Well, not even the monthly fee, I think no matter who you're with [since Dish has gone to "DVR" instead of the fee-free "PVR"] you'll pay a monthly DVR fee [mine from TWC is 6/mo I think]; but the initial hardware cost. Leasing isn't bad, it is nice being able to swap it out if you have problems, but paying a couple hundred dollar 'upgrade' or whatever fee, in addition to the monthly fees, *and* having to sign a contract, and get an antenna/OTA box, isn't real attractive.
we have two tv's that are in regular use. Of course, one isn't HD so it would use a basic box.
Yeah, we had Dish before we moved, then when we moved [nine months into a contract], the guy claimed he couldn't get us a signal, even though many of our neighbours, also with trees, had dishes on their houses. Our house is placed a little lower, so that might have had something to do with it. So we had to pay for dish for 3 months that we couldn't use it, I'm still a little irked about that. Anyway, we went with cable, and they offered us an HDDVR and for no additional fee and a lot easier long before Dish or DTV even thought about them, and I don't watch enough tv to really care too much [or to want to spend that initial investment].

Again, you can connect your house antenna tot he dish receiver or get one of those indoor ones (silver something by zenith) for OTA.

Also, the 622 can control 2 tvs, BUT you have to use one of the 2 tuners for it.

I think someone misinformed you. If you move somewhere and they cannot get a signal for you, then you arent under contract. At least thats how it used to be. I was under contract and moved to an apartment. The guy came out and they couldnt get a signal. So, I switched to cable. They didnt charge me for breaking the contract. They arent supposed to unless the rules have changed.

If your happy with cable though, then id stick with them. I tried cable with the hd-dvr in my area. First, they didnt have all the hd local channels (cbs, upn, pbs were not available) AND there was no favorites list in the channel guide so I couldnt narrow them down. That, plus the sd quality was poor compared to dish so I stuck with dish.

Double check that. I was told that I was responsible unless I had the "dish service" fee on my bill. I told them that I didn't think they understood what the term "lease" actually meant. Don't know if I will fight it much though.

Hang up and call back (to get another customer service person) or better yet call Tech support (they are ALOT better than customer service and can do this for you).

My hard drive crashed, I called Tech support and they shipped me another no questions asked.

will do. Thanks.

Tell me again what you got for $199? Since your are talking DVR, I'm assuming you got the dual tuner HD DVR? Did you get any other receivers? I'm going to need the dual tuner HD DVR and at least on more HD Receiver. Hopefully I can keep the SD equipment I currently have and move them to other areas.

Anyone know if I will actually need a new dish antenna? I don't know what I have now, but got it about three years ago. It is all SD but I do get local SD channels on it. I have a dual tuner DVR and a stand alone receiver elsewhere. I would like to get local channels in HD thru dish, tho I could put up an antenna. I'm doing that now and get a good signal for OTA HD thru an old voom box.

The $199 includes installation as far as I know....they should set up whatever you need to receive the channels that you want. At least thats what they did for me. Though, I did it in March when it was $299.

Also, you should be able to keep any sd equipment that you already have...you will probably just have to pay a $5 fee for each additional receiver on your account (unless your already doing that).

This question is for all of you that already have a HD DVR. I don't have dish network, and have never had a DVR, but am looking into getting both for my HDTV. I am going to get the DVR/HD receiver dual tuner (the 622), and not get a subscription for the local HD channels, but record them with my OTA antenna. My question is, can I program my DVR to record OTA programming, just as you would for the dish channels? Or do you have to be there to hit record for the OTA programming as it comes on the air? Thanks so much for your help!

During the setup of your 622, you can have it scan your OTA antenna for digital channels, or you can manually add them to a list. Once the list is ready, you can then instruct the DVR to include the channels in your channel guide.

If you do this, then programming the local HD channels to record is no different than any other channel. The channels show up in the guide, and if the local broadcaster provides program info to Dish, that shows up in the guide as well (making name-based searches possible with the channels). In fact, it is really quite nice, in that using the OTA HD tuner still leaves both Dish tuners free to record other stuff, if the need arises.

The only caveat is that, if you live in an area where viewing different OTA digital channels requires rotating the antenna, the DVR can't do that for you. For me it's no big deal, because all of the digital channels come from the same tower.

That is exactly what I needed to know. Thanks for your quick answer.