DISH HD Receivers For Dummies

[TheTimm]

With the impending reappearance of my beloved Voom channels on Dish, I'm looking into getting Dish, but I know very little about it. I've heard that you can subscribe to just the HD Pak (and presumably the Voom Pak as well), but that you must own the receiver to do this. True? If so, could someone give me a quick summary/description of the different HD receivers?
I've heard the numbers 6000, 811, 921, and 942 thrown around and have deduced that these are all HD receivers. True? Are some of them DVR's as well? Are one or two of these considered "better" than the others? Any input/advice would be appreciated.

 

[DWS44]

Actually is it all in what equipment you decide to get when you sign up. You dont have to own any of the equipment...including the HD receivers. (no one is quite sure what is going on with the Voom additions as I type this)

You are correct, all the receivers you mentioned are HD receivers. Of the receivers you mention the 811 and 942 are the most current non-DVR (811) and DVR (942) models. You would want to select one of those for your HD. The 6000 is also non-dvr, and was the prececessor to the 811, and as far as I know you cant get it anymore. The 921, a dvr, was the predecessor to the 942 and is still available, but not a very good receiver. Do a search on here and you'll see lots of posts from folks about 921 problems.

Since you will be a new sub, you can get the 942 on a lease, but you will have to pay a $250 upfront fee to get it on the lease (purchase price is $699) but most folks seem to be pretty happy with the 942. You can also get the non-HD DVR (the 625 receiver) if you don't plan to record HD, but you would still have to have an 811 to see the HD channels.

With their lease plans, all other receivers besides the 942 would be free. If you cancel the service, you would have to return the leased receivers. If you get either of the HD receivers, you also have to maintain the HD pack on your sub, or they make you return those if you cancel that portion of your sub.

The only advice I would throw out is make sure you get the equipment you want WHEN YOU SIGNUP the first time...It is VERY difficult to upgrade leased equipment once you are a sub...after that you generally have to buy anything you want to add to the service at full price, if they let you buy one at all. It isnt unusual for a new receiver to be completely unavailable (at any price) to an existing customer for, in some cases, quite some time after it's release.

 

[TheTimm]

Thank you. That was very helpful.

 

[JohnDoe#2]

I've heard that you can subscribe to just the HD Pak (and presumably the Voom Pak as well), but that you must own the receiver to do this.

Yes, this is true as well. If, for some reason the HD and/or VOOM Pak is all you want you can purchase the system and pay only for those plus a $5/month access fee.

But considering that you can get the equipment and get it installed for a much lower upfront cost if you subscribe to a core package for as little as $26.99/month (with free additional channels for the 1st 3 months) it probably makes more sense to lease the eqmt and sign up for 12 months.

Why not find a knowledgeable, experienced, full-service dealer in your area and get a good demonstration as well as all the info & options available to you?

 

[MNHTUG]

What sats do the HD channels come from for Dish? Years ago, all hd was on 61.5. Do we need to upgrade to a superdish in order to receive HD channels with our new 811?

 

[HokieEngineer]

First, the current HD programming is on the 110 sat. Normal dish 500 will receive that. CBS-HD for qualifying customers is on 148 and 61.5. The new voom channels will be at 61.5. This requires a second 19" dish.

Next, the receivers. If you want a barebones HD only cheap-o solution, buy an 811 or 6000. There are tons on ebay, or dishstore.net. For the 6000, its an older model, but generally stable. You need to buy one that has the 8PSK adaptor to view dish HD programming, and the 8VSB adaptor to view over the air HD digital programming. Also, you will need a "yellow card" with the 6000 to view dish HD programming. If the receiver comes with a "blue card" you'll need dish to send you a new card for $50. The 811 is a newer version of the 6000, but the 8PSK/8VSB modules are integrated, there is no smartcard, and it has dvi output. The software is a little bit more buggy as well.

You should be able to find a receiver for less than $200 on ebay. Not sure what new prices are.

As for the programming, the el cheapo hd only solution is to call and sub just to the HD pak. Its $10 and you get espnhd, tnthd, discoveryhd, hdnet, hdmovies. Since you arent subscribing to one of the real programming packages, they charge a $5 fee. So its really $15/mnth. If you have two receivers, they charge you $5 for the extra receiver on the account. If you want your voom channels, it looks like you'll be paying another $5 a month.


The 921 was really a "beta" receiver and has been replaced by the 942. Thats basically your choice for HD-DVR. Keep in mind anything you buy today will not be able to receive the new Mpeg4 HD channels set to debut in 2006. This is one reason why I decided NOT to plunk down $$$$ for a HD-DVR that wont get all the channels in less than a year.

 

[TheTimm]

Why not find a knowledgeable, experienced, full-service dealer in your area and get a good demonstration as well as all the info & options available to you?

I think that's what I'll do. I recently learned that DishStore.Net (see sponsor at the top of the page) is actually located about three miles from my house (oddly enough, in a tire store!) -- but they're closed weekends (apparently Detroiters don't buy tires on Saturday. Who knew?). The reason I didn't think of this is Voom was my first experience with satellite tv, and their idea of a "knowledgeable, experienced, full-service dealer" was Sears. 'Nuff said?
Thanks for the advice.

 

[JohnDoe#2]

I think that's what I'll do. I recently learned that DishStore.Net (see sponsor at the top of the page) is actually located about three miles from my house (oddly enough, in a tire store!) -- but they're closed weekends (apparently Detroiters don't buy tires on Saturday. Who knew?). The reason I didn't think of this is Voom was my first experience with satellite tv, and their idea of a "knowledgeable, experienced, full-service dealer" was Sears. 'Nuff said?
Thanks for the advice.

That would be Metro-25 of Detroit. Drop by Monday or later in the week and ask for "Claude." He should be back from DISH's "Team Summit" all pepped up with lot's of poop.