SatelliteGuys 921 Review

[rudolpht]

pnknoise.... Must be those 70s songs on VH1 or someones bellbottoms or liesuresuit got stuck in the empty drivebay.

 

[ocaddict]

However if your a 721 owner you might be disapointed with the 921 as there is nothing really new on the 921 which makes it exciting.

So while the 921 currently drives like a Toyota I believe it can run like a Cadillac with a few tune ups.
quote]

While I enjoyed the majority of your review, did you forget the 721 is not capable of HD? No Component out, no DVI-D out, NADA. The 921 is the ONLY receiver on the market to combine DVR with HD. That alone warrants quite a few bonus points in my book. Although I don't have one, I sure as hell would like to get DVR functionality with the great HD quality I get from my 811.

 

[jcrash]

However if your a 721 owner you might be disapointed with the 921 as there is nothing really new on the 921 which makes it exciting.

So while the 921 currently drives like a Toyota I believe it can run like a Cadillac with a few tune ups.
quote]

While I enjoyed the majority of your review, did you forget the 721 is not capable of HD? No Component out, no DVI-D out, NADA. The 921 is the ONLY receiver on the market to combine DVR with HD. That alone warrants quite a few bonus points in my book. Although I don't have one, I sure as hell would like to get DVR functionality with the great HD quality I get from my 811.

Problem is, it doesn't work correctly or well on over-the-air signals. For the 99% of us that want an HD PVR for weekly shows like CSI, ER, etc., the thing is not worth twice the price of the 721 we already own.

 

[ocaddict]

From what I understand from my research, very few if any HD Receivers handle over-the-air signals worth a hoot. I'll admit, it would be damn nice to watch CSI, etc in HD and record it as well. But unfortunately, it seems our high demands in taste are a bit ahead of what technology currently offers. Obviously the 921 isn't perfect, but damn, it's the best thing out there right now and gives a good stab at getting it right. Maybe rev2 will give us the full Monte eh?

 

[markdl]

There's quite a few OTA HD recording solutions that work extremely well if you're willing to build a computer to do it and invest in a great deal of hard drive space.

Unfortunately, the 921 isn't there yet, but hopefully one day it will be.

 

[ocaddict]

Of course you could build a PC for recording HD only, and heck, hard drives are as cheap now as they've ever been. 250Gig HD's are just over 200$ now. Still, I prefer to keep my home theater setup and PC goodies seperate. I spend way too much time on the PC as it is, no need to add to the situation by incorporating them both into one! lol
Damn, come to think of it, are they really building TV Tuner cards now with HD in/out capability? I just did a quick search and couldn't find any. BTW, what's OTA?

 

[markdl]

OTA is Over-The-Air - terrestrial channels. Check out the HTPC forum over at AVSForums. Currently, there are 4 HD recording cards available - the Hipix card (which has been discontinued), the AccessHDTV card, the MyHD card and the Fusion cards. All of these cards receive HD via RF coax and record to hard disk.

 

[ocaddict]

Thanks Mark! I actually was browsing last night and found the HTPC site also. Lots of good stuff there and there seem to be lots of peeps making home theater and DVR's out of their PC's. I may look further into building one myself so I can avoid any monthly charges. Good stuff!

 

[faithntim]

Hey guys. After reading Scott's review, I'm wondering what the best option is for me. I don't have a 721 to compare to, but I have been using a ReplayTV (older ShowStopper) for a couple of years and love it! Also, I've had a Samsung HLN567w for about six months and I'm dying to get HDTV. I've been waiting patientily for the 921, but now am wondering if I should or not.

Would I be better off to get a less expensive HD receiver and forget the HD DVR for now? If so, which one? Do any of the other Dish HD units also handle OTA channels?

P.S. I'm in Vegas for the CES and can't wait to walk around tomorrow at the exhibits! If anyone has any advice for a CES newbie, pour it on!

 

[Mike Greer]

OTA Guide info in the future?

I want or maybe wanted a 921 until all the problems with OTA. Does anyone know if Dish will have guide information for OTA? I wouldn’t mind dealing with the lack of a guide for a short time but not forever. Much of the time shifting I want to do is OTA. I can’t get CBS HD because I can get it over the air (thank God for the government). If there is a plan for OTA guide info I’ll probably risk it and buy one – if Dish Network has no plans for OTA guide I think I’ll just pass and get an OTA PVR some day. I’m sure someday my Salt Lake City locals will be in HDTV over satellite but I’m sure that is at least 5 or 6 years away – most likely even more…

What do you think?

Thanks,

-Mike

 

[ocaddict]

Hey guys. After reading Scott's review, I'm wondering what the best option is for me. I don't have a 721 to compare to, but I have been using a ReplayTV (older ShowStopper) for a couple of years and love it! Also, I've had a Samsung HLN567w for about six months and I'm dying to get HDTV. I've been waiting patientily for the 921, but now am wondering if I should or not.

Would I be better off to get a less expensive HD receiver and forget the HD DVR for now? If so, which one? Do any of the other Dish HD units also handle OTA channels?

P.S. I'm in Vegas for the CES and can't wait to walk around tomorrow at the exhibits! If anyone has any advice for a CES newbie, pour it on!

As a cheaper alternative (as not many peeps I know can or WILL shell out a grand for a damn receiver) I got the 821 HD receiver with the typical new customer deal for free, and picking up a 508 DVR receiver on ebay so I'll have both HD and DVR capabilities. So I'll enjoy all of the benefits of the 921 for 700$ less. Booyah baby!

