Why is dish so chinchy with receivers?

[randym431]

Why is it for those with two HD tv's, dish only wants to give you one 622, giving HD to one tv, but SD to the other? And, you're wanting to record/watch HD on both tv's.

Getting a HD receiver (non dvr) for the second HDtv is no solution because you maybe can then watch live HD on the second tv, but watching 'HD recordings" will still come from the 622 via the SD output. Dish just refuses to give out two 622's to one household.

And too, you're limited to two tuners going with one 622 and two HDtv's. I just cant figure why dish thinks no one has two HDtv's and might want to also watch HD recordings on the two.

I know some are going to claim you can get two 622's, but I have not been able to get dish cs to agree to that. Sure, they will give a plain old HD receiver for that other Hdtv, but no 622. Even dishbuilder, on their website does not offer the option to watch two HD recordings on two HD tv's.

 

[DishSubLA]

Charlie's argument: Dish might phrase it differently: why are you so chincy to not pay for a second HD DVR of your own after we just provided you with one with at least a very big discount from the full retail price?

Now, I understand your point. But you have to consider Dish's view. The reason they are still in business and outlasted all their deep-pocket competition (except for Direct TV) is precisely because they don't give away too many freebies, especially expensive HD DVR's. Limiting it to one per account makes good business sense. Would I love every company to give double the amount of deals and freebies? Yeah, for sure! Will they? Not if they want to stay in business and keep profits where they like them.

Dish has a very fair deal for current subs with more than one HD box or HD DVR's where Dish does allows for two HD DVR's for those customers. But that deal is for people who have made their investment in Dish Network by buying some of the HD boxes on their own and giving their hard-earned money to Charlie every month. So, in return, Ergan came up with a pretty generous (compared to other companies) two HD DVR upgrade for loyal customers who already invested in two Dish HD boxes.
Ask Direct TV if they will give you two HD DVR's. Let us know what they say. Perhaps some cable companies may provide two HD DVR's, while still providing many lousy analong channels for your enjoyment. And cable's monthly DVR fee is often more than twice Dish's.

Why is Dish so "chincy" or careful not to hand-out $500 receivers as if they were cheap candy? Because they would go out of business, or at least have to sell a money losing company with their acquisition costs out of control. Dish is under pressure to lower them, not increase them by handing out $1000 worth of HD DVR's to one account.

So, Dish welcomes you to purchase their 622 HD DVR at one of the many local reatilers or on-line at Dish Depot or The DishStore.net. Install the new unit. Then call Dish Network to activate your brand-new 2nd Dish 622 HD DVR. Problem solved. That's what everyone else does. Let us know where you find the best deal on a 622, so, when the time comes, we shop there too.

 

[randym431]

Price is not the issue. Cs just gave me the impression you could not have/buy/get/use two 622's. I dont expect a freebe. But limiting satellite Hd thinking that people only have ONE HDtv is pretty old fashion. Even Walmart sells HDtv's now.

Thanks for the idea that I can get one on my own somewhere, and have what I want. But why go to a third party??? Dish should add the option in their dishbuilder, that you can chose a second 622, even if it adds another $199 to the upfront (or $299, or $??).

And the theme of the post makes my point. Dish it treating those with two HDtv's like mom with candy. You can only have one or it will spoil your dinner.

This is HD tech were talking about here, and dish has the best HD programming, so whats with this narrow thinking? Surely dish can make a package, and charge whatever they need, for a two HDtv household.

 

[garys]

I have not heard that Dish is not allowing two 622s. The way I heard it was limit of one lease and not selling directly to customers, but local retailers and DishStore has been selling as many 622's as anyone would want. Although, having tv2 with HD outputs does sound pretty good.

 

[VinceT3]

I ran into the same problem. This is what I did. I ordered the 622, 211, and one more I can't remember now and didn't opt for the 18 month contract. I waited about a month, called dish back asked to trade two boxes for a 622. They sent a guy out the next week he removed the other two added that one. Now I'm on an18 month contract but I have both 622 boxes.

 

[sparc]

Give it a couple years and they'll be giving these away no differently than the standard definition receivers.

Once the cost comes down, more freebies for everyone.

 

[minnow]

Give it a couple years and they'll be giving these away no differently than the standard definition receivers.

Once the cost comes down, more freebies for everyone.

In a couple of years E* will have a new box out and the 622 will be for sale for $15 on Ebay.

 

[dslate69]

Hopefully soon the non-DVR HD boxes will be able to access recordings from a 622.
That and external storage will be enough for me.

 

[garys]

Non dvr units do not have a hard drive. How will that give you extra storage?

 

[mike123abc]

I drive 2 HDTVs off of one 622 right now. I have 2 622s, but I hate to have the issue of having to worry about where I recorded it. So, I have the HDMI used on the "local HD" TV and run the component out to the "remote HD" TV. This solution works pretty good. I am probably going to add a third HDTV. I will probably just feed it components off my existing 622s instead of getting another 622.

