What receivers are considered obsolete?

[Pepper]

Reason I ask, my in-laws are scheduled for a Hopper 3 install today. They got this email from Dish:

Subject: Your DISH equipment has been deactivated

Account Number: ****************

Dear **********,

The equipment below has been deactivated. Any requirement to return your current equipment is shown below.

ECHO DP 311 R00******** Return Not Required

This equipment is obsolete. Please do not attempt to sell it, as it cannot be used by another DISH customer. To find an electronics recycling location near you, visit ecyclingcentral.com.

Thank you for being a valued DISH customer.​

That got me thinking about that stack of old receivers in my closet upstairs that I should probably clean out. I have several of 301, 311, 322, 522, 625, a just-retired ViP622 and a 942. Are any of them not obsolete at this point or should I just dump the lot?

 

[mdram]

i would start with anything non-hd, and not mpeg4 compatible

 

[Hall]

With Dish, there's a difference between DOES NOT WORK, Dish will no longer activate but still works, and so on. For example, whatever receiver your in-laws had likely falls into the 2nd category.

The 622 definitely isn't "obsolete". I think the 522 and 625 could be used by customers on the Western Arc but not the Eastern Arc. If I'm not mistaken, the Eastern Arc is fully MPEG-4. I'm not familiar with the others other than their name and they're SD-only.

 

[Pepper]

I remember there being something about encoding QPSK or 8PSK, the 301 had the older one and the 311 had the newer one, so I know the 301s are definitely garbage. Sad about that stack of 311s though.

Worst case, there's some tiny IDE hard drives in those old SD DVRs that I could repurpose with a USB enclosure or something.

 

[Hall]

Worst case, there's some tiny IDE hard drives in those old SD DVRs that I could repurpose with a USB enclosure or something.

Look at the price of a similarly-sized USB flash drive before you spend too much effort going that route.

 

[Pepper]

LOL. Sometimes you just need to let go of the past.

 

[Miner]

LOL. Sometimes you just need to let go of the past.

Spoken by a non hoarder! Ha Ha. I still have my 942 with its huge 320GB HD that I plan to extract and use as something!

 

[DishSubLA]

The no longer working boxes are all the QPSK boxes. All boxes, including SD boxes with 8PSK capable hardware can still be activated and will work. MPEG2 vs. MEPG4 is NOT relevant to boxes that still work on Dish, only QPSK vs. 8PSK. However: The Eastern Arc is all MPEG4 boxes only, but the Western Arc is still MPEG2 for SD and MPEG4 for HD. However, both SD and HD on the WA are now modulated using 8PSK. The QPSK scheme is no longer used on Dish at all.

For SD, 322, 522, 625 on up--if I've forgetten any--have 8PSK capability and should still work and still allow activation. All of Dish HD boxes from ViP on to Hopper platforms have always had 8PSK capability built in. Someone already posted a list of boxes that no longer and will never work with Dish again and boxes that are 8PSK capable and still work on Dish. You can try a search or some very nice person may post a link. I just can't take the time to track it down, now. Good luck.

 

[Pepper]

Ah yes, I remember EA being MPEG-4 only, meaning VIP or newer required.

There is probably a long-term plan to retire all the MPEG-2 boxes so they can go all MPEG-4 on WA eventually.

 

[TheKrell]

For SD, 322, 522, 625 on up--if I've forgetten any--have 8PSK capability and should still work and still allow activation.

Note highlight above. The 311 and 111 both have 8PSK tuners. I know the 111 can no longer be activated for reasons unknown. And didn't we see a report around here somehwere that a customer was not allowed to reactivate his 311?

 

[navychop]

I thought Dish would no longer place 625 and earlier boxes in new installs. Writing on the wall.

 

[Hall]

What would Dish supply if a wants a DVR but no HD?

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[ChadT41]

What would Dish supply if a wants a DVR but no HD?

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722 without any HD subscription...

 

[Pepper]

What would Dish supply if a wants a DVR but no HD?

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Is that still even possible? I figured everybody was on "Free HD for life" by now.

 

[dare2be]

The QPSK scheme is no longer used on Dish at all.

I beg to differ. What about the 77W sat?

 

[nelson61]

I beg to differ. What about the 77W sat?

Last time I looked 77w was running 16-QAM

 

[dare2be]

Ok, thought QAM and QSPK were similar. Would old receivers work on QAM?

 

[DishSubLA]

Ok, thought QAM and QSPK were similar. Would old receivers work on QAM?

Similar but NOT the same, so they won't work with QAM. I think the older ViP boxes had QAM for the OTA connection (for reception of OTA via CableTV when Dish was still working to add more and more HD DMA's for LIL via sat), with the option via the menus, but I don't know if Dish just never activated that feature or just abandoned it soon after box manufacture. It seemed to never work when I tested it, and I can't recall any on this forum who ever got it to work, although they new of the menu option.

 

[bwexler]

There has been no mention of my almost new 3700.
Does that mean I can hook it up on my HWS account? (Tongue in Cheek).

 

[pattykay]

The no longer working boxes are all the QPSK boxes. All boxes, including SD boxes with 8PSK capable hardware can still be activated and will work.

Will still work: yes. Can still be activated: no.
At least, Dish would not let me reactivate my 512. They gave me a free ViP612 as a replacement, instead. I have a pair of 512's that I keep hooked up to the satellites, and they still work for free preview channels and to watch what was already recorded on them.