There's been so much promotion of high definition television in the media lately, that it's easy to over look the great entertainment that standard definition television still offers. Although HDTV does provide a much higher quality TV experience and prices for HD equipment and programming have been falling rapidly in recent months, standard definition television sets are still cheaper than HDTV sets and there are a lot more standard definition television channels to choose from than there are High Def channels to choose from.
Dish Network is one company that seems to have done a good job of straddling the line between promoting High Def and still providing excellent service for its standard definition subscribers. The standard definition satellite receivers that Dish Network provides to its subscribers are great examples of this situation.
Dish Network's standard definition television satellite receivers start out with the basic model- the Dish 301. The Dish 301 is the default that's automatically provided to Dish Network subscribers when they sign up for standard definition TV programming packages. It provides everything that the casual TV viewer will need to access and choose from the programming provided by hundreds of channels quickly and easily. That's because the Dish 301 provides access to all of the user friendly software that makes Dish Network satellite receivers of any type easy to use. This software includes Parental Control Locks, Theme Lists, Favorites Lists, Bookmarks, and it's all tied together by the Dish Interactive Electronic Program Guide that makes selecting the show or movie that you want to watch easy.
The Dish 322 has the same basic functionality as the Dish 301, but provides it for two separate TV sets. When the Dish 322 is installed in your home, the installation technician will put it in your living room as part of your home entertainment center and hook it up to your TV set and the satellite dish in the normal way. Then the technician will run a second coaxial cable from the Dish 322 to a second TV located in another room of the house. You'll also be given a second remote control that will go with the second TV. This remote control has all of the functions of any Dish Network remote control, but it operates on a frequency which, in addition to being able to pass through walls, will keep the receiver from getting confused about which TV viewer is sending the instructions to change channel or bring up the Electronic Program Guide. This makes it so that both TV's can display different programming at the same time without the viewers of either TV interfering with each other's signal.
The most advanced standard definition satellite receiver provided by Dish Network is the Dish Player DVR 625. This model has the same software and dual TV display capability of the Dish 322, but also has the built in capability of recording video for later viewing. While a digital video recorder can be used to record video that you'll want to watch over and over again, its real value comes from its ability to make it easy to record TV shows and movies that you would ordinarily be unable to see because of schedule conflicts. This model can record up to one hundred hours of video and even record from two different channels at the same time.
All of these standard definition television receivers have all of the features that you need to enjoy the relatively low tech, but still affordable and plentiful offerings of standard definition television.
