When you go to sign up for an entertainment package from Dish Network, you'll also be given a satellite receiver at no extra charge. This is a huge benefit because it makes people more likely to sign up for Dish Network's service, but it's also a good business move on the part of Dish Network. For one thing, the fact that Dish Network supplies satellite receivers means that it can encrypt its signals to keep people form stealing them, but can guarantee that its subscribers will have the right equipment to decrypt those signals. Supplying satellite receivers also allows Dish Network to offer optional features on the receivers which it can then charge additional money for.
What kind of receiver you get will probably be determined by what you tell the Dish Network customer service representative when you first sign up. For example, if you're signing up for a high definition entertainment package and want to be able to watch satellite TV in two rooms of your house with digital video recording, Dish Network will provide you with its most sophisticated satellite receiver, the ViP622 DVR. The ViP622 DVR can decode high definition satellite signals delivered using the MPEG-4 data compression format as well as standard definition satellite signals which come in the MPEG-2 format. It can also record up to two hundred hours of standard definition programming or thirty hours of high definition programming on its built in hard disk. Of course it can also supply a separate TV signal to a second TV in a completely different room of your house so that you can watch TV in each room as if you had two separate satellite receivers. The only disadvantage to this dual TV capability is that the ViP622 DVR will down convert high definition programming to standard definition before sending it to the second TV.
If you tell the customer service representative that you want high definition television without all of the bells and whistles, you'll receive the ViP211. The ViP211 delivers standard definition and high definition television to a single TV set without. It also doesn't have a digital video recorder.
If it's clear that you want digital video recording, but don't care about high definition television, you'll be given the Dish Player-DVR 625. This satellite receiver can record up to one hundred hours of standard definition television programming for you to watch when you want rather than when the networks think you should watch. The Dish Player-DVR 625 also has dual television capability.
If you want to watch TV in two rooms, but don't want a digital video recorder, Dish Network will give you the Dish 322. The Dish 322 has the same ability to send separate television signals to two different TV's at the same time, as more advanced models without the bells and whistles. It even comes with a second remote control that can send its signal through walls.
Finally, if you tell Dish Network, that you just want a satellite receiver capable of handling standard definition television and sending it to one TV in one room of the house, without the ability to record video, you'll get the entry level, but fully functional Dish 301.
