I will not invest in a 410 because there is no promise of longevity with that out dated system. I just don't want to invest and get screwed again Dec 31 2011 or whenever Comcast throws in the towel for the 410. Getting only 4.5 years out of my almost $600 4DTV is a bad return on my investment, since my Monterey 50 gave me 16 years.
18 months on 4D for me, give or take...luckily mine was marketed by a local auction house as a "commercial satellite receiver" and nobod knew what it was...except me. I've always enjoyed satellite and have the luxury of two birdview dishes to use for fun, no matter what the receiver may be.
I reluctantly agree on the shaky nature of a move to a 410 receiver. We, the competent, "willing to spend money" for good equipment people of C-Band are rightly suspicious of the length of service on skyvision's 410 offerings. Not because of them, but their reselling of someone else's signals. We, as a group have been told that large, corporate concerns are more important than we, the legitimately-subscribing smaller group are. And, when you think about it, we're not the ones that need constant service calls! We do our own!
Ideally, if longevity and maybe even growth of selection can be provided, I would be ditching the 4d in favor of a new positioner that talks to an FTA box, and feeding a 410 signal from the same dish for when I want "standard" cable channels. But, how long will the $129 investment go before it's thrown out? Is there any "channel" (no pun intended) that anyone has to the provider of 410's programming to know how they stand on its viability and continuance for a reasonable amount of time? When you start adding up equipment, the cost begins to equal more than a few months of cable, and loses the hobbyist the "independence" of what we all enjoy....picking signals on our own from the sky!
Would be nice if a "Special Former 4D customer" purchase price" from skyvision to bolster the subs on 410's might help show that we still don't want to move to small dish or cable. The only thing that talks to the large corporation is dollars. I've not seen anything on Skyvision's site to indicate a move to 410 and away from 4D is a solid one for consumers.