The 921 to have a dvd recorder added by the middle of the year.

[MikeD-C05]

I just got my new May 2004 copy of" Stereophile Guide to Home Theater".

Inside the mag was an article about the Las Vegas CES show by an author who said that there was a Dish press conference about the 921 . They said that the rectangular panel in the middle of the 921 is really a docking slot that should be able to house a dvd recorder that will downconvert hdtv programs to standard definition for recording. They said it should be available for the unit's vacant drive bay by mid year.

OF course they also said that the Dish Dvr 921 is finally shipping. Don't know if the latter part is to true, but if Dish does allow a dvd recorder to be added to the 921 this will give Dish something that Directv doesn't have yet. Don't know how much this addition would add to the price of the 999.00 hd dvr. It looks like a cool idea though.

 

[BarryO]

Yea, but who wants to save SD downconverted versions of what's on the hard disk?

This is something I'd be completely uninterested in.

 

[ComcastOgre]

Even if you aren't interested in recording the HD, I would LOVE it for the SD programs I may record.

 

[Ken F]

I agree with Barry. I don't see much consumer interest in this. Recording downconverted SD is not going to be a compelling reason to purchase the 921. I think customers would have more interest in a drive capacity upgrade - say an extra 400 gigabytes.

It's unfortunate we haven't see more movement on blu-ray or blue laser. Consumer dual layer DVD recorders (about 8.4Gb) are coming in June/July, but this would still only accomodate one hour of full bitrate HDTV. At HBO-HD bit rates though, a dual layer DVD recorder might be able to fit a typical HDTV movie on one disk.

I think an internal dual layer DVD drive would be worthwhile if it provided two options: 1) recording at full HDTV, or 2) recording in SDTV. One-hour HD programs would fit on the ~8.4 dual layer DVD, and for movies that would not, SDTV could be given as an alternative.

 

[sclaws]

I agree with Ken..I'd rather add an additional hard drive in that slot than a DVD recorder.

 

[DaveP]

Let's not forget about the elusive firewire ports... Theoretically they could be used to attach any number of both harddrives and DVD writers. One can dream....

 

[SimpleSimon]

I agree with Ken..I'd rather add an additional hard drive in that slot than a DVD recorder.

And what happens to your 100's of hours of stored shows when the 921 craps out and has to be replaced?

Give me offline storage, please. If it's the same quality as what goes on the hard drive I wouldn't even mind (too much) if it's encrypted and can only be played back in a 921 - as long as it can be any 921 I own.

 

[Ken F]

If it's the same quality as what goes on the hard drive I wouldn't even mind (too much) if it's encrypted and can only be played back in a 921 - as long as it can be any 921 I own.

Well we've established that isn't possible with technology available and coming soon. Dual layer DVDs will support an hour of OTA HD recording time, and maybe 90 minutes of HBO HD recording time, but that's it. Special events in HD (like sports), both off-air and satellite, aren't going to fit on a single DVD unless there is downconversion involved.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Well, let's consider the possibility of it not being a 'real' video DVD, but a data DVD. To play such a thing, you first reload it into the 921. If the show is too long, you load up more than one DVD. Kinda like splitting a backup file across floppies.

Just a thought.

 

[Joe Q]

I fail to see the big deal.

I can already make copies of what is on the disk on various media from the S-Video/Stereo outputs. Downconverted of course.

I use an S-VHS VCR for'short term' recordings ie. SD programming I will watch within the next few weeks and DVD's via my capture card in my PC for any progamming I may want to keep long term.




The big deal will be when/if they activate that darn firewire port for recording HD material.

Joe

 

[sclaws]

And what happens to your 100's of hours of stored shows when the 921 craps out and has to be replaced?

Then I get it serviced or replaced like any other DVR on the market to date. I got the 921 for HD/SD timeshifting...archiving is not something I care much about at this point. That's not to say I'm against more features and options, but that's a secondary concern for me right now--it does what I wanted, and does it well.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Then I get it serviced or replaced like any other DVR on the market to date. I got the 921 for HD/SD timeshifting...archiving is not something I care much about at this point. That's not to say I'm against more features and options, but that's a secondary concern for me right now--it does what I wanted, and does it well.

I guess I got confused. I thought you were one of the guys that wanted more disk space over a DVD burner. If you're gonna fill 150 hours of SD, I'd think you wouldn't want to lose it to a disk crash. And it's highly unlikely you'll gt the same 921 back from Echostar if it ever needs even non-disk service, so if anything breaks, you lose your content. That's how it's always been - except for some folks some of the time with the 921 blue-line problem.

 

[sclaws]

I guess I got confused. I thought you were one of the guys that wanted more disk space over a DVD burner. If you're gonna fill 150 hours of SD, I'd think you wouldn't want to lose it to a disk crash. And it's highly unlikely you'll gt the same 921 back from Echostar if it ever needs even non-disk service, so if anything breaks, you lose your content. That's how it's always been - except for some folks some of the time with the 921 blue-line problem.

No, you're kinda right...maybe we're interpreting the term 'archiving' a bit differently. I would prefer more drive space over a DVD burner...its just that I tend to watch my programs then delete them right away rather than desiring to save programs off-line externally in a media archive. I'd see adding more hard drive space--internal or even a firewire external drive--as a benefit for my viewing habits, but personally I'm not that interested in recording material to a DVD and shelving it in a library.

 

[Stargazer]

As Seen on Leo Laporte's weblog at http://leo.typepad.com/tlr/weblogs/index.html
The Register says a hi-def DVD recordable spec has been approved by the DVD Forum, paving the way for recordable HDTV discs using blue lasers. The DVD Forum isn't talking. The blue laser discs hold 20 GB per side. Read about it here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/63/35889.html