622 Activation and Purpose of Dish 1000

[sidersdd]

I've got a story similar to others I've seen recently posted here.

(*) Received call from Dish for "free" upgrade from leased 942 to leased 622
(*) Switch from current AT180/HD/Voom package to the Gold metallic package
(*) Install was scheduled for today
(*) Installer showed up today for appointment, but 622 had not arrived yet
(*) Had to call Dish to find out where 622 is and reschedule appointment

Well the 622 arrived via UPS not but an hour after the installer left. I've called Dish several times and the earliest they can send someone out is June 22. Good grief.

Here's my question. Actually there are two of them.

(1) Can I just call Dish and activate the 622 myself? Does this somehow "void" the warranty?

(2) Each Dish person I've talked to says they will be "upgrading" me to a Dish 1000. Do I really need this? I live in San Diego and currently have two dishes. One pointed to receive 110 and 119, and the other dish pointed to receive 61.5. Signal is very good right now and I'm able to pick up all the channels. Can I just stick with this dish setup and not bother with the 1000?

Thanks for any insights.

 

[ingramba]

I am in the same situation and would like to know this also. I purchased a 622 today (like to own, not rent). I have a 811 and a regular SD receiver's in my home. I have a Dish 500 setup with 2 dishes getting 119, 110 and 61.5 birds.

I want to remove my 811 and replace with my new 622 tomorrow maybe. I have heard that I must connect both inputs with a splitter to my 622 (622 must see 2 signals to work even for just 1 TV) until I get Dish out here to wire for 2nd TV off my 622.

THX!

 

[mike123abc]

All the new HD channels are on 129 which needs the Dish 1000, east coast can see 61.5 for their HD, but requires a separate dish.

 

[sidersdd]

Even though I'm on the west coast, if I can already see 61.5 then why would I need to switch to 129? Especially after reading the issues people have posted with 129 here.

 

[Van]

61.5 wont have the hd lil locals on it but all other hd is there, you can call up and play csr roulette and should be able to activate the receiver but it may take a few tries. Its hard to get an installer to come back an hour after he has left because dish puts a heavy workload on its techs.

 

[sidersdd]

61.5 wont have the hd lil locals on it but all other hd is there, you can call up and play csr roulette and should be able to activate the receiver but it may take a few tries. Its hard to get an installer to come back an hour after he has left because dish puts a heavy workload on its techs.

If I read this site correctly my San Diego HD locals are on 110:
http://www.dishchannelchart.com/

Yeah, I understand about the installer not being able to come back. One of the Dish people I spoke to said that if there is a cancellation of an install and a spot opens then I'll get a call to schedule that time. I'm guessing fat chance of that happening. Anyone ever have this happen?

 

[Kaydigi]

If I read this site correctly my San Diego HD locals are on 110:
http://www.dishchannelchart.com/

Yeah, I understand about the installer not being able to come back. One of the Dish people I spoke to said that if there is a cancellation of an install and a spot opens then I'll get a call to schedule that time. I'm guessing fat chance of that happening. Anyone ever have this happen?

Once I called to get a 625 installed, and about 30 minutes later the local Dish tech called to say they can come right now.

Just recently I needed the Dish repointed and no one showed up for 2 straight appointments. I had to threaten to cancel and miracuslouly Dish paid for a local retailer to come out about 45 minutes later. (This was around 8PM)

 

[kluken]

I've got a story similar to others I've seen recently posted here.

(*) Received call from Dish for "free" upgrade from leased 942 to leased 622
(*) Switch from current AT180/HD/Voom package to the Gold metallic package
(*) Install was scheduled for today
(*) Installer showed up today for appointment, but 622 had not arrived yet
(*) Had to call Dish to find out where 622 is and reschedule appointment

Well the 622 arrived via UPS not but an hour after the installer left. I've called Dish several times and the earliest they can send someone out is June 22. Good grief.

Here's my question. Actually there are two of them.

(1) Can I just call Dish and activate the 622 myself? Does this somehow "void" the warranty?

