Would like to hear from the peeps that ENJOY their 921

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ocaddict said:
The 921 is a computer. SO the fan is standard 80mm. If you look on the net you can find all types for varying rpm, noise levels, etc. I'm sure it would be an easy swap if it really bothered ya, could b worth it. Maybe I'll put a cool Blue LED one in mine!
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I have a Replay 1 foot below the 921 It is also a computer with a fan...dueling fans :) edit, when I am at my pc in the livingroom, the tower is to the right the 921 and 5040 are to the left...triphonic fan sounds...good thing I worked around heavy equipment for years or it would but the heck out of me:)
 
I like the unit quite a lot, over the past week or so.

I have only two problems -

1) I switched from DirecTivo to Dish DVR. Losing NBR and the Tivo interface SUCKS.

2) The remote won't control volume through my Marantz receiver, which means I have to two-fist remotes at all times. DD5.1 volume is like 10dB lower than regular SD Content, so if i switch from HD to a SD channel, volume SKYROCKETS INSTANTLY AND I HAVE TO REACH FOR THE REMOTE AS FAST AS I CAN. It bugs me a little bit.
 
I'm pretty sure you can program the AUX button on your remote to control the volume for our A/V receiver. Check your manual for the codes you need and try several until you find one that works.

The Dolby Digital issue is common across many platforms as my DVD player does the same thing. It is something established by Dolby and is not E*'s fault. It happens for me when my DVD player switches from the movie to one of the animated menus with sound at the end of the movie..... Just learn to keep the remote nearby (or hit the mute button to avoid it)
 
921

My 921 has worked well. I have had a few minor hiccups which were easily cured with a power button reboot.
 
Hearing a lot of reboot action going on here. On average, how often do you guys need to give the 921 a good reboot to clear any issues? Daily, weekly, monthly?
 
Reboots

I'd say I average about 1 reboot for every 4 hours of use, if I use OTA's at all. Sometimes FAR more than that. If I don't ever touch OTA's, it's really pretty reliable with no reboots required.

What is more significant is that the OTA problems prevent me from using it for OTA DVR functions whatsoever.

As a comparison, I now also have Adelphia Cable - both my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR and my 921 (temporarily) connected by RGB to my Toshiba DLP, and by Toslink Optical to my HK AVR. Some comparisons:

HD PQ: They are absolutely identical. No advantage to either unit.
5.1 Sound: Also just the same.
Non HD PQ: Actually, I seem to get better non-HD PQ on my Toshiba HD DLP through cable. However, I seem to get better non-HD PQ on my standard CRT TVs through Dishnet (on my 508/510's, not my 921).
Remote Functionality: 921 is clearly better with UHF
User Interface, and "advertised" features: 921 clearly better, but they don't always work. Certainly not reliable. So far, everything on Adelphia is working as advertised.
HD Content: Adelphia destroys Dish. I get ALL locals in HD, except Fox. I get ALL premiums in HD (of course, 1 per premium). Plus, Adelphia adds HD content at a MUCH faster rate than Dish (pretty easy in this case).
Price: Adelphia is cheaper. To be specific, my monthly bills are lower, and I get more programming. Plus, I don't need to "buy" anything from Adelphia. The price includes rental of my 3 DVRs.

It's really too bad. I really LOVE the 921 - when it works. However, I absolutely demand that it be reliable. I don't want to hear about comparisons to PCs as an excuse for a lack of reliability. That's pure nonsense. PCs allow users to ADD programs, applets, change configurations, do not have proprietary hardware for which that software is specifically and solely designed for, etc. Anyone making that comparison is completely misrepresenting the situation, or has no experience with technical engineering. The fact of the matter is that the majority of problems with PC's (OK, even specify Microsoft Windows) only start after USERS make CHANGES or add applications (meaning CODE!). Your car has a computer that is far more similar to the 921 than a PC. Would you accept your car not starting at random, or simply shutting off when you're on the highway?

The fact that the 921 has been out a year, has been discontinued, and has this well deserved reputation for being unreliable is absolutely without any defense. Additionally, the reason that Charlie can get away with it rather than fixing engineering problems is because people make excuses and accept poor quality. Don't mean to rant here, but this is completely ridiculous.

