Check you Statement. Dish just charged me $96 for another year of Discovery HD!

[angiodan]

I just checked my statement online a minute ago. I almost fell over when I saw my balance $100 higher than normal. When I checked the statement, I couldn't believe it, annual charge for Discovery HD!

Calling them as soon as I get a chance. I've got 2 beefs. One, it was a free preview last year until mid August so I shouldn't be paying for it yet, and 2) They've got to be out of their minds if they think I'm going to pay $8.00 a month for one channel since Directv's announcement.

[Frapp]

I am a bit puzzled that you are surprise :confused:

#1) Does the bill you received acknowledge that the Discovery HD channel billing cycle starts around Mid July 2003 ?

#2) Have you not been paying $7.99 per month for Discovery HD up to now ?

I also have Discovery HD and have only noticed the regular monthly fee on my current bill. I do think $7.99 is a bit high for D-HD, but I LOVE it and figure soon Dish will make more attractive HD packages as more of the rumored channels come online :shrug:

[Chris Blount]

I just checked my statement online a minute ago. I almost fell over when I saw my balance $100 higher than normal. When I checked the statement, I couldn't believe it, annual charge for Discovery HD!

Calling them as soon as I get a chance. I've got 2 beefs. One, it was a free preview last year until mid August so I shouldn't be paying for it yet, and 2) They've got to be out of their minds if they think I'm going to pay $8.00 a month for one channel since Directv's announcement.Thanks for the head up. It doesn't surprise me since Dish tried to charge me a $99 PTV fee for a Dishplayer I haven't owned in 5 months.

I will keep an eye on my bill. I'm just glad I don't have credit card autopay.

[Jacob S]

DirecTv's announcement? Are they selling the channel cheaper than $8 or is it the announcement about HD tv additions they are going to have? That charge does remind me of the other charge I heard people talk about with the pvr $99 fee on the dishplayers. Thats the first thing I thought of when I read that.

[RAD]

Taking the lead from Cheap Charlie I just called and cancelled Discovery HDTheater. I'm not going to pay $7.99 per month for the single channel when DirecTV has found a way to offer that plus HD Net channels and ESPN-HD. That's not bringing value to Dish customers.

[angiodan]

I payed the $96 last year for the 8PSK and one year of programming, similar to what they are running now. My billing cycle starts on the 7th, however when Discovery launched last summer, it was on free preview until mid August, and I didn't buy my module until last week of July, early August. So, if I was going to renew, I shouldn't have seen this until my August billing period.

Frapp, I'm hoping Dish will announce some new HD package soon, but do you think I would get some rebate if I prepayed for a year of Disc. at this price? I don't think so. My fear in this is when they do give a date for HD Net and movies, they will have a monthly stand alone charge as well, and there won't be any all inclusive package. If that's the case, Dish better have extra CSR's to handle all the terminations. I love HD, but I'm not going to pay $8 per channel.

And yes Jacob, its that Directv will offer Disc. , Espn, and HD-net and movies for $10.99. Why would I pay $8 for one? I don't watch it enough.

Dish better make some announcements soon.

[angiodan]

I just got off the phone with Dish. Told them to cancel my annual subscription, although the CSR said I should wait until July 12th. She said if she canceled it now, I would lose these last couple of weeks remaining on my annual sub. I asked why I was getting billed for it already because of the free preview; basically it goes from the date you ordered it, not when the free preview ended. I think thats pretty weak. We all should have waited till the last day!

At this point, I asked if Dish was going to announce anything about an HD package, she put me through to another CSR. He said there is no news about HD, no timeline, nothing.

I'm still confident we'll hear something (fingers crossed!) next month, but I'm surprised with Directv's package starting in 5 days, that Dish is dragging their feet on this. I guess time will tell.

[Big D]

By checking my latest bill on-line at Dish, I see I also was hit with the annual sub to Discovery, so I just got off the phone with them where I canceled my sub to the channel and when the CSR did not even ask why, I felt I needed to tell her anyway. I also sent an email to Charlie explaining why I needed to send Dish a message by canceling re: Discovery channel's cost and lack of new programming and no news on a HD package. When Dish has a HD package of (minimum) 6 to 8 HD channels at around $10.00, then they will get my business back. I also pointed out that an annual sub to Discovery is the same cost as paying by the month, why would I want to give Dish an interest free loan? If you got a free month of service to sign up for a year, it would maybe make sense.

