FIRST LOOK: 622 Review!

[M Sparks]

Scott, I'm only on page 5...maybe somebody said this, but that interactive Channel 101 is on my 942, and I assume all OpenTV receivers. It's under the service menu on DISH Home.

Not that anyone would WANT to see it, but it's there.

Oh, and bummer they haven't added a Closed Caption button. That's the only thing I don't like about my 942. I had to add a freakin' macro button. My old TV had a "CC on Mute" feature. I didn't use the speakers on my TV, so in essence, I had a one button CC on/off. That's great when combined with a DVR..."What did he say?".

 

[RobR7]

N00b

Sorry if some of these are noob or repeats... (BTW nice review)

1. What's the point of the 2nd TV outputs, I really don't get the praticality of it, if there is any? Is there a missing piece to this? Will we eventually be able to have this streamed to a regular set in another room without a receiver? Right now I'm picturing some long arse composite cables.

2. How are the menus? Do they respond well? How about setting up recordings? Sometimes I want to trash my D* HD Tivo when I accidentally press the wrong button and I have to wait forever for it to come back.

I'm thinking of switching from D* but I have some reservations of course... trying to build a case.

D* just feels like it's going nowhere soon and I'm a little bitter my 1K HD Tivo is going to be an expensive paperweight when they do switch over.

 

[iKramerica]

1. Slingbox, or yes, long composite cables. They do come in long lengths, you know. Impact Accoustics makes a nice 100' Composite+LRAudio cable you could run. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=173713&CatId=769

2. He said they were light speed in responding. D* HD Tivo is notiriously slow in the menu department. The last dish receiver I used (and still do) that had slow menus was the 6000. My 721 has fast enough menus, and the newest receivers are much faster.

See if Dish will give you the $200 rebate as a "compitive upgrader," though they may want you to send them your expensive HD Tivo box, which you could sell for a lot more.

To me, it's a no brainer if you own the HD Tivo box. Sell it for lots, cover the total cost of switching to Dish, and have Cable Modem installed as well, then get rid of your phone company with VoIP. In the future, you'll be ready for whatever cable throws at you, and won't have any real money invested in Dish equipment at that point...

 

[NewDish12345]

Very great review. I have been looking for 622review for a long time.
Currently, I am using Comcast, which I think is ia cheap temoprary solution (only $10 for DVR+HD+no_contract).
I am hearing some people said the DISH PQ is worse than comcast, since they compress it. Anyone compared DISH PQ to comcast?
Also, is all VOOM channels in real HD all the time? Or, they are just upconversion, or only at certain time of the time like ABC/CBS/NBC?
Also, I am hearing rumor that in April, we can get 622 in under $100.. If that's the case, I may wait for it since it is only just 2 more months, and I can save $200

Thanks

 

[NewDish12345]

Can someone tell me the difference between DISH1000 and maybe DISH500?
I am living in Bay Area, CA. Will I be in the area to receive localHD (NBC/ABC/CBS/FOX) via dish? or do I need to have a seperate antenna to receive OTA? IF I need to get the seperate antenna, do I need to buy it myself or the installer will install it free for me? I currently don't have any dish setup, so I will be a new user. I do hope they will setup everything for me.

also, I am hearng people saying that DISH1000 will be quite heavy and probably can't be mounted on the roof, and need a 10foot pole?

 

[tcaba]

622

Dish has a good offer FINALLY for current subscribers $299. Anyone know the distance the second tv can be from the 622 receiver?
I'm wondering if I can turn off the receiver in the bedroom and use the 622 for the family room and the bedroom.

 

[dlsnyder]

Thanks for the great review Scott. Now I know that I REALLY want one, but as you wrote, the current HD content is not all that compelling (paraphrase). It is not worth it to me right now to buy one, or to lease one for that matter if it requires an 18 month commitment. I might be interested in buying a gently used 942 for use as a whole-house SD DVR. I wonder if they would allow me to keep the same "old" HD pack if I activated it on my current account with the 811 on it?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would lease one for $99 when they are available in April, you can't go wrong with that deal no matter how lousy the HD programming is.

 

[Smith P.]

Scott, there is a challenge - a question for you ( the 622 ) - could you connect it to your network and see if it will grab IP from your home DHCP service for start ?
Next step will be run Sniffer (Ethereal for example ) and gather all packets from/to the DVR.

