E* HD pricing

[murdoc]

I have D* and my friend has E*.  He would like to upgrade his E* to HD.  I told him that to do so, he would need a new reciever (I believe he has a DVR 522), and an OTA antenna.  I believe he also has the Top 120 package.  Has anyone here upgraded to HD on E*.  I would like to figure out how much this upgrade will cost for him.  Is there a charge for the reciever?  Will E* install and provide an OTA antenna for free?  Does he need to upgrade to a higher teir package with a new receiver?  I see that E* has an HD package similar to D* for $9.99/month.  Would it possibly just be cheaper to get an OTA STB and an antenna?  He lives about 3 miles west of me so I recommended my Channel Master 8-bowtie antenna on a mast.  I am able to recieve all the Milwaukee channels including 6-1 and 58-1 crystal clear with my setup.  As always, any information is apprecieated.

Thanks,
Jason

[Sparkman87]

E* only installs the 61.5 antenna if your city has locals on that location.  They never install an OTA for you.  If he gets an 811 receiver, it gets all analog & digital locals.  If he can find a 942, it only gets digital ota, no analog, but does have the DVR like his 522.  There are charges, he can check with E* to see what deal they'll offer him.  He does not need to upgrade, in fact could downgrade to AT 60, of even to no package for a $5/mo access fee.  (that's what I do, & now have cable for most other programming)  It would definitely be cheaper to go the OTA only route, but would miss out on ESPN, Discovery, TNT, HDNet & HDNet movies.

E* does not have Universal HD, but does have TNT HD. $9.99/mo, but many people report being able to get the 1st 6 months for $5/MO.

[AndrewP]

If he is E* customer for some time (more then a year) he will be able to get 811 for free (lease) or around $150 (buy). That is for my best recollection, I am a Voomer until 04/30/05, then will probably reactivate my E* account or move to TWC. But if Voom boxes will be left to me and will deliver OTA I will wait until D*, or E* upgrade to MPEG4 receivers.
My recommendation for your friend - DO NOT BUY any HD receiver from D*, E* now. These receivers will become obsolete very soon.

[jkane]

Best to go to Dishnetwork.com and check out the offerings there.  Depending on what his history is with them, they offer different deals.  Also need to know if he wants to rent or own hardware.

The 811 is usually free or close to it.
The 921 is $599 or rentable for monthly fees.
The 942 is a hard to find since it's less than a month old.  It is $699 or like $200 upfront just to rent it.

I don't have any of these, but I keep checking on them waiting for that perfect deal.  When the 942 gets less popular, I will probably get one.  The biggest problem is the lack of HD programming.    I would end up paying net $25 more a month in various fees (HD programming fee, additional receiver fee, PVR fee, ...) for only about 5 channels, of which I might watch one or two.  All 3 do OTA also, so that's the real driving factor behind getting one.  But since I can't get 6 or 58 and those are the stations that have stuff we watch, it's even less of a reason to buy one.

As for the hardware becoming obsolete with mpeg4 some time in the future, don't take that too strongly.  Dish won't just suddenly drop support for older hardware in a few months.  They will drag it out for years and offer many incentives to upgrade your current hardware.  Take the 2000 for instance.  I had one since 1996 and just traded it in last fall.  That receiver has been holding them back for a very long time, but the never dropped support for it.  Now that they want it gone, they offered me a truely free upgrade to a 510 DVR!  Can't beat that deal.  They'll do something similiar when they go to mpeg4.  Remember, NO current Dish model receiver can do mpeg4!  Do you really think they will abandon every single current customer?

[SRW1000]

As for the hardware becoming obsolete with mpeg4 some time in the future, don't take that too strongly.  Dish won't just suddenly drop support for older hardware in a few months.

From what I've read on the satellite sites, the old receivers will continue to work, at least for a while.  But, at least some of the new HDTV channels will only be broadcast using MPEG4.

I had an 811 receiver for over a year, and finally returned it for programming credit.  Over the year, the receiver was riddled with bugs.  Most of these had been corrected, except for a problem with the Dolby Digital stream and some audio receivers/preamps.  

I wouldn't recommend buying either a 811 or 921, but it may be worth leasing them.  The 942 is too new to judge at this point, but I'd think twice about buying it also.

Scott