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Pub Member / Supporter
921 report from CES-
What is there to say? If you all have been keeping up with dbstalk.com, satelliteguys.US and AVS you already know just about everything there is. BUT, I did get to a few questions I had that nobody had any real answers to on the forums to date:
1394 Dishwire- reinforced that it would be released for dump of the Hard drive content only and would follow all 5C rules. It is working now but has not yet been authorized to be released. ETA Earliest is Spring 04. Could be sooner but other bugs and issues fixes are taking priority now. The development for this is still being done by Eldon in England but is overseen by Echostar.
USB port. I got it confirmed that USB port is just USB1.1, not 2.0. This is hardware capability or rather limitation and no plans to make it into a 2.0 flavor later. In fact, they have nothing being worked on for the USB port. It will remain a future use port until such time as they can figure out what to do with it. Originally it was to make it for Internet access capable but those plans have been scrapped as they were for the 721.
PCI slots- There are no plans to offer anything for these slots. There is no discussion on what to do with them at this time. I as well as others have speculated about additional tuners like a second 8VSB tuner. No plans to do anything like this at all.
Hard drive upgrade. This is the biggie and what I was really interested in. Again more disappointment. The rep I spoke to who would even discuss it said that not only are they NOT planning on adding a second hard drive for expansion of the 921 capacity, they went out of their way to lock the current hard drive to the receiver so it may not be removed, replaced with a larger one, or a second drive added by other parties. They will not say that a good hacker won't be able to break their security system and do it but if they did, it would be an expert hackers effort and not a simple procedure as is done in the TIVOs. Basically, as I understand it, any attempt to tamper with the hard drive will be a breach of their receiver security and Dish will consider it the same as an attempt at hacking their smart cards.
The policy as I understand it for being able to manage the "small" hard drive record time will be to offer the Dishwire archive option. You fill the drive, you dump some movies off to tape or erase them. Hey! I can accept that as a solution but all this does disappoint me about the possibility of a movie jukebox.
So do they have any plans at all for the extra drive bay? Yes, still in the long range plans are for a DVD recording drive addition but it may at first be a SD version authorized in the OS and later if it ever becomes a product, Blue Ray or HD recroding DVD drive. Let's put all this away for a long time since no real development is on going here for now.
L143 for download?? Shooting now for 1/14 but it was really in the hands of another group whose leader was not at the show for me to question. The rep I spoke to said that 1/14 was the latest he heard it would be ready.
OTABug and a common first setup bug has a work around to prevent a lock up. One other rep promised to check out the forums and make sure any suggested procedures being posted were the proper ones. He seemed concerned that some of the information being posted about the 921 was not accurate. This had to do with the L142 and he said that the new software would fix it.
Finally, Dish Network will not be supplying an adapter cable to breakout the VGA from the DVI-I. YOYO to locate one. A DVI-D cable will work for DVI connection to your monitor. I had one shipped with my Computer LCD monitor so I'm using that one. DVI-D cables are plentiful in the computer monitor business now.
What is there to say? If you all have been keeping up with dbstalk.com, satelliteguys.US and AVS you already know just about everything there is. BUT, I did get to a few questions I had that nobody had any real answers to on the forums to date:
1394 Dishwire- reinforced that it would be released for dump of the Hard drive content only and would follow all 5C rules. It is working now but has not yet been authorized to be released. ETA Earliest is Spring 04. Could be sooner but other bugs and issues fixes are taking priority now. The development for this is still being done by Eldon in England but is overseen by Echostar.
USB port. I got it confirmed that USB port is just USB1.1, not 2.0. This is hardware capability or rather limitation and no plans to make it into a 2.0 flavor later. In fact, they have nothing being worked on for the USB port. It will remain a future use port until such time as they can figure out what to do with it. Originally it was to make it for Internet access capable but those plans have been scrapped as they were for the 721.
PCI slots- There are no plans to offer anything for these slots. There is no discussion on what to do with them at this time. I as well as others have speculated about additional tuners like a second 8VSB tuner. No plans to do anything like this at all.