If you have one and it's working for you, I'm jealous (but would be very wary about it's long term viability). If you have one and it's not working, I'd hammer Charlie until they returned it for a refund like I did. If you're thinking about buying one, well, that's just plain nuts.



ocaddict said:
Hearing a lot of reboot action going on here. On average, how often do you guys need to give the 921 a good reboot to clear any issues? Daily, weekly, monthly?
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I must say, ever since the download of L211, I have spent almost little time on this discussion group. What that tells me is that I am satisfied with the product, in spite of the occasional glitch.

Let me add that I still get a "wow" factor feeling when I watch the 921 on HD channels and pause/rewind, etc. Family and friends that come over and watch OTA or subscriber channels always comment on it. I also love the surround sound out of the optical port.

Count me very cautiously happy with the 921, and a little nervous about the move to MPEG4. My only real complaint now has to do with naming channels, and amount of HD. But, given that I bought this primarily to be able to pause local digital OTAs in HD, I have to say I'm very, very satisified right now.
 
I have had a 921 since mid December of last year. I have never had to reboot the receiver. I have never had any zero recording or timer activation problems. I receive a large number of OTA digital stations. OTA is not always relieable, but it is not the receiver's fault. Many of my OTA stations turn off at night. The dual tuner and PVR of the 921 has changed the way my family watches TV.
 
I have also had the 921 since mid-December and have enjoyed it for the most part. It gets confused on occasion and needs a re-boot but not as often as my 811. OTA recording works well and PQ is excellent (although the DVI output does not look nearly as good as component for some reason). My biggest complaint. I can't seem to get the remote to control my Denon receiver volume even in the AUX mode with either of the two codes listed.
 
Airblair said:
I dig my 921, and I'm the guy who started this thread.

Of course, I haven't connected an OTA antenna to it yet.
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LOL. I guess you've come around quite a bit on your thoughts of the 921 eh? :D Glad to see it. Mine should be in today or tomorrow, which means I'll be getting some nice weekend HD lovin' assuming mine doesn't arrive bunk like yours did.
 
Other than the OTA problems

Other than the OTA problems, I also loved the 921. I thought that with the possible exception of NBR, it was great! The problem, however, is that Charlie has no intention of adding what the vast majority of us feel is "compelling HD content" over the next year or so. Certainly not locals in HD. I was OK with that when I ordered mine, because I was under the false impression that the 921 would work reliably with OTA as advertised. If E* hadn't completely screwed up the unit so it became a random output generator when you start using OTA, I wouldn't have considered getting rid of it, and subsequently getting rid of Dish. BTW: This had NOTHING to do with being able to get a good OTA signal. I can get most locals just great in HD OTA. Just can't use them with the Dish 921.



Airblair said:
I dig my 921, and I'm the guy who started this thread.

Of course, I haven't connected an OTA antenna to it yet.
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I love my 921 as well. I've had it since June, and can't complain. As other have said, if you want, you can be 'gentle' with the box and have it work pretty flawlessly. You'll see me over on dbstalk posting a large number of the bugs, and I'm not blind to them existing, but trick-play on HD (and I can get all of my locals in HD OTA, so that isn't an issue) can't be beat. I am quite patient with my electronics (10 years of software development work) and just learn the safe way to do things.

You definitely can't beat the current cost for the box... and the 'small hope' that there will be some type of trade-in based on what Scott said at CES... it is well worth it. Just wish I paid the $549 price, but that is just my price for bleeding edge.

I show it off any chance I get....
 
Gentle????

So what do you mean by Gentle? Let me be clear. If my 921 was running, not being used to view any other program, had only one program set to record, and that program was to record on an OTA channel, there was an approximately 30% chance that either: 1) The program would start to record and then the unit would lock up, 2) The unit would lock up as it began tuning to that program, 3) The unit would lock up after recording.

In each of these cases, it required a reboot - often a "pull the plug" reboot.

