The 922, The Edsel, Microsoft BOB, New Coke

[MikeD-C05]

And there it is folks.... the 922 is being PHASED OUT . It's official now . The entire 922/sling extender debacle is now complete. Bring on the new hopper/joey farce . Just 2 more years and DISH will come out with something else new that will "have to have ".

 

[lern4483]

Well I hate to say I told ya'll so , but I did over a year ago in fact, after I gave up the 922 I paid to own and traded it back in for a new 722k instead. I saw the writing on the wall in 2010 , when I saw how many standard items the "flagship receiver " didn't have, that the older Vip receivers did have, not to mention all the glitches and bugs the 922 had back then. Now DISH put all their techs on the new Hopper /Joey system and pulled the 922 for " BMP software compatibility.". All I can say folks after 15 years with DISH this month, is wait for it...... Don't be the first to upgrade to the new Hopper system. Let it hit the market and let the reviews come in, then if it has all the things you want and it sounds like it works well, then and ONLY then , should you upgrade. And this time , for the first time ever, I am saying this : DON'T pay to own the new system. Do the commitment instead and let DISH own it. That way you aren't out the money like I was on the 922 and the older 921 receiver. That bad boy cost me $1000.00 to own. NEVER AGAIN . Lets all say that together: NEVER AGAIN DISH.:rant:

Hey Mike,

Why did you not lease the 922 from dish? Paying 1000 for the unit?
Not worth it.

If your like me I lease the darn thing then when a new toy comes
out trade up.

Maybe you can dump it on ebay and get ''some'' of your money back.
Are they (dish) still going to support it in some mannor?

Sorry about all that Mike. It sucks!
Maybe dish can help you out some way? Worth a call.

 

[CK SatGuy]

And there it is folks.... the 922 is being PHASED OUT . It's official now . The entire 922/sling extender debacle is now complete. Bring on the new hopper/joey farce . Just 2 more years and DISH will come out with something else new that will "have to have ".

I don't think the hopper/joey is a farce like the 922. I don't think Dish was ever really serious about the 922/extender as they are now with the Hopper/Joey. I think something in the work culture at Dish got changed when Joe Clayton took over as CEO. I don't remember Dish getting this excited over a new product before (even bringing kangaroos to the stage. Sounds to me like they're not gonna bail out of this one.) With that said, I think the 922 was more of a test drive for the development team to figure out all the problems the 922 had so when they put the same software on the hopper/joey, they could do it right and not have as many bugs as the 922 has had. Again though, by doing this, it winds up screwing the subs who have had a 922 so I hope Dish does the right thing and give the subs who have had (or still have) a 922 FREE upgrades to the hopper/joey system.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Hey Mike,

Why did you not lease the 922 from dish? Paying 1000 for the unit?
Not worth it.

If your like me I lease the darn thing then when a new toy comes
out trade up.

Maybe you can dump it on ebay and get ''some'' of your money back.
Are they (dish) still going to support it in some mannor?

Sorry about all that Mike. It sucks!
Maybe dish can help you out some way? Worth a call.

I always wanted to own my receivers because that way no commitment with DISH. I'm also a" mover", so I don't want any hassles there , so I do my own installs too. As for the 922 I traded in my older receiver to an online retailer towards credit for my 922. I also got the same retailer to accept an even swap of my 922 back for a brand new 722k instead. As for the 921, I did similar trade in to the same retailer for my first 622 . I didn't get that much credit back then , I think it was $200.00 , so I definitely took a hit from the $1000.00 I paid for the 921. My point is I think that from now on I will not be buying any more of DISH's new tech. I will do the lease instead.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I don't think the hopper/joey is a farce like the 922. I don't think Dish was ever really serious about the 922/extender as they are now with the Hopper/Joey. I think something in the work culture at Dish got changed when Joe Clayton took over as CEO. I don't remember Dish getting this excited over a new product before (even bringing kangaroos to the stage. Sounds to me like they're not gonna bail out of this one.) With that said, I think the 922 was more of a test drive for the development team to figure out all the problems the 922 had so when they put the same software on the hopper/joey, they could do it right and not have as many bugs as the 922 has had. Again though, by doing this, it winds up screwing the subs who have had a 922 so I hope Dish does the right thing and give the subs who have had (or still have) a 922 FREE upgrades to the hopper/joey system.

