OK, Sorry for the long post but I want to learn a lot. I also thought that if I give you a full description and some back story you will know where I am coming from and where I want to go.
I have a TL;DR at the bottom you can skip to which will answer some of my questions. I choose this forum because I didn't think I could get everything out in a phone conversation to Dish and I also see that some dish reps post here and that I also wanted some outside opinion.
I had Dish Network and DirectTV before when I was in a different Living situation Back 9 years ago.
I just recently Resubscribed to Dish Network and things are a little different than when I had it last. At least I think some things are so I just want to ask a few questions to clear things up.
First Question is about Equipment.
Back when I had Dish before the deals were that you buy the box and maybe through the reseller you could get a special deal on the receiver if signed a certain contract and you had an option of $99.00 credit that went for a self install kit or professional installation. I self installed both my Directtv and then Dish Network.When I moved there was no obligation to return the Box and I think that the terms was that the Cards were the property of the Dish Network and you had to return them. When I left Dish I was never asked to return the card and so after a few years the receiver and Card went in the trash. Also my box had gone out and I just bought another one off of Ebay and customer support and my reseller helped me with switching out the cards. But I don't remember what I had to do exactly. Card had to be reprogrammed by sending to dish to match it to the receiver if I am getting things right.
Now currently when I subscribed I did not have to pay for any equipment and the only option was free installation and it seemed like the reseller network had shrunk to minuscule and so I dealt with Dish directly.
So I have a few questions on how things operate now. And have made some assumptions so please answer my questions and correct any wrong assumptions.
I have a VIP 722 DVR HD and a VIP211 HD
On my bill I am charged a $6.00 Fee for DVR which I understand to be the monthly subscription charge for DVR service for the VIP722. This is just like my monthly subscription charge Tivo charges to have all the programming menus/TV Guide and such that I would have if I didn't have a lifetime subscription on my Tivo.
So the first question is this if I add more DVR Dish boxes to my system does the DVR price stay at $6.00 or go up for each additional Dish DVR I might add?
Second I have a $7.00 "HD Solo Receiver" charge that is reoccurring on my bill.
What is this charge?
Is this "lease" that they charge me because I have a second receiver and that the first receiver "lease" is included in the Monthly Package since I never had to pay for the equipment and under "My Equipment" online both receivers are listed as "Leased"and they are using the same model that I had with Cable where the equipment is leased to me and I am charged monthly fees.
Or is this an addition receiver charge that is added to the bill for each receiver that I have above the first one and if so how is this rate calculated. Is it $7.00 per receiver no matter what one I add or is there a schedule based on what type of receiver I add to my subscription.
My current setup is the 2 dish HD setup. Can I still use something like the
Now for some general questions.
What is the deal now a days with Dish Network and their Equipment. Can I buy the Equipment instead of leasing it? I thought they used to be more like the Cell Phone model where if you have the equipment that works with our network and it has good serial numbers we will let you activate it on our system. Has that changed and they are more like cable? Our equipment on our system leases from us only?
I know back in the day I thought you could buy peoples used boxes and add them to your subscription as long as the equipment and card was not from a delinquent account you were then able to save money over buying one from dish or a reseller at full price. Just like things are in the cellular market where you buy used phones and if nothing is wrong with the EIN they can be activated and you can activate it as a new or replacement phone.
If I can buy my own equipment say off of Ebay/Craigslist etc. can I add it to my account? If so is it only certain equipment that I can do this with? "like" I am thinking that if all dish does now is lease equipment since I don't see anything on Dish about buying equipment can I still buy older equipment that was purchased before Dish stopped selling and went to a leasing model.
if I can buy any equipment from a secondary market or just certain equipment how can I protect myself from buying stolen or banned/delinquent account equipment/cards or someone Else's leased equipment that they are not allowed to sell. Is Dish friendly about making inquiries on the status of receiver and card IDs? Do I just have the option to buy the equipment on the secondary market then I have to Buy the card from Dish or can I buy the card too?
If I can buy Equipment do I have to have Dish come out and install it or since I have installed my own back in the days can I just do activation over the phone?