So, if you want to use the OTA functionality, how much more "gentle" would you recommend somebody be? FWIW: I never smacked the 921, spun it in circules, exposed it to a death ray, used it as a large hockey puck, or even attempted to use it in a marine environment :)

There DOES seem to be a small number of people who have no problems at all with the unit. I'm REALLY, REALLY jealous. I totally love the look if the UI, and the quality of the recordings. Of course, when the reliability sucked so bad, they opened pandora's box with me. I discovered that exclusive of the 921, my cable company actually has better looking content on my Toshiba 46HM94 DLP set than content from Dish!


DishBacker said:
I love my 921 as well. I've had it since June, and can't complain. As other have said, if you want, you can be 'gentle' with the box and have it work pretty flawlessly. You'll see me over on dbstalk posting a large number of the bugs, and I'm not blind to them existing, but trick-play on HD (and I can get all of my locals in HD OTA, so that isn't an issue) can't be beat. I am quite patient with my electronics (10 years of software development work) and just learn the safe way to do things.

You definitely can't beat the current cost for the box... and the 'small hope' that there will be some type of trade-in based on what Scott said at CES... it is well worth it. Just wish I paid the $549 price, but that is just my price for bleeding edge.

I show it off any chance I get....
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I've seen HD on cable and to be honest, I'm not as nearly impressed as I am with the all digital HD from *E or even *D for that matter.
 
That's what I used to say

Until I got it again a short time ago. WAY different story. On my non HD sets, the analog stuff looks mostly about the same, a couple "slightly" worse. On my HD set, everything except HD looks better on cable, and HD is the same (except a LOT more content).

ocaddict said:
I've seen HD on cable and to be honest, I'm not as nearly impressed as I am with the all digital HD from *E or even *D for that matter.
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I don't use the OTA tuner and that probably shields from a lot of the problems. When the signal is weak or blocked bad things happen (just like my DVD player which hangs if the disk is dirty or has scratches). I understand what he is saying however.... don't have two HD recordings active, watch a recorded show and then do a lot of jumping or option changing at these times. I try to be real careful when both timers are active as I know the resources are being taxed pretty heavily at that point.
 
OK, but that's what I was doing.

Can't get much more simple than my example, except just to not use the OTA portion. If that's the case, and because there is only CBS in NY, no other networks, what the heck do I need the unit for? When the signal is weak or blocked, it should NOT lock up. Frankly, however, I've had it lock up typically when the signal is absolutely fine. It's really a shame. It also, BTW, cannot be compared to a bad/scratched disk in a DVD player. In that case, the physical media gets corrupted to the point where the device doesn't understand how to deal with it. In the case of a UHF tuner, what it gets never falls outside of expected parameters. It just doesn't perhaps get enough signal to decode properly. To (again) be clear, this is all very predictable behavior that any engineering group should be able to anticipate and correct.

Remember, however, that mine locks up with NO activity other than a single recording on a good signal OTA channel, no surfing, no changing, no viewing, nothing else active, period. Completely left alone to do nothing other than record.

Again, why the heck have multiple tuners if you can't use more than one at a time. Hmmmm.... My SA8300HD doesn't seem to have these problems...... Perhaps Charlie ought to get somebody else to do his programming, hmmm?



BobMurdoch said:
I don't use the OTA tuner and that probably shields from a lot of the problems. When the signal is weak or blocked bad things happen (just like my DVD player which hangs if the disk is dirty or has scratches). I understand what he is saying however.... don't have two HD recordings active, watch a recorded show and then do a lot of jumping or option changing at these times. I try to be real careful when both timers are active as I know the resources are being taxed pretty heavily at that point.
Click to expand...
 
wmhjr said:
Until I got it again a short time ago. WAY different story. On my non HD sets, the analog stuff looks mostly about the same, a couple "slightly" worse. On my HD set, everything except HD looks better on cable, and HD is the same (except a LOT more content).
Click to expand...

I definitely agree with that. ON smaller and Non-HD TV's everything looks pretty decent. But you get a bigscreen tv and you'll see inconsistencies, artificats and poor compression much more easy as they are being amplified by the bigass screen.
 

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