Have you switched from D* to E*?

[MrSnarkyPants]

Are you glad you did?

Here's my story:

We've had D* since moving into our new house about a year and a half ago. We have one SD DirecTivo (R10) in the living room and a standard d* receiver in the bedroom.

The DirecTivo in the last few days has started to flake out. It's made bad recordings that lock the unit up when you try to play them back, and it missed a bunch of recordings last week. This morning, it locked up with a white screen while watching live TV and the only way to get things going again was kill the power.

We LOVE our DirecTivo. I don't like what I see about the box that D* has replaced it with. So "upgrading" to a R15 is a step down in my eyes.

We have added a HDTV to our living room, watching OTA channels occasionally - mainly college football. So if I have to replace the receiver, I'd like to move to a HD receiver. (While I could get a HD Tivo from D*, how long would it be before they obsolete it?)

I'm not a real fan of Rupert Murdoch, so if I can't get a Tivo from him and I can't own my hardware anymore, I'd be just as happy moving my business to E*.

So, my questions for those who have moved from D* to E*:

-- Are you satisfied with the service from E*?
-- How is the DVR? Is there much of a learning curve after being spoiled by Tivo?
-- Have they worked the bugs out of the VIP 622? The last time I looked at E* (a year and a half ago) their DVRs were kinda buggy.
-- If you were to do it all over, would you pick E* again?

 

[bobl]

Just switched back to E* on June 1st after two years with D*. I switched because I was also very concerned about their new SD DVR being so poorly received and the fact that their new HD DVR, if it ever comes out, is going to essentially be an HD version of this unit.

After two months back I'm very happy with the switch. The HD picutre quality is much better than D* and with 29 national HD channels compared to D*'s 10 it's a no brainer if you're interested in HD programming. Many of these channels (i.e. Voom) have limited appeal but they are available and E* is going to be adding others shortly (Food Network, FSN's, etc .).

I have the VIP 622 HD DVR and while it's not perfect it's easily the best DVR E* has ever put out. I've had only one missed recording in two months (I noticed it and rebooted the machine losing only ten minutes of the program) so I'd say it's pretty reliable. Previously I had the HD Tivo and while I liked it I'm no Tivo fanboy. I like the 622 better due to it being very responsive to commands unlike the HD Tivo which can take forever to do anything especially when viewing the guide or setting up recordings.

To summarize, I'm very happy with the switch and don't regret it for a second. I should also mention that prior to switching back to E* I left them after being their customer for five years because of their poor DVR design. I had a 921 unit which was so unreliable that I switched to D* to get the HD Tivo. I was happy with that decision for awhile but the reliablity of the 622 shows E* has finally gotten the design of their DVR's right and their greater commitment to HD programming makes them the choice for me.

One last thing-in my market both D* and E* provide MPEG-4 digital locals but only E* has a DVR to record them. Today, there's just no reason to pick D* over E* if you want HD programming unless you have to have the Sunday Ticket.

 

[bookwalk]

I switched to Dish from VOOM over a year ago and have the 622. I like the HD and have had no problems with the 622--occasional audio sync problem, but that is a software glitch that everybody has. 622 DVR is not difficult and now there's an option to set a manual timer for OTA locals.

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[Rukes]

-- Are you satisfied with the service from E*?
-- How is the DVR? Is there much of a learning curve after being spoiled by Tivo?
-- Have they worked the bugs out of the VIP 622? The last time I looked at E* (a year and a half ago) their DVRs were kinda buggy.
-- If you were to do it all over, would you pick E* again?

1) So far. Very nice when I signed up. Only major sticking point is the installation...D* does it next day, easy. E* took a week, then they had to delay it another week when they ran out of equipment. The video quality over the D* TiVo is much better, especially with HD. My D* TiVo displayed all HD channels much darker than SD channels which caused a mess for my TV settings. The ViP 622 looks good across all channels.

2) Its a bit to get used to, but it works well. I went from a regular TiVo for Cable, to the D* TiVo, to the Moxie for Adelphia, then to the ViP622. TiVo is still the easiest of the bunch. Only complaint is I wish they put native pass-through right from the start, or at least a one-button HD format switch like the D* TiVo.

3) Hasn't been buggy to me so far, but then again it has only been a week.

4) Definately. I am kicking myself for trying out D* in the first place.

 

[Greg Bimson]

I'm not a real fan of Rupert Murdoch, so if I can't get a Tivo from him and I can't own my hardware anymore, I'd be just as happy moving my business to E*.

Just wondering, but the only HD DVR that DirecTV has currently is the TiVo version. And if you are "leasing" it, you'd be covered if there are problems with it.

