IT'S OFFICIAL NO FIREWIRE ON 921!

[NightRyder]

Dish Network- That "damn coffee table in the middle of the dark room" Satellite company.

That could stick.

:haha :clap

 

[Big Bob]

I know there are a few people at Echostar VERY upset with me, and frankly I don't care. My feeling is the truth had to come out sometime or another, if I didn't break the news then someone else would have eventually. How long should customers who paid $1,000 for this unit have to wait in the dark about this promised feature?

My guess on this. Only a guess.

They are still trying to figure out what to do. For a very long time they have been trying to get this to work. Some internal people thought that they could get it to work, while others didn't. Gradually, everyone realized that it just couldn't be made to work and accepted the truth.

So then they had to move on to what to do next. How to deal with the mistake. Should they give refunds to anyone who wants it? If so, how do they handle it? Are there other ways to compensate the people who are upset? How will they handle those? Are they staying within the law. The lawyers will have to review everything. Are they being fair with their customers? What is the time frame? Where is the manpower to handle all of this? And many, many more questions.

All of this takes time.

They didn't want to make an announcement until they had a majority of these questions answered. They wanted to be able to be able to get their ducks in a row so they could say what happened, what they are going to do about it and what they will do in the future.

By releasing this information early, the end users have an incomplete picture, which always leads to anger and speculation. When the complete plan is in place, it will be clear and people can decide whether E* has acted properly or not. As it is now, people are frustrated and angry because they do not know what is happening and what will happen. This is why E* didn't want the info released yet.

How long should customers who paid $1,000 for this unit have to wait in the dark about this promised feature?

Answer:
Until E* had figured out what to do about it. My guess would be about another week.






FWIW,
I do not have a 921, so either I just don't get it, or I can be more objective.

I also have quite a bit of experience in large corporate communications. I have seen this happen before and I am certain that there are a lot of people who are working very hard on this.

I also have quite a bit of experience in product development. E* made a huge mistake on this one and should fess up and do everything they can to make right with the people who already have a 921.

 

[Sean Mota]

Glad that I never invested $$$ on the 921. It was bad enough with the 6000u and the 721.

 

[BobMurdoch]

A different point of a view from a 921 owner.......

1. I bought the 921 so that I could finally see HD content on my HDTV AND be able to keep the PVR functionality that I got used to and can't live without now.....

2. That requirement has been filled. I plan on adding a rooftop antenna this summer to try and pull in local HD signals from NYC (42 miles away) and Philly (65 miles away). I was holding off on this until the software code was stabilized a bit more. Until then I am enjoying all of the HD channels sent over the satellite.

3. The DVHS firewire were something that I THOUGHT I might use, but it would require another $1000 investment to get a decent DVHS deck. Since these recordings would only work on my machine (no one else I know has one), it would only be useful as a long term storage device. Except that I don't like magnetic media anymore with BluRay and HDDVD on the horizon over the next three years.

4. I am upset that E* continues to hawk vaporware and then bail out for one reason or another (I've been through this with the original Dishplayer, then the 721, and now the 921). Yes, the core reasons that I got the units were satisfied, but they keep ramping up my expectations and then falling short every time. Either via delays, or with options that fail to appear (Expanded features on the Dishplayer, keyboard for the 721, internet for the 721, dishwire for the 921......)

I'm disappointed, not mad, but an announcement stating that a DVD burner can be added to EXISTING 921s will assuage my concern me for now.

 

[metallicafreak]

People, the JVC 30K DVHS is a decent deck and it only cost $469 at ecost. The newer 40K is $689 at onecall. I saw this mentioned a couple of times as $1k so I just thought I would clarify
FREAK!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

BTW I just checked Dish Networks website and they have removed the Spec Sheet (PDF File) from their website.

 

[metallicafreak]

The product brochure is still there though:
well it was 5 minutes ago.....
no wait here it is:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/product_brochures/dish_player-dvr_921.pdf
FREAK!

 

[rad]

The product brochure is still there though:
well it was 5 minutes ago.....
no wait here it is:
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/product_brochures/dish_player-dvr_921.pdf
FREAK!

Freak, it may be there via the link you provided, but they've removed the link from their HD receiver page in the 921 area. It's the only receiver on that page that doesn't have a product sheet.

 

[mikew]

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/products/receivers/dvr/index.shtml

The link is still there for the PVR receivers.

 

[smooth28la]

Isn't the removal of the PDF file a TOTAL ADMISSION OF GUILT on the part of Dishnetwork??

 

[mikew]

<!-- EchoStar PVCS Header *****************************************
*** File Name : $Workfile: index.shtml $
*** PVCS Revision : $Revision: 1.1 $
*** Last Modified : $Date: 12 Apr 2004 17:04:42 $
***************************************************************

<!-- EchoStar PVCS Header *****************************************
*** File Name : $Workfile: index.shtml $
*** PVCS Revision : $Revision: 1.2 $
*** Last Modified : $Date: 12 Apr 2004 17:02:24 $
***************************************************************

Viewing the source code, both pages were updated on 4/12. One had the link removed, the other did not.

 

[beast37799]

tha fact is it was promised that it would be activated i dont understand why they cant get it to work cant they get the 921 to work at all first software problems then hardware problems aka blue line problem now they have the firewire failure and considering they had one on the 6000 and it worked seems a bit fishy to me but then again the whole 921 problems seem fishy

 

[markdl]

The 6000 never had firewire...that's an aftermarket modification.

 

[beast37799]

but still they got it to work thats my point why not now

 

[Joe Q]

The product brochure is still there though:

You mean the product brochure that says "2 DISH Wire connection ports for interface with select IEEE1394 products" ?

Wonder what select products they mean now. When I spent my $999 I was told by a DISH rep that one of those select products was a D-VHS. It's even in the 921's menu just greyed out.

Oh that's right. Besides just removing the brochure to hide their lie, they have to download a new rev of SW to remove menu,4,5.

 

[NightRyder]

Isn't the removal of the PDF file a TOTAL ADMISSION OF GUILT on the part of Dishnetwork??

Are you saying that not removing the inaccurate document's would be more ethical

At this point Dish is morally guilty of misleading their customer's who purchased 921's. From an ethical standpoint they need to address these customers and offer some form of compensation. Whether they are legally guilty of anything is a much more complicated issue. I don't see where the removal of a link on a web site would constitute an admission by Dish, one way or the other.

NightRyder

 

[Neutron]

This is just like DISH violating their contract last month dropping channels without written notice and them now saying they have another contract that protects them against the RSA that we all signed.

 

[NightRyder]

This is just like DISH violating their contract last month dropping channels without written notice and them now saying they have another contract that protects them against the RSA that we all signed.

Your not going to turn into another Bob Haller are you?

NightRyder

 

[lex61564]

They also had an HD module for the dish 5000 receiver, I had mine for three years. Sounds like more excuses.

 

[lex61564]

That dish 5000 HD module was an update provided by dish themselves, they rendered the 5000 in active and now this with the Dishwire, hum, something shady about all of this.