D* or E*? I decided...

you only need 1 dish for D*

D*'s dvr does have a USB port for "future use" They also have a firewire that you can use with a hard drive, but you have to reformat it so, unfortunately, you just can't download programs you want to the hard drive. I believe this is still sort of in the beta stage and not yet supported by D*

You list some older channels, so many remain in MPEG2 to be compatible with legacy HD receivers. Of those you list, Dish has ESPN2, Starz in MPEG4. Only D* has all of them, but most are likely MPEG2 with the exception of Starz, & Speed.

You don't say where you live. E* has the Model dish 1000 which receives 110, 119 and 129. 129 takes the place of 61.5 but its reception is "iffy" in some areas of the country.

Since D* just launched their new satellite last month, a lot of people expect them to add a mpeg-4 feed for all the channels that are currently MPEG-2 in the near future

Dish's DVR has an active USB port for external drives. It requirers a one-time activation fee of $40.

ESPN2HD is Mpeg4 on E*. Speed HD is not carried on E*, but it is on D* in Mpeg4. Starz East HD is Mpeg4 on both providers, but D* also has Starz HD West and 3 more Starz HD channels all in Mpeg4. HBOHD East is Mpeg2 on D*, but they also carry HBOHD West and that one is in Mpeg4. The same goes for Showtime, plus D* carries Showtime2 in HD and TMCHD.

The new D* D11 Ka satellite has been lauched and when it becomes fully operational, all Mpeg2 channels will be converted to Mpeg4.

D* HD DVR can be expanded by plugging ESATA external HDD. It replaces internal drive. It does not cost any money to enable and you do not have to transfer recordings to external drive, like you have to do with E*.

Not the last time I checked, about three months ago.

Another pro for D*: more HD.

Yes they do - it's called Club Dish. One simply has to get a code from a current subscriber and both parties receive a bonus.

E*:
- With one DVR, one TV can watch live TV while another watches a recording

D*
- The monthly cost of the DVR is a bit less than E*, so a long term customer will make up the upfront cost over time.
- VOD service

Gotcha. I think D* has 4 of those 5 in HD (missing Worldsport HD), while E* only has 3 of the 5 (missing Speed and Tennis HD).

The E* ViP722 is capable of recording 3 programs at once. Granted you have to be watching one of them, but that's still a huge thumbs up for me. And I also thought that the D* HD-DVR was $200?

Not exactly. You don't have to watch any of the 3 programs if you choose to watch something that has been previously recorded. The 622/722 has 2 satellite tuners and one OTA tuner. In order to record 3 programs, one must have an antenna hooked up.

May I ask a "newbie" question... What is the difference between Mpeg2 and Mpeg4?? Thanks..

As mentioned, you can watch a previously recorded program, or if your OTA antenna is connected to your TV's antenna input (as well as your DVR, of course) via a splitter, you can watch that fourth "live" feed while you record the other three programs.


MPEG4 is a newer compression scheme, giving higher quality for a given bitrate. Bottom line is that most satellite provided MPEG2 feeds are looking pretty bad these days, E* or D*.

From where you are in Memphis I wouldn't think you'd need two dishes for E*. I'm in the Richmond,Va area and only need one dish for HD pointed at 129.

The Club Dish discount is $5 a month for 10 months which adds up to $50. They also have the DVR Advantage plan. If you get a DVR with an 18 month minimum program package commitment and sign up for paperless billing, you save $5.98 a month on the DVR access fee. You can request equipment upgrades during your commitment period but there is usually a $49 installation fee and any commitment you have will restart. $49 isn't too bad considering I upgraded from a Dish 811 and 1000.1 dish to a ViP-722 DVR and a 1000.2 dish. The ViP-722 DVR has a 500GB drive and is good for 55 hours of HD recording. You can output to two TVs ( one HD and one SD ) but I have mine set up as a single receiver so I can watch and record 2 HD programs. I think you only have to pay a single outlet fee for the 722.

I'm in Alabama ( 200 miles east of Memphis ) and only need one dish.

Dish charges a $5 fee to downgrade your programming but there is no fee to upgrade. Your first receiver fee is included in your programming package.

Here is a list of fees from the back of my Dish Network statement:

Returned Payment Fee = $10.00
Late Payment Fee = $5.00
Reconnect Fee = $25.00
Additional Outlet Fee ( SD receiver ) = $5.00
Additional Outlet Fee ( HD receiver ) = $7.00
HD Enabling Fee = $7.00 ( No clue what this one is and assume this is a one-time fee to activate third-party HD receivers )
DVR Service Fee = $5.98
Change of Programming Fee ( regular ) = $5.00 ( removal only )
Change of Programming Fee ( adult ie. p0rn ) = $10.00 ( removal only )
Service Access Fee = $6.00 ( No clue either and assume it is to activate third-party SD receivers )
Credit/Debit card payment agent handling fee = $5.00 ( I think this is just to make a one-time payment )
Check by phone fee = $9.99 ( one-time payment )

The only items on my current bill are the America's Everything Pak w/ locals ( 99.98 ), 2nd HD receiver lease fee ( $7 ), DishHD Ultimate ( $20 ), and Taxes ( $ 0.86 ).

E* just went up about 5% on their billing, so I guess you have another year until the next increase. E* also, sort of, lost a bird ( AMC-14 ) so their future HD roll-out plans went bust when the bird's wings got clipped. I guess E* has to decide whether to expend 90% of its fuel to get it into the proper orbit or collect the insurance money.

They still plan to add some additional HD channels this year and also have 15 Voom HD channels that D* won't have. The only ones worth watching are Monsters HD, Kung-Fu, GamePlay, and Gallery while about 9 or 10 of the others should go away to make room for other HD content.