Hard drive upgrade. This is the biggie and what I was really interested in. Again more disappointment. The rep I spoke to who would even discuss it said that not only are they NOT planning on adding a second hard drive for expansion of the 921 capacity, they went out of their way to lock the current hard drive to the receiver so it may not be removed, replaced with a larger one, or a second drive added by other parties. They will not say that a good hacker won't be able to break their security system and do it but if they did, it would be an expert hackers effort and not a simple procedure as is done in the TIVOs. Basically, as I understand it, any attempt to tamper with the hard drive will be a breach of their receiver security and Dish will consider it the same as an attempt at hacking their smart cards.
The policy as I understand it for being able to manage the "small" hard drive record time will be to offer the Dishwire archive option. You fill the drive, you dump some movies off to tape or erase them. Hey! I can accept that as a solution but all this does disappoint me about the possibility of a movie jukebox.
So do they have any plans at all for the extra drive bay? Yes, still in the long range plans are for a DVD recording drive addition but it may at first be a SD version authorized in the OS and later if it ever becomes a product, Blue Ray or HD recroding DVD drive. Let's put all this away for a long time since no real development is on going here for now.
L143 for download?? Shooting now for 1/14 but it was really in the hands of another group whose leader was not at the show for me to question. The rep I spoke to said that 1/14 was the latest he heard it would be ready.
OTABug and a common first setup bug has a work around to prevent a lock up. One other rep promised to check out the forums and make sure any suggested procedures being posted were the proper ones. He seemed concerned that some of the information being posted about the 921 was not accurate. This had to do with the L142 and he said that the new software would fix it.
Finally, Dish Network will not be supplying an adapter cable to breakout the VGA from the DVI-I. YOYO to locate one. A DVI-D cable will work for DVI connection to your monitor. I had one shipped with my Computer LCD monitor so I'm using that one. DVI-D cables are plentiful in the computer monitor business now.
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6118 views
R
You were right on track when you said on the AVS forum on12/29/03 "Realistic prediction Feb 2004 should be crancking up the heat for the UPS deliveries on 921's."
Don Landis said:Today, I got info on shipping-
I was told that within 3 weeks E* would have all preorders and all backorders filled. The slow release is over. There are enough 921's in stock to do this. I have a name for my source on this but will not post it to a public forum. Credible inquiries via e-mail only. If you don't already know my e-mail then I guess you already know if I'll tell you that source info.
Oh, he also said the the 1394 release is done and it will be in a future software update sooner than most have predicted.
I finally got another hour on the E* 921 playing today and it worked fantastic. The one I played with connected to Samsung LCD monitor and the PQ looked fantastic. I actually had two 921's on delay by a few minutes and then stood back and amused myself at people confused that there were more than one playoff game today. I was also having fun
with my own instant replay during a fumble.
You were right on track when you said on the AVS forum on12/29/03 "Realistic prediction Feb 2004 should be crancking up the heat for the UPS deliveries on 921's."
Don Landis said:
When I asked VOOM about expanding the HD, they were planning on having an external storage that would allow you to add more online storage for more recording capacity. Sounded good. In general I liked the answers I got from the guy demoing the unit. He must have been the expert, as the other sales booth workers were watching and learning.
Sad note for me was the HD Tivo price, I was hoping for it to be cheaper to encourage some deals from E*
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N2oPp-plZEw
Direct YouTube Link - Agentic AI Security: Why Unconstrained Agents Alarm CISOs #shorts
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N2oPp-plZEw
Direct YouTube Link - Agentic AI Security: Why Unconstrained Agents Alarm CISOs #shorts
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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5 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHY_0D10LGw
Direct YouTube Link - AI, Coding, and SpinRite
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHY_0D10LGw
Direct YouTube Link - AI, Coding, and SpinRite
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
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7 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ylZleSQCE
Direct YouTube Link - The OpenCode Cyberattack
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ylZleSQCE
Direct YouTube Link - The OpenCode Cyberattack
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
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5 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu8iBMhokOk
Direct YouTube Link - Apple's Foldable Phone Is Finally Here
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu8iBMhokOk
Direct YouTube Link - Apple's Foldable Phone Is Finally Here
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
0 Replies
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6 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68579 Replies
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2676152 views
Why are ViP922s So rare? like its crazy how ebay has none, i checked everywhere, also, i got a ViP222k now, which is actually activated!
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773 views
I remember this in the news too...
www.nbcnews.com
$14,000 spent on rented rotary phone
A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now- outdated phone.
www.nbcnews.com
That is a misnomer. In the old days you subscribed to telephone service. That included the telephone line and one telephone. An extension cost $1 a month extra. So that $14,000 over 42 years was for the service not the leased telephone. There is no way they paid $28 a month for 42 years for a leased telephone.I remember this in the news too...
