Considering Switching to Dish .. Have Questions

[msujohn]

I am new to this forum and have several questions that I was hoping someone could help answer: I have considered switching to Dish from TWC (in order to get the Big Ten Network). Here are some of the questions that I have.

- When I sign up for Dish is their any advantage to calling Dish direct or should I go through a online retailer? What retailer do you recommend?
- Is it better to get an OTA for local HD channels? Will they install this for free?
- I have 4 TV’s (2 HD & 2 SD) and would have to go with this set up initially – 1 HD DVR (722) and 1 HD 222 receiver. At what point would I qualify for a free upgrade to another HD DVR?
- Regarding the HD DVR box – can I watch one show in HD and still record a HD show?
- With the 2 tv’s that share the HD DVR box – can I watch 1 show that I recorded on the 1st TV and watch a different recorded show on the 2nd TV?
- How many hours of HD can I record on a 500 GB external hard drive?
- Do I have to hook up the external hard drive prior to using the DVR box or can I use it anytime down the line? Any issues accessing previous recorded shows?

Look forward to hearing your responses.

 

[andyg]

I am new to this forum and have several questions that I was hoping someone could help answer: I have considered switching to Dish from TWC (in order to get the Big Ten Network). Here are some of the questions that I have.

- When I sign up for Dish is their any advantage to calling Dish direct or should I go through a online retailer? What retailer do you recommend?
- Is it better to get an OTA for local HD channels? Will they install this for free?
- I have 4 TV’s (2 HD & 2 SD) and would have to go with this set up initially – 1 HD DVR (722) and 1 HD 222 receiver. At what point would I qualify for a free upgrade to another HD DVR?
- Regarding the HD DVR box – can I watch one show in HD and still record a HD show?
- With the 2 tv’s that share the HD DVR box – can I watch 1 show that I recorded on the 1st TV and watch a different recorded show on the 2nd TV?
- How many hours of HD can I record on a 500 GB external hard drive?
- Do I have to hook up the external hard drive prior to using the DVR box or can I use it anytime down the line? Any issues accessing previous recorded shows?

Look forward to hearing your responses.

if you are thinking about switching to dish because of sports (e.g. big ten), then you should probably think twice. The picture quality of sports channels on dish is horrible at least from my perspective. I do not want big ten, but I have that channel and do not like it...plus my local FSN Ohio sucks too that makes it almost impossible to watch hockey..and did I mention the tennis channel and soccer channels...horrible picture. Satellite overcompresses their channels which results in distorted digital picture. they do it so that they can offer more channel thus there is tradeoff between quantity and quality.

I have seen TWC and I used to have insight cable. They had far greater pq for sports channels.

Now I am talking about SD not HD here. I heard HD in general is good on dish except when viewing SD channels.

good luck

 

[rad]

If BTN is what you want you might want to read http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/about_us/press_room/Big10.pdf. The section in question says: "DISH Network customers nationwide who subscribe to America’s Top 100 and higher will find the Big Ten Network on Channel 439. Customers throughout the nation will also have the opportunity to preview the network until early 2008. At that time, the channel will be carried on America’s Top 100 Plus service within the eight states with Big Ten institutions.". Now does that mean that E* will not show the BTN outside the eight states starting early next year or will it be an additional subscription for the other 42 states?

 

[haertig]

When I sign up for Dish is their any advantage to calling Dish direct or should I go through a online retailer? What retailer do you recommend?

Don't know about this one. I went straight to Dish myself. For no particular reason.

Is it better to get an OTA for local HD channels? Will they install this for free?

I don't see much difference in Dish HD locals and my OTA locals. So if you're asking about OTA in regards to being better picture quality, probably not much difference (may depend on your market - I'm in the Denver area). You may want OTA because you can record an additional show simultaneously with other recordings though. They won't install it for free. They may not even be willing to install it at all, even if you pay them. Arrange any of this extra work in advance. Chances of getting it done are probably about zero if you just blindside the installer with this request when they show up.

I have 4 TV’s (2 HD & 2 SD) and would have to go with this set up initially – 1 HD DVR (722) and 1 HD 222 receiver. At what point would I qualify for a free upgrade to another HD DVR?

Don't know. I've never heard of a FREE upgrade. They cost you money, but you can get a discount when you upgrade. There are time constraints on when you can do upgrades. You can't just do one every day. I don't know what those constraints are however.

Regarding the HD DVR box – can I watch one show in HD and still record a HD show?

You can record three HD shows simultaneously, and watch a prerecorded fourth one at the same time. Note: recording 3 at a time implies one off of each of the two sat tuners, and one off of the OTA tuner. If you don't have an OTA antenna hooked up, you can only record two simultaneously (and watch a prerecorded third).

With the 2 tv’s that share the HD DVR box – can I watch 1 show that I recorded on the 1st TV and watch a different recorded show on the 2nd TV?

Yes. Your second TV will not see it in HD however. Your first TV has a choice of HDMI or component outputs (also s-video and composite - but these last two don't support HD). The second TV can only be hooked up via composite or RF-modulated, neither of which support HD.

How many hours of HD can I record on a 500 GB external hard drive?