Another advantage of this system is that I can record 2 OTA HD at once... I have a feeling it will be a long time for my market (in the 140s) to get Dish HD locals. Besides OTA HD has great PQ.

 

[JohnL]

Why is it for those with two HD tv's, dish only wants to give you one 622, giving HD to one tv, but SD to the other? And, you're wanting to record/watch HD on both tv's.

Randy,

The opposite is also true, why are you SO CHINCHY and NOT willing to purchase those TWO or even ONE HD DVR receiver.

Dish has invested huge dollars in engineering and production well more than the selling price of $450 for the VIP 622, even $450 is ONE HECK OF A GREAT DEAL . All this for a HD DVR that is capable of recording THREE HD streams and playing back TWO HD Streams to TWO different TVs (although the TV2 output is downconverted to SD).

DirecTV's MPEG4 HD DVR sell for about DOUBLE of Dish's asking Sellling price.

Dish Network will activate two 622's on your account, its just Dish is NOT willing to front you another $800 (about the actual cost of a 622). The first MPEG4 HD DVR you got for (I assume the Lease Upgrade) of $199 or less. Dish just hopes you stay a customer long enough to make back the SAC (Subscriber Acquistion Cost) for you as an HD subscriber. If Dish was to allow TWO HD DVR MPEG4 receivers it would take twice as long or as long as 4 years to make back that initial investment let alone ANY PROFIT.

Question how long would you wait to before you even covered the acquisition costs let alone make a profit if it was your company?

John

 

[navychop]

Many people have posted that they have 2 or more ViP622s.

DISH currently will lease only one ViP622 per account. If you want another, buy it. Or buy both to start with. A CSR telling you that you cannot have 2 under any circumstances is flat wrong. Call again. The limit on leasing is also tied to limited stock of ViP622s. This has eased and will no doubt ease further. Probably (my guess) the single lease per account rule will die at about the one year anniversary of the ViP622's release.

Or try what VinceT3 tried.

- - - - - -

I doubt it'll be two years before the HD capable receivers will replace the SD only receivers. I expect sometime in 2007 Dish will move to issuing only MPEG-4/8PSK/HD capable STBs for new placements. I'll bet new production of non-MPEG-4 boxes stopped some months ago, and current stock will only be used in warranty replacements- and even that will dry up. The sooner they reduce the number of non-MPEG-4 boxes in the field, the less it will cost them when they start running promotions to get people to upgrade to MPEG-4. And the less it will cost them when they finally turn to "involuntary" upgrades so they can shift all programming to 8PSK & MPEG-4. I look to all HD going to MPEG-4 during 2007.

- - - - -

garys- I think he was referring to the external storage via USB.

Also, if you can use your ViP211 to watch a program recorded on your ViP622, this would be great. It would be cost saving, simple for the user (no "which DVR did I record that on?") and appeal to all except heavy recorders. And it would even appeal to them, if they bought huge USB drives and plugged them in.

 

[VinceT3]

We seperate our DVR's (his/hers) sometimes we duplicate recordings, but for the most part they are split up. Only down side is I have to watch it in SD if it was recorded on the main tv and i wanna watch it in the bedroom and the reverse is true as well.

I'm not ambitious enough to run component cables back and forth.

 

[Stargazer]

I will WAIT until they get dual HD tuners with dual HD tv outputs before I purchase one and it has to be DVR to boot since thats all I use most of the time. They will do this someday and I do not want substandard equipment. Everything is going HD.

 

[dslate69]

Non dvr units do not have a hard drive. How will that give you extra storage?

Yes you are correct. Here is my post again...

"Hopefully soon the non-DVR HD boxes will be able to access recordings from a 622.
That and external storage will be enough for me."

Hopefully receivers with network connections will be able to share and access recordings from other receivers with network connections. A non-DVR should be able to playback recordings from a DVR via ethernet.
External storage is comming to the 622, this has nothing to do with non-DVR HD boxes just an added fact that we will have plenty of storage for the 622 soon.

 

[VinceT3]

Hopefully receivers with network connections will be able to share and access recordings from other receivers with network connections. A non-DVR should be able to playback recordings from a DVR via ethernet.
External storage is comming to the 622, this has nothing to do with non-DVR HD boxes just an added fact that we will have plenty of storage for the 622 soon.

Actually if I remember correctly they mentioned the non-dvr's would be able to access the recordings from the DVR via the external HD.

 

[dslate69]

Actually if I remember correctly they mentioned the non-dvr's would be able to access the recordings from the DVR via the external HD.

I figured that if a non-DVR can access recordings from a DVR that it would be able to access ALL recordings. I don't think I said any different in my post.

 

[garys]

Actually if I remember correctly they mentioned the non-dvr's would be able to access the recordings from the DVR via the external HD.

I never heard about this, might have just ignored since I only have dvr receivers.

 

[caam1]

I have two 622s, and both of them are leased. I have been a Dish customer for about seven years, but I am not sure if that makes a difference. I just called and asked the CSR if I could lease a second 622, and he said yes.

 

[GaryPen]

Did you have to pay the $199 lease upgrade fee for the 2nd one?