PEAK INSIDE MY NEW 921!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tahoerob]

TahoeRob,

Do you get OTA DTV locals and if so, from where? I am curious how far out can you pick up DTV locals being in Winchester.

I am ~65 miles from DC transmitters. I get DC CBS & FOX well all the time. NBC & ABC vary but can be gotten. I have yet to get WB well even though it is supposed to be strong. I get the WETA PBS but it multipaths a lot. I also get another PBS out of Front Royal that runs the PBS HD 24/7 loop. It comes in strong despite being 90deg off antenna point.
I do have a 50ft rise in my LOS that I think interferes with some of them esp. WB. I plan on getting a rotor installed in the next week. This will also add ~ 3 ft of height as well as allow me to swing around to Baltimore & a closer ABC & NBC.
Winchester is about 800 ft higher elevation than DC, so this helps. Some people in my area do get Baltimore.
The DC UPN is very low power to only about 5 mile radius from tower!

Of course, I really need Dish to fix the OTA bug that locks up the 8vsb when low SS occurs. It is fixed now by a smart card reboot!!

 

[Ransack]

What antenna do you use?

 

[Tahoerob]

What antenna do you use?

I have a CM crossfire VHF\UHF deep fringe with a CM 7775 (UHF only) preamp on 10ft rooftop pole.

 

[Kagato]

Thanks for the link Kagato- That is very good info on this.

AS far as what would or could be done in the future- while you are probably correct in that this will be used to base a 921-2 version some day, I would not agree that this would be a non-user upgrade much less a dealer upgrade. Frankly, I don't see this any different than the average computer card being sold at CompUSA or BestBuy. There will be those consumers who would never open the computer to install a PCI plug-nplay board and require the local dealer to perform the install while others will remove the case and plug in the board following the instructions that come with the board.

Don, I agree, it's not a hard upgrade to do. In a previous career I did warranty most of the major computer and printer makers out there. There isn't a whole lot to repairs, installs and upgrades. Just keep the person grounded for ESD put tab A into slot B. However, the 921 has an unshielded power supply. It would create a huge liability if they were to offer a customer upgrade.

I agree though, the slots pretty much saying this will be the HD PVR platform for some time. A V2 and V3 unit could be expected.

 

[Tahoerob]

Of course, now it is time to sell my 6000 on Ebay & hopefully recover $400-500 back!!!

FYI. it is now upto $510 with 3 days left!!
Not bad for a $149 6000

EDIT: now $533!!!

 

[mangymutt]

921

I know that those slots are not agp or pci. Also the firewire connector on the front should work for input and output. Just depends on where it goes to. But it should be directly connected to the hard drive in some way, as all other ports are normally used for video from camcorders and things of that nature, also used for LAN communications. But ill find out what that connector is used for and try to let u guys know a definate answer.

 

[ocaddict]

Hey Rob. Way to go on the 921 opening. I noticed you have the same Sony 50" LCD I have. I'll also be looking to dump my Dish 811 model on eBay soon and pickup a shweet 921. Hows the HD picture and recordings look on the shweet Sony?

 

[Tahoerob]

Hey Rob. Way to go on the 921 opening. I noticed you have the same Sony 50" LCD I have. I'll also be looking to dump my Dish 811 model on eBay soon and pickup a shweet 921. Hows the HD picture and recordings look on the shweet Sony?

all looks great.
I set the 921 to 1080i with 16*9 display settings, & let the Sony convert to its native res. This seems to work better.

Even SD seems better with the upconversion via the 921.

 

[ocaddict]

Man.....you got me salivating overhere. I MUST HAVE THE 921! I'm currently running the DISH 811 and it's pretty sweet. Picture quaity blows away digital cable in my area and the HD channels are to die for. I'm craving the PVR action of the 921 however. Anyways, thanks man. Take it easy.

 

[bpearse]

I am getting old and my eyes are not working that well, but there seems to be a wire connected to the side of the harddrive (left side as viewed in the picture). Never seen that before. Not power, not IDE. Almost looks like SATA or firewire. Any ideas? Or is this wire going somewhere else. I cannot believe they would use a non-standard IDE drive!

 

[ocaddict]

I am getting old and my eyes are not working that well, but there seems to be a wire connected to the side of the harddrive (left side as viewed in the picture). Never seen that before. Not power, not IDE. Almost looks like SATA or firewire. Any ideas? Or is this wire going somewhere else. I cannot believe they would use a non-standard IDE drive!

Looks like a grounding wire to me hoss. As that's clearly a standard ATA HardDrive. Since it's maxtor it could be ATA/133, ATA/100 at worst.

 

[bytre]

Its not a drive interface cable, probably a grounding wire.

The drive is a 250gb 5400rpm DiamondMax 16 ATA-133 drive.

 

[Tahoerob]

Of course, now it is time to sell my 6000 on Ebay & hopefully recover $400-500 back!!!

FYI. it is now upto $510 with 3 days left!!
Not bad for a $149 6000

EDIT: now $533!!!

FINAL PRICE: $567.56
That is a nice $400 net!!! Thus my 921 now has cost me $599!!

 

[ocaddict]

Way to go man! W00h00!!

 

[bpearse]

Looks like a grounding wire to me hoss. As that's clearly a standard ATA HardDrive. Since it's maxtor it could be ATA/133, ATA/100 at worst.

Perhaps, but why 2 wires? (look closely). Maybe it is a temperature probe? Doubtful, since most drives now come with built in temp probes (which is really neat; the last two 160G WD drives I bought can be monitored for temp using speedfan).

Very odd. But I agree, this looks like the standard Maxtor drive.

 

[BarryO]

Ok I got my 921 today & I could not resist opening it up, literally. I have seen many requests for INSIDE pictures. Here they are.

Where'd the pictures go?

 

[Tahoerob]

Where'd the pictures go?

I think they did not transfer when they updated the forum software. I will have to re add them next week (out of town now)

 

[Tahoerob]

pictures Re-uploaded! See First Post.

 

[Mr5150]

Has anyone opened their 921 AFTER the blue line fix to see what mods might have been made...just curious.

 

[Genesis]

I just opened my 921. I wanted to replace the fans; they are way too loud.
Unfortunately, I do not have a digital camera. Two areas to report:

HD
Maxtor DiamondMax 16; 250GB ATA133; Mfg Date 06 Aug 2003.
There is a Secondary IDE connector on the MB.
The other black wire(s) coming out from the left side of the HD is a temperature sensor. It goes into a connector on the MB labeled "HDD THERMISTOR."

FANS
80mm 12v 100mA 2pin power connector, INDEK Corp. CFM A series
60mm 12v 75mA 2pin power connector, ELINA FAN
I replaced the 80mm stock fan with a PC Power & Cooling ThermaSense. It is much quieter. Next weekend I will either replace the stock 60mm with a quieter 60mm, or try to fit another 80mm ThermaSense (it would be extremely tight). The ThermaSense (is identical to their Silencer, but has built-in thermostatic speed control). According to real tests (not manufacturer's claims) their is only one quieter 80mm fan on the market which I will be purchasing and testing. However, it does not have thermostatic control.