Will I regret it??

[John W]

As of this morning I am #25 on Dish Depots list for 921's. I am a little afraid to get it because of a lot of the things I have read here. I also have Directv and I am wondering if maybe I should dump Dish and go totally to D*. I have been a subscriber to dish and been actually been pretty darn happy with it except for the whole Dishplayer problems.

Anyway any thoughts on going forward with E* and the 921.... once I buy that piece of equipment I am stuck with them for a while.

Thanks

 

[MikeD-C05]

IF you go with Dish and the 921 be prepared to wait up to two years to get a stable product that actually works like it is suppossed to do. It took 18 months to get a stable 721 that actually works like it was suppossed to do. Of course it 's not in production any longer. I imagine it would take as long for the 921. The basic 301 receiver took up to 3 years to get a two day guide. The 522 won't have single mode function , like the 721, till next summer. The 811 hd receiver is waiting on software updates to correct a dark picture. The 921 doesn't work properly with ota signels as of now. The 6000 and the 721 are still waiting for Dish Home. My point is to stay with Dish and invest a cool 1000.00 dollars, you must be patient and be willing to wait for software updates to correct all the bugs in the receiver. If you can do that then your decision is easy.

 

[metallicafreak]

I own a 921. I shared your concerns before I received it. First let me say that I watch very little OTA so the OTA issues really don't bother me. I am very pleased witht the unit and it's operation. I have to date only witnessed very small bugs (knock knock knock) that aren't even a nuisance. I do not regret the purchase at all and think it kicks ass. Go for it.
FREAK!

 

[JMikeF]

My concern has less to do with the rollout issues (although considering the length of the delay, I'm surprised in the sheer number of defects, inc. hardware now!).

My concern has to do with what I consider a long term investment ($1200, since I have to upgrade my LNB/switches), and the future of Dish. My gut tells me that Charlie has lost focus, and what does this mean for the next 5 years or so?

Dish's one advantage over DirecTV was its ownership of the birds. Now, DirecTV has committed to investing in its own birds. And cable in many areas is coming on strong too.

I'd hope to get at least 5 years of use out of the 921 - a reasonable ROI. What do you think?

 

[David_Levin]

5 years is a pretty long time. The thing really needs a 500 gig - 1 terrabyte hard drive. And, since Dish will not let us upgrade....

Have any of your other boxes lasted 5 years (before being relegated to a 'secondary' location?

Your right about losing focus. Ever since the sudden decision NOT to use the SuperDish for HD. That was being billed as Dish's future. How are we going to get our 50 HD channels now.

Instead we're getting a lot more smaller local markets. Granted this probably gets them more subs in the short term. Might more subs mean more attractive for a buyout?

My 921 is on it's way - I just couldn't hold out any longer, and refuse to give up the PVR functionality. But, with E* current direction (or lack there-of), it's a bit scary.

 

[jsanders]

My concern has to do with what I consider a long term investment ($1200, since I have to upgrade my LNB/switches), and the future of Dish. My gut tells me that Charlie has lost focus, and what does this mean for the next 5 years or so?

Why do you need to upgrade your LNB/Switches?? I'm using all legacy stuff with my 921, and I'm happy with it. The 921 is based on the 721. They are taking the code base from there to start. The 921 shouldn't take as long to work out the bugs as the 721 since they started with that code. The 921 works okay for me, even the OTA stuff now except for a few glitches. Just make sure when recording OTA stuff to not record 1 minute before and 3 minutes after, and make sure the box is set to a satellite channel when the timer goes off. It will work fine under those circumstances. They do have bugs to fix with OTA timer conflicts, but they are fairly minor.

I'm relatively happy with mine at the moment. Last week's bug fix went a long way.

 

[bytre]

I've gotten almost 4 years out of my dishplayer 7100. At this point, I can sell it for 5 to 6 times what I paid for it ($49 as a new sub). I don't expect that I'll have a similar experience with the 921, but I'd hope to get 4 years out of it.

I've had my 6000 for almost 3.5 years.

 

[al]

John:
One thing to consider, being a subscriber to DirecTV. The HD DirecTiVo is scheduled for release by end of Q1, 2004. DirecTiVo boxes have been relatively hassle free, compared to DISH Network DVR boxes in the past.

Alan

 

[rudolpht]

You'll always have buyer's remorse after spending this much for a box, but less bugs, a real OTA guide, and Firewire turned on it will be worth it to me.

In the mean time, it is a decent Sat recorder with potential. If you want fire & forget and a two year tested guide for OTA, wait on the HD DirecTivo.

 

[BobMurdoch]

John:
One thing to consider, being a subscriber to DirecTV. The HD DirecTiVo is scheduled for release by end of Q1, 2004. DirecTiVo boxes have been relatively hassle free, compared to DISH Network DVR boxes in the past.

Alan

Maybe, but D* compresses their HD content so much that it doesn't look anywhere near as good as E*. Just look at the specs which show that THEIR 250 GB hard drive will hold 30 hours of HD while E* only holds 25. This isn't a negative for E* it's a plus as the PQ is much better on HD recordings.

 

[tds4182]

HD Compression on Both E* and D*

Maybe, but D* compresses their HD content so much that it doesn't look anywhere near as good as E*. Just look at the specs which show that THEIR 250 GB hard drive will hold 30 hours of HD while E* only holds 25. This isn't a negative for E* it's a plus as the PQ is much better on HD recordings.

I've owned both E* (model 6000) and D* (Sony HD-200) HD receivers. I have 20/20 vision with my glasses and think I am able to discern picture quality fairly well. In my opinion, the D* picture quality is better than anything I ever got from E*.

To me at least, the OTA picture quality on my Sony HD-200 is significantly better than the OTA picture quality that I got from my E* model 6000 unit. An added plus is that I don't have to ever "fiddle" with the Sony unit and I was constantly doing something with the model 6000 to make it work properly.

As to recorded images, I don't know whether the E* 921 or the upcoming D* HD Tivo will be better. Based on past experiences of a lot of people, the D* unit will be more reliable.

That's just my opinion!

 

[BarryO]

I've owned both E* (model 6000) and D* (Sony HD-200) HD receivers. I have 20/20 vision with my glasses and think I am able to discern picture quality fairly well. In my opinion, the D* picture quality is better than anything I ever got from E*.

To me at least, the OTA picture quality on my Sony HD-200 is significantly better than the OTA picture quality that I got from my E* model 6000 unit. An added plus is that I don't have to ever "fiddle" with the Sony unit and I was constantly doing something with the model 6000 to make it work properly.

He wasn't talking out OTA, which should look the same from both, unless somethings wrong with the 6000 or you're using the DVI on the Sony.

Bob was refering to the D* HD feeds. People have complained about pixellation on them, and a lack of resolution. Some people with the appropriate equipment have analyzed the D* datastream and reported that they down-rez their HD channels to something less than full 1920x1080 resolution (1440x1080 I think).