211k w/EHD as HD DVR compared to "real" 722k

[JM42]

E* is starting to charge for the 501/708 DVRs that used to be free of DVR fees? I wouldn't be surprised to see them start charging a DVR fee for 211/211ks at some point.

The 501 is what, 10 years old now give or take? How long has Dish been charging a DVR fee for newer receivers 5+ years? And even with the plans to start assessing the fee, I think they are crediting it back for another 18 months or so to keep the no increase pledge.

Dish could well change the fee tomorrow, or the day after the rate guarantee expires, or stop offering 211 replacements if the unit dies and force a fee change that way, but in general they have a pretty good track record on grandfathering in old plans.

I wouldn't go in with blinders on thinking there would never be a change, but I wouldn't worry about it too much either.

 

[Jim5506]

Adding a DVR fee to the 211/211k would be a book keeping nightmare for Dish, because all you have to do is unplug the 211 and disconnect the drive and viola it is a simple receiver again and vice versa.

How does dishkeep track of whether it is being DVR'd or not, especially if it is not connected by phone line or ethernet?

So paid their $40 fee and now which of my not connected 211's (i have 3) are or are not being used as a DVR?

I seriously doubt they will try this, but then I seriously doubted they would force us off HD Absolute.

 

[zippyfrog]

Are there any size limitation to the external hard drives that you can plug into a 211k? Or a certain manufacturer that has to be used?

 

[Bobby]

Are there any size limitation to the external hard drives that you can plug into a 211k? Or a certain manufacturer that has to be used?

1 TB

 

[miamicanes]

From what I've read elsewhere, it also has to be 7200RPM, and the drive has to have its own power -- you can't use a 2.5" portable drive that's USB-powered.

 

[TG2]

From what I've read elsewhere, it also has to be 7200RPM, and the drive has to have its own power -- you can't use a 2.5" portable drive that's USB-powered.

Correct for power, don't know if the 7200 is a requirement ... but most AV and higher drives are usually 7200 or 10k. One thing I was told by Dish Chat was that a double wide didn't work... double wides meaning the types that do raid internally for a larger drive size. (ie 2 500G hard drives in one enclosure to present 1TB to the user)

I've also purchased an inexpensive USB2 enclosure and put my own hard drives inside with no problems.. I tried also using a RocketFish external enclosure .. it didn't work, but that's because the enclosure has a combo media port .. and when plugging it into a 722k .. it saw the ports but due to the config, the Flash Ports were seen first, rather than the Hard Drive, and without putting a compact flash card, or SD or MMC cards ... it had no storage for the receiver's use.

I did the external enclosures because I am over-run with a bunch of extra drives.. 4 1TB's several 500G, etc.. so why not put them back into use.. The enclosures that worked are nothing special... got them from MicroCenter (.com) when they were on sale for 9 or 10 bucks (19 normally) they were just simple USB2/3 IDE & Sata enclosures (one of each I've tried ... inside IDE or inside SATA .. I've not tried one of the combo's that had both ide/sata inside) they come with an external power brick ...

 

[zippyfrog]

Thanks for that information. I was just planning on getting a 750GB USB 3.0/2.0 drive, nothing with Raid Array capabilities.

 

[miamicanes]

One more question about the 211k... does connecting its HDMI output to a TV disable the component video outputs?

 

[JM42]

One more question about the 211k... does connecting its HDMI output to a TV disable the component video outputs?

No, all are hot.

 

[jimdandyvi]

On my primary 211K I have the HDMI, S-Video and whole house distribution coaxial output all working simultaneously.

HDMI - TV at location
S-Video - Slingbox Solo
Coaxial - Two other TVs in other locations. Allows me watch shows recorded on DVR anywhere. Can use I-phone Slingbox to control DVR or change channels when not in same room as the 211K.

Jim

 

[miamicanes]

Well, I'd like to thank everyone for all their help. As luck would have it, when I called DirecTV to cancel (fully and 100% ready to switch to Dish), they made an offer too good to refuse(*), so I'll be sticking with them for at least another year.

(*)Basically, they waived the DVR fee for 12 months and gave me $25/month off the price of Choice Xtra (HD & locals still free as always) with no commitment. After adding everything up, I'm paying ~$50/month compared to the $46.67 (factoring in 1/24th of the $40 EHD fee) I would have averaged for America Silver + Platinum HD over the span of 2 years. I decided that it's not worth sacrificing a Saturday, losing everything already on the DVR, and giving up Fuse just to save $3.33/month. But... if Dish's prices are still more or less what they are now, there's a good chance I'll switch anyway 12 months from now unless DirecTV is willing to extend the discount in semi-perpetuity ;-)

 

[zippyfrog]

Maybe I just missed it in the discussion, but if I take a 211k and add the external hard drive, am I able to setup recordings when I am at work? The 211k would be connected to the internet.

 

[dwarren2]

No. It doesn't work with the 211 series.

 

[zippyfrog]

No. It doesn't work with the 211 series.

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[hdflsts2002]

Hopefully, someone from DIRT can answer. I believe it does say one-time fee on the receiver page. I do understand your concerns, though. I would hope that if they would charge a $6/month fee (Let's not give them any ideas. ) that they would refund that $39.99 one or grandfather those in who already paid that fee. It would in all honesty come across as underhanded to do such a thing from the wording of "one-time." However, usually cable or/and sat companies have the right to change contract terms.

Wouldn't bank on that credit. I have a couple of 722s that I paid the 39.99 fee for EHD service on. This is now a freebie but no credit ever showed on my bill. I'm cool with that though as if they add channels to my package they don't add a fee to my bill. As they say sometimes you get the bear and sometimes he gets you.

 

[TG2]

Wouldn't bank on that credit. I have a couple of 722s that I paid the 39.99 fee for EHD service on. This is now a freebie but no credit ever showed on my bill. I'm cool with that though as if they add channels to my package they don't add a fee to my bill. As they say sometimes you get the bear and sometimes he gets you.

LOL ... boy do they have you snowed.... they don't charge you a fee to *add* channels because you'll be paying additional monthly ... even if in most of the "free trial" promotions many of them automatically renew at the normal monthly rate .... so they in essence *are* getting a fee from you.

Now ... one of the key things, is that it never hurts to *request* they refund the cost of something... especially if you took on the EHD very closely to the time they changed the fee to free... you might get some free movie coupons (meh) out of it.. but at least you'd be getting something .... personally I ended up getting the fees waived for the three days of complete and utter screw ups they had in enabling the feature for my 211k & 722k's... and yeah.. they screwed it up and fed me the BS about 24 hours to update, and then "fixed it" and 24 hours to update, and then the final time when I'd called and said this "chat" thing they have going isn't cutting it... they had my 211 auth'd and running in 10 minutes.. though this was all right around the time the fees were fluctuating ... and I did pay full price for my SlingAdapters in January .... while people now get them free (nearly) ... so ... it pays to go after what you can at the time rather than waiting...