Can you install the receiver yourself or does Dish have to send someone to do it?
I recently went through this so I can offer a bit of info. I am a 3 year Dish subscriber, out of contract for 2 years (only signed up with a 1-year). I had a leased 625 (just 2 TV's in my home) at no charge with the America's Everything pack.
About a month ago, I finally bought an HDTV and called Dish to upgrade. To upgrade to the 722, it cost me $125 and a 2-year agreement, paid via CC while on the phone with them. The 622 would have been $100. I figured that for $25 I'd want the larger hard drive and the black chassis matches my AV gear better than silver. With the 622 you only get 30 hours of HD recording. With the 722 you get 55 hours of HD recording space. Depends on your needs but 30 hours would have been cutting it close for my family, so the 722 was absolutely worth the extra $25 for me. The space goes quickly and trust me, you're going to want to record as much as possible in HD once you experience it.
I wasn't really thrilled about paying $125 for a leased receiver, nor having to 'sign' a 2-year agreement. After talking to three different reps over the course of an hour, none of them would budge on this, even when I threatened to cancel my service and go to cable or D*. All they'd do is tell me how much better E* was and how I'd regret leaving. I wish you better luck if you try to talk them into a cheaper upgrade.
I kept the America's Everything Pack and added on the $10/month HD Essentials. So instead of $99/month I'm now paying $109/month (before taxes). I just got my first bill after all this and it appears correct. Though it's a bit confusing because you can see where they 'charged' me $75 for the receiver-upgrade fee and $50 for the installation, then credited back the $125 from the CC payment. That's somewhat misleading to me to say it's 'FREE installation!' and then charge for it anyway. Whatever, Dish.
They did have to install a new dish. It's a 3-LNB Dish 1000 (a 'wing', I believe it's called), and took down the old Dish 500. Sats 110,119, and now,129 (for the HD feeds). In some markets I think that you might need a second dish at 61.5 instead of the Dish1k. They used the same mast & wiring, just a different dish & tri-LNB head. Re-peaked me to better signals that I was getting before, so I'm happy with that. Installers brought the 722 with them and swapped out the leased 625. The two installers were at my house for a little more than an hour, although a good 30 minutes of that was spent with one of the installers on the phone with Dish trying to get the HD channels activated. He was a riot to listen to while talking to the Dish tech support. Very entertaining.
In the end, it was an easy upgrade experience. My installers were fantastic and did a really great job. Signal strengths are superb. I am a bit miffed about the upgrade fee and the 2-year contract but,
c'est la vie. Not much I can do about it now, other than enjoy the HD. And to that end, I can't believe I've waited so long to jump on the HD bandwagon. It's pretty incredible. You won't regret it!
