[lionsrule]

This is going to be a lengthy set of questions and comments from someone who currently has dishnetwork with 2 622's and a dish 1000. I own both 622's and I am NOT signed into any type of contract. I'm a free agent. This is what I currently have programming wise:

DishBRONZEHD: 54.99/mo (includes locals)
DVR Fee(s): 11.96/mo
Cw national: 1.50/mo
Additional STB 6.00/mo

The DISH 1000 allows for 2 "trunks" that can each feed a 2 tuner box on their own. Dish also allows for a dish seperator which can in essence allow one run of coax to power both tuners on the STB. (This is important in a later question).

To the questions....

1. Does the HR20/Direct Sat require two seperate runs of coax, or do that also allow for a split? I do NOT want to deal with feeding additional runs if I can help it.

2. I live in the kazoo/Gr market which recently gets locals in HD. However, I already have a large OTA....so local HD's aren't that big a deal. Is it correct that even if I use my OTA, I am limited to two recorded events firing at the same time? (my 622's allow for 3 at a time if 1 of them is OTA).

3. Please explain what in the heck are you guys talking about regarding the tuners not running at the same time (not the right name, but I'm sure you'll figure out what I mean....it's your 2nd biggest ***** after ota activation).

4. Direct charges only ONE DVR fee per household regardless of number of DVR's?

5. What is my best bet in securing 3 hr20's? And what is your best guess on my charge to do so? Should I deal directly with direct? (Their website won't even LET me try to order a HR20 as a new customer) Best buy has them sometimes, but it looks as though I'd be looking a $199+$299+$299, which would be more than I could get for my 622's on ebay.

6. All of this will only happen for me IF direct starts passing and pulling away with launching national HD's that don't even exist yet......


Any other pro's/con's I am not thinking of?

 

[davidord]

This is going to be a lengthy set of questions and comments from someone who currently has dishnetwork with 2 622's and a dish 1000. I own both 622's and I am NOT signed into any type of contract. I'm a free agent. This is what I currently have programming wise:

DishBRONZEHD: 54.99/mo (includes locals)
DVR Fee(s): 11.96/mo
Cw national: 1.50/mo
Additional STB 6.00/mo

The DISH 1000 allows for 2 "trunks" that can each feed a 2 tuner box on their own. Dish also allows for a dish seperator which can in essence allow one run of coax to power both tuners on the STB. (This is important in a later question).

To the questions....

1. Does the HR20/Direct Sat require two seperate runs of coax, or do that also allow for a split? I do NOT want to deal with feeding additional runs if I can help it.

2. I live in the kazoo/Gr market which recently gets locals in HD. However, I already have a large OTA....so local HD's aren't that big a deal. Is it correct that even if I use my OTA, I am limited to two recorded events firing at the same time? (my 622's allow for 3 at a time if 1 of them is OTA).

3. Please explain what in the heck are you guys talking about regarding the tuners not running at the same time (not the right name, but I'm sure you'll figure out what I mean....it's your 2nd biggest ***** after ota activation).

4. Direct charges only ONE DVR fee per household regardless of number of DVR's?

5. What is my best bet in securing 3 hr20's? And what is your best guess on my charge to do so? Should I deal directly with direct? (Their website won't even LET me try to order a HR20 as a new customer) Best buy has them sometimes, but it looks as though I'd be looking a $199+$299+$299, which would be more than I could get for my 622's on ebay.

6. All of this will only happen for me IF direct starts passing and pulling away with launching national HD's that don't even exist yet......

Any other pro's/con's I am not thinking of?

1. At this time, the HR20 would require 3 runs of coax. One for each Satellite tuner, and one for OTA. However, there is a feature called FTM (not available yet) that willl combine the signals for the satellite feeds, so that will take the total down to two.
2. The HR20 can only record two things at once, no matter what the source. i.e 1 OTA, on Sat, i.e. 2 sats, etc.
3. Not Sure??
4. Yes, only one DVR fee per household. But additional boxes will get hit by an additional lease fee.
5. Your best bet will be negotiating directly with DTV. If you aren't satisfied with your initial response, call back and try another rep.

 

[harsh]

3. Please explain what in the heck are you guys talking about regarding the tuners not running at the same time (not the right name, but I'm sure you'll figure out what I mean....it's your 2nd biggest ***** after ota activation).

The complaint is that the HR20 can only buffer the program that you're watching. If you flip back and forth between channels, it will dump the buffer of the channel that you aren't watching.

Obviously, this can be worked around by recording one or both of the programs.

 

[harsh]

Any other pro's/con's I am not thinking of?

Other than an embarrassing lack of HD content?

 

[sthor]

This is going to be a lengthy set of questions and comments from someone who currently has dishnetwork with 2 622's and a dish 1000. I own both 622's and I am NOT signed into any type of contract. I'm a free agent. This is what I currently have programming wise:

DishBRONZEHD: 54.99/mo (includes locals)
DVR Fee(s): 11.96/mo
Cw national: 1.50/mo
Additional STB 6.00/mo

The DISH 1000 allows for 2 "trunks" that can each feed a 2 tuner box on their own. Dish also allows for a dish seperator which can in essence allow one run of coax to power both tuners on the STB. (This is important in a later question).

To the questions....

1. Does the HR20/Direct Sat require two seperate runs of coax, or do that also allow for a split? I do NOT want to deal with feeding additional runs if I can help it.

2. I live in the kazoo/Gr market which recently gets locals in HD. However, I already have a large OTA....so local HD's aren't that big a deal. Is it correct that even if I use my OTA, I am limited to two recorded events firing at the same time? (my 622's allow for 3 at a time if 1 of them is OTA).

3. Please explain what in the heck are you guys talking about regarding the tuners not running at the same time (not the right name, but I'm sure you'll figure out what I mean....it's your 2nd biggest ***** after ota activation).

4. Direct charges only ONE DVR fee per household regardless of number of DVR's?

5. What is my best bet in securing 3 hr20's? And what is your best guess on my charge to do so? Should I deal directly with direct? (Their website won't even LET me try to order a HR20 as a new customer) Best buy has them sometimes, but it looks as though I'd be looking a $199+$299+$299, which would be more than I could get for my 622's on ebay.

6. All of this will only happen for me IF direct starts passing and pulling away with launching national HD's that don't even exist yet......

Any other pro's/con's I am not thinking of?

Why would you switch to D*?

After a great deal of research I just dumped DirecTV and my old DirecTivo after 6 happy years for a Dish VIP 622 for my new plasma panel. Reasons:

1) No 30 sec skip on DirecTV. This was a big one.
2) Spotty performance of the HR20-700 as chronicled here. The Dish VIP622 forum is positively boring compared to the HR20-700 forum. Nothing too bad to talk about over there at the VIP622 Forum.
3) 2 year committment with DirecTV, none at Dish. (Another big problem)
4) Much more HD Programming at Dish
5) OTA is up and running well at Dish
6) Can record 2 Sat and 1 OTA channel simultaneously with VIP 622

DirecTV retention offered me a good deal to stay but it was just not enough to offset Dish's advantages.

So far (2 weeks) no problems at all with the VIP622. I am very pleased with it and the Dish Gold Package.

 

[BJM]

1) No 30 sec skip on DirecTV. This was a big one.

There is a 30sec 'slip'. While I like the 'skip' better, it's OK. I would be transitioning from my TiVo Series 1 (!!) without some 30sec skip/slip function.