Are 722's obsolete?

[downriver]

The best Dish receiver I have owned thus far has been the 722. It seems that the lifespan of these recycled receivers is falling fast. My last one made it six months, they sent out a replacement a week ago and it has already crashed twice. I only use one TV and it seems for some reason Dish wants to double the DVR fee for an upgrade. What with all the price increases it's just getting too darned expensive. Are their any other Dish DVR's other than the Hopper? Is the Hopper a reliable machine? Is there any way to get around the extra fees? Thanks.

 

[Scherrman]

They are no longer making them but they will be supported for quite a few years yet. Dish is not longer making any new ViP receivers I believe. I've said this in threads before, Dish is getting away from the VIP equipment, especially dual tuners, and going all-in on the Hopper system. The only other receiver you will see Dish push is the 211.

You can still get a 625, 612, 722 and 922. The Hopper is the way to go now and there is no way to get around any equipment fees or the DVR fee.

 

[osu1991]

211 and pay the one time $40 fee to make it a dvr when you add your own external hard drive. one sat tuner and one OTA tuner, no dvr fee

 

[Briant73]

I too want to keep my 722 a bit longer but my first one started rebooting constantly and other issues, the replacement has been better but has rebooted two different times (usually happens what first powering on from standby mode).

 

[KE4EST]

Only time mine has done that is when I had a bad connector and when a switch was going out. I know people have had lots of bad units and it is not anything else in the system, but would not hurt to go around and double check connections.

 

[SomeDishGuy]

They are no longer making them but they will be supported for quite a few years yet. Dish is not longer making any new ViP receivers I believe. I've said this in threads before, Dish is getting away from the VIP equipment, especially dual tuners, and going all-in on the Hopper system. The only other receiver you will see Dish push is the 211.

You can still get a 625, 612, 722 and 922. The Hopper is the way to go now and there is no way to get around any equipment fees or the DVR fee.

The only VIP receiver that is being made (that I am aware of) is the 211Z. Dish is trying to push a lot of those, and really encouraging customers who want a 222 to get a pair of 211Z receivers instead, due to the widespread proliferation of HD televisions, trying to discourage a SD TV2 hookup where possible.

Much to my surprise, there are a handful of new accounts being set up with a 922 receiver. We'd been told those weren't going to be used any more for new installs, so I have to wonder and/or assume if these are accounts set up by retailers that may still have some in stock. They're not available for when a person wants to upgrade in our system, only change-outs for existing defective 922s already on accounts.

 

[downriver]

211 and pay the one time $40 fee to make it a dvr when you add your own external hard drive. one sat tuner and one OTA tuner, no dvr fee

I've got a 211 in a box somewhere. I like EHD's for archiving, but found the 211 interface slow and clunky. Thanks.

 

[osu1991]

I've got a 211 in a box somewhere. I like EHD's for archiving, but found the 211 interface slow and clunky. Thanks.

I have a 722 and 2 211K's they all run about the same to me. Never noticed any slow or clunkiness. I've the 211K's and EHD since they became available, still using original WD 500GB hard drives on both 211K's. I had an original 722 that finally died last year. Using a refurb now that has been as reliable as the original. For me there is no reason to upgrade to a Hopper. Both my sisters have 2 HWS and a couple of Joeys that have been rock solid so far for them.

It just comes down to how much you want to pay and what features you want.

 

[downriver]

I haven't pulled that 211 out since 2006...I might just give that a try...thanks!

 

[Blackloz]

A friend has 3 211k's with EHD's and loves them so much he says he will never switch to anything else.

 

[stardust3]

211's are a good stable receiver for those who don't need or want all the bells & whistles.

 

[MikeD-C05]

211's are a good stable receiver for those who don't need or want all the bells & whistles.

Add an external hard drive ,pay the $40.00 one time fee and you get no more monthly dvr fees either.

 

[kenny9966]

They still charge you that darn $7 HD Reciever Fee though! If all you can buy is an HD receiver now why do they still charge this Fee!

 

[osu1991]

They still charge you that darn $7 HD Reciever Fee though! If all you can buy is an HD receiver now why do they still charge this Fee!

any 2nd receiver on an account will have a mirroring fee $7 for 211(k,z), $10 for 612, $17 for 622,722,722K. There is no receiver fee if you only have 1 receiver on the account

 

[downriver]

I've thought some about the 211, it does not have dual tuner capability. Is the Hopper a dependable machine is it also bug prone?

 

[dvrexpander]

The only VIP receiver that is being made (that I am aware of) is the 211Z. Dish is trying to push a lot of those, and really encouraging customers who want a 222 to get a pair of 211Z receivers instead, due to the widespread proliferation of HD televisions, trying to discourage a SD TV2 hookup where possible.

