Best way for 3rd TV and General Dish noob

[Vanberge]

This seems like the place to be for Dish people and Dish help. So I'm glad to be a part of this community!

I'm a new Dish customer, finally taking the plunge to ditch Comcast for good. So far, I have been very happy with my programming and my service.

I was set up as follows:

• Eastern Arc / "Turbo" Dish
• VIP 722k Duo DVR driving TV 1 (main hd living room) and TV 2 (basement SD tv).
• VIP 211k Solo for HD (2nd HD tv in Bedroom).

So with that setup, I've been charged a 6 dollar DVR fee, and then an additional 7 dollars for the extra solo tuner.

I guess my question is: are there any ways to eliminate that? I thought it a bit odd that my primary DualTuner DVR is $6 for "DVR Service" and then the piddly little solo HD tuner was $7 for "HD Solo Tuner"??

Could I just buy a tuner off ebay or something? Or maybe run a splitter on the TV2 feed from my Vip722k (if I can talk myself into being OK with an SD feed ?

Any other thoughs/suggestions? What do you other guys do in my scenario? I'm not angry about it or anything; just trying to find the "best" way to do a 3 TV setup. Maybe with wanting HD I'm already at that.

Anyways - thanks in advance for any feedback. I'm very glad I found this place. Looking forward to being a part and contributing. Sounds like I'm already at an advantage for being pointed to the eastern arc.

 

[KAB]

The $6.00 DVR fee is not a receiver fee. If you have one or five DVRs, you pay it. Your receiver fee for the 722 ($17.00), your "first or most expensive fee receiver" is built into your package. You pay additional fees for receivers on top of that.

 

[Dah-Henny]

You could certainly drop the 211, and split the TV2 feed to save $7.

 

[Kevinw]

If your going to watch the same programming in the bedroom-watch only one TV, then use an HDMI from the DVR to the Bedroom and mirror the 722 to the bedroom TV.

 

[harshness]

I guess my question is: are there any ways to eliminate that?

There's nothing you can do outside of cutting down on the number of receivers to change the hardware costs. Whether you lease or own the equipment, the charge is the same.

You could return the ViP211K to get rid of the additional receiver fee and/or trade the ViP722K in on a ViP222K to get rid of the DVR fee.

 

[Vanberge]

Ok - Thank you guys very much for the info...

I think I'm ok paying the 7 dollars in order to have HD programming. As far as I understand if I just split TV2 then that has to be SD.

I mainly wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. So, thanks again!

 

[JohnEL]

Vanberge-
The cheapest way is to return the DVR, no fees.
Keep the 211-primary reciever, no fee.
All of the outputs on these DISH receivers are hot.
I use the HDMI output with a cable-HDMI to DVI for my main HD tv in the living room. I ran component cables to my bedroom-HD TV also-40 ft away. I ran the composite cable to the basement-SD tv 25 ft away.
Result-1 receiver, 3 TV's. Yes I know that I can only watch one channel at a time but I can only be in one room at a time anyway.
Hope this helps with your decision and welcome to DISH.

 

[KAB]

Something no one has mentioned, the 211 can become a DVR with an external HD after paying one time $40.00 EHD activation fee. There would be no DVR fee, even though it has become one.