External HDD feature for ViP622 and ViP722: coming 8/15: $39.99

[MrBoylan]

Hey, gang,

Posted this over at dbsforums, but I thought you'd be interested as well. I chatted with some of the EchoStar corporate folks at a press-only preview event in NYC last week. The ViP722 is coming on 8/15. Also on 8/15 the firmware upgrade for the ViP622 and ViP722 to enable the external hard drive storage feature will be available for a fee of $39.99 (per household, unlimited units).

I've posted several other details in the full article on Big Picture Big Sound:

DISH Network Releases HDTV DVR with Unlimited Storage

Enjoy!

-Chris

 

[Smith P.]

Welcome to SG ! And thanks for the news.

Sorry, but I should point to this.
There is a typo in the article - must be 500 GB , not MB.
Also, 'There will be a one-time "per household" fee of $39.99 to upgrade either the ViP622 or ViP722 DVRs to use the external HDD option' sounds illogical ( technically speaking) - when the upgrade will be pushed to all 622 and 722 models 8/15/07. Seems to me it just another method to milk money from customers. When Dish begin testing the market (IMO this forums), they suggest $20 or $30 one time fee; look - shamelessly raise it to $40.
Other thing what I'm concern - those 55 hrs of HD on 722; recently it was posted here ( Scott ?) the model will have same 30 hrs HD as current 622, all increased space ( 500-320=180 GB) will be dedicated to VOD/DISHOnline. And I have a reason to believe - new AT&T 622HZ have the 500 GB disk, but allow customer to have 20 hrs HD.

 

[guerra]

If there's a one time fee of $40, do you have to pay an extra monthly ($5) to use the external hard drive as well?

 

[Smith P.]

Just read that article.

 

[guerra]

ah, I see. I didn't catch the link, the font color blended in too much for me on my dim screen. thanks.

 

[anthonyi]

Will any USB External Hard Drive work?

 

[riffjim4069]

Hmmm. Cable has offered external storage (eSata) free-of-charge for the past 2 1/2 years. E* is finally offering a slightly improved version, but we have to pay $39.99 for this privilege? Ok, I can see a one-time fee of $10 or $15 (perhaps even $20), but $40 is outrageous.

Sorry Charlie, but the price is not right!!!

 

[tsduke]

$40 is way too steep! I'm not so excited about external storage anymore.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

We covererd all this stuff here a few weeks ago (especially in the retailer chat recap which is where a lot of this information came from)

Also as of yesterday the HDD enabling fee was still not determined.

 

[Poke]

Well Scott let us know when you for sure hear some on the HDD Enabling fee I had several friends ask me about this.

 

[lakebum431]

Other thing what I'm concern - those 55 hrs of HD on 722; recently it was posted here ( Scott ?) the model will have same 30 hrs HD as current 622, all increased space ( 500-320=180 GB) will be dedicated to VOD/DISHOnline.

Scott any word on this? I also heard a rumor about some of the increased space on the 722 being given to the customer side of the partition, but it was not from a very reliable source so didn't know if I should believe it or not.

 

[MrBoylan]

Welcome to SG ! And thanks for the news.

Sorry, but I should point to this.
There is a typo in the article - must be 500 GB , not MB.

Oops. thanks for the catch. But what's a few million bytes among friends?

Also, 'There will be a one-time "per household" fee of $39.99 to upgrade either the ViP622 or ViP722 DVRs to use the external HDD option' sounds illogical ( technically speaking) - when the upgrade will be pushed to all 622 and 722 models 8/15/07. Seems to me it just another method to milk money from customers. When Dish begin testing the market (IMO this forums), they suggest $20 or $30 one time fee; look - shamelessly raise it to $40.

Don't shoot the messenger! That fee came straight from the horse's mouth (Echostar corporate). By all means, make your voice hear and complain! Maybe they'll reconsider or will offer discounts for long-term customers? Hey, it never hurts to ask.

