Dish Network Deal

[mace]

Has anyone bit on the deal with Dish Network yet? I have been mulling around getting rid of TW all together (phone, and cable, employer pays for rr). After weighing my options, I like the fact that E* has quite a bit to offer as far as HD content.

Any other thoughts?

I have two HD TV's, one DLP, one Plasma. I also have 1 standard TV.
Here is what they are offering:

1 HD rec
1 HD DVR (can connect my tube to this as well)
HD Gold package

$249 up front, $49 activation, and $200 for the HD DVR(I fought tooth and nail with the guy that called me to get this fee waived since TW didn't make you pay for HD DVR)
$82/month (10 months with $20 off bill) So $62 for almost a year.

I don't want to be locked into a contract so I will eat the $50 activation fee.

I know they don't have local HD yet, but that's probably another topic on Antenna's.

[mace]

Update.

I went ahead with it. I have now had Dish Network for almost two weeks, and I can say that I am 95% pleased. 28 Channels of HD (some are :rolleyes: ) but the best thing about it that I have noticed is most of the analog channels that TW had (2-70 something) are twice as clear in my opinion.

It's very noticeable on my Plasma, but it shines on the DLP. I'm no fanboy of satellite, in fact it has taken me about a year to finally make the switch. But I am now enjoying all digital channels. For example, my wife always DVR's CSI on Spike, and just for kicks, I hooked up the 8300 and my VIP622 (Dish's HD DVR) and compared them side by side, and boy what a difference.

Cons....
This was my worst fear, but I got this hooked up the Sunday prior to the 4th. It rained pretty heavily and I did lose the picture. But.. and here's the big but, it seems the other HD receiver that I have does not seem as touchy about losing the signal, it seems to come right back. Similar to how OTA will come in and out at times. $250 up front is also a con, but over the course of 10 months, you pretty much make that back from the discounted programming deal they have now.

Pro's...
The Dish HD DVR other than the signal loss problem ( a reset seems to fix it) there is a benefit where you can connect two TV's to the HD DVR receiver. I have a SD TV in the bedroom hooked up to it, so basically I can watch recorded shows on two televisions, which is nice because I can have the wife watch her CSI in the bedroom, and I can watch HD :)
Also, the HD DVR seems to do better than my built in ATSC tuner in my panny plasma. I can get all OTA stations at 80% or better plugging it into the 622.
And... I can record fox, and ABC in HD now!!!


I guess that's my little rundown of what I think of Dish.. This is no fanboy drivel that says everyone must run out and buy it.. I just happened to call TW today and cancel. I must say that I am happier thus far. And I save about 7 bucks a month to boot!

Here are the channels I get in HD

Animania HD
Family Room HD
GamePlay HD
Discovery HD Theater
Equator HD
National Geographic Channel HD
DISH Network PPV in HD
Film Fest HD
HDNet Movies
Kung Fu HD
Monsters HD
World Cinema HD
HDNews
Rave HD
ESPN HD
ESPN2 HD
NFL Network HD
Rush HD
WorldSport HD
Gallery HD
HDNet
HGTV HD
TNT HD
Treasure HD
Ultra HD
Universal HD

[zelig2]

Thanks for the review. I'm getting quite close to switching over from TWC to Dish. I also haven't been a fan of satellite but their lineup is getting more appealing. Do you use Road Runner still? I'm thinking about switching over to DSL at the same time.

[mace]

Yeah, my employer pays for my business class rr so I am keeping that. Im also trying to get them to port my number over to Vonage to save another 20 bucks a month for phone service. But thats a whole 'nother story.

So I pretty much had everything through TW. But not for long.

[Timcredible]

Update.


Here are the channels I get in HD

Animania HD
Family Room HD
GamePlay HD
Discovery HD Theater
Equator HD
National Geographic Channel HD
DISH Network PPV in HD
Film Fest HD
HDNet Movies
Kung Fu HD
Monsters HD
World Cinema HD
HDNews
Rave HD
ESPN HD
ESPN2 HD
NFL Network HD
Rush HD
WorldSport HD
Gallery HD
HDNet
HGTV HD
TNT HD
Treasure HD
Ultra HD
Universal HD

do you need 2 dishes to get all those channels?

