Thread: FIRST LOOK: 622 Review!

Originally Posted by ChetK

"First look paper"? What's that?

I think he means this thread
Tedo

Originally Posted by Jerry G

Was that comment necessary?

Sadly, because of your status as a "moderator", I can't add you to my ignore list.

I found the manual/review just fine. Easier to read than the Dish manual. Haven't read Scott's review because I'm not a pub member (or whatever it is). Your comments, as a moderator, are exactly why I don't pay to be a member.

I would suggest to Scott that he review his list of moderators.

looks like someone has an issue with the old Berg

was it necessary? Yep. I read their "review". The first 15+ pages read EXACTLY like a manual. Heck, you just called it a manual. I feel I am entitled to my opinion. (unlike over there where you disagree and they'll nuke your post or ban you)

Page 1 of this thread has Scott's review. Don't need to be a pub member to see it.

I think Scott has made the right decisions on mods. believe me, if he wanted to get rid of me, he would have done that a looooooooooooong time ago

Originally Posted by Scott Greczkowski

To me it read like a manual that had some occational comments put in, i am not saying it was bad in fact I think it was well done.

In fact I would say that it was better then the manual that came with the 622.

Also their feelings actually seem to mirror mine on the 622 which is refreshing, I honestly believe the 622 is the best receiver debut ever by Dish Network, it is a great receiver.

I thought it was pretty well done also. Just wish I could get my 622. Ordered 2/13, install on 3/28

Some people are just too accustomed to some other forums where nobody is allowed to have an individual thought.

I read all 44 pages of the manual. I wouldn not call it a review as there was very little comment. I really didn't learn anything new over what Scott wrote. I was really expecting more comment on performance.

To all those posting disatisfaction with Scott's review I assume you'll be posting your own review any day now -right ?

I think there's plenty of legitimite stuff to complain about regarding "E"s products & services without finding fault with Scott's review.

It's an extensive and obviously time consuming report that Scott didn't have to do but did for the benefit of us to make a better informed discission. If part of it's like the manual - so what? Many that will be reading the report are doing so because they don't have a 622 yet and so most likely don't have the manual either. Given everything else that's been going on with this group and Scott's personal life, I'm amazed he had the time or energy to even do a review.

I don't think they were talking about my review being a manual, I think they were talking about another one.

Originally Posted by Shamus46

What the hell is wrong with you guys? Up until now I’ve been your side of this shit. Scott does a great job and I will still participate in this group, but I don’t agree with your comments on the outstanding review that DBSTalk wrote. I can’t understand how people could confuse it with a Dish manual, this is much better.

It was immensely helpful to me when I was setting up my 622 last night. Especially useful was the time estimates during the software downloads. I knew exactly how much time it was supposed to taqke (many times I don't know whether it has locked up or not when installing a new receiver).

I did do one thing that messed with me for a while. I hooked up the TV out to the RF input on my DVD player as a backup in case the wife or kiddies have trouble switching things around after watching a DVD. Now they are required to use the #2 remote to do that. When I was first hooking it up I wasn't getting a picture (which I assumed was because it was only setup to output in SD mode or something weird - I kept thinking my remote was dead because nothing I did had any effect on the screen. The greyed out Check Switch button was confusing me as well. I switched to the TV input screen attached to the DVI input and voila there was the primary screen. All was well again.

Ran through all of the setup procedures. Called up my contact at the executive offices who fixed my 622 swapout nightmare by getting me my unit and bypassing the CSR firewall of frustration. He activated my unit, cancelled my install appointment that I didn't need and I was good to go. New York Locals, new HD channels, and a new receiver to play with!

I configured it the way I like it (who decided that descending channels made sense anyway?). Switched my output to 1080i..... oops. What just happened?

The receiver rebooted. No grey screen of death with an X like my 921 used to do during its early days, it just rebooted. The lights flashed once, and then I tried to figure out what it was doing for about 3 minutes. Do I have to turn it on again (no lights lighting up). No silver coin on the screen to let me know it is rebooting, Just nothing. It finally woke up again a few minutes later. I went back to display setup screen and tried again,... THIS time the display flickered, but I had dialog box prompting me to confirm that I could see the new settings on my display. Clicked yes and all was well again (whew).

