Upgrading to HD

[redelephants]

A family member who currently has sd receivers and an older dish recently got a HDTV. They called dish and was told it would cost 200 bucks to upgrade equipment to HD. They are currently out of contract, therefore I don't understand the outrageous fee to upgrade. Any suggestions?

 

[Petey44]

That's strange. I just upgraded today to take advantage of new promotions and didn't pay anything other than the monthly fee. I also was not under contract. Maybe, something needs to be rewired? Extensive cabling?

 

[MikeD-C05]

A family member who currently has sd receivers and an older dish recently got a HDTV. They called dish and was told it would cost 200 bucks to upgrade equipment to HD. They are currently out of contract, therefore I don't understand the outrageous fee to upgrade. Any suggestions?

Sounds like they are trying to upgrade them to a 922. A 722k should be free, unless their credit isn't that good. Then DISH does charge different amounts for different credit risks.

 

[redelephants]

Sounds like they are trying to upgrade them to a 922. A 722k should be free, unless their credit isn't that good. Then DISH does charge different amounts for different credit risks.

Perhaps the 922 is what was costing them. I have actually heard from other folks that dish was trying to push a 922 on them never mentioning a 722k was available. I will have them call back and ask for 722k and see.

 

[greenguy]

That's strange. I just upgraded today to take advantage of new promotions and didn't pay anything other than the monthly fee. I also was not under contract. Maybe, something needs to be rewired? Extensive cabling?

when you say you upgraded today, do you mean you just added on HD to your programming?

 

[RebelWithaCause]

A family member who currently has sd receivers and an older dish recently got a HDTV. They called dish and was told it would cost 200 bucks to upgrade equipment to HD. They are currently out of contract, therefore I don't understand the outrageous fee to upgrade. Any suggestions?

Your family member would be better off choosing a different provider who offers quality HD. Dish Network is HD-Lite. All 1080i channels are altered to a lower resolution and they use less than ideal bitrates. Not to mention that they seem to have trouble keeping what HD channels they do have. Depending on the area, they should go with with either Verizon Fios or DirecTV. They will be much happier.

 

[Brodieb]

Your family member would be better off choosing a different provider who offers quality HD. Dish Network is HD-Lite. All 1080i channels are altered to a lower resolution and they use less than ideal bitrates. Not to mention that they seem to have trouble keeping what HD channels they do have. Depending on the area, they should go with with either Verizon Fios or DirecTV. They will be much happier.

Why are you in the Dish forum if you hate Dish? This is where people talk about Dish network not advertise for other providers.

Back to the OP's question - I would follow the above advice and call back and ask about a 722 receiver. The $200 sounds way to high to be for anything other than a 922.

 

[vash1090]

The most for a 722 (still in contract) is usually about $150. The trick is to complain just a little, maybe transfer to loyalty team, they might be able to knock a good deal off for a 722.

 

[3HaloODST]

Your family member would be better off choosing a different provider who offers quality HD. Dish Network is HD-Lite. All 1080i channels are altered to a lower resolution and they use less than ideal bitrates. Not to mention that they seem to have trouble keeping what HD channels they do have. Depending on the area, they should go with with either Verizon Fios or DirecTV. They will be much happier.

Funny you go bashing DISH HD and go on to recommend DirecTV HD... Anyone who browses these forums knows for a fact that some HD channels look better on DISH than on Direc, and vice-versa... So I guess they're both "HD-Lite."

 

[RebelWithaCause]

Funny you go bashing DISH HD and go on to recommend DirecTV HD... Anyone who browses these forums knows for a fact that some HD channels look better on DISH than on Direc, and vice-versa... So I guess they're both "HD-Lite."

Well that is neither true nor even possible. Dish Network reduces the resolution on every single 1080i channel and all HD channels (720p and 1080i) suffer from reduced bandwidth constraints. Only Dish Network is HD-Lite.

