Dish upgrade options

I've been told that I need to upgrade my dish to receive HD locals. I believe the Dish Network rep said it was satellite 77. They would install that the new dish for free if I extended my contract by 2 years, otherwise they would charge $199. My question is, besides buying the dish and upgrading it myself (which I do not want to do), do I have any other options?

Or, in other words, are there independent installers that can give me a better price? Has anyone had luck negotiating with Dish? I've been a customer for about 3 years, but I do not want to be locked in for another two.

Dish usually does not negotiate their pricing. You can try a local installer or learn to live without your HD locals.

if you dont want to extend youre contract you can always buy youre own equipment a 722 receiver runs for 300bucks on ebay.

Well, I don't think I need new equipment, just a new dish. But I'm not having any luck finding an independent installer. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Well, I don't think I need new equipment, just a new dish. But I'm not having any luck finding an independent installer. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

What equipment do you have?

To get HD you need a VIP receiver AND a dish or dishes seeing THREE satellites.

You can easily spend $500-600 doing it yourselfand still not have it work.

Bite the bullet - there is no reason NOT to do the commitment, it saves you hundreds of dollars.

I already have an HD receiver (vip 622) and am receiving HD programming. The problem is that the HD locals that were added for my area are off of the 77 satellite, and apparently the equipment I had installed about a year ago can't receive the 77 satellite.

There are a couple of reasons why I don't want to agree to a 24 month commitment. First, I just had this system installed, and I think it's ridiculous that I'd have to extend my contract by 24 months to get local HDs. I don't know whether Dish would have known last March that I would need to receive the 77 signals to get HD locals or not, but it just doesn't sit right.

Perhaps more importantly, I just don't want to be locked into a contract due to the current economy. Dish told me that their installers would install w/o a contract for $199. I may end up doing that, I just thought I'd check with a local installer first. Trouble is, I can't find one!

aces236, Are you close enough to pick up your locals via an antenna? if you are put one up or if you are really close use an indoor and avoid the monthly charge.

Yeah--thanks for bringing that up. That's what makes the whole thing frustrating. There are about 5 local HD channels in my area, and dish is only providing 3 out of the 5. I get good local reception on all of them except 1, and Dish DOES provide that 1. So I'm really talking about 1 channel here.

Maybe an outdoor antenna is the best solution.

aces236, Are you close enough to pick up your locals via an antenna? if you are put one up or if you are really close use an indoor and avoid the monthly charge.

It may be semantics, but it does not extend your contract by 24 months, it restarts the 24 month committment.

If you are 6 months into a 24 month committment, it only extends your committment by 6 months.

You are needing the 1000.4 dish to hit the 77. Pain in the ass to install and it has marginal if not crappy signal. Not worth it in my opinion until dish can boost the signal strength.