What should I do?

[sk8man]

Hello all. I have been reading and reading(like everyone else I suppose) and would like a direction to head. I have been a customer of Dish for a little over 5 years and recently purchased a HDTV. So now of course I want everything I can get in HD. Because of the information I have received here, I watched the Charlie Chat Monday night. It sounds like I can get a 622 with another dish for $299. But when can I get this? I have the Dish 500 right now so if I read things correctly I can get everything except the Voom pack because it is on a different satellilte. The Olympics are on the way and I would really like to see those in HD. I am hearing on here that most equipment won't be available for quite some time, but I would like to get the HD asap. Any suggestions as to what I should do? Thanks and this is a great forum.

 

[griz_fan]

From what I understand, though announced, none of the new stuff will be available until Feb 1st. If you have an account on the Dish website, you can log in to see the equipment upgrade options. I'm still seeing the 942 offer. Like you, I've been on the sidelines and hope to upgrade to a 622 in time for the Olympics in order to catch some of the action on Universal HD. If that doesn't work out, I'll still have NBC HD via antenna, but it would be nice to have more options.
Unfortunately, Dish has a long history of doing a piss-poor job of informing their CSR's, so I'd be surprised if a phone call would yield much, but it may be worth a shot. I've been in the marketing dept. for a large hi-tech firm for about 8 years (basically, the web master), and I'm often shocked at how poor a job Dish does at informing their employees and customers of important changes, such as what transpired at CES. Here we are, existing customers ready and willing to give them more money, and we don't know what to do, and their phone reps probably don't know how to take our money, either. If I was a shareholder, I'd be pretty upset.

 

[sk8man]

Well, I know what you mean about the csrs. I knew the Charlie Chat was coming up on Monday, but I thought I would call Monday and talk to someone about what to do. The csr told me I could get the 811. Now, I knew a little about the various receivers because of what I had read on this forum, so when the csr got done telling me all the great things I could do, I asked if the 811 was Mpeg4. He assured me, 4 times mind you, that yes the 811 would receive all the new programming. That was pretty much the end of the conversation. I told him I would get back to him. It is sad that as a customer, I can not trust what the company representative tells me. Thanks to this forum, I knew better. Oh and yes, when I log onto the Dish website and look at equipment upgrade options, it still shows the 942.

 

[badger47]

I have been reading here for some time and have about the same questions. I have an "old" Dish 500 with two 301's. I want to upgrade one TV to a new HD - I am in a good OTA reception area so HD OTA channels will not be a problem - but do I have to do something to my current Dish to keep a good quality picture? I hope to get a new receiver with both HD and SD tuners built in - will I be at least as well off for picture quality as I am now? It appears to me as it will be some time before it is worth investing in Dish HD's offerings.

 

[mdonnelly]

I have been reading here for some time and have about the same questions. I have an "old" Dish 500 with two 301's. I want to upgrade one TV to a new HD - I am in a good OTA reception area so HD OTA channels will not be a problem - but do I have to do something to my current Dish to keep a good quality picture? I hope to get a new receiver with both HD and SD tuners built in - will I be at least as well off for picture quality as I am now? It appears to me as it will be some time before it is worth investing in Dish HD's offerings.

If you like your OTA, and don't like the Dish HD, you don't have to do anything (for now) to keep your Dish SD channels. Your OTA PQ will be better than any DBS or cable LIL.

Eventually, Dish is going to convert even the SD to MPEG-4, and then you'll need new receivers.