I have never been in contract with dish. My DH wants HD. I called tonight and this is what was offered.

Leasing 24 months
722 receiver $200
622 $150
612 $ 100

DVR advantage( $2.00 fee per month instead of the 5.98)

Is any existing customers getting better offers through DishNetwork?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Lite
D Lite refers to the TV-program received by the viewer, which has been somehow compromised (reduced) in fidelity. In internet vernacular, HD-Lite generally refers to programming delivered by commercial (subscription-based) providers such as DirectTV, Dish Network, and the major cable-TV operators. This is likely due to the customer's (heightened) expectation of a base quality level of service, that a commercial operator should provide picture-quality equal to or better than public over-the-air (free) ATSC-broadcast programming.

HD Lite can be achieved by any combination of several techniques. Rate-shaping dynamically adjusts allocated bit rate for each of a set of TV-channels, based on an allocation-policy (which can come from realtime video-analysis or an operator-specified program weighting.) Rate shaping allows a set of channels to be transmitted with less bandwidth, based on the statistical observation that not all channels display the same level of motion-activity at a given instant of time (or the period of observation.) Downsampling reduces the spatial (horizontal and/or vertical) resolution of the TV-program, reducing the TV-signal's pixel-rate, and therefore its bandwidth requirements. Thus far, customers have reported downsampling on "1080i" signals only; 1920x1080i can be downsampled to 1440x1080i or 1280x1080i, with a corresponding reduction in transmission bandwidth. In contrast, over-the-air (ATSC) broadcasts of 1080i are fixed at 1920x1080. Temporal (frame-rate) reduction has not been attempted yet, as it unacceptably changes the character of motion video sequences.

Any form of rate-shaping or downsampling is inherently intrusive, in that the source bitstream is altered significantly, often due to a full re-compression process. The re-compression process is the point of contention raised by critics: "HD-Lite" programming is perceptibly worse than the original HDTV broadcast, to the point where the degradation is discernible absent a direct (A/B) comparison against the original source.[citation needed] Distortion (caused by the operator) is characterized by reduced sharpness, reduced detail, excessive compression artifacts (mosquito noise and blocking), and in some cases, alteration of the color-palette. The reduced video quality is assumed to be introduced by the sat/cable operator's handling of the source video (recompression.)

It is important to note that digital video compression is a complex field of study. Downsampling and bitrate-reduction are often deployed together, to prevent the pixel/bitrate ratio from falling below acceptable levels.

Some material shown on 1080i high-definition channels in the US originates from material shot on older cameras that was only capable of 1440 samples per scanline, yet this material is generally quite acceptable to most viewers and is considered high-definition. Focusing on resolution alone can be misleading. For example, a signal transmitted in its original 1920 x 1080 format, even if only having 1440 unique samples per scanline, will likely appear superior to a highly recompressed signal shown at 1440 x 1080 with a lower bitrate than the standard 19.2 Mbit/s.

In the US television programming market, cable and DBS/satellite operators compete against each other to deliver HDTV programming. An HDTV program requires much higher datarates (3-4x) than a standard-definition program. This places a huge burden on a service-operator, which must deliver a variety of programming (many channels), including increasing amounts of HDTV programming, over a resource-constrained distribution medium. Re-compression by cable/satellite operators is a technical necessity for carriage of diverse TV-programming over limited bandwidth capacity of the respective providers.

What remains to be seen, is whether the cable/sat service providers leverage re-compression of TV-programs only as a short-term arrangement until greater capacity can be brought online, or a permanent fixture in their distribution and business model.

Operators who alter HDTV re-transmission

In 2004, DirectTV subscribers reported that DirectTV broadcasts some HDTV-programming at a reduced resolution of 1280 x 1080i. Since these reports, DirectTV has removed the resolution-indicator from the user-interface of customer equipment.[citation needed] In September 2007, Dish Network reduced the resolution on HBO-HD and Showtime-HD from 1920x1080 to 1440x1080. These were the last two channels that Dish Network was still offering in the "full" 1920x1080 resolution.

Can't wait to order the bronze package, I hate comcrap

i recently called dish network and told them that i was considering switching to U Verse (asked to talk to retentions dept)
the lady looked at my account and mentioned that she could give me $10 credit for HBO and $10 credit for my HD service for 6 months. she also mentioned that no contract extension (supposedly). so this will save me $120 just for "checking in" with dish and "requesting" a deal.... IMO, DISH is really trying to keep existing customers happy.

Dish 622 DVR
200 channel service with HD
HBO, MAX for 1 penny/year
= $50 month x 6 months would have been around $80 with Uverse

now i'm gonna call ATT and see what kinda offers they have to keep me from switching ISP's

OK - if I want to drop Dish and have my SO sub (different last name) is there a problem if phone is the same or would phone number would have to be different?

Trying to switch to TurboHD bronze and get a 622 or 722. So far the best I got was free HD for 8 months and a 622 for $50. No deal. However I have not gotten to talk to retention yet - next call would be ready to cancel.

what blows is I'm not in any commitment. They should give me deal as a new sub...

FYI, the VIP 622 and 722 Dual-tuner HD DVRs both have the feature where you can attach an external Hard drive via USB to transfer stored recordings to free up space on the DVR. You can also watch the recordings from the attached hard drive without transferring it back to the DVR. Also, you can use multiple external hard drives for even more space (but only one can be hooked up at one time). I currently have 3 external hard drives full of recorded shows.

- No you cannot transfer the files to your PC (uses a different file system)
- There is a one-time activation fee for this hard drive feature (I think its $39).

Superx337 said:How do you know when you sign up if your getting a 622 or 722 DVR?

I just asked that. The 722 is $79 more than the 622. So if you're getting the 622 for free, the 722 would be $79. The only difference seems to be the size of the hard drive.

sublog said:I dont think you have to have a phone line if you can hook up a network cable to it and get it online...

This is true. Dish waives the "access fee" if you connect the DVR to either a phone land line OR a wired internet connection. Both will work.

Thanks. I will try to get my dual DVR thru a wired internet connection (or autopay). I just wish the rep could take my club dish # over the phone...

Believe or not, the phone line hooked to your DVR might affect your DSL speed. I had this problem for couple days before and eventually it tracked down to the DVR line. AT&T support could not figure out the problem, and I suddenly realized that this happened almost at the same time I had the phone line hooked to the DVR. It didn't start immediately, and some times when you restart the modem/router, it gets fixed, but after a while the network is extremely slow, although you can ping without a problem.