How many receivers can I have on one account? wanting to know both Max number to have total and maximum number you can have without occurring additional charges. And please define receivers when answering this. Does my current setup of the 1 Duo and 1 Solo count as 2 receivers(each physical Receiver) or 3 receivers because there is 2 tuners in the Duo and one tuner in the Solo.)
Thank You for reading this far!
The reason I am asking all this is I needed some programming that was not available on my cable but that Dish has. So we currently have Dish and Cable. There are a few reasons for this. Cable provides my internet and the speed over the highest DSL in my area and bundle price for the channels made sense. But now the Cable internet service has too many subscribers in the area and the lines are getting bad. I have been having too much quality issues with my internet so I am considering DSL.
Second we are a large family in a large house that is wired to the hilt. When I signed up for Dish over the internet and the option came up for receivers it asked where I was putting them. Both were going into different family rooms but Dish's online sign up was not letting me put family room for both receivers.
My current cable set up though has 5 TV's and 2 computers connected to the cable. One of the TV is PIP so it has two cable connections one going to the cable box which connects to the RGB input and the second goes to the TV tuner. I also have in one rumpus room a TV with a TV connected to a Game console and Cable. In the corner is a treadmill that has a TV that has wireless headphones that someone can be using the treadmill in the corner while someone else uses the other TV. Also 4 children in the house and none of them have TV in their rooms. But three are old enough and responsible that we are going to wire cable into their rooms. The thing is Cable has no care what we do the more we added we just had to add line amplifiers.
So I am also wondering with the extent I had to ID the receivers locations when I subscribed is Dish going to be a pain in the ass about the receivers I have and their location in the house if I do move over to them?
Pretty much I am a tech guy that has wired in my whole house. Computer Network, Servers, CCTV and my Cable. I have also worked where I managed PBXs, networks, a C/Ku Large dish setup back in the days for a company with their own distribution through the office and worked as a computer tech for a company that operated their own broadcast studio setup which was a multi large dish setup that had special subscription services that was broadcast out through the plant and a receiver box that had to go on the system for each subscription that changed out on a semi Regular basis and even had an uplink of their broadcast signal. So I am one of those that want to do everything my way and perfect and custom and am capable of handling my own in house TV setup and I have a lot of freedom with the Cable service I have now but am afraid that Dish might be too anal/bureaucratic for me.
Like with Cable now I have 2 cables coming into the house and 2 amplifiers one that I bought and one provided by the cable company a High Band Channel Notch Filter on it and a Modulator split into the cable system so that any TV that just has the basic cable hooked up I can tune into my CCTV system on Channel 75. So if a cable tech comes out I give them a short tour of the system and they see it is all proper and don't worry that it is a little unconventional and do their thing. Never once had the Cable company try and call me on my system even though the techs first look leaves them with a puzzled look on their face they realize everything is legal and on the up and up and that I am using all the right Notch filters and one way pass filters that I am not corrupting their system or illegally obtaining any of their signal and I am paying for what I get.
I had actually looked into dish a few years ago and was talking to a rep about a setup quote and they were having trouble with me telling them I wanted to setup one Dual tuner receiver for one TV and PIP they said that if the tech got there and that there was not 2 tvs for the Dual Tuner they would not install it. This is some of the Hassles I foresee if I go to dish completely or if I can buy used do things myself can I work with Dish and get what I want done? Plus if I do such a big expansion am I going to have to explain myself to dish. I only know a little about satellite piracy from what I have seen in the news and I don't want to get into a bureaucratic nightmare with Dish because they are so protective because of piracy and I want to make up a system that is too complicated for Dish to understand what I am doing and though it is legal because they don't understand it that they don't want to deal with me or that I will be dealing with phone reps that has a script to go by and can't handle my odd requests.
The bottom line and a TL;DR
With Cable now I have no problem doing what I want with my setup. Don't have to worry about buying special equipment for each TV or registering every TV and its location I don't have to buy everything for the system from them for the basic cable and only have to get tuners and tuner cards for the TV's I want subscription stuff on which I don't need on every TV. If I switch over to Dish how much of my freedom am I loosing because they are so paranoid of pirates (although I heard that the satellites have managed to stop them through a new system.) and is it going to cost a fortune to do all the TV's I want to do and maybe not be able to do some of things that I do now with cable and where do I have to buy my equipment? Can I buy used Equipment?
