Question about 942 to 622 upgrade offer

[electr0n]

I was just wondering what the opinion is about what happens when the 942 to 622 upgrade (99$ lease special) offer ends in August? The reason I'm asking is that I currently am leasing both a 942 and an 811 and am very happy with both of them. In fact my 942 and 811 have performed flawlessly for a year and I'm not ready to jump on the 622 bandwagon just yet. The reports of people losing HDMI output periodically concerns me and I'd at least like to see that issue get resolved.

So to me it makes sense to just wait a while but I was wondering what everyone thinks will happen when the special offer ends? Will the 622 cost more to lease then? I can't believe that will be the case. Or is the logic that the 942 at that time will be effectively worthless due to the upcoming MPEG-4 switchover and they won't offer anything for the trade-in at that time?

I've only been a Dish customer for a year (came over from Voom) and have been happy with the service. But I would think that at the time Dish switches to MPEG-4 they would have to provide their customers a comparable MPEG-4 receiver to what they have today at no or minimal cost. Otherwise at that point the legacy MPEG-2 receivers will be useless and how could Dish charge for service that can't be received by the customer? In other words if I wait long enough will I get my 942/811 replaced by a 622/211 for free? Or am I dreaming? ;-)

Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[bhelms]

The obsolete receivers will still have value as SD and OTA HD only tuners and E* will probably still allow them for existing HD customers beyond the M-2 cut-off date, whenever that is. But at that time I would expect a big drop in the remaining value of 942s and all other M-2 only HD receivers. Right now you can probably get more for an owned 921 or 942 by selling it on ebay or equivalent, but that value is constantly falling and at some point it will drop below the current $200 credit value. Owners and leasees both have a guaranteed residual value for their 921s/942s with the current upgrade program at least until 1 Aug. Another program might also come along that's more attractive.

My guess is that the 622 and 211 prices (own) will continue to drop just like everything else electronic until they're also obsolete. Cheaper leases might be in the offing in terms of shorter commitments or some other kind of package. AFAIK there is no new compression technology (MPEG-8??) just over the horizon, but E* will continue to deploy better and more versatile receivers with the existing technology, and the churn will continue. So when do you take the plunge? The only way I think you might ever get a 622 or 211 for "free" will be when E* no longer supports your 942 or 811; if you have a breakdown the replacement equipment will be the 622 or 211. (There is precedence for that with earlier models.) Whether that replacement is "free" will depend on what warranty or HP plan you have. Otherwise I can believe that they will cut-off M-2 programming at an announced date and your current HD channels will go "dark" and you will no longer be an HD sub unless you pay to upgrade again, but that might be nominal for a 622 or 211 by then.

Your decision as to when to jump on a 622 (or something newer) will likely depend more on when programming you want is available only in M-4, like your HD LiLs or the yet-to-be-released national HD channels like HGTV-HD, etc. You're already missing at least 7 channels that the 942 and 811 can't receive. So once again it comes down to a personal decision based on your own entertainment needs and budget. Also noteworthy, altho' equipment and upgrade prices with continue to vary considerably, we can be fairly certain that the cost of programming is headed in only one direction...!

PS - I am one of those with the "lost" HDMI, actually never had it with the new 622, and yes, it's frustrating! But the 622 has a lot of other great features and since the component connections still look great, I'm willing to wait just a bit more for a fix before demanding a replacement.

BRgds...

 

[electr0n]

Thanks for the reply. You bring up a good point - I assume now that if my 942 dies today (it's a lease) that they would replace it with another 942. But at some future date they would probably go ahead and replace it with a 622.

The new channels aren't that important to me and I'm extremely happy with the stability of the 942 so I'll probably wait until August anyway. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

With all of the 942s (and 921s) that Dish has collected on the 622 trade-up deal, I imagine Dish has a nice stockpile of these for maintenance replacements. Even if a lot of them are sold off to Express-Vu, they probably won't be running out of them anytime soon.

 

[Claude Greiner]

The stock pile of 942's will probably be sold off as standard def DVR's

 

[kevink]

Maybe they are being sent to ATT. I just checked today, and according to their web page, their dual tuner HD DVR is the 942.

Hopefully, by the time I'm ready to upgrade to HDTV, they have another option that supports Mpeg4.

 

[electr0n]

Thanks for all the responses. Ironically the decision was made for me...
One of my tuners died in my 942 so I ordered a 622 upgrade as a replacement.

I think I jinxed it by saying my 942 had been working flawlessly for a year!

So in about a week I'll be on the 622 bandwagon too!