Help for newbie please

[wanderer666]

Hi. I am a long term digital cable customer who is considering switching to Dish and would appreciate some help. I apologize if my questions seem stupid.

1. I am a big baseball fan and especially love watching it in HD. The package I am considering buying is America's top 200. I understand that Dish cannot carry that great EI package but do I get all those Fox Network and Comcast channels that carry specific teams and will I be able to see any games that way or are they blacked out because of EI? Also are any games on HD?
2. Are there any plans to carry more HD channels such as CNN and MTV as
Direc does? I am leaning to Dish because of price of their DVRS.
3. Are there many outages? I am located in Eastern Pa.
4. Is the quality better than Comcast?
5. Do you need a telephone line to connect? I currently only have cell phone.
6. Do VCRS and DVD recorders work as they do with digital cable? Will the
installer hook these up when he comes.
7. Why do you have to sign a 2 year contract if the price is only guaranteed for 1 year?

Thank you for any help on this this!!!
.

[garys]

1. With the basic pacakge you only get the rsn in your dma, you can get the rest of the sd versions as part of the Multi-sports package but most of the pro games will be blacked out. As far as which HD rsn's you get, Scranton and New York will get the SNY and the Mets home games may be in HD and not blacked out. Phily dma does not include any rsn due to Comcast Phily getting away with not having to sell to Dish. I am sure some will supply link to blackouted teams.
2. There are always plans to carry more HD, Dish is very secretive of letting customers know what is coming ahead of time. Dish already has MHD and Rave HD as far as music in HD. Not sure that CNN HD is available yet.
3. There are always outages, but not as many as some lead you to think there are, usually very heavy rain and thick wet snow will account for the outages, but in the case of snow, cleaning the dish off brings the signal right back as long as the dish is accessable.
4. Not familiar with Comcast.
5. No, you do not need a phone line, there is an additional tuner charge for dual tuner receivers if not connect to a land line or eithernet connection to a DSL.
6. Again, not familiar with digital cable, but vcr and dvd recorders can be hooked up to the receivers and do work (I have two vcr's and two dvd recorders hooked up, but none record in true HD, but dvd recordings look very good and a lot better then standard vcr's). Just search the topics for enough info to make your head explode.
7. The two year contract is for leased receivers, you can either pay an activation fee ($50 I think) or purchase the equipment to get service without the commitment.

[BattleZone]

I don't watch or care about sports, so I don't have good answers to the sports-related questions, so I'm skipping a bit.

2. Are there any plans to carry more HD channels such as CNN and MTV as Direc does? I am leaning to Dish because of price of their DVRS.

Dish currently has a couple of channels worth of unused HD capacity, and I'm sure they are working to bring in a few channels. Dish also has 3 replacement satellites due to be launched throughout the year that should gain them a couple of additional usable transponders; perhaps 20-25 additional HD channels. Dish has talked about bringing total HD channels up to 100 by the end of 2008, which is about right given what we know about the state of the current satellites and the projected replacements. Note that satellite launches are still risky, and problems with the SeaLaunch platform due to a launch failure pushed back satellite launches for both DirecTV and DishNetwork over the last year. The "100 by end of 2008" relies on the launches going on-time and well.


3. Are there many outages? I am located in Eastern Pa.

This will depend on the quality of your installation, the weather, and any provisions you've made to adapt to severe weather. For example, if you get a lot of snow, adding an electric dish heater to melt it off will minimize or eliminate snow-related outages, but you bear the cost of the heater and installation. As long as the dish can be mounted to your house in a solid way, or on a cemented pole, outages should be very minimal, and probably much fewer and shorter-lived than cable outages.

4. Is the quality better than Comcast?

Hard to say. All cable is local. One area may have fantastic cable at low prices, while the town next door has crappy cable at high prices. Comcast owns a lot of local francises, but they are still local, and the local infrastructure has a huge impact on your experience with cable. I would suggest that picture quality for all digital channels will be similar, and the channels that are still analog on cable will look better on Dish.

Quality of the receivers, meaning features and software, is much better with Dish.

5. Do you need a telephone line to connect? I currently only have cell phone.

A phone line is not required, but all dual-tuner receivers get charged a $5/month "second outlet" fee unless they are connected to either a phone line or Ethernet Internet connection.

6. Do VCRS and DVD recorders work as they do with digital cable? Will the installer hook these up when he comes.

Overall, yes, they should work the same. You may experience Macrovision copy protection problems recording some content, just as you probably would off your Comcast Motorola box. Copy protection is dictated by the networks, not the provider.

Installers will usually connect the Dish receiver through the VCR if the VCR is already hooked up, but generally won't hook up DVD recorders or other devices. That's up to the customer (or a custom charge to the tech if you want them to do so). Hooking up equipment that isn't already connected (i.e., you just bought a new DVD player, or new VCR, and it's sitting in the box) isn't part of a standard install. Existing VCRs are the only exception. Otherwise, the installer is there to connect your sat receiver to the TV, and anything beyond that is extra.

7. Why do you have to sign a 2 year contract if the price is only guaranteed for 1 year?

The up-front cost to DishNetwork (or DirecTV) for your leased equipment and system installation is significant, and the only way for them to recoup those costs is to ensure that you're going to be a subscriber long enough. Thus, if you want "free" equipment and installation, you have to commit to keeping the programming.

If you don't want a commitment, you can purchase the equipment at full retail prices and install it yourself (or pay someone to do it). If you own the equipment and the install, then you can subscribe to the programming with no commitment, and leave whenever you like.

[jclewter79]

If you pay the 49 dollar activation fee and waive your free programming you can hook up with no commitment and still get free receivers and installation.