Yet another long time Dish Customer who needs help with DTV

[stonecold]

Ok well for reasons I wont go into I am looking to switch from Dish to Direct, mainly because Dish does not apperiate the fact that I been a customer since 2000 and just bad feelings about forceful replacements of my two favorite recievers 7200 and my 721. Problem is replacing a whole lot of equipment.

Here is my setup right now. 625 in single mode , 501, 722.

I would really like a 2nd hd dvr since we have 2 hdtv tvs but right now I am looking at 1 hddvr and 2 standard boxes. I dont know if there any deals on getting multiple dvrs or just the one enchanced box or what ever dtv.com calls it. I mean if the HD dvr is 199, why cant I forgo that and have 2 regular dvr that they list at 99... Well anyway if anyone knows of a any special deals right now looks like I take advantage of the american express promo since I am a card member.

dtv.com is also very vauge on what kind of hardware I would be getting. they say hd-dvr but I know that you guys have a couple different ones now.

Does the HD boxes have OTA (atsc) support?

Also can anyone explain the dtv site when I go to order and I pick recievers and a package it shows 0 for the equipment 1hddvr + 2 standard recievers and then like 45 dollars for first month bill. Do I pay the first months bill at that time?

Also is there a Must have HD deal like dish . as in just because I hd dvr I have to have hd service or pay hd enabling fee if I dont have hd service. Just incase I am not impressed with hd service?

 

[rad]

I'll answer a couple questions but don't know much about the current deals.

When you order from DirecTV you can't specify a specific receiver model, just a HD DVR, SD DVR, non-DVR HD, etc, it all depends on what the installer has on the truck. If you need to make sure you get a specific receiver the best bet is to find a local dealer/installer that can do that for you.

The only HD DVR that has ATSC support is the HR20 which has been replaced by the HR21 and HR23. You can add ATSC support to those boxes with the AM21 ATSC tuner addon. Many folks have been able to get DirecTV to throw it in for free if you say you need to watch such and such station in HD which D* doesn't carry yet.

I'd recommend getting HD non-DVR boxes, even if you don't have HD sets where you want them. You'd get the HD versions of channels then which have much better PQ even on SD sets. Plus I'd check out what MRV is in the CE section of this site for something that you might be interested in.

AFAIK, if you have HD hardware you need to pay the HD enabling fee. You also need to pay the DVR fee, but it's only once per account, not per DVR.

Don't forget to check with Plasma Concepts, a site sponsor and D* dealer, to see what deals they might be able to get you.

 

[stonecold]

I can live with just one advance unit and then over the corse of the next year buy what I need to get back to where I am now.

I will have to try that with Direct TV as there is a local ABC station WWSB 40 (ABC) Sarasota, that is not carried by anyone other then comcast as the tampa market already has another ABC WFST 28. It gets confusing how we have 2 ABC stations in the same market it makes my head hurt. lol

 

[levibluewa]

Stonecold...

Sent you a private message.

 

[toto]

I can live with just one advance unit and then over the corse of the next year buy what I need to get back to where I am now.

I will have to try that with Direct TV as there is a local ABC station WWSB 40 (ABC) Sarasota, that is not carried by anyone other then comcast as the tampa market already has another ABC WFST 28. It gets confusing how we have 2 ABC stations in the same market it makes my head hurt. lol

I switched 10 days ago. When I trained the wife that HGTV was no longer on 112, things improved. She was not happy. So far the only honest negative I have is no OTA tuner on the HR22. I used a local dealer, so I knew in advance I would be getting this elegent receiver. I paid for a second. Also the dealer installed an SWM on a old RCA pole mount. You'll be very happy. I was a Dish customer from August of '97.

 

[rad]

So far the only honest negative I have is no OTA tuner on the HR22.

And that can be fixed by adding the AM21 to the HR22, either for $50 via the DirecTV web site or you can call them and see if you can talk them into one for free.

 

[adam771]

go with 2 dvrs. because with the new r22 all youll need is the kaku dish and youll be good to go with hd. Oh and some bbcs.

 

[Zynergi]

The R22 Can not be activated for HD programming, the only HD programming it will get is new Mpeg4 locals for select markets.

 

[boba]

You specify 625 in single mode so I assume 722 is in dual mode which suggests you will need 4 receivers. All of your current receivers are DVRs so you really should get 4 DVRs now the cheapest deals are when you are a new customer. Are you really pissed enough at DISH to jump into a 2 year contract with unknown equipment?