Bare minimum HD package for someone with no HDTV?
- Thread starter JCarais
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That's too bad. I guess those who said there was no more HD enabling fee option were incorrect. Thank you for coming back to the thread and updating.
You can't be serious.
Sorry for the following rant but people who defend sleazy corporate practices really get under my skin.
First of all, if I get a HD DVR from Dish Network, they're not "investing" anything in me. They'll own the receiver and I'll pay them every month to lease it. If three months from now I'm unhappy and I drop them and go to another provider, they'll get the receiver back, wipe the drive, and send it on to the next sucker. They're not out of pocket a dime because of me.
It's like an apartment building that does month to month versus one that has you sign a year lease. The landlord that has you paying month to month doesn't lose anything if you leave in six months. He'll just rent it to someone else for the rest of the year.
You know why Dish makes you sign a Draconian 2 year contract? Because they can. Because it's an easy way to keep you locked in with them instead of having the freedom to go shopping for a better price/product elsewhere. I didn't ask Dish for anything, they sent me a flyer out of the blue that says they "want to show me their appreciation" and "reward" me for being "a valued customer." This of course is B.S. It's all just an excuse to get me locked in with them because they know the economy is in the crapper and people are looking around for a better deal elsewhere. Furthermore, if your expensive HD DVR investment theory held water, then please tell me why I also have to sign a 2 year contract if I just take them up on the programming offer that doesn't include any hardware?
Second, Dish Network DVR's are nothing to write home about in terms of quality/reliability. I've got a 522 that used to routinely delete all of my recordings for me for no reason at all. They finally fixed that, and a bunch of other serious bugs, after YEARS of complaining. The caller ID still doesn't work, along with several other bugs I can't think of right now. Just skimming the technical discussion forum tells me that their HD DVR's aren't much better. I'd put more faith in Comcast's boxes (engineered by Motorola), than Dish's boxes (engineered by some dude in Denver).
Third, you seem to think it's a big deal that the Dish box "can" record 4 shows at once. Well, AT&T U-verse "does" record 4 shows at once (without extra antennas and modules). Like Comcast, it's offered in a bundle with phone and internet for under a hundred bucks. And guess what? No commitment. That's right, the scumbaggiest of scumbags - the phone company - offers you all that product with no commitment required.
The simple truth is that Dish is way behind the curve in terms of offering up deals that actually mean something to people. They must be hemorrhaging customers to Comcast and AT&T, and what's their solution? Not to lower prices (they keep raising them), or actually reward loyal customers, or throw laptops at people (like Comcast), or give people hundreds in cash (like AT&T), no their big idea is to give you free HBO and Showtime for 3 months, and make you sign a 2 year contract just to even get that!
Now that your tantrum is over
"Total Home DVR is a DVR service that can record four standard definition or two high definition video streams at once and play them back on any TV connected to U-verse via a set-top box." (wiki-pedia)
That is 4 SD not HD. The 722k is the only DVR that can record 4 HD channels at one time. Now for the 2 yr commitment Directv has the same commitment. Directv came up with the term length first not E*(18 months when I 1st started they went to 24 after D* did). As far as the quality of E's HD DVR's they are pretty good. I'm on my 4th from E*, started out w/ 942 which they replaced for free when they went to MPEG 4. Had a 622 for around a year and it was not a good revision. E* contacted me and replaced that one for free. I have just upgrade for free from a 622 to the 722k. The reason it was free is the HDMI jack broke inside the 622. I'm under a commitment but don't mind that since it is a good system. And my other choices are not as good. I also pay less and get more HD channels. In this area I get at least 3 calls a week asking why D* doesn't carry either NBC (where I work) or CBS. I can't tell them why but it has to do with the fact that they don't want to carry a sub channel. Ours is Tele-Mundo CBS's is MyTV. Now as far as the quality of U-verse you need to look that up. I think there is a forum here that may discuss it. My choices here are E*, D*, or one of the worse cable systems around with a POS Motorola DVR that F's up if you look at it crosseyed. They have maybe a dozen HD channels. The DVR's the same one that Comcrap uses. If Fios was in the area then I would've looked at them seriously but that isn't gonna happen for maybe forever where I live.
If you have other choices by all means look into them. And if you decide to go elsewhere fine. One last thing if you do go elsewhere don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you.
I'm not defending a sleazy corp., just stating what I know.
"Total Home DVR is a DVR service that can record four standard definition or two high definition video streams at once and play them back on any TV connected to U-verse via a set-top box." (wiki-pedia)
That is 4 SD not HD. The 722k is the only DVR that can record 4 HD channels at one time. Now for the 2 yr commitment Directv has the same commitment. Directv came up with the term length first not E*(18 months when I 1st started they went to 24 after D* did). As far as the quality of E's HD DVR's they are pretty good. I'm on my 4th from E*, started out w/ 942 which they replaced for free when they went to MPEG 4. Had a 622 for around a year and it was not a good revision. E* contacted me and replaced that one for free. I have just upgrade for free from a 622 to the 722k. The reason it was free is the HDMI jack broke inside the 622. I'm under a commitment but don't mind that since it is a good system. And my other choices are not as good. I also pay less and get more HD channels. In this area I get at least 3 calls a week asking why D* doesn't carry either NBC (where I work) or CBS. I can't tell them why but it has to do with the fact that they don't want to carry a sub channel. Ours is Tele-Mundo CBS's is MyTV. Now as far as the quality of U-verse you need to look that up. I think there is a forum here that may discuss it. My choices here are E*, D*, or one of the worse cable systems around with a POS Motorola DVR that F's up if you look at it crosseyed. They have maybe a dozen HD channels. The DVR's the same one that Comcrap uses. If Fios was in the area then I would've looked at them seriously but that isn't gonna happen for maybe forever where I live.
If you have other choices by all means look into them. And if you decide to go elsewhere fine. One last thing if you do go elsewhere don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you.
I'm not defending a sleazy corp., just stating what I know.
When I used the website to drop my HD package to select the new HD+Platinum package, I got a nice banner on the top of the page saying that I'll be charged the HD Enabling Fee if I don't subscribe to HD. Since I subscribed to the new package before finalizing my order, I never really dropped HD at all, so I have no idea whether I would've actually been charged the enabling fee or not. But it's still in the system at some point. To find out if it's really still charged, you'd have to talk to a CSR. But I prefer not to talk to a CSR, since it's well-known that many of them have no idea what they're talking about.
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