Thank You
Michael
I have a TL;DR at the bottom you can skip to which will answer some of my questions. I choose this forum because I didn't think I could get everything out in a phone conversation to Dish and I also see that some dish reps post here and that I also wanted some outside opinion.
I had Dish Network and DirectTV before when I was in a different Living situation Back 9 years ago.
I just recently Resubscribed to Dish Network and things are a little different than when I had it last. At least I think some things are so I just want to ask a few questions to clear things up.
First Question is about Equipment.
Back when I had Dish before the deals were that you buy the box and maybe through the reseller you could get a special deal on the receiver if signed a certain contract and you had an option of $99.00 credit that went for a self install kit or professional installation. I self installed both my Directtv and then Dish Network.When I moved there was no obligation to return the Box and I think that the terms was that the Cards were the property of the Dish Network and you had to return them. When I left Dish I was never asked to return the card and so after a few years the receiver and Card went in the trash. Also my box had gone out and I just bought another one off of Ebay and customer support and my reseller helped me with switching out the cards. But I don't remember what I had to do exactly. Card had to be reprogrammed by sending to dish to match it to the receiver if I am getting things right.
Now currently when I subscribed I did not have to pay for any equipment and the only option was free installation and it seemed like the reseller network had shrunk to minuscule and so I dealt with Dish directly.
So I have a few questions on how things operate now. And have made some assumptions so please answer my questions and correct any wrong assumptions.
I have a VIP 722 DVR HD and a VIP211 HD
On my bill I am charged a $6.00 Fee for DVR which I understand to be the monthly subscription charge for DVR service for the VIP722. This is just like my monthly subscription charge Tivo charges to have all the programming menus/TV Guide and such that I would have if I didn't have a lifetime subscription on my Tivo.
So the first question is this if I add more DVR Dish boxes to my system does the DVR price stay at $6.00 or go up for each additional Dish DVR I might add?
Second I have a $7.00 "HD Solo Receiver" charge that is reoccurring on my bill.
What is this charge?
Is this "lease" that they charge me because I have a second receiver and that the first receiver "lease" is included in the Monthly Package since I never had to pay for the equipment and under "My Equipment" online both receivers are listed as "Leased"and they are using the same model that I had with Cable where the equipment is leased to me and I am charged monthly fees.
Or is this an addition receiver charge that is added to the bill for each receiver that I have above the first one and if so how is this rate calculated. Is it $7.00 per receiver no matter what one I add or is there a schedule based on what type of receiver I add to my subscription.
My current setup is the 2 dish HD setup. Can I still use something like the
Now for some general questions.
What is the deal now a days with Dish Network and their Equipment. Can I buy the Equipment instead of leasing it? I thought they used to be more like the Cell Phone model where if you have the equipment that works with our network and it has good serial numbers we will let you activate it on our system. Has that changed and they are more like cable? Our equipment on our system leases from us only?
I know back in the day I thought you could buy peoples used boxes and add them to your subscription as long as the equipment and card was not from a delinquent account you were then able to save money over buying one from dish or a reseller at full price. Just like things are in the cellular market where you buy used phones and if nothing is wrong with the EIN they can be activated and you can activate it as a new or replacement phone.
If I can buy my own equipment say off of Ebay/Craigslist etc. can I add it to my account? If so is it only certain equipment that I can do this with? "like" I am thinking that if all dish does now is lease equipment since I don't see anything on Dish about buying equipment can I still buy older equipment that was purchased before Dish stopped selling and went to a leasing model.
if I can buy any equipment from a secondary market or just certain equipment how can I protect myself from buying stolen or banned/delinquent account equipment/cards or someone Else's leased equipment that they are not allowed to sell. Is Dish friendly about making inquiries on the status of receiver and card IDs? Do I just have the option to buy the equipment on the secondary market then I have to Buy the card from Dish or can I buy the card too?
If I can buy Equipment do I have to have Dish come out and install it or since I have installed my own back in the days can I just do activation over the phone?
How many receivers can I have on one account? wanting to know both Max number to have total and maximum number you can have without occurring additional charges. And please define receivers when answering this. Does my current setup of the 1 Duo and 1 Solo count as 2 receivers(each physical Receiver) or 3 receivers because there is 2 tuners in the Duo and one tuner in the Solo.)