While I had the CSR on the phone, I also canceled by sub to the Dish magazine saving me another $40.00, I have been using it less and less lately. Seems to often programming is incorrect as listed and I need to check the evenings programming via the (free) web sites anyway, so why pay for the mag?

[Jacob S]

I agree with what is being said, but with some having the investment in the adapter and receiver, some would not want to just switch to DirecTv. I also think Dish will come up with a better package deal in the future.

[angiodan]

Jacob, I also feel that Dish will come up with a good HD package. And after reading how some Direct subs are pitching a fit with the compression schemes they have been doing recently on HD NET, I'm not looking at switching. Its just part frustration in waiting, and feeling the renewal should not have gone into effect until mid August. Which by then, maybe the HD package would be a reality. It just better not be $8 per HD channel!!

[Jacob S]

Why not just purchase the channel monthly instead of annually? Also I do not think Dish wants to compress the HD channels too much in which would affect the picture quality.

[Marcus S]

Comming soon, compression to you. If *D is able to adopt existing QPSK to support two HD channels per TP and E* adopted 8PSK to cram 3 per TP, who exactly will suffer? Ironically the math seems to support *D. Did I say that? Bottom line, E* is relying on HD adicts to get the Super DIsh. Most of us gone, yawn.

[Mike123abc]

If E* puts the HDTV on 105 and not 110 they will pretty much have to do 2 HDTV channels per transponder. The power output on 105 will not be high enough to run 8PSK at 5/8 FEC (50 mbit/sec, or 16.67 Mbit/sec per channel). 105 will have to run at 2/3 FEC (40 mbit/sec or 20mbit/sec per channel).

Direct at 7/8 QPSK gets 32.57 mbit/sec or 16.287 mbit/sec/channel.

So, even if dish were to do 5/8 with 3 channels per transponders they would be able to support a slightly higher bit rate per channel.

Of course with 32 transponders on 105 Dish will be able to get 64 HDTV channels at the full data rate. This is IF they ever get their act together and start an HDTV service.

[SD493]

Just got my bill with the annual charge. I called and cancelled. $100 a month for one channel, which although it looks very good it is mainly repeats, is too much. I will gladly subscribe to a HD package ala D*. The CSR did credit my account for the remainder of my
current subscription. I've got too much invested in E* to think about switching to D* at this time but I hope E* will get with the program soon.

[RAD]

I sent Dish an E-mail letting them know why I dropped DHDT since the CSR didn't ask when I called in. In my e-mail I said they either needed to drop the price or offer the same package as D* since $7.99/month for DHDT was not a good value (and we all know how Charlie likes to offer a good value to his customers). Here's the response that I got:

Thank you for your e-mail. We apologize for the inconvenience. The packages have been setup in balance with cost effectiveness and consumer demand. We appreciate your comments and will forward this to our Programming Department for further consideration

Gee, his consumers are asking for these additional HD channels and E* isn't offering them. And who's cost effectiveness are they talking about, it's sure isn't their customers?

[SD493]

E* is the purported leader in high def. Not at the moment. Can only hope we hear something soon. With all I've got invested in E* I am not going to consider starting over with D* for now.
Just hope we hear something soon.

[Claude Greiner]

Well they hit me in April for the Annual Pre-Pay for Discovery HD also.

Just consider this, when I signed up for the Annual Package last August, they actually pro-rated it to end at the same time my annual package did for At150.

So instead of charging me $99 last year for the package, t hey only charged me $60 for a partial year till April

[bluuz]

Bad timing for Dish, given that Directv just launched a whole HD package for $10.99. I bought the module for my Dish 6000 in March and have been paying for Discovery HD since then, but the $8/month is startingn to chafe on me. Seems to me they could add a channel or two now for us loyalists, while they figure out the future and this "Superdish" business. I expect Dish will offer a HD package, but right now they aren't keeping up with the Joneses.

[Mike123abc]

It looks like they are waiting a while on the HDTV package, perhaps to get SuperDish out. They probably figure they get more subs adding markets than adding an HDTV package at the moment. Looks like they are going to wait for a tempory satellite to move to 105 to put HDTV on.

[Jacob S]

And they may even be waiting to get the satellite to 105 before beginning on the SuperDish although they should already be starting on that to have it ready by the time the satellite gets to 105.