Programming advice?

[mrgreen4242]

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this but I need some advice. A little background: my small town just got a DSL from a smaller local company, so I can ditch Comcast (and Verizon for landline service, woot) and do DSL+dish.

I'm mostly interested in three things:

1) Price
2) HD (mainly locals, as I'm not willing to pay $20 for the 2 or 3 that interest me)
3) DVR (I dearly love my TiVo, but I'll drop it for a lower price and HD recording).

From what I can tell, there is an 'unadvertised' DVR Advantage 100 plan that would get me a free vip722, the "basic 100" channels, locals and DVR service for $40 per month. For $6 more I can "enable" OTA HD (no local HDs on satellite in my area). So total price is $46 per month.

I saw there's some upcoming changes to the HD pricing structure, but since that's all hypothetical I'll just ignore it until February.

Here's my questions:
1) Is paying the extra $4 or so for locals (Top 100+DVR = $36, DVR Advantage = $40) worth it for ease of use - in other words, how well does the 722 integrate the OTA tuner into the menus and guides, etc?

2) With the free HD for 6 months (with 18 month commitment) can I drop the HD package after the 6 months, as long as I keep the regular package? It's also not very clear on the Dishnetwork website exactly what HD channels are included for your $20 if you have the Top 100 package. Is there a detailed list of these somewhere?

3) Is there a better package for me or a better promotion that I'm not seeing based on my stated criteria?

4) Can you get a waiver for HD locals? They carry a nearby market (Detroit, I'm in the Lansing, MI market) and some of my local HD OTA broadcasts are a bit far flung, and might require directional antenna's aimed 80 degrees apart.

5) With OTA HD, will the installers mount an antenna (for additional fee), and will they sell you an antenna with your equipment?

6) Am I doing something wrong on the dish website that I can't select an HDTV and a DVR at the same time, nor can I get the DVR Advantage plans to show up on the order screens?

Thanks for any advice, I'm really looking forward to getting rid of Comcast.

 

[GNASH]

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this but I need some advice. A little background: my small town just got a DSL from a smaller local company, so I can ditch Comcast (and Verizon for landline service, woot) and do DSL+dish.

I'm mostly interested in three things:

1) Price
2) HD (mainly locals, as I'm not willing to pay $20 for the 2 or 3 that interest me)
3) DVR (I dearly love my TiVo, but I'll drop it for a lower price and HD recording).

From what I can tell, there is an 'unadvertised' DVR Advantage 100 plan that would get me a free vip722, the "basic 100" channels, locals and DVR service for $40 per month. For $6 more I can "enable" OTA HD (no local HDs on satellite in my area). So total price is $46 per month.

I saw there's some upcoming changes to the HD pricing structure, but since that's all hypothetical I'll just ignore it until February.

Here's my questions:
1) Is paying the extra $4 or so for locals (Top 100+DVR = $36, DVR Advantage = $40) worth it for ease of use - in other words, how well does the 722 integrate the OTA tuner into the menus and guides, etc?

2) With the free HD for 6 months (with 18 month commitment) can I drop the HD package after the 6 months, as long as I keep the regular package? It's also not very clear on the Dishnetwork website exactly what HD channels are included for your $20 if you have the Top 100 package. Is there a detailed list of these somewhere?

3) Is there a better package for me or a better promotion that I'm not seeing based on my stated criteria?

4) Can you get a waiver for HD locals? They carry a nearby market (Detroit, I'm in the Lansing, MI market) and some of my local HD OTA broadcasts are a bit far flung, and might require directional antenna's aimed 80 degrees apart.

5) With OTA HD, will the installers mount an antenna (for additional fee), and will they sell you an antenna with your equipment?

6) Am I doing something wrong on the dish website that I can't select an HDTV and a DVR at the same time, nor can I get the DVR Advantage plans to show up on the order screens?

Thanks for any advice, I'm really looking forward to getting rid of Comcast.

I will try to answer some of your questions (at least to the best of my knowledge).

#1)Is paying the extra $4 or so for locals: Yes. If you don't pay the extra, you will NOT get the guide for your locals. All it will say is "Digital Service" so recording to the DVR would require you to set up a Manual Timer (it can be done, but is definitely harder than having the Guide info).

#2) With the free HD for 6 months (with 18 month commitment) can I drop the HD package after the 6 months, as long as I keep the regular package? As far as I was told when we were considering our upgrade, you can drop the HD as long as you keep one of the America's Top Packages (without a penalty)

#3) Is there a better package for me or a better promotion that I'm not seeing based on my stated criteria? This link is a listing of the channels that are carried in each of the AT Packages. Best bet is to look through for the channels that interest you and decide from there. We have the AT200. DISH Network -- Programming Package Comparison

#4) Can you get a waiver for HD locals? NO, but there are people who "Move" to get locals from the area they want. If you do a search from this board for the term "MOVE" you will find instructions.

#5) With OTA HD, will the installers mount an antenna (for additional fee), and will they sell you an antenna with your equipment? You would need to contact a local retailer (or Claude at Dishstore.net) and talk to him about it. Some will, some won't.

#6) Am I doing something wrong on the dish website that I can't select an HDTV and a DVR at the same time, nor can I get the DVR Advantage plans to show up on the order screens? I am not sure on this one, but I would contact Claude at Dishstore.net or a local retailer. They will be able to set you up for sure.

Hope that helps and Welcome to Satguys,
Geoff

 

[AgraJag]

Answer to #6: You apparently have to add a second analog TV in order to be able to select DVR with the HDTV (even if you don't plan to hook the DVR up to a second TV). After you're done selecting all of the features you want (make sure you have local channels selected) and click next several times, you'll get a message that you now have the DVR advantage and you'll see the updated pricing on the right.