The internal drive in a 722 receiver is 500Gb I believe, and they advertise 55 hours of HD (YMMV). An external drive may be able to swueeze a bit more than that into 500Gb because it doesn't contain the DVR's operating system. However the OS would be small compared to even one hour of recorded HD, so you might only get an extra ten minutes.

Do I have to hook up the external hard drive prior to using the DVR box or can I use it anytime down the line? Any issues accessing previous recorded shows?

Any time down the line is fine. You will need to pay Dish an aditional sum to "enable" the USB port however. I forgot what that cost is ... $29 or something like that.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I would call DISHSTORE and get in on this great deal...

DISHSTORE.Net Better than Club Dish Promotion

 

[Ftoutloff]

I am new to this forum and have several questions that I was hoping someone could help answer: I have considered switching to Dish from TWC (in order to get the Big Ten Network). Here are some of the questions that I have.

- When I sign up for Dish is their any advantage to calling Dish direct or should I go through a online retailer? What retailer do you recommend?

Where do you live?

- Is it better to get an OTA for local HD channels? Will they install this for free?
You will most likely have to get a OTA for your locals - please do not expect your tech to install additional hardware and take more time all at no additional cost to you .

- I have 4 TV’s (2 HD & 2 SD) and would have to go with this set up initially – 1 HD DVR (722) and 1 HD 222 receiver. At what point would I qualify for a free upgrade to another HD DVR?
I have never heard of anyone getting a free upgrade from dish or directTV

- Regarding the HD DVR box – can I watch one show in HD and still record a HD show?
not 100% sure but I believe so - now if you had that OTA you could record off that as well.

- With the 2 tv’s that share the HD DVR box – can I watch 1 show that I recorded on the 1st TV and watch a different recorded show on the 2nd TV?
yes

- How many hours of HD can I record on a 500 GB external hard drive?
I don't know, but if you search the threads here you'll probably find it

- Do I have to hook up the external hard drive prior to using the DVR box or can I use it anytime down the line? Any issues accessing previous recorded shows?
you can hook it up anytime

 

[msujohn]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I currently live in Frisco, Texas (Suburb of Dallas).

I am roughly 40 miles away from any of the stations (using a OTA). Does anyone recommend a good OTA? All but one are UHF (VHF is ABC).

 

[haertig]

Does anyone recommend a good OTA?

Go to AntennaWeb and see what type of antenna is recommended for your location (distance and direction to broadcast towers).

 

[Liquidforce88]

if you are thinking about switching to dish because of sports (e.g. big ten), then you should probably think twice. The picture quality of sports channels on dish is horrible at least from my perspective. I do not want big ten, but I have that channel and do not like it...plus my local FSN Ohio sucks too that makes it almost impossible to watch hockey..and did I mention the tennis channel and soccer channels...horrible picture. Satellite overcompresses their channels which results in distorted digital picture. they do it so that they can offer more channel thus there is tradeoff between quantity and quality.

I have seen TWC and I used to have insight cable. They had far greater pq for sports channels.

Now I am talking about SD not HD here. I heard HD in general is good on dish except when viewing SD channels.

good luck

This is the only guy who seems to have this problem on here. My BTN looks just fine in SD and great in HD.

 

[Liquidforce88]

I am new to this forum and have several questions that I was hoping someone could help answer: I have considered switching to Dish from TWC (in order to get the Big Ten Network). Here are some of the questions that I have.

- When I sign up for Dish is their any advantage to calling Dish direct or should I go through a online retailer? What retailer do you recommend?
- Is it better to get an OTA for local HD channels? Will they install this for free?
- I have 4 TV’s (2 HD & 2 SD) and would have to go with this set up initially – 1 HD DVR (722) and 1 HD 222 receiver. At what point would I qualify for a free upgrade to another HD DVR?
- Regarding the HD DVR box – can I watch one show in HD and still record a HD show?
- With the 2 tv’s that share the HD DVR box – can I watch 1 show that I recorded on the 1st TV and watch a different recorded show on the 2nd TV?
- How many hours of HD can I record on a 500 GB external hard drive?
- Do I have to hook up the external hard drive prior to using the DVR box or can I use it anytime down the line? Any issues accessing previous recorded shows?

Look forward to hearing your responses.

If your going to use an online retailer I would use Claude. Other than that You don't have any chance to say that who comes to hook it up will be a good or bad tech. Retailer and Dish installers can be good or bad, it's up to you to make sure you are happy with the work done.

If you can get OTA HD get it. It gives you added ability to record and watch HD. Dish probably will not install it for free, and what you would get for free would probably not work very well anyway. Find a local Antenna installer that knows what he is doing.

You would never get another HD DVR for free. You would be able to get it at a very reduced price after a year of service. Otherwise you could do it right off the start for 149 for a 622 and 199 for a 722. If you want it get it now, you will hate the 222 it's buggy.

Others have answered the rest of your questions perfectly.

 

[585960]

......and QAULIFY whoever it is that shows up at your door to install. Theres good DNS and bad DNS, as are good SUBS and bad SUBS. If DON LORS shows up, reschedule, hack city!

 

[JimNtexas]

I strongly recommend a local retailer. If you just call the 800 number you may have the cast from deliverance in your house.

 

[daboogas94e]

some DNS tech's are nut jobs, I wouldn't let half of them in my house after working for them for about 6 months