RUMOR SQUASHED - 921 HAS NOT BEEN DISCONTINUED

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Scott Greczkowski

Scott Greczkowski

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Sep 7, 2003
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I am receiving a strong rumor from various sources that Echostar has DISCONTINUED the production of the High Definition 921 receiver.

I am also being told that the 921 will be replaced by the new 922 receiver, a receiver was has been rumored to be available next year. I am being told that the 922 release date has been pushed UP to December of this year.

Could current 921 owners get a low cost or free upgrade to the 922? That has yet to be decided.

MORE AS I HAVE IT.

Again this is JUST A RUMOR and HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED.

UPDATE

I just got an email from Jim Defranco telling me that the 921 is still in production. This Rumor has been squashed. :)
 
IF this is true...

Wow. Gives 'bleeding edge' a whole new meaning.

LOL.

Checking out the HDTivo to see if it is worthwhile immediately. Would be a sad day after eight years with E*, but good lord, no telling how long the 922 will take. Not much hope for the loyal E* customers (HD PVR-wise) if this rumor pans out, before Football rolls again.

Scott, you said in another post that someone from E* was going to get in touch with you about the OTA channel info - any word?
 
No word yet, Jim Defranco himself told me someone from Engeneering would contact me (that was on Friday) I have heard nothing yet.
 
Boy, that move would really but E* at a competive disadvantage. D* has a HD PVR out and cable companies are starting to roll theirs out. Is E* throwing in the towel on HD for the moment, no new channels and only the 811 for a HD STB?
 
E* may be at a disadvantage, but it may be a smart move. If they can release a new unit in December that works well and offers features or a price point better then the Tivo, they may just have something.
 
Scott Greczkowski said:
E* may be at a disadvantage, but it may be a smart move. If they can release a new unit in December that works well and offers features or a price point better then the Tivo, they may just have something.
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The key part in your post is 'works well', they can't afford to wait that long and then come out with another bug infested product like the 921. Also, one problem with this might be that D* would be able to lower the price of the HD Tivo by then, under cutting whatever E* came up with, unless Charlie's going to give them away for free with a 12 month commitment.
 
The 921 was a box for 18 months ago. I bet all the chip sets in the 921 are so outdated now, the best course of action is to scrap the whole platform. Did the 921 have 8PSK decoding of the SD channels? I bet the 922 will.

What really worries me now is the "push up release date to December '04". We all know what happens when a receiver is rushed to market; Bug City.
 
As a long term E* customer, I am concerned about the company on this one.

I think that E* needs to focus on OTA local program guide info in a BIG way. But since they can not even get hardware issues resolved, I would be hugely surprised if they will tackle this soon.

From my perspective, I would be choosing between HDTivo with locals info in the guide, name-based recordings, per account PVR fee, (tentatively) upgradeable storage space - in a stable platform.

On the other hand, E* offers me analog OTA, Caller ID, Faster Program Guide, Radio Remote, purported better picture (I have not even seen D*, but I will start looking) and the luxury of not having to change after 8 years. Not very compelling.

Am I missing something?
 
Geez Scott, given E*'s track record lately, that's one huge if about the 922. Will it work? Will it be delayed for a year and a half? Will I still be a dish customer?

Well, the answer to that is known, I had cable installed last week. Selling my equipment soon.
 
The 921 was a box for 18 months ago. I bet all the chip sets in the 921 are so outdated now, the best course of action is to scrap the whole platform. Did the 921 have 8PSK decoding of the SD channels? I bet the 922 will.
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The 921 has the BCM4500/BCM3440 chipset, which can be used for 8PSK modulation of SD and HD. The Dish 111, 311, 322, 811, and 921 all support 8PSK for both HD and SD.

The Broadcom BCM7021 in the 921 is at least two-generations old. Broadcom just recently announced a new chip, the BCM7038, which integrates more functionality onto the chip to reduce design complexity and STB cost, while also enhancing features and functionality. Some of the improvements include 3/2 pull-down for SD channels, the ability to decode two separate HD channels simultaneously with DD5.1 sound, triple PVR (as opposed to dual PVR) to record and playback up to three streams simultaneously, and dedicated 3D acceleration.

The 921 also uses a rather dated 8VSB tuner for off-air reception -- which Broadcom just recently replaced with a next-generation tuner.
 
This upcoming Tech Chat should be most boring. I bet no mention of the 921 will be forthcoming. All calls will be scripted and phoned in by CSR support personnel.
 
Just an update. I got an email from Jim Defranco telling me
921 production in still and expected to be continuing.
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There you have it from the horses mouth.

It feels good to squish a rumor sometimes. I still am waiting for a reply from Echostar on the OTA Guide data, Jim tells me I should be getting an update on that soon.
 
Scott Greczkowski said:
Just an update. I got an email from Jim Defranco telling me

There you have it from the horses mouth.

It feels good to squish a rumor sometimes. I still am waiting for a reply from Echostar on the OTA Guide data, Jim tells me I should be getting an update on that soon.
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Yea, but didn't Michael Dugan e-mail you to say he wasn't leaving E*, which was true but he gave up his COO position and just stays on the board. Maybe Jim is also telling the truth, but they're doing only a couple a day.

I hope Jim is completly accurate in this since there would be a bunch of ticked off E* customers if they had to wait until the end of the year for a HD PVR.
 
Just got this from Echostar Spokeperson Marc Lumpkin
DISH Network retailers continue to receive shipments of the 921 and we are producing more to meet the continued high demand.
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I don't know of any dealers who have gotten any stock in since they stopped production to fix the blue line issues.

Also in his email Lumpkin claims to never have heard of the 922. I have talked to a bunch of people at Dish about the 922 and even Mark Lamutt who is under a NDA with Dish has been talking publicly about the 922.
 
Scott Greczkowski said:
I still am waiting for a reply from Echostar on the OTA Guide data, Jim tells me I should be getting an update on that soon.
Click to expand...

I just got off the phone with advanced tech *Nancy* cuz my 522 was goofed up.

In her notes about the 921, the next software update is 'supposed' to be spooled Q3 of 2004. She didn't even have any idea that E* was pulling dishwire support and wanted to know where I heard such a thing. I gave her the url to this forum.

So we have to endure all summer without OTA guides or OTA populating our favorites lists.

(Why am I beginning to think that advanced CSR's are just regular CSR's promped to say 'advanced' when you punch in your phone number.)

DTV & Tivo is looking better and better all the time....
*sigh*
 
Scott Greczkowski said:
I don't know of any dealers who have gotten any stock in since they stopped production to fix the blue line issues.
Since the retailer chat is tomorrow maybe some dealer that's got 921's on order can call in and ask when he will get his allocation and see what he's told.
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