Do you actually NEED a new receiver?

[tskill]

I'm thinking of getting HDTV and would like to know if I need a new HDTV receiver from dishnetwork? I currently have a Dish 500 system, so my understanding is that I will NOT need a new physcal dish on the house and that the dish500 dish can receive HD signals so that is good.

Question is do i really NEED a new receiver from dishNetwork? or can I use my dish500 receiver? I know that you need an HDTV receiver, I understand that... but I am thinking of getting a Sony TV with a BUILT IN hdtv receiver.

So my thinking is that all I should have to do is plug the coax from the dish500 box into the tv and should see HDTV, is that correct?

I read that if I wanted to record in HD then I'd need a special HDTV dvr from dish (not sure why when I thought it was all recording digital anyway why a dish500 dvr wouldn't work)

So with that background, if I have a Sony TV with a built in HDTV receiver/tuner do you still need the dish hdtv receiver? or can the dish500 just pass along the hd signals fine?

Thanks

[jpipes]

You'll probably ned a new receiver. Satellite signals are typically digitally encrypted by the provider company. If so, your new TV needs to be able to read the encrypted signal.

[LXSWRX]

If you are getting a 211, 622 or 722 (Mpg4)
You will need a new dish (dish 1000) to pick up the 129 sat.
You dish 500 picks up the 110 and 119 only.

If you get like an 801 (Mpg2/3), you can still use the 500 dish, due to the hd signal comming off the 119 only.

If you are going for the first, the tech will just replace the 500 dish.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.