$14,000 spent on rented rotary phone
A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now- outdated phone.
Lifetime Supporter
Schedule drops tomorrow. Mandatory mini camps in June. Hall of Fame game August 6th.
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2160 views
I haven't posted in almost 17 years. Over the air, sat, offline, anything-but-the-internet is still one of my avid pursuits. Been playing with offline tv viewing and offline web browsing. I have great appreciations for this site still being here. It's so hard to find public communities that haven't sold out to social media company.
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24 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Hello folks, well my luck ran out last week with a nasty thunderstorm and after 39 years here, finally took a hit. Now, the FTA receivers I had for some years worked great until now. Recently picked up a fairly cheap receiver, online, KOQIT and seems to be good, but for the life of me, I cannot get the HDMI output to work with 3 of my Samsung monitors. I can hook it up to my Samsung TV and its HDMI input and it works fine. The 2 receivers I lost also worked fine with them, so am I going crazy? anyone have come across this or have any suggestions? And, since this is a somewhat cheap unit but works, what is everyone out there using for receivers these days? without breaking the bank? I enjoy watching FTA TV, so I will invest more if needed, what is a really good, detailed unit these days. I'm so use to watching a few of them HD channels. Right now I'm down to composite hookups, yuck! Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Frank 
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1141 views
Take the cover off, show me pics of the board of the bad one and also the bottom of the board. I'm an old hardware electronics tech plus a satellite dealer; I fixed a lot of FTA and regular receivers. I may be able to fix it for you. And yes, they got hit by lightning; it's best to email me the pics at diamondsatellite@snet.net or call me at 203-232-8888. I give you a 50-50 chance of fixing it; I do have spare parts. my phone is a fliptop phoneHello folks, well my luck ran out last week with a nasty thunderstorm and after 39 years here, finally took a hit. Now, the FTA receivers I had for some years worked great until now. Recently picked up a fairly cheap receiver, online, KOQIT and seems to be good, but for the life of me, I cannot get the HDMI output to work with 3 of my Samsung monitors. I can hook it up to my Samsung TV and its HDMI input and it works fine. The 2 receivers I lost also worked fine with them, so am I going crazy? anyone have come across this or have any suggestions? And, since this is a somewhat cheap unit but works, what is everyone out there using for receivers these days? without breaking the bank? I enjoy watching FTA TV, so I will invest more if needed, what is a really good, detailed unit these days. I'm so use to watching a few of them HD channels. Right now I'm down to composite hookups, yuck! Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Frank
Gary
More room for the return of the Plague & Pestilence?
S
a good surge protector will help to.Hello folks, well my luck ran out last week with a nasty thunderstorm and after 39 years here, finally took a hit. Now, the FTA receivers I had for some years worked great until now. Recently picked up a fairly cheap receiver, online, KOQIT and seems to be good, but for the life of me, I cannot get the HDMI output to work with 3 of my Samsung monitors. I can hook it up to my Samsung TV and its HDMI input and it works fine. The 2 receivers I lost also worked fine with them, so am I going crazy? anyone have come across this or have any suggestions? And, since this is a somewhat cheap unit but works, what is everyone out there using for receivers these days? without breaking the bank? I enjoy watching FTA TV, so I will invest more if needed, what is a really good, detailed unit these days. I'm so use to watching a few of them HD channels. Right now I'm down to composite hookups, yuck! Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Frank
Pub Member / Supporter
Now that I'm retired, obviously I have different health care insurance. I take 2 prescriptions. With my old insurance I didn't have to pay for either of them, now I do. It's not a huge amount but it led me to dig a little into the cost of prescription medications. I have been using Walgreens for the longest time. But what I found was that Walgreens price is 4.8 times more for one of my prescriptions and the other is 2.3 percent more compared to the lowest price pharmacy. If you pay for prescription medications you might want to have a look at trumprx and see if you can get a lower price.
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90 views
Actually I take just 2 prescriptions, Atorvastatin and Lisinopril. They cost me $6 each for 100 pills. Next year that will be nothing.That's ok. I probably take enough for the two of us.
God knows what Bobby takes. Maybe so much they count as a meal?