The big one is if you are in antenna range of local channels. If you want to record two OTA HD channels at the same time, you can. That doesn't happen on the ViP 622.

 

[MrSnarkyPants]

Just wondering, but the only HD DVR that DirecTV has currently is the TiVo version. And if you are "leasing" it, you'd be covered if there are problems with it.

The big one is if you are in antenna range of local channels. If you want to record two OTA HD channels at the same time, you can. That doesn't happen on the ViP 622.

I live about a mile and a half away from the transmitter farm. You can see the towers and their strobe lights in parts of our neighborhood. I can get anything I want over the air.

The only thing that's held us back on the HD Tivo in the past has been the lack of content from D*. There isn't enough content there to justify the subscription cost.

How does simultaneous recording work on the 622?

 

[SoonerSteve]

I recently switched from D* to E* after having D* for a year. With D* I had the HDTivo and SDTivo. While you will get wildly differing opinions between people I think the E* picture is sharper both in SD and HD.

1. So far the service has been nice. I have only been on for 2 weeks and haven't had to play CSR roulette so I can't say for certain it is good.

2. I haven't found the DVR learning curve to be too steep. I think the Tivo interface was a little more intuitive, but I haven't had trouble getting the 622 to do what I want.

3. I have audio synch problems with one local and the 622 will reboot if I am recording an HD channel and try to change to another channel in single mode. Frustrating and usually results in 6 minutes of missed recording while the thing reboots.

4. I am definitely happy I made the switch. Waiting for the MPEG4 DVR from D* and the lack of HD channels was getting old. E* also has 3 of 4 of my locals in HD while D* currently has none. I haven't experienced the Voom repetition problems because I just got the channels and have enjoyed the programming. Even the wife was impressed with the number of HD channels.

Good luck!

 

[Greg Bimson]

From what I recall, the 622 has three tuners: two satellite and one OTA. Unless you are going to receive your local channels from satellite, this means you can only record one digital OTA source at a time.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I've been with E* for 8 years, but I almost switched to D* in May/June of 2005.

Right now I am very glad that I did not. I'd hate to be stuck with D*'s paltry HD lineup.

 

[drbenson]

I was with D* for 6 years... Switched to E* yesterday. No regrets!

The VIP622 is no Tivo but then D* H10-250 is not much of a Tivo anymore either. Since they have left it to die without keeping up with all of Tivo software/functionality updates. The VIP622 does everything I want it too...It's still early to give a big thumbs up but I have no complaints as of now.

The PQ on E* is much better in my opinion, the HD looks much sharper.. and who could complain about all the HD channels

Now I'm off to Ebay to hawk all this D* equipment!

 

[mike1973]

Switched from D* this week. Got the HD Silver package and the 622. Install was good, I would sugest going with a reputable local company instead of calling Dish directly. I had an HD Tivo and had a love/hate relationship with it(I loved it but it was running SO SLOW). I was one of the 1st 5000 Tivo subscribers back with a 14hr standalone unit and have used them in some form since then. I was a little worried about the functionality of the 622 but so far I love it. The OTA tuner is great, I was able to take down the ugly antenna outside that I needed with the Tivo and switch to an inside antenna. PQ is much better on HD and better on SD too. All in all I'm very happy with the decision.

Mike

 

[cocoon]

After a couple years I finally got tired of the bad pq on DirecTV. DishNetwork really does have better quality not perfect but better enough imho to make the switch. The only exception would be if you get the distant networks in what they call HD however they seem to be removing those thats not really an issue anymore. Even most of the SD have better quality on dish network that was the most suprising thing to me.

There is one downside in some areas like mine the Dish 1000 Antenna is more prone to rain fade then the direcTV phase 3 antenna. I need help on getting DishNetwork to upgrade the antenna to the 1000+ antenna after that I will be pretty damn close to being 100% satisfied with DishNetwork.

I had 2 HD Tivos so it was kind of difficult to get used the 622. I was able to sell them for a good price on ebay though I think I could of sold them for a bit more on amazon though.

 

[ilkevinli]

I was with D* since 1996 and just switched to E*. It was the best decision I ever made. They have a lot more HD and that was my main reason for switching.

I had the HD TIvo with D* and let me tell you the 622 is a lot better. The PIP is awsome and the 622 does everything the HD Tive did but a LOT FASTER !. Granted the Tivo did some things with less button presses but thats about it.

You won't regret the switch.

 

[tnsprin]

I was with D* (and USSB) from late 1994 to 2000 when I switched to E* (and its one HD channel).

At the time of the switch I was really annoyed with D* customer support. Any call took 45 minutes to reach them.