Then I watched some Thunderbirds with my daughter on the Family Voom Channel. Then I started setting some timers. Whoa! From a guy weaned on Dishplayers, 510s, 721s and 921s I was blown away by the new choices. Name Based Recording! New shows, all shows, I kept clicking all shows and it striked out repeats so my DVR didn't fill up too quick with 5 copies of the same show... NICE! I'm able to manually override them though if there is a timer conflict. I set up a timer for Deal or No Deal on NBC and it finds reruns on CNBC as well. I'm gonna LIKE this!

It even has a little 1 or 2 next to the record dot to tell me what timer is being used to record it (or maybe that that is my 1st or 2nd active timer during that time slot, I'm not sure). I set the mode to Single mode and check the PIP. It works (and I've got an HD channel in the PIP window while an HD picture is in the foreground).

Next I play with the aspect ratios as the NBC show is in 4:3. I hit the Stretch, and cycle through to see the others. ZAP! Uh oh, picture gone. A couple of seconds later the LEDs on the receiver blink once. Unscheduled reboot! Aargh. I flash back to my early 921 days. It comes back again. I watch Deal or No Deal without a hitch.

I go to set up more timers but my local channels don't have guide data yet (ditto for the HD LILs). It only goes out 30-minutes to an hour on each channel. I setup a timer for 24 on the NYC Fox HD channel.

I start watching 24 and the audio keeps dropping out (about 3 times a minute for about a half second each time.... OK THAT is annoying. I'm on about a 10 minutes delay, so I switch over to the SD NYC Fox feed and start recording. When I get to that point I delete the HD recording and watch the rest in SD. I'm assuming it was a problem on Fox's end as the NBC HD feed was fine. Sounds like I will be recording both the SD and feeds of Fox shows until it gets straightened out.

I go and setup timers for all my "non big 4" broadcast network shows (SciFi Friday, Charmed, Smallville, etc.). UPN, eh, no.... are you STILL here? Nothing But Trailers on HD Net (Cool! It finds all the obscure recording times and automatically adds them). I create a few favorites lists and setup the locks to keep the kiddies from learning about the birds and the bees too quickly and I'm back in business.

Other than the two spontaneous reboots (better than the old Dishplayer lockups, but still annoying) and the Fox HD audio dropouts everything was great. I had zero installation hiccups (once I turned it to the right TV input), and the whole install took all of 30 minutes as I only had to swap out my 921 for the 622 so no new wiring or switches was needed. I'm going to remove my 4900 from my basement tonight and reinstall my 921 to give me a chance to watch the handful shows I had recorded but hadn't watched yet.

The guide moves lightning quick, even faster than my 921. You can customize the guide as well with either larger fonts for smaller displays, or smaller fonts, which let you view another hour or so on each screen. The 622 has twice as many customization features as my 921 and will keep me busy for a few days just tinkering.

All in all, I'll give it a B+. The reboots hopefully can be reduced via future updates to get them into solid A territory. It is the best E* receiver I've ever owned based on capabilities and polish. That may be damning with faint praise given their track record, but since D* is showing what happens when you start writing your own software in house, it's nice to know they are moving in the right direction.

I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that the Fox audio dropouts are a temporary glitch on Fox's end. Definitely a pleasant surprise though with the polished nature of the rest of the unit. Assign a few folks to squelch the reboot bug and we'll be golden.......

Originally Posted by Scott Greczkowski

I don't think they were talking about my review being a manual, I think they were talking about another one.

Shit - now ain't that embarrassing!

Ya see, it was like this. Some people sleep-walk, well I carry that one step further and sometimes respond to forum message in my sleep. All I can think of is that I must have drempt they were giving you a hard time about your review and got up and ...................alright - it was a brainfart - can happen to anybody