Tech Forum Recap

[Tom Bombadil]

Another thing I don't like is that Dish made a big deal out of the 942 at the 2005 CES, promoting it and getting it reported in several CES show coverage articles. They released this brochure:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads...d_SheetWeb.pdf

And now one year later, they not only replace the product, but they cripple its use and resale. Replacing and upgrading is fine. Everyone expects and wants this. But Dish needs to stand behind their products more than what they are doing with the 942.

[jayn_j]

Another thing I don't like is that Dish made a big deal out of the 942 at the 2005 CES, promoting it and getting it reported in several CES show coverage articles. They released this brochure:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads...d_SheetWeb.pdf

And now one year later, they not only replace the product, but they cripple its use and resale. Replacing and upgrading is fine. Everyone expects and wants this. But Dish needs to stand behind their products more than what they are doing with the 942.

Well, the refusal to activate certainly is a new step in an unfortunate direction, because it does render the boxes useless. However, loss of advertised features is nothing new. I was convinced years ago to upgrade from a 4000 to a 4900 on the promise of picture in guide. It worked for about 6 months before Dish's new guide system made it virtually useless. The receiver is still active on a secondary TV, but these days that supposed 2 day guide always says "info not available" and the picture in the guide is always blank.

Seems like we hear similar stories with the Dish 5000 folks, the displayer people and especially the poor suckers that sprung for the 921.

I'm a patient soul. I will wait for the dust to settle a bit and then will probably go with a lease deal on a 622. I've been stuck with enough orphans that I don't think I will buy again. The reason is that I believe Dish will continue to obsolete features faster than I can amortize the cost of purchase vs lease.

[BlackHitachi]

I have to disagree with tonyp56 on this one. I'm not an owner of a 942.

What he fails to give due credit to is:
A) Dish has devalued the 942 by making it impossible to be sold to another person and re-activated to receive HD programming.
B) The 942 owner bought Dish's top-of-the-line receiver, and sub'ed to their HD pack, and just months later, is now denied access to several HD channels.
C) Dish is offering absolutely no compensation to these subs.

Even if they stay with their 942s, they cannot "get their money's worth out of them" because Dish is denying them full access to their national HD channels. As a Dish sub with their top-of-the-line receiver, you expect to get new channels when they are offered. That is how you get your money's worth.

This will only get worse as Dish releases HGTV HD, Food Network HD, Starz HD and more. Heck, even their HD locals are denied them if they live in one of the covered markets. They become more and more 2nd class citizens.

Dish's solution: Get a 622 for a $99 lease. Exactly the same deal as if they had gotten their 942 on a $250 lease. Dish knows they are sticking these subs to the tune of $450 and is doing nothing about it.

I don't understand why anyone would come to Dish's defense on this. They are ripping off fellow subscribers and people are supporting it???

Very well said!! Also look at the 921 and 942 users that have the Aep and the new mpeg 4 receiver user that has Platinum pak we pay the same!!

[MikeD-C05]

Okay they won't activate the 942 for hd if you give it to someone else but what about if you want to activate it just for sd packages ? It will still make a good receiver for component out on sd and for ota hd channels. IF they won't activate it period, then that is bullsh*t!

[RobertsD]

Okay they won't activate the 942 for hd if you give it to someone else but what about if you want to activate it just for sd packages ? It will still make a good receiver for component out on sd and for ota hd channels. IF they won't activate it period, then that is bullsh*t!

You can still activate and use it for SD and OTA HD.

[SimpleSimon]

I only noticed one other comment on this. I guess very few of us still run a 50x. This statement brings up an interesting point, though. The 50x series, especially the 501 and 508 have a pretty small reserved buffer for DISH only use. The way I see it they will need to cut away from the user recording time in order to add VoD.

I guess the no free lunch thing is true. Am I wrong, or is NBR going to come with the cost of reduced recording time for our players?

re: VOD on 50x

Yea, it'll suck if the remove user space for PVR events. Hmmm, the 510 was sold as a 100 hr box, if they remove space the box would no longer perform as advertised (this wouldn't be the first time).

Solutions:
Make the VOD feature a user option.
Only use available space for VOD storage.

NBR and VOD are two DIFFERENT things.

NBR will have NO effect on available HDD space.

[jayn_j]

NBR and VOD are two DIFFERENT things.

NBR will have NO effect on available HDD space.

However VoD apparently will, and that is what I was commenting on. The tech chat seemed to indicate that both will happen at the same time. THAT was the basis of my comment

"Yeah, youse can have the jukebox buddy, but youse godda take the pool table too!"

[dfergie]

Rebroadcast at 9pm EST...