Price Paid:  $600.00 from From Dish

Summary:
UPDATE:
The FAN NOISE HAS VANISHED!!! That's because the CHEAP FAN HAS FROZEN!!! YAY!!! If they're going to design a system with a fan that never shuts off they should use a MIL-QUAL fan. But alas, the cheap fan has died. That was about 8 months ago. The thing hasn't fried, and... NO NOISE! But, since I've turned off Dish and only use OTA, I don't really give a hoot. So I've downgraded my rating.

Strengths:
hmmm. Strengths...

Weaknesses:
Fan. Need to contact the Mothership often just to work the OTA even though I don't use the satellite part. (ATTN MSG 15).

Price Paid:  $600.00 from dish depot

Summary:
Price and ratings include the 8VSB Tuner for off-satellite broadcast reception. BELIEVE THE REVIEWS-THE 8VSB TUNER FAN NOISE IS INCREDIBLE. AND YES, IT RUNS 24/7. Unless you have it sitting in another room, it is basicly un-usable (I have unplugged it). It would also have been nice for the receiver to automatically detect SD and HD signals and send the appropriate signal out. Rating without the 8SVB Tuner is 4 (value and overall).

Strengths:
SD and HD reception from satellite is great.

Weaknesses:
The 8SVB Tuner fan noise (if you think I'm joking just buy one). Must manually switch between SD and HD broadcast signals.

Similar Products Used:
None-it was an upgrade from the 3000 series receiver.

Price Paid:  $499.00

Summary:
Had similar fan problems as others have discussed. Echostar is horrible in response. Did not even know there was a problem. They wasted a lot of money sending me a new receiver and HDTV cartridge. Same prob started in 20 mins. Have resided to keep the cartridge unplugged unless I am watching a HDTV broadcast.

Price Paid:  $499.00

Summary:
Purchased this product for $499 plus $149 for 8vbs module. I just bought a new Hitachi widescreen and wanted to take advantage of the 16x9 screen.

Strengths:
Great Picture

Weaknesses:
My main reason for posting this review.
Horrible, horrible fan noise. When you first plug in the reciever the fan noise is minimal, but after about 10-15 minutes it starts to (and continues to) emit a high pitched noise that can be heard from 20 feet away. This noise is so distracting that I might just give up the HD viewing and opt to go back to regular viewing. I'm very surprised that the manufacturers could allow this to happen.
I wonder if there is a fix for this. Perhaps installing a better, and more expensive fan??. I'd certainly be willing to pay the extra $$

Price Paid:  $470.00

Summary:
I have the 6000 receiver and 8vsb tuner. Previously i had the 4000 receiver with the DD adapter. I now have a hdtv monitor hence the 6000 upgrade. The performance of the 6000 is fine but if you use the "guide" to change to other user preferences you may lose reception and have to select "view" and revert back to the previously viewed program and try again to access the new desired channel. It is a frustrating experiance at times. Have others experienced this? Other than that its a fine receiver that pretty well does everything you expect it to. HDTV reception is great as well as sd. The noisy fan 24/7 is annoying but tolerable. It needs a thermal cutoff!

Strengths:
Does it all.

Weaknesses:
A little slow. Loses programming occassionaly when changing user menus.