Have you considered getting an HD receiver? If you are on paperless billing and autopay (Some even said they were able to get it without these two, but you may have to play CSR roulette), then you could get HD for Life to get channel 340 along with possibly some other HD only channels like HDNet. We had an HD receiver on an SDTV for our first year with Dish. It actually is not that bad when going into the menu to change the settings to 4X3#2 and 480i. We had component cables along with the red and while audio cables. Very nice picture and sound for an SDTV...
I understand not wanting to pay for a new setup and box. However, if you are a long time customer, they may work with you.