(2) Each Dish person I've talked to says they will be "upgrading" me to a Dish 1000. Do I really need this? I live in San Diego and currently have two dishes. One pointed to receive 110 and 119, and the other dish pointed to receive 61.5. Signal is very good right now and I'm able to pick up all the channels. Can I just stick with this dish setup and not bother with the 1000?

Thanks for any insights.

I had greif getting my 622 activated before the install date. At first the tech support people that do the "advanced receivers" said their was no way to do it. I called back and spoke to customer service and they got me activated. All is good, only thing missing is my HD LIL that I need 129 for.

 

[sidersdd]

UPDATE. On Wednesday I decided I would try and get the 622 installed and activated myself. I opened up the box, unplugged all the cables from the 942, plugged them into the 622, and flipped it on. I went through the check switch screen and all came up green and good. It rebooted and a screen appeared saying it needed to be activated. So I called Dish and went through the menu to talk to tech support. I told him my story about receiving the 622 an hour after the installer left and that my next scheduled install was the 22nd. He said there wasn't anything he could do about it. But then I told him I had already started the install and went through the check switch. He said it wouldn't matter because I needed to get the Dish 1000 so that I would get 129 for my HD locals. I told him I thought my HD locals were on 110. He checked, and confirmed somewhat surprised that they were indeed on 110. So he decided to let me proceed with the activation. It took a while for the whole process - about 30 minutes - but he stepped me through everything and made sure my HD locals were there, made sure the new "MPEG-4" channels were there, etc. He then closed the scheduled install - which I believe from reading other posts means that the installer gets paid for the install as if they did it themselves. So that's good.

Since then I've been checking out the new channels and mostly watching world cup on ESPNHD and ESPN2HD. ESPN2HD is excellent quality. The National Geographic HD is not so great, and I thought the World Sport channel (and most Voom channels in general) were pretty crappy quality. They seem very grainy.

The 622 I am using is model E and I have it hooked up to my Panasonic HDTV using the HDMI interface. I have had no video problems, although my wife said she saw some lines in the screen while watching a HD program on ABC from satellite (not OTA). Some channels do appear to have a slight audio-sync problem, but not too bad.

Anyway, just wanted to report on some good news with working with Dish tech support, good news on a decent 622 so far, and good news on the HDMI.

 

[edgarj]

My 622 arrived 4 days after the install date, and the next is a full week away. I swapped out the 622 from the 942 and had no trouble activating it through CS. I did have to call back a 2nd time to get the "no phone line" window to go away, but everything works fine, with the exception of sat HD locals, NGHD, and HGHD. I hate having to go through the extra menu for the DVR recordings and think that the 'on demand' feature is a waste of drive space, but other than that it seems like a nice box, albeit too similar to my 942 to feel like much of an upgrade. Lets hope the new channels are worth the trouble.

 

[RobertsD]

I hate having to go through the extra menu for the DVR recordings and think that the 'on demand' feature is a waste of drive space, but other than that it seems like a nice box, albeit too similar to my 942 to feel like much of an upgrade. Lets hope the new channels are worth the trouble.

Just hit the DVR button twice to skip through the extra on demand screen. It doesn't really take any longer to get to the DVR recordings.

 

[Barry Erick]

Here's my situation... I have 3 dishes, one at 61.5, a superdish just for 105 and 110, and a third dish for 119. I doubt very much I could get 129 without skimming the ground, here in NE PA. Heck, we are not even scheduled to get the local HD's on, although they will someday. So, would I be able to talk them into a 622 AND 311, since I am changing. I have a new HD set, will have 2. My current situation is a 311, 811 and 522 for 4 TV's, including one HD. I will change to a 622, 311 and 522 for the new 4, but do not want to change my antenna situation right now. Also, it is hard for me, right now, to find a weekday I can take off and I do install satellites at work.

Later: I think I would need a DP44 switch or another 21 for the 61.5 to go to both HD's. I currently have the method posted here, to get 61.5 without the dp44, but that only works for one tv. Another switch would be cheaper!