 

[Watercutter]

I added a 722K on Friday and was on my second year of my contract. I already had a 622 and a 722k. I bought a 3rd HD Tv and it only cost me $15 to add another HD box so now I have 3 total HD DUO DVR. My bill will go up $17.00 a month. They told me since I was over a year on my contract I was eligible for an upgrade. I can not upgrade for another year. I had to sign another 2 year contract. I have been very happy with DISH. I have 6 TV hooked. They did have to run another line into the house. I have a 1000.2 dish. I do like my sports but I like my local teams so the sports packages are not that big of a deal to me as long as they keep NFL network that Time Warner does not carry.
\

 

[Brodieb]

Well that is neither true nor even possible. Dish Network reduces the resolution on every single 1080i channel and all HD channels (720p and 1080i) suffer from reduced bandwidth constraints. Only Dish Network is HD-Lite.

I love how you make claims like this without any proof. DirectTV does the same thing and here is actual proof -

DFW - DirecTV HDTV Bitrate Monitor.
DIRECTV gets whats comin' to them
D*HD-Lite vs E* HD screenshot thread *WARNING - LARGE PICTURE FILES TO LOAD*

Best quote from the last link: "At this time forum consensus is that DirecTV has marginally better HD image quality than Dish Network. This topic is closed."

The key word there is marginally better - not way better, not a lot better, marginally better.

 

[harshness]

Not to mention that they seem to have trouble keeping what HD channels they do have.

This is as opposed to DIRECTV that recently announced that they were going to start shedding channels?

 

[harshness]

DirectTV does the same thing and here is actual proof -

DFW - DirecTV HDTV Bitrate Monitor.

Always be careful not to confuse the difference between "does" and "did". Note that the links you reference were from back when DIRECTV offered less than a dozen MPEG2 HD channels. They have lofted three new HD satellites since then.

 

[3HaloODST]

Regardless, DISH has way more non-sports HD channels, and the general consensus is D* is only MARGINALLY better, however there are channels that look better on E* than D*.

 

[RebelWithaCause]

What a load. There are no channels which look better on Dish Network. It isn't even remotely possible since Dish Network uses lower bitrates and downrezzes all 1080i channels. Those are the facts. All of the information provided in previous post is rather old. DirecTV used to be guilty of HD-Lite as well, but they no longer are. Congratulations on being suckers and paying for something that barely qualifies as HD.

 

[3HaloODST]

What a load. There are no channels which look better on Dish Network. It isn't even remotely possible since Dish Network uses lower bitrates and downrezzes all 1080i channels. Those are the facts. All of the information provided in previous post is rather old. DirecTV used to be guilty of HD-Lite as well, but they no longer are. Congratulations on being suckers and paying for something that barely qualifies as HD.

Congratulations on being a clueless nobody that has no idea what they are talking about... Ever thought that maybe it's the 720p channels that look better? I guarantee that those who hang at AVS Forum know 1000% more about anything than you do... Horizontal resolution isn't everything... Hell I bet you and your clueless self didn't even know that there are tons of HD cameras that only do 1440x1080... Bitrate is what matters more...

And for another thing, there are definitely channels that look better on DISH than D*, such as those, I dunno, 30ish channels that DISH has in HD that DirecTV doesn't? Ever thought of that Mr. Genius?

Sure, go ahead and believe that a mediocre difference in HD is night-and-day, whatever helps you sleep at night...

 

[3HaloODST]

Hard to disprove something that hasn't been proved in the first place... You just can't accept that D* and E* hardly have night-and-day differences in HD quality... Even when the evidence is right in your face... Mediocre difference.

HD image quality comparison of Directv & Dish Network - AVS Forum
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=186385
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=186385

Just google around and you'll see. Oh wait. That's right. You're a troll.

As for the DVR thing, none of the ViP-series HD DVR's are affected, so try again. I'd much rather my two 722k's than to gamble with receiving one of D*'s incredibly slow and crappy HR23's or older. Only the HR24 even REMOTELY compares to the ViP's.

Keep on trollin'.