Scott's Review of a 942 Review

[fenwah]

Before I get started with my review I should note that SatelliteGuys.US encourages all members to financially support their favorite satellite forums. All forums are run by volunteers who take great pride in helping you learn the most about Satellite TV. IN NO WAY is this review trying to discourage anyone from donating to any forum.

As you might has seen early this morning Mark Lamutt posted a special review of the yet unreleased Dish Network 942 High Definition DVR to the supporters area of DBSTalk.

The gold member review contains only 2 parts of 3, and the full 3 parts of the review will be posted for all to see tommorow at DBSTalk. The only way to see this review today is to donate to DBSTalk. Should you donate to see this review? That is a personal decission you need to make, but if your donating just to see this review you are going to be disapointed.

Mark opens up the review by giving his overall thoughts of the unit and gives the 942 one of the most feature packed Dish Network revceivers ever made. He also thinks that if you are interested in getting a 942 there is no reason to not get one. The biggest downside he gives to the 942 is that it is not upgradable to mpeg4.

He fails to mention in his review one of the biggest flaw to me of the 942 that I have been reporting for over a year now and that is the fact the 942 only has 1 over the air tuner. Because of this limitation TV2 can not watch live over the air television channels, only TV 1 can access the Over the Air tuner.

I agree 100% with Mark if you are going to be a new customer then getting the 942 for a $250 upgrade fee is a no brainer. Do it and don't think twice. You can't beat a $250 High Definition DVR!

If your thinking about buying a 942 for $699 (without Dish) I would think about it considering by fall the 942 could already be obsolite. Dish 921 owners are unhappy because their 921's are also obsolite with promised features no longer being devoloped or supported by the 921.

After Mark gives his overall review he then goes in and shows us the unit, what the lights are on the front and what the hookups are on the back of the unit.

In part two of his review he shows you some screen shots from the 942, again this portion of the review is written as a more of a user manual then an actual review.

It will be interesting to see part 3 tommorow. Mark did do a very good writeup and I believe he could have a future as a manual writer for Dish Network. Although except for the first 3 paragraphs what I posted my thoughts above the review is not a review, if you want to read it all it is best to wait for all 3 portions to be available to all tommorow.

So, if I want to watch a TV program on my TV in the basement, I will need to get another Dish receiver? I was thinking the 942 would be similar to the 522 where I can watch a live program in the family room and my daughter could watch another live program in basement. What options would I have if I had the 942 in the family room? I have two HD TVs (family room and basement).

 

[Bradtothebone]

Scott, it's good to see you and Mark being civilized to each other - keep up the good work!

Brad

 

[BFG]

the 942 still has 2 independent outputs, but only tv 1 is HD. It is very much like the 522

 

[drod]

Best answer is It is an 811/522 hybrid.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

So, if I want to watch a TV program on my TV in the basement, I will need to get another Dish receiver? I was thinking the 942 would be similar to the 522 where I can watch a live program in the family room and my daughter could watch another live program in basement. What options would I have if I had the 942 in the family room? I have two HD TVs (family room and basement).

You can watch live Satellite on both TV 1 and TV 2 at the same time however the Over the Air tuner only works on TV 1, not TV 2.

 

[BFG]

with it's single ota tuner, how lame. From what it sounds like they didnt want to do an internal splitter because areas like Denver (where dish is) has very low power DTV so when they have the internal splitter, it's virtually impossible to lock a signal. But how is this my problem, I don't live in a low power market

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Scott, it's good to see you and Mark being civilized to each other - keep up the good work!

Brad

Mark is not a bad guy honestly. I have a great deal of respect for him. I would love for Mark to be a member of SatelliteGuys, he knows this as well.

Mark is a guy who walks the corporate line and does not say anything which can burn bridges, me on the other hand calls things as I see it and hold back no punches. Both attitudes have their advantages. I have not changed my attitude at all I am the same opinionated person I was when I was with DBSTalk, and by the same tolken Mark is the same guy he was as well.

There are stupid political things going on behind the scenes, and honestly it really is just stupid. Both sites have the same goals to help you guys learn about Satellite TV and make informed decissions when buying new Satellite equipment.

It appears that DBSTalk is hurting for money which is why they ran this Gold Member Preview thing, as over the past 3 days they have been requesting more money.

I have made this offer before but I will make it again now, if DBSTalk needed a home I would have ZERO problem hosting them here for FREE as our server is a monster and we pay the same amount for our server each month no matter if we have one site on it to 5,000 sites on it.