Thank You for reading this far!
The reason I am asking all this is I needed some programming that was not available on my cable but that Dish has. So we currently have Dish and Cable. There are a few reasons for this. Cable provides my internet and the speed over the highest DSL in my area and bundle price for the channels made sense. But now the Cable internet service has too many subscribers in the area and the lines are getting bad. I have been having too much quality issues with my internet so I am considering DSL.
Second we are a large family in a large house that is wired to the hilt. When I signed up for Dish over the internet and the option came up for receivers it asked where I was putting them. Both were going into different family rooms but Dish's online sign up was not letting me put family room for both receivers.
My current cable set up though has 5 TV's and 2 computers connected to the cable. One of the TV is PIP so it has two cable connections one going to the cable box which connects to the RGB input and the second goes to the TV tuner. I also have in one rumpus room a TV with a TV connected to a Game console and Cable. In the corner is a treadmill that has a TV that has wireless headphones that someone can be using the treadmill in the corner while someone else uses the other TV. Also 4 children in the house and none of them have TV in their rooms. But three are old enough and responsible that we are going to wire cable into their rooms. The thing is Cable has no care what we do the more we added we just had to add line amplifiers.
So I am also wondering with the extent I had to ID the receivers locations when I subscribed is Dish going to be a pain in the ass about the receivers I have and their location in the house if I do move over to them?
Pretty much I am a tech guy that has wired in my whole house. Computer Network, Servers, CCTV and my Cable. I have also worked where I managed PBXs, networks, a C/Ku Large dish setup back in the days for a company with their own distribution through the office and worked as a computer tech for a company that operated their own broadcast studio setup which was a multi large dish setup that had special subscription services that was broadcast out through the plant and a receiver box that had to go on the system for each subscription that changed out on a semi Regular basis and even had an uplink of their broadcast signal. So I am one of those that want to do everything my way and perfect and custom and am capable of handling my own in house TV setup and I have a lot of freedom with the Cable service I have now but am afraid that Dish might be too anal/bureaucratic for me.
Like with Cable now I have 2 cables coming into the house and 2 amplifiers one that I bought and one provided by the cable company a High Band Channel Notch Filter on it and a Modulator split into the cable system so that any TV that just has the basic cable hooked up I can tune into my CCTV system on Channel 75. So if a cable tech comes out I give them a short tour of the system and they see it is all proper and don't worry that it is a little unconventional and do their thing. Never once had the Cable company try and call me on my system even though the techs first look leaves them with a puzzled look on their face they realize everything is legal and on the up and up and that I am using all the right Notch filters and one way pass filters that I am not corrupting their system or illegally obtaining any of their signal and I am paying for what I get.
I had actually looked into dish a few years ago and was talking to a rep about a setup quote and they were having trouble with me telling them I wanted to setup one Dual tuner receiver for one TV and PIP they said that if the tech got there and that there was not 2 tvs for the Dual Tuner they would not install it. This is some of the Hassles I foresee if I go to dish completely or if I can buy used do things myself can I work with Dish and get what I want done? Plus if I do such a big expansion am I going to have to explain myself to dish. I only know a little about satellite piracy from what I have seen in the news and I don't want to get into a bureaucratic nightmare with Dish because they are so protective because of piracy and I want to make up a system that is too complicated for Dish to understand what I am doing and though it is legal because they don't understand it that they don't want to deal with me or that I will be dealing with phone reps that has a script to go by and can't handle my odd requests.
The bottom line and a TL;DR
With Cable now I have no problem doing what I want with my setup. Don't have to worry about buying special equipment for each TV or registering every TV and its location I don't have to buy everything for the system from them for the basic cable and only have to get tuners and tuner cards for the TV's I want subscription stuff on which I don't need on every TV. If I switch over to Dish how much of my freedom am I loosing because they are so paranoid of pirates (although I heard that the satellites have managed to stop them through a new system.) and is it going to cost a fortune to do all the TV's I want to do and maybe not be able to do some of things that I do now with cable and where do I have to buy my equipment? Can I buy used Equipment?
Thank You
Michael
