you just fix the problems with all the other Dish DVR's Charlie?

 

[NightRyder]

IMHO. Another useless receiver devoid of any compelling new features. I'll keep my stable, fee-less 50x receivers and Dish can stick this one and the 942 where they belong.

NightRyder

 

[Zookster]

The only reason I can see for the 625 to even exist, and be worth the extra fees over their other DVRs, is if it provided exclusive content unavailable on PPV. But then Dish limits its customer base for buying their PPV movies and special event programing if they are exclusive to a new piece of equipment that most of their 11 million customers do not have.