 

[Kryspy]

Scott,

Excellent review. Another receiver us Canadians will most likely never get to use

God we haven't even gone 8PSK yet for HD let alone mpeg4 or anything fancy.

You Americans just plain suck

Kryspy

 

[bongohawk]

Awesome review Scott!!!!

Isn't the 18 month commitment optional? I thought I saw on Dish's website that if you sign up for 18 month commitment that they wave the $49 or you opt to Not do an 18 month commitment and pay the $49.

 

[bytre]

Nice review! The only thing dulling the excitement of it is the schoolyard antics of site vs. site squabbling.

Take the high ground, ignore the bait.

 

[CivicOnBoostEK]

Scott, you said it didnt come with the component cables either? I just had a customer call in and activate one today. Didnt come with HDMI, but it came with component. Might be a packing issue like the 211's when they were first released. they purchased one through a local retailer. Anyway, I was very suprised as the activation was really smooth. After adding the numbers to the account, within one minute, All channels but locals were coming in. Locals came in within 5 minutes of the conversation. I was very impressed considering the 211 has an activation bug which normally takes around 30 mins to take the activation.

Just another good thing about the 622

 

[Redwolf]

My install date is next week, and this review makes me feel better that I ordered the 622 without anyone, including Dish, knowing what the heck was going on.... Thanks a bunch for an awesome review with pics!

 

[larrykenney]

Can someone tell me the difference between DISH1000 and maybe DISH500?
I am living in Bay Area, CA. Will I be in the area to receive localHD (NBC/ABC/CBS/FOX) via dish? or do I need to have a seperate antenna to receive OTA? IF I need to get the (snip) also, I am hearng people saying that DISH1000 will be quite heavy and probably can't be mounted on the roof, and need a 10foot pole?

I live in San Francisco and received excellent service from the local dealer. They'll put up whatever antenna you need. If you get one of the HD packages, you'll get the Dish1000.

The Dish 500 only gets the satellites at 110 and 119. The Dish 1000 gets 110, 119 and 129. Some of the HD programming and the SF Bay Area locals are on 129. Locals in HD are not available for this area yet, but will be available later this year. No date has been specified yet.

Larry
SF

 

[pstineme]

Any idea if the signal running through out the house via output two will interfere with a cable modem? I don't think it would but I'd hate to mess that up.

 

[larrystotler]

In a perfect world this would come to be...... I've said it before that the constant sniping back and forth diminishes both of you. I'm still going to post in both places and I find value in both from time to time. I too hope that detente breaks out, and each can find a way to accept the long term view that they will both be around to offer insight, commentary, and opinion.....

Quite frankly, I find the reason that I post less here is that there are too many thread updated too fast. While I enjoy helping out, I find that I spend too much time wading through it all and you have to just do what you can where you can. Not to mention that there are a lot of times that the same post if started on both sites, which makes me wonder if some of those posts aren't people from E* or elsewhere checking to see what we know.

 

[SaltiDawg]

Scott, you said it didnt come with the component cables either? I just had a customer call in and activate one today. Didnt come with HDMI, but it came with component. Might be a packing issue like the 211's when they were first released. ...

Is it possible that 622's being provided as an upgrade to a 921/942 is not including HDMI cables because it is understood/known that the customer already has received one with the original receiver?

 

[riffjim4069]

I dump a number of recordings out to a Panasonic DVR writer. While the 942 has been a great receiver, I have always hoped they would solve the output/aspect ratio problem and add a feature to select playback of multiple recordings and be able to priorities and schedule playback. For example: I am constantly recording news and news related broadcasts and ad-hoc news items for my wife (teacher). It is a time consuming pain-in-the-arse to playback each one of these recordings individually.

Q: Does the 622 have a playback feature where the user can list, soft, and queue multiple recordings for output to archive storage? If not, does anyone know if E* is working to add this feature in the near future?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Q: Does the 622 have a playback feature where the user can list, soft, and queue multiple recordings for output to archive storage? If not, does anyone know if E* is working to add this feature in the near future?

I wish they had a feature to queue files up for Playback as well.

My 3 year old son loves "Go Diego Go" and our DVR is filled with episodes, every 20 minutes I need to get up and put another episode for him, it would be great just to select them all and press play.