Over the next few months you will see some changes here, I want the staff to be more involved I want them to be able to shine.

At one time I was a no body (and I am not saying I am a somebody now) but I want to help pass the tourch to others who help make SatelliteGuys the Internet's most popular Satellite information forum.

I would ultimately love to sit down with all the staff of both sites and have a beer or two... or three.. or... and try to put the past behind us and move forward into the future. Will that ever happen? I doubt it but the door is open.

 

[fenwah]

As long as I can watch HD on my family room TV and SD on my TV in the basement, then I'm going to be a happy camper. It would be nice to have HD for both TVs...but I'll take just one in HD for now. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

[mike123abc]

I do not see the point of Dish offering a 921 to 942 upgrade... Both recievers will need to be upgraded in a year anyways, why upgrade a 921 two times in less than a year.

It would be nice if the 942 replacement were to:

1. Have 2 OTA tuners
2. Have component output for TV #2 (you can send component quite a ways with cheap RG6 cable, HDMI is limited by comparison).
3. Have Larger Hard drive
4. Have the ability for users to add on more hard drives (like external SATA plugs or something, let Dish encrypt the drives to death if they want, just give me more space!!).
5. Have MPEG-4 of course and probably Windows Media

 

[cincyguy2k4]

Whoever can afford 2 HDTV's in 2 rooms has more money than I have

One has to remember since we have to sub for the locals for guide data I would ASSUME that TV 2 can get the Dish SD versions of the locals but I might be wrong in my thinking.

Second, with OTA not all my channels are in the same direction. For me to record say Smallville on our WB and Lost on our ABC at the same time would be impossible because I have to move my antenna slightly to have flawless reception on either. 2 OTA HD tuners IMHO is a little much currently but in the future it could be warrented. By then this device will had its hayday.

My 2 cents.

On another note. I dont have a 921 but I sure would like to DVR HD content. I am highly considering it if its no buggier than a 721. My 721 misses timers and does other strange oddites but not enough to dislike the unit. Its just enough to be annoying once in a while.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

On the more disk space for MPEG 4 receivers....

One point to remember with the MPEG-4 receivers, they will have more hours of record time available with the same size hard drive since they will have a lower mb/sec per minute of video. But a larger drive would be nice.

The huge question in my mind as to hat the quality differences will be. Will we get the same quality as the MPEG-2 stream or different. As to a double update, you might be right Mikey.

 

[bobj2004]

Wont dont DBSTALK and Satguys just merg?

You hear about Corporate mergers all the time. Then I wont have to read posts at both sites switching back and forth.

 

[rocatman]

One has to remember since we have to sub for the locals for guide data I would ASSUME that TV 2 can get the Dish SD versions of the locals but I might be wrong in my thinking.

The model 811 does not require you to subscribe to the Dish provided SD locals to receive guide data for your HD locals. I know the 921 does but does the 942? Perhaps this is covered in the 942 review but if it is not, it would be useful if it was addressed.

 

[BFG]

I don't think the 942 requires locals either, that's something dumb that eldon programmed. But I would think most people would be getting locals anyways, since no OTA gets passed on to the 2nd TV....

 

[n0qcu]

and yes you do have to sub to Dish locals to get the OTA guide data.

There you have it. Dish screws you again.

 

[vurbano]

pay 250 dollars down so you can lease a one OTA tuner DVR that isnt mpeg4 compatible? I am going to die laughing. I cant decide who the bigger fool would be, the leaser? or the buyer?

 

[BFG]

 

[BobMurdoch]

There are stupid political things going on behind the scenes, and honestly it really is just stupid. Both sites have the same goals to help you guys learn about Satellite TV and make informed decissions when buying new Satellite equipment.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Wont dont DBSTALK and Satguys just merg?

You hear about Corporate mergers all the time. Then I wont have to read posts at both sites switching back and forth.

Actually, Scott could pay $200 for Mark's server. .....

And then lease the bandwidth it back to him....

OK, just kidding...... too easy to bring a Voom joke into the discussion.

 

[NightRyder]

pay 250 dollars down so you can lease a one OTA tuner DVR that isnt mpeg4 compatible? I am going to die laughing. I cant decide who the bigger fool would be, the leaser? or the buyer?

uhh...Add to that...No I won't say it...

NightRyder