Thinking of switching to E*...

[disco]

...just thinking, sizing up the opposition...

What they have going for them:

a) An HD DVR that receives ALL their HD offerings.

b) Look to be on track for putting up my locals (Minneapolis) in HD before D* (March vs. April, so no real biggie..).

c) More HD channels.

d) One DVR that feeds two rooms.

I'm not even sure if I could switch, though, as I just got a H20 HD receiver...

Is anyone else considering a switch??

[morgantown]

Nah, NFLST.

[disco]

Ouch...looks like the waiting list for the 622 (E*'s new HD-DVR) is looooong: April install dates.

<shrug> Looks like I'm sticking around..

[dishrich]

...just thinking, sizing up the opposition...

What they have going for them:

a) An HD DVR that receives ALL their HD offerings.

Yes, & considering that some of their DVR's that have been out for YEARS, STILL have bugs in them, do you really want to deal with a NEW unit that hasn't even had it's first (of MANY) software updates? Well, if you are accustomed to D-Tivo's, I can't image dealing with this, unless you're a glutton for punishment.
You might want to read up on this over at satguys.us & you can see for yourself...

b) Look to be on track for putting up my locals (Minneapolis) in HD before D* (March vs. April, so no real biggie..).

Right, so let's skip it...

c) More HD channels.

Well, I guess it depends on what you REALLY get on those HD channels.
On D*, I get all 4 of the major nets NOW, while E* only has CBS-HD
The only thing you will be getting over D* is the VOOM stuff - I guess it's OK if you don't mind seeing the same stuff over & over & over...

d) One DVR that feeds two rooms.

Right & are you aware that each of those rooms ONLY get 1 tuner each?
Considering that the 2nd room out is ONLY SD, why not just get a 2nd SD DVR from D* at minimal cost & you can have 2 tuners for EACH room. Don't forget, E* charges a DVR fee for EACH DVR on an account, (unless you have the Everything Pak) as opposed to ONE fee for ALL DVR's by D*. (I assume you already know that if you do NOT have a landline for that E* DVR, you get hit an extra $5/month to use the 2nd room out, so obviously that is NO savings)

Is anyone else considering a switch??

When hell freezes over... :D :D

[goony]

Spend some time at the following satellite forums; specifically the Dish DVR forums before you decide the E* grass is greener:

http://www.satelliteguys.us
http://www.dbstalk.com
http://www.dbsforums.com

[Jerry_K]

Five years later and I still have a terrible taste in my mouth for **** I can't even type it. The ****player did me in. Resetting a receiver every fifteen minutes is not my idea of a good deal. It started out great, then they did an "upgrade". It was all downhill from there. And my lovely wife never used it. Too much like a VCR.

[disco]

Yeah, after remembering my frustration with the 522, I don't really think I'd ever go back to **** (hey! I like that better!:D). Thanks for talking me down from the ledge!

[SHOMan]

Contrary to all of the negative statements made by Dishrich regarding E*, my own personal experience is somewhat different. I was a Dish network subscriber for several years and was quite happy.

The only reason I switched to D* was that when an installer came out to give me Voom, I had no line of sight to 61.5 sat and he started talking about how DirecTV was going to have all of these national HD stations, Tivo, etc. After checking eBay, I found that my E* DVRs could be sold for more than my upfront costs for D* equipment.

I decided to go ahead and switch, and while the SD Tivos functionality is better than E*, the build quality of the Tivo (R10) sucks compared to what I had with E*.

I don't even want to talk about how bad the HR-10 has been. It has serious issues with Dolby Digital playback, dropouts, freezes, slow menus. In addition, customer service at D* is just plain HORRIBLE. I never experienced a loss of recorded programs with my E* DVRs. They were far more reliable than what I have now.

And then there is the issue of programming and picture quality. E* was superior in every way, especially with HD material. No HD-lite. Discovery HD on E* was mind blowing on my 70" JVC D-ILA. It looks like crap on D*. Soft and getting softer by the minute.

I realize that some have had problems with the E* receivers, but if you look carefully at the threads listed here, you find many positive posts. If you look at the D* HD forum, nobody is saying good things about D* right now. They have forgotten where their bread is buttered, and are ignoring the high-end customer.

