A new wrinkle on the Enhanced HDTV

[Mike123abc]

I found a snag in my upgrade plans for "enhanced" HDTV.

I ordered the Discovery HD annual subcription to get my HDTV upgrade (8psk) module.

Problem #1 the module is backordered, but they still claim it will ship in the middle of next week (around 7/24).

Problem #2 the CS rep that answers the call may not quite know how to do the order. In my case the first time I called they ordered month to month instead of annual (about July 1st). It took another call after checking my statement online to see that they had not processed the order properly. The second CS rep that I called took a while to get the order in but then managed to do it. This time I check my statement and see where they added and removed the monthly service no less than 3 times until they finally got the annual subscription in there properly.

Interesting note: Since my annual subscription goes through 5/1/03 they put HD theater to match the renewal dates. I called again and verified that indeed they will be sending a "free" module.


NOW THE WRINKLE:
Problem #3 - I have more than one model 6000 recievers. YOU ONLY RECIEVE ONE FREE UPGRADE. If you have more than one 6000, you need to call and get the upgrade for the other ones you have for $49.99 BEFORE the end of the month where they promise the price goes to $99.99. I just happened to think about that when I was checking out on the status on the upgrade module. Who knows for sure what the price will be after the end of the month, but it is something to think about.

[Jimbob]

Problem#3 is silly, they should give you one per receiver.

[HTguy]

If you have more than one 6000, you need to call and get the upgrade for the other ones you have for $49.99 BEFORE the end of the month where they promise the price goes to $99.99.

Well, they didn't promise the price would go up to $99 on 8/1. Charlie talked about it but he frequently "mouths off" on such topics on a chat to hype something w/o actually having his facts straight.

They just extended the free Disc HD prevue thru 8/15. I'd be real suprised if they actually ever make anybody pay $99 for the 8PSK module.

[Scott Greczkowski]

At $49.95 your doing THEM a favor by being an early adopter and purchasing a module.

When they switch over all the HD stations to 8PSK they will have to send everyone who does not have the module a free module.

I don't see the price going up to $99.

[Mike123abc]

I think the only thing that is keeping them from switching everyone over 8psk is the 5000 series that cannot be converted. You would think that getting back transponders would save the tons more money than it cost to provide these cards.

I saw that LV cable company is getting aggressive with the HDTV offerings (SHO, 2HBO, DHDT, CBS, PBS, etc). One could only hope that this spurs them into offering a lot more HDTV channels on Dish.

[dmodemd]

I have debated what the future will hold for the upgrade path but if at this point they are making people pay for them, there is NO WAY they are going to later give them away for free. It would just so PO everyone who paid for it, who got arm twisted into subscribing for Discovery HD that it would be a much worse move than making people pay for it.

They are positioning it as "new technology" even though it provides 0 benefit to the end user. But in that context are essentially saying, well you have to pay for new equipment to keep you up to the latest standards.

In order to justify that, I think it will be a long time before they take away the existing HD channels and convert them to HD but they will certainly put all NEW channels up on enhanced and slowly convince people to fork out the bucks.

From a business perspective, if people already paid $2G for a TV and $600 for a receiver to get 5 channels, they will easily pay another $99 to get a couple more channels. If they just provide the modules at cost, they win. And I think Charlie inferred that $99 was about their cost when he showed surprise it was being sold for $49 - "thats BELOW our cost! no that can't be..." heh...

So I gave in and went with the Discovery deal hoping this is the best value option going forward.

I already got screwed by dish when I bought the 5000 new two years ago as it appeared the most advanced and upgradeable receiver only to find 2 weeks later it was pretty much unsupported and they werent manufacturing any of the upgrade modules any more.

Now they wont take it in any upgrade offer unless I somehow managed to find an HDTV module on the black [eBay] market.

Lee

[Mike123abc]

Well I got one of the two modules I ordered yesterday. I am not sure though if it is the one that came with the original DHDT year subscription deal or the one I had to pay for separately.

I poped it in on one of my 6000s and now 61.5 transponder #4 has signal (I know it had it before but the reciever did not see it).

I only hope that DHDTV goes to real programming soon (rather than the 4 hours they repeat 6 times a day)