I got my 6000 for father's day in 2002. I didn't get it hooked up right away though, and IIRC I got subscribed to HD just a couple of days after they added Discovery HD Theater. It took me awhile to get everything installed as I needed LOS to 61.5, in addition to 110/119. My 6000 had the 8vsb tuner and the 8psk module as well. Fortunately, our first digital local channel had fired up too, so I got HBO-HD, Discovery HD Theater, and CBS HD programming. I was in heaven - most beautiful picture I have ever seen, and frankly the quality of HD seems to have dropped, but I can't blame it all on Dish or my locals. I have a rear projection CRT based HDTV and lately the convergence goes out pretty quickly and although it was professionally calibrated long ago, I'm sure the PQ is not what it once was or could be.