 

[John Kotches]

ocaddict says:

As a cheaper alternative (as not many peeps I know can or WILL shell out a grand for a damn receiver) I got the 821 HD receiver with the typical new customer deal for free, and picking up a 508 DVR receiver on ebay so I'll have both HD and DVR capabilities. So I'll enjoy all of the benefits of the 921 for 700$ less.

When exactly did the 508DVR gain the ability to record any HDTV (OTA or satellite based) signal? Without that, you have'nt gained "all of the benefits of the 921" although you did save a couple of bucks.

Regards,

 

[Woo]

On my Dish 6000 I watched all my SD shows in Stretch Mode yeah the picture was a little distorted but it was barely noticable, and the picture filled my 16x9 screen. On the 921 however when it stretches the picture it really stretches the picture. It stetches it so much that much of the picture is lost on the left and right sides. This is something that needs to be fixed.

Mark Lamutt has proposed a fix at DBSTalk CLICK HERE by resetting your settings to 480p when watching SD programs, to me this is an unacceptable fix because you should not have to reconfigure everything each time you want to watch TV, in addition on my TV when my HD input flips to 480p mode the calibration is all off, in 1080i mode my HDTV is ISF Calibrated by Gregg Lowen.

Scott,
One question regarding the above statments. I'm guessing that the HD and the SD (S-Video or Composite) outputs don't work at the same time. This would be expected when viewing HD content but can you confirm if they work simultaneously with SD programming? I believe the answer lies in the HD/SD button but I thought I'd ask just to make sure.

The ability to force SD or HD means that if one were willing to use an SD input on their display AND had a programmable remote, then it would be possible to press the "SD view" button and have the remote force SD switch the display so you had a decent stretch. It would take about a second to send those commands and you could have your HD and SD from the 921 without having to rely on the 921 to stretch the SD content. Most widescreen televisions have a better stretch process than any of the HD boxes I've seen.

The only problem I can think of right now is someone may get confused when their HD program doesn't come up if they forget they are in "SD Watch Mode". However they could just press the "HD Watch" button and the remote would switch it back.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

You don't need to switch over to SD mode if you don't want to. If you are in HD mode and you are watching SD video that video is upconverted.

 

[Woo]

You don't need to switch over to SD mode if you don't want to. If you are in HD mode and you are watching SD video that video is upconverted.

Scott,
I was thinking of switching to SD mode because you said the stretch wasn't very good when it upconverts SD stuff to HD. So if you output SD signals to the S-video out then you would have a better stretch. So just for curiosity sake I was wondering if the SD outs work when you are in HD mode.

Even if it doesn't I was thinking this would solve your stretch problem without having to go into the menu and change the output to 480p.

Or did I completely misunderstand

 

[vicw]

... Does anyone know if Dish will have guide information for OTA?

Let me also ask that question, if anyone knows a true answer, for pretty much the same reasons you gave.

I'm tempted to get an HDPVR, despite the very high cost, but I'm put off by the reported lack of OTA Guides on the 921. If it is assured that Dish plans to provide it in the near future, that would keep it in consideration for me, but if not, I don't see why I should spend that much for what I consider to be an essential feature for a PVR. I would be sorely tempted to just drop E*, and go with D* to get their Tivo-capable HDPVR, which supposedly has (or will have) the added advantage of dual OTA tuners.

 

[deathopie]

Does the 921 show locals (not ota locals, but the ones from dish) with their actual channel number like the 301 does? I'd much prefer to punch in channel 7 on my remote instead of 8772 like I have to with the 6000.

 

[fox200]

Does the 921 show locals (not ota locals, but the ones from dish) with their actual channel number like the 301 does? I'd much prefer to punch in channel 7 on my remote instead of 8772 like I have to with the 6000.

921 locals from Dish like the 6000....8772 etc.

 

[daveray]

I have a 721. Got locals 03-24-04 on superdish. My locals listed as 7002 but they also show up as 5 for one local ch. If I push 5 on my remote I get CH 5.

 

[videobruce]

Honestly I do not see myself recording Hogans Heros of HDNet, or movies off of HBO, in my honest opinion recording movies off HBO is of no interest to me. I own a Panasonic RP91 Progressive Scan DVD player and except for a few rare occations the movies from my DVD player have looked as good (if not better) then most HD movies shown on HBO or Showtime.

What's the sense of having it if you can't see the benefit of time shifting movies (if you are paying for that service)?

The big shortfall of the 921 is its Off Air Digital recording, because the 921 currently has no off air Digital Listings it makes the PVR features of the 921 useless. In order to record a show like CSI, you need to know what time the show airs, what day the show airs, how long the show is, what channel the show is on and what Subchannel the HD broadcast is on. And while a technical guy like me can figure out those things, my wife would never be able to record her favorite shows.

What did you do when you had a VCR that didn't have a guide? I hate to tell you, it's no difference.
You know the network (channel), you know the time/day and you know the lenght of the program. What/where is the problem??
If you are in a vehicle without power windows would you know how to lower the window, or even attempt it?

While I am thinking about it wouldn't it be nice if the 921 had a built in Antenna Rotor control built into it. Think about it, unless you live in the perfect location all your HD Channels are not are not going to be in the same place coming from the same antenna, if the 921 had a rotor control it could automaticly move your antenna to the proper spot for receiving each channel. I can imagine a lot of folks are going to be writing saying that their 921 did not record their favorite HD show because their off air antenna was pointing in the wrong direction.

See the above.........what do you want it to do else for you? Make you breakfast?

Apparently you never have done any REAL time shifting, or if you have, you must of used that VCR Plus. Yea, it would be nice for the rotor to position itself automatically, but that is a step up feature for the next model. I have taped shows that the antenna was in the wrong position before, won't be the first or last time.