Other thing what I'm concern - those 55 hrs of HD on 722; recently it was posted here ( Scott ?) the model will have same 30 hrs HD as current 622, all increased space ( 500-320=180 GB) will be dedicated to VOD/DISHOnline. And I have a reason to believe - new AT&T 622HZ have the 500 GB disk, but allow customer to have 20 hrs HD.

The 55/350 recording numbers come directly out of an internal "Pre-release" fact sheet on the ViP722 with a rev date of 6/26/2007. But I did check with my Echostar contact before publishing the info to make sure there was no embargo on the information.

If I hear more, I'll let y'all know.

-CB

 

[MrBoylan]

We covererd all this stuff here a few weeks ago (especially in the retailer chat recap which is where a lot of this information came from).

Actually all of the information in the article came from my conversations with the Echostar people at the Digital Life press preview last week plus a few follow-up calls and e-mails since then. I don't know what a "retailer recap" is.

Also as of yesterday the HDD enabling fee was still not determined.

Yesterday is when I got the number from Echostar. If you have direct Echostar contacts in corporate, please ask them to review the article for accuracy. And if they'd like to contact us directly, I will put them in touch with my Echostar contact so they can discuss the issue amongst themselves.

Thanks!

-CB

 

[navychop]

Re' the article: Why would anyone want to upgrade from a ViP622 to a ViP722, much less pay $200 for the privledge? Like black over silver that much? For $200, you could get another HD DVR. Makes no sense.

It will be interesting to see what Dish puts out officially.

Anyway, I've got another site bookmarked now. BPBS is one I was unaware of.

 

[Cyclone]

Looks like I am about to pay $40 to be Dish's customer for life.

After building up a library of HD recordings, how could I ever think of dropping them for FiOS or DirectTV? I'm tell'n you. This is going to be like Crack to a lot of people. Especially if you can add more and more Ext Drives. I still think that Dish should have made this feature free. Not because it is expensive, but because of the customer retention quality it possesses.

 

[lakebum431]

Yep, you're right Cyclone. No question that this is going to be a huge customer retention tool. I agree with other posters. I think $40 is too much. I think 20bucks sounds like a much better number. Actually let's make it the classic $19.95.

 

[navychop]

Looks like I am about to pay $40 to be Dish's customer for life.

After building up a library of HD recordings, how could I ever thing of dropping them for FiOS or DirectTV? I'm tell'n you. This is going to be like Crack to a lot of people. Especially if you can add more and more Ext Drives. I still think that Dish should have made this feature free. Not because it is expensive, but because of the customer retention quality it possesses.

When this clicks with Dish execs, we'll probably see promotions: "Sign up now, get external storage turned on free, and we'll GIVE you a USB external storage unit!"

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would be happy to pay $39 for it. As I have been posting for awhile the fee was expected to be in the range of $29 to $49, and $39 is in the middle so that not a bad thing.

I think as far as my contacts go, I cant go any higher then some of them.

You are welcome to post here but please don't spam the site.

 

[voripteth]

I'm disappointed that you can't record directly to the external drive but at least you can play back from it. I can see myself spending time each week archiving programs to the external drive to make sure the internal drive has room to record.

Heck, it would be a nice feature to automate the archiving to the external drive. How about a checkbox on the timer that when checked would copy the show to the external drive after it finishes recording?

As for the $39.99 I think it is too high considering the value it has for customer retention. It really should be free but I don't think I'd balk too much at a one time $19.99 fee. There should NEVER be a monthly fee for this option.

 

[tigerfan33]

I would be happy to pay $39 for it. As I have been posting for awhile the fee was expected to be in the range of $29 to $49, and $39 is in the middle so that not a bad thing.

I think as far as my contacts go, I cant go any higher then some of them.

You are welcome to post here but please don't spam the site.

Scott
Have you heard if the fee will apply to the 211 when it becomes availble?? Will there also be a monthly fee for it and is it still December?