942 Mad Scientist First Look! 942 Innards.

**Smith, P.** · 12-13-2005 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by BrettTRay

What 8vsb module does the 811 have. I took my 811 apart but never seen a part number on it. I think it sayed who the maker was but no part number.

Must be same BCM3520.

**Smith, P.** · 12-13-2005 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by goaliebob99

so the question that comes about now is how is the 942 going to do.... MPEG 4

Such question doesn't exist ! As H.264 on DP942

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**K9SAT** · 12-13-2005 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by Smith, P.

Such question doesn't exist ! As H.264 on DP942

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Some one obvoiusly didnt read the roomer that was posted today

**jeslevine** · 12-13-2005 06:23 PM

When I called dish tech support to find out which receivers would support mpeg4, they told me the 942. It is disabled now, but when the new voom channels come on in 2006, this receiver can be enabled for mpeg4. They also told me that the 811s would not support it, and if I wanted the new voom mpeg4 channels I would need to replace the 811s with 211/411

it looks like the tech wasn't correct about the mpeg4

**HokieEngineer** · 12-13-2005 06:29 PM

Thanks for the new pics Goaliebob and thanks for the ID on the 8vsb tuner part smith.

I believe if they ever do upgrade the 942, it will be with a mainboard swap. As I posted before, the 411 is using the same tuner/cpu as the 942, however it has the external AVC decoder chip (bcm7411). They would have to impliment this chip onto the 942.

OR, they could use broadcom's recently released SINGLE CHIP h.264/AVC decoder/cpu. bcm7401 I believe. I'm betting the 7411 addon would require much less mainboard rework (modify traces, find a location to place it), than designing a new board around the 7401. I actually have no facts to back that up on though, since broadcom is like uncle scrooge with the datasheets

**gdarwin** · 12-13-2005 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by Stargazer

...
If the warranty would not be void then one could take the ribbon cable going to the hard drive and put a splitter on it or connect another hard drive to it or something and leave the one that is in the receiver in place. ....

That drive is a serial drive.. No way to split it as far as I know.

**gdarwin** · 12-13-2005 06:58 PM

Anyone know what the chip set is on the 811.

I have the 942 running the TV in the kitchen on tv2 and the 811 hooked up to the TV in the living room. The 811 processes the same channel faster where you hear the living room audio first then the echo from the kitchen.

Maybe this will change when the new software hits the 811...

G.

**Smith, P.** · 12-13-2005 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by goaliebob99

Some one obvoiusly didnt read the roomer that was posted today

Being EE, I can't accept crowd's rumors in such hi-tech gadgets

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**CJPC** · 12-13-2005 07:41 PM

Wouldnt it turn out to be something if the chipset was some crazy mpeg 4 enabled (even though something that cost productive wouldnt make any sense to do earlier etc) however it turned out to be a relabeled mpeg 4 chipset (though it cant, but would be cool if all the E csr's were telling the truth!

Though, I could see E having a more custom chipset made as a drop-in replacement.

Would a external decoder be possible (dont think so, but meh) that plugs inline w/ the sat, kinda like the 5000's hdtv decoder?

**The Big Wood** · 12-13-2005 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by HokieEngineer

OR, they could use broadcom's recently released SINGLE CHIP h.264/AVC decoder/cpu. bcm7401 I believe. I'm betting the 7411 addon would require much less mainboard rework (modify traces, find a location to place it), than designing a new board around the 7401. I actually have no facts to back that up on though, since broadcom is like uncle scrooge with the datasheets

I would venture to guess that the 942's have had a motherboard redesign for the new chips that handle MPEG 4. Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturers charge a fee for retooling, but (depending on PCB complexity, of course) that charge is usually less than $1000 for us. Echostar uses a contract manufacturer to build their units, so that is most likely a new product charge of under $5000. $6000 or less to respin a PCB versus the labor charges of someone manually removing the IC from the board and replacing it will be far less expensive (I'm not aware of any automated rework machines, its still a manual or semi-manual process). On top of this, the rework would involve shipping back and forth, disassembling the enclosure, removing the PCB from the chassis, testing of the unit after replacement of the IC, putting the PCB back into the chassis, replacing the enclosure, relabeling, and then repacking. We would be charging a hefty fee for all of this that would guickly erode the $6000.

Its highly possible that a new version of the 942 with the required IC's have been shipping for the past couple of months, and they will only need a software download to become operational. It will be nice to see what the new 942 brings us, GoalieBob!