I hope you are right about your predictions about the hopper /joey system , but this is DISH we are talking about. In the 15 years I've been with them, they have always been more about hype and less about follow through. I don't really know how much Joe Clayton has to do with the hardware/software part of the receivers, since it is coming from Echostar. But if history is any indicator , I am not going to get my hopes up about the new receiver, YET. After all the other shoe hasn't dropped yet, in relation to the pricing of the FEES. I'm still not going to get too excited about the box ,till I hear all the particulars about the FEES.

Remember this is the HYPE stage of the cycle that DISH goes through every year or two. First HYPE at CES , then the delivery of the promised receiver,if it isn't way too late,then the FEES are announced , then the promised features that you thought were coming are dropped one by one , then by then they are on to the next best thing in cutting edge receivers and the cycle starts over again. But Hey, DISH might have actually learned from the 922/sling extender debacle and might have worked out the problems so the cycle might be short circuited this time........

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I think the Hopper Joey is near ready for prime time. They have some small things to fix (it's too fast! Try reading the guide when pressing the page down button, you can't. ) I can't wait to get home and post some video of this thing!

I sat and played with one for almost 3 hours trying to crash it and the only hiccup was pip would not always engage when turned on. I was impressed.

I am sad. By the short life of the 922 but I understand why they want to move everyone to the hopper platform

Sent from my iPad using The SatelliteGuys app!

 

[JEFFinINDY]

Scott - I'm curious to know how you compare the Hopper/Joey system to DirecTV's HR34 whole-home platform. To me, it looks like DirecTV has a more unified (and possibly more advanced) platform already, than what Dish is aiming for.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[JM42]

Just 2 more years and DISH will come out with something else new that will "have to have ".

Of course they will. It's the nature of any tech product, you can't really fault them for that. I just bought a notebook and already want the stuff at CES.

I'm not saying they didn't drop the ball on the 922, they did, but I think the error goes all the way back to the product's conception and was compounded by the execution. Even if it had all worked 100% out of the gate, it never offered enough extra to qualify for the premium they wanted.

 

[dare2be]

Early adopters of new technology do take an added risk and are a necessary evil (how many still own HD-DVDs instead of Blu-rays?). So from those of us who didn't go the 922 route, we thank you sincerely for helping make the Hopper possible.

 

[356B]

I can remember years ago going to my local Dish installer and telling him I had bought an HDTV and I wanted to update to a HD receiver. He told me to wait because the current unit (whatever that was) was premature, he said a new receiver was in development and would be released soon. A few months later he called and said the vip622 had been released.
The 622 was not a perfect machine. There were numerous audio issues, freezes, lost date, etc., sound familiar? Then along comes the 722 and then the 722k which seems to be the darling of the 922 Dish critics.
I think there are many customers out there still using the 622, I read about them all the time. The 622 was a major departure from the previous unit not unlike the 922 was a departure from the 6 and 7 series vips.
Being a student of the obvious the hopper is just the next cog in the wheel, if you look at the menus, guide and some other features it has vip922 written all over it, (hopefully minus it's annoyances). In a few years after the Hopper and Joey have been throughly vetted another unit will come along to entice the masses. The 922 will go the way of the 622, unavailable from Dish but still used by those who don't need the latest greatest new thing. I don't see it as a bust at all. I have used it in my home since I moved on from the 622 with great success, if you discount the Sling fiasco. Sure the promises of "TV Everywhere" never game about, and it cost more money. Personally I suspect the new unit will ultimately be no cheaper, prices rarely drop for the newest technology.