I will be switching back to E* and their new receiver as soon as my commitment is up in April. I could care less about HD locals, as my OTA in PDX is killer. I know what real HD looks like. D* HD just doesn't cut it IMHO. I am not going to use the receiver to feed two rooms, and the only downside I can see at this point is that I can't record two OTA at same time. On the other side of the coin, I could record two SAT and one OTA at same time with E*.

Both companies have their problems, but E* seems to be the lesser of two evils at the moment.

[super dave]

Contrary to all of the negative statements made by Dishrich regarding E*, my own personal experience is somewhat different. I was a Dish network subscriber for several years and was quite happy.

The only reason I switched to D* was that when an installer came out to give me Voom, I had no line of sight to 61.5 sat and he started talking about how DirecTV was going to have all of these national HD stations, Tivo, etc. After checking eBay, I found that my E* DVRs could be sold for more than my upfront costs for D* equipment.

I decided to go ahead and switch, and while the SD Tivos functionality is better than E*, the build quality of the Tivo (R10) sucks compared to what I had with E*.

I don't even want to talk about how bad the HR-10 has been. It has serious issues with Dolby Digital playback, dropouts, freezes, slow menus. In addition, customer service at D* is just plain HORRIBLE. I never experienced a loss of recorded programs with my E* DVRs. They were far more reliable than what I have now.

And then there is the issue of programming and picture quality. E* was superior in every way, especially with HD material. No HD-lite. Discovery HD on E* was mind blowing on my 70" JVC D-ILA. It looks like crap on D*. Soft and getting softer by the minute.

I realize that some have had problems with the E* receivers, but if you look carefully at the threads listed here, you find many positive posts. If you look at the D* HD forum, nobody is saying good things about D* right now. They have forgotten where their bread is buttered, and are ignoring the high-end customer.

I will be switching back to E* and their new receiver as soon as my commitment is up in April. I could care less about HD locals, as my OTA in PDX is killer. I know what real HD looks like. D* HD just doesn't cut it IMHO. I am not going to use the receiver to feed two rooms, and the only downside I can see at this point is that I can't record two OTA at same time. On the other side of the coin, I could record two SAT and one OTA at same time with E*.

Both companies have their problems, but E* seems to be the lesser of two evils at the moment.

I have been a DTV customer for 6 years now, and I am not happy about their approach to HD. I have been reading up on every CC and Dish thread and board I can find, because I know I will be changing in a few months. I appreciate your comments, it seems that Dishrich had a bad experience with Dish, he craps all over any thread dealing with Dish. I can find negative viewpoints about every provider, even DTV, and they don't mean as much as the positive.

What I have found is everyone that has Dish states the HD is much better, and that is what I am primarily interested in. TiVo is going to CC, so DTV will have the same DVR issues that everyone has. And how many times has my TiVo boxes been upgraded in the past 6 years because of flaws? It's the nature of the beast, they all have bugs.

[goony]

Five years later and I still have a terrible taste in my mouth for **** I can't even type it. The ****player did me in.Yes, I had a 7100/7200 D-i-s-h-player (E*'s first DVR, jointly developed with Microsoft) and it was quite a ride. I left E* for D*/DTivos about 2.5 years ago after a dispute over DVR fees and I've been 1000% delighted with my "hacked" DTivos (all 3 of them). :)

[Jerry_K]

I will qualify all my comments with this. I wouldn't touch HD with a ten foot pole at this time. There is no consistency in the stream, from the initial camera through the lines/pixels on the display. Not one single thing could be streamed "whole" and work. And only a few of the many available channels broadcast part time in HD. There is upconverting downconverting compression all along.

My PQ is great with the Series2 DTiVo's vice the Series1. My dad noticed the difference right away when I switched his out. From what I read I would have to put our seating in the middle of our viewing rooms to be close enough to our large screen displays to take advantage of HD. That is never going to be the case with my lovely wife in the house.

Lastly, my lovely wife watches 4:3 programming almost exclusively, and certainly would emasculate me if I took away her TiVo's.