[mace]

No Sir, just a 3 LNB dish. Gets data from 3 sats up there, 110, 119 and 129 I believe.

[Timcredible]

Thanks! Last time I called Dish they told me I had to get a second dish on the roof. I'm on the phone with Dish now and they are clueless. Their system won't let me get the gold package and nobody can figure out what extra/different equipment I need. Now I'm on hold while they try to find someone that knows something. I often wonder how companies stay in business with the massive lack of knowledge by the employees. .... still on hold.... ok, the first tech person didn't know and just threw my call back into the queue without telling me. great. the second tech person (after a 10 minute wait again) knew exactly what was going on - I need to upgrade my receivers. ok, so how much is that? $98 for a swap of 2 non-dvr hd receivers for 2 new non-dvr receiver. ok, how much if i want one of them to be a hd dvr? $500. why? something about it's a promotion and there's only so many options. if i only had 1 non-dvr hd receiver, it would only cost me $199 to upgrade a new hd dvr, but if i do that i'm not eligible for the promotion on the hd non-dvr, and it would cost $300 instead of $49. well, that makes the choice easy.

[mace]

Wow...

I had no issues with that. I called them knowing exactly what I wanted and my order call lasted all of 15 minutes.

HD Gold
No Locals
1 x VIP211 Rec
1 x VIP622 Rec

2 HD tv's, 1 standard (hooked up to 622)

total out of pocket when I ordered.. $249.98
Total monthly bill, $80.36 (60.36 for 10 months)

180 Standard Channels
28 HD's
75 Music Channels


Dish on my roof is a Dish 1000 with 3 LNB's


*Edit* I reread your post and it seems like you are already a Dish Subscriber?

[gillers29]

Hi. Great info. I have a few questions though... You say you got the HD-DVR and no locals. How well does that work out? I assume that the DVR has an HD tuner built in for OTA HD. Does it require a separate antenna? Does the channel info integrate with the on-screen programming guide for scheduling recordings? Does adding the "local channel" package give a benefit now? Any opinions details would be appreciated.

Right now, I've got TW hd-dvr and an old VOOM motorolla box as my HD tuner for my hd-ready tv. I use an old rabit-ears antenna to pick up fox/abc in HD just fine. I just can't dvr it, and I have to switch back and forth between the two boxes and remotes (mild annoyance).

[Timcredible]

on the non-dvr, they do require an antenna feed, and it's a separate input, so a separate cable. i only get locals because i have 2 non-hd tvs.

[zelig2]

You also need the local channel package to get the programming guide for the channels. Otherwise they all will say Digital Service which makes it quite hard to schedule recordings. I had them take off the locals cause I got them all via antenna only to find this out the next day so I signed back up for them.

[posty-mcpost]

Does it require a separate antenna?

Does the channel info integrate with the on-screen programming guide for scheduling recordings?

Does adding the "local channel" package give a benefit now?

Yes
No - only get OTA guide data with local subscription...and never on 34.1 cause its not a simulcast
?? - What is a benefit to you now?

[mace]

you can however create a manual recording of OTA. You just have to know the time.

I did call and add locals so I could get them on my secondary tv that is hooked up to the DVR. And having the guide is pretty convenient.

[gillers29]

That's what I figured. I also was looking at getting a 2nd receiver for the bedroom tv. I have an 27" SDtv that I'd want to be hooked up to the dish. I guess first, can 1 dish handle an HDdvr receiver and a 2nd receiver? If so, should I just get the DISH311 receiver or would I be able to use the vip211 HD receiver and watch the HD channels in SD (using the s-video out). Can I watch anything on my SDtv using the vip211 HD rec? I'm curious if anyone has tried it. My thinking is that if I get an HD tv in the future, I would already have the receiver for it. Thoughts?

[mace]

Yep, you can watch whatever you want on the 211 regardless of the TV.