ESPN HD & ESPN 2 HD on Dish 500 w/ 211 or 411

[Groverboy]

Hey everybody, I'm on a really tight budget (how many times have you read/heard that, right?) and I'm trying to find out: if I bought a used 211 or 411 receiver, would I be able to get ESPN-HD & ESPN2-HD on 110 and/or 119 with my existing Dish 500 dish? I wouldn't care if I'd be missing out on a bunch of HD channels; the deal is that I'm a big soccer fan so I'd be looking to just get service over the next month, into July, for the World Cup. Again, I only care about getting the ESPN networks in HD; I can get ABC-HD (which will also carry some W.C. games) over the air.

 

[Jimmerinwi]

Hey everybody, I'm on a really tight budget (how many times have you read/heard that, right?) and I'm trying to find out: if I bought a used 211 or 411 receiver, would I be able to get ESPN-HD & ESPN2-HD on 110 and/or 119 with my existing Dish 500 dish? I wouldn't care if I'd be missing out on a bunch of HD channels; the deal is that I'm a big soccer fan so I'd be looking to just get service over the next month, into July, for the World Cup. Again, I only care about getting the ESPN networks in HD; I can get ABC-HD (which will also carry some W.C. games) over the air.

First of all, yes, a 211 or 411 receiver would get ESPN in HD. But, you need to subscribe to HD programming in order to receive the HD feeds. Right now, with the 500 dish, your not subsribed to any HD programming. Calling Dish, they would want to have a tech come out and install a 1000.2 or .4 dish to receive all of the HD. Even if you would tell them you only want ESPN HD, it wouldn't matter to them. There may be upgrade charges involved depending on your account situation. Best thing to do is call or do an on-line chat, although with the new package changes effective June 3rd, the call centers are swamped, so you might want to wait until Monday to call. Not sure of how long the wait is for on-line chat.

 

[Groverboy]

Thanks for that info. I'm actually waiting for their on-line chat as I post this.

 

[kstuart]

ESPN-HD is on 110 and is on your Dish 500

ESPN2-HD is on 129 and is not on your Dish 500.

In your area, you may need a Dish 1000.4 for "Eastern Arc" which is 77, 72 and 61.5 and both channels are somewhere on those three slots as well.

IIRC, 411 is obsolete, you would need 211.

211k has OTA tuner as well

World Cup is also on Dish on Univision in HD in Spanish Language...

 

[garys]

411 is an early 211, 411 is mpeg4 and will work with no problems. Both the 211 and 411 have OTA, not just 211k.

 

[Groverboy]

Well, in my crazy scenario the technical side of things would probably have worked out, but I just chatted with a Dish rep--and Jimmerinw was right--Dish won't allow it; I would have to upgrade everything for $50 plus a $95 installation and a two-year contract.

 

[harshness]

Technically, there's no way you could get ESPN2HD with just a Dish500.

With an average Subscriber Acquisition Cost of well over $700, DISH Network isn't interested in a single month subscriber.