Echostar DTV Pal DV discontinued?

[Nyth]

I have sold a couple of these units in the past and the customers seem to really like them. I played with one of them before I delivered and installed it for one customer and I thought that it was a very solid unit.

I had somebody request one of them in November and I placed a back order with my distributer. I got a call in early December that they had been notified that they will not be able to get them anymore. I inferred that the unit had been discontinued.

Does anybody have any information about what is going on with the DTV pal DVR?

I suggested to the customer that he purchase a ViP612 from me but he did not want to pay the $10/mo fee to subscribe to the locals only package from Dish network.

Kenn.

 

[QCK]

You should be able to get them at sears:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_05757709000P?keyword=dtvpal

A few weeks ago I had a 5 minute phone survey about how I liked the PAL and if I would have any interest in ordering movies through it. I doubt it is going to be discontinued any time soon.

 

[Nyth]

Sorry, but I am not going to pay $300 for a unit and be able to sell it at a profit. My dealer cost is WAY lower than that. I was selling them for less than that INSTALLED and still felt I was doing well on them. (Antenna sales and service was not included.)

Kenn

 

[bicker]

They're not intended for resale. Rather, they're intended for sale by Sears to end-customers.

 

[boba]

NYTH maybe you need to try buying directly from DISH instead of a Distributer.

 

[QCK]

Thats what it sounds like, you need to contact Dish to see if you can re-sell by way of them. The lady on the phone doing the survey confirmed to me that as an end user you cannot buy them through Dish anymore.

 

[bicker]

FWIR, Sears has secured an exclusive, so I doubt that they'd be willing to sell them wholesale (to anyone except Sears) either.

 

[robertjp]

Is Sears the only place to buy these in the US? Im not crazy about $299. Anybody know of any other atsc tuners with a no subscribtion dvr?

 

[bicker]

I believe that Channel Master is now selling a re-badged version of the DTVPal, as the CM-7000PAL DVR.

Channel Master CM-7000PAL DVR

Of course, they want $399 for it.

I think it is clear that these devices are simply less profitable to sell than a lot of us would like them to be. The technology has definitely progressed, but it seems that that only drives the price do so far. It seems we really need to get to the point where the vast majority of the small percentage of folks who rely solely on OTA reception are willing to kick-in for a DVR, before we'll see the price back down where it was when the DTVPal DVR was being heavily discounted by retailers. And I'm not sure that the folks who rely solely on OTA reception are really going to do that.

 

[boba]

If you have a DISH system you can look for a used 921 or 942 receiver. Should be in the $50-100 range if you are a shopper.