They are encouraging a cluster is what they are doing by not allowing 222s to be used. If a tech calls in and says that this person needs a 222 vs two 211's then they should honor the request. Far too many times have I run into situations lately that you would now have to drop a 44 switch and triple lines from a 1k2 dish already having the switch that we all know can cause issues down the road but noooo they don't listen. I had a 722 and three 211's to install one day and had to set this type of job up. The guy had so many electrical issues at the house that the 44 switch would not function properly but I was however able to put in a 222k in place of two 211's just fine and run triple lines to the dish with everything working. I did this after someone at loyalty told the guy that I could do it to save his account cause he knew exactly what I was saying and agreed so he made the call. I put the boxes in and Dish would not activate them no matter what I said and even with the guy standing there to cancel they wouldn't budge. So the guy cancelled and I didn't get paid at all for any work I did on that job and even had to take everything back out wasting nearly 5 hours.

A tech is a tech for a reason - they know the jobs way better than any CSR sitting behind a desk and these restrictions are just stupid. Not everyone needs or wants HD no matter what the TV is.

 

[Scherrman]

They still charge you that darn $7 HD Reciever Fee though! If all you can buy is an HD receiver now why do they still charge this Fee!

They charge you a programming access fee for additional receivers. It doesn't matter if it is an HD receiver or SD receiver.

 

[Scherrman]

They are encouraging a cluster is what they are doing by not allowing 222s to be used. If a tech calls in and says that this person needs a 222 vs two 211's then they should honor the request. Far too many times have I run into situations lately that you would now have to drop a 44 switch and triple lines from a 1k2 dish already having the switch that we all know can cause issues down the road but noooo they don't listen. I had a 722 and three 211's to install one day and had to set this type of job up. The guy had so many electrical issues at the house that the 44 switch would not function properly but I was however able to put in a 222k in place of two 211's just fine and run triple lines to the dish with everything working. I did this after someone at loyalty told the guy that I could do it to save his account cause he knew exactly what I was saying and agreed so he made the call. I put the boxes in and Dish would not activate them no matter what I said and even with the guy standing there to cancel they wouldn't budge. So the guy cancelled and I didn't get paid at all for any work I did on that job and even had to take everything back out wasting nearly 5 hours.

A tech is a tech for a reason - they know the jobs way better than any CSR sitting behind a desk and these restrictions are just stupid. Not everyone needs or wants HD no matter what the TV is.

This business rule really upset us here. We do a lot of dual tuner installs and mirror TVs. It has really given us an edge over the competition. Now we are only allowed to install a dual tuner in the primary receiver position. We can no longer install a dual tuner in the secondary receiver position unless it is 2nd 722.

To the customer it's not too big of deal since the monthly cost is the same but it can be a huge pain for installations. Instead of running 2 cables into the house we have to run 3 now. It is also much harder to mirror off of a 211z than it is with the TV2 output on a dual tuner.

Existing customers, other than Plan A, or no longer able to upgrade to a 222 receiver anymore as well. As you can see, the writing is on the wall for dual tuner receivers, especially the 222.

 

[Hall]

Are their any other Dish DVR's other than the Hopper? Is the Hopper a reliable machine?

I'd venture to say that 90% of the failures on Dish's DVR receivers are hard-drive related. Fact is, hard-drives are mechanical devices, almost constantly operating/spinning, in hot conditions, and so on. I'm certain that every cableco has this issue, as does DirecTV, TiVo, and so on. We had Time Warner years ago and went through multiple DVRs in just under two years. You do see DVRs returned for other reasons and all too often it's software-related - so guess what ? The new box is going to have the same problem !

 

[jmfolcik]

How does a 211 with hard drive compare to a 622? Can you do scheduled reoccurring recordings like "all new episodes of Bones on Fox", can you go to dishanywhere.com and tell your 211 to record a movie from the website, and see your existing recordings listed on the website? If you can, then I know I have an option to stay cheap on equipment if my 622 goes someday when/if Dish in the future would not replace with another VIP and requires a new contract. All I have now is a 622 (feeding living room hdmi and bedroom on channel 60) and a 211k (feeding basement rec-room hdmi and mirrored to 2 other rooms over channel 60)
Biggest deal probably for me that would keep me from going that route is cant record 2 things at once with the 211, I would have to use both 211's and have recordings split between them. There's a couple times a week we have two weekly shows on at the same time that we record.

Would be interested though to hear what you guys see with the 211 with a hard drive, like is it "exactly" like a 622/722 after that, or some things still not the same, like streaming movies off internet, and scheduled recordings, and triggering recordings from the website like we can with the 622/722.