I am considering purchasing a 921 DVR. I have read the various threads on it but most of them are quite old. What is the current status of the 921's software and reliability? I would be using it to record quite a bit of OTA HD programs and some other HD & SD programs. I prefer to own the unit so I don't want to get in line for a 942. I have had an 811 for a year and a half and have suffered thru all the problems and updates. It was annoying but overall I have enjoyed the 811 despite its problems. I understand the 921 could be obsolete in a year or so and I am willing to deal with that when the time comes. I just want to know if the 921 has improved as much as the 811 has over the past year.
921 Update
- Thread starter FLee1936
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Depends on who you talk to. Some love it others hate it. I am on 921 #3 in 5 months. E* support on it sucks, it is a dead product. When it works it works ok, when it doesn;t it is usually quite quirky. I have had D* and E* over last 10 years and numerous recovers from each, this by far is the worst electronics I have owned of any type. I plan on ditching mine at end of TV season and going to Comcast until D* has their MPEG4 HD-PVR since Comcast will give me $25 off a month for up to 16 months to Ditch the Dish!
I have had the 921 since October. It has some quirks, but once you get used to them, it works pretty well.
There is another major software update, which is supposed to come this week or next, which is supposed to fix a lot of the remaining bugs. Hopefully it won't add any new ones.
All current HD receivers (6000, 811, 921, 942) will be obsolete when Dish changes to MPEG4. When this is going to happen, no one knows yet.
There is another major software update, which is supposed to come this week or next, which is supposed to fix a lot of the remaining bugs. Hopefully it won't add any new ones.
All current HD receivers (6000, 811, 921, 942) will be obsolete when Dish changes to MPEG4. When this is going to happen, no one knows yet.
I bought one last week from Costco. Been using it fairly steadily for the past few days. It's actually less irritating to use than my 811.
All the features seem to work perfectly. It doesn't have the "fit and finish" of a Tivo (interface is standard Dish and very clunky) but I haven't found any bugs yet.
All the features seem to work perfectly. It doesn't have the "fit and finish" of a Tivo (interface is standard Dish and very clunky) but I haven't found any bugs yet.
I have had mine since last December with wonderful success. I do not have zero second recordings (ZSRs) nor do I have any of the display issues (stuck in stretch mode) because I have it hooked to a standard TV. It is important to remember that the 921 is a computer, and like any desktop it will get confused by user input (hitting some of remote buttons too fast before it has a chance to respond to the last one) and will need to be rebooted. The 921 does a warm reboot after midnight every night to clean out its memory. It has to be in standby mode (ie. turned off by the remote) to reboot itself.
My family loves the DVR capabilities, and I don't see us ever watching TV again without the ability to record, pause, playback, etc. Our OTA reception is the best to be expected 50+ miles from the towers. We love running the sound through the home theater system and listening to programs in surround sound.
We have had positive experiences, but we also all realize that it is a computer and needs to be treated as one.
My family loves the DVR capabilities, and I don't see us ever watching TV again without the ability to record, pause, playback, etc. Our OTA reception is the best to be expected 50+ miles from the towers. We love running the sound through the home theater system and listening to programs in surround sound.
We have had positive experiences, but we also all realize that it is a computer and needs to be treated as one.
As everyone has mentioned some work ok and some don't, which one you get is of course unknown.
For the money they ain't bad considering D* boxes are still over a grand.
Becoming obsolete anytime soon is just crap, sure MPEG4 may be out by 06 but there are far to many MPEG2 units they must get all programing to before making the transition complete which should take several years and by then any piece of equipment would be obsolete. If your going to shell out 5 bills then I would give the extra 250 and get the 942 personally.
For the money they ain't bad considering D* boxes are still over a grand.
Becoming obsolete anytime soon is just crap, sure MPEG4 may be out by 06 but there are far to many MPEG2 units they must get all programing to before making the transition complete which should take several years and by then any piece of equipment would be obsolete. If your going to shell out 5 bills then I would give the extra 250 and get the 942 personally.
If you get one that works, like me, then you are likely happy. And, alternately, if you get one that breaks and start down the refurb exchange route, life can quickly become unpleasant.
Even when it is working well the occasional S-T-R-E-T-C-H bug will pop up and I lost the first week of my paid-for MLB package due to a 921-only software bug, but given my experience I heartily recommend it. Be sure to look at the nightmare/refurb-exchange threads for a balanced view of what could happen.
Buy new from an authorized dealer with a DOA exchange program and I think you will improve your chances of happiness.
Even when it is working well the occasional S-T-R-E-T-C-H bug will pop up and I lost the first week of my paid-for MLB package due to a 921-only software bug, but given my experience I heartily recommend it. Be sure to look at the nightmare/refurb-exchange threads for a balanced view of what could happen.
Buy new from an authorized dealer with a DOA exchange program and I think you will improve your chances of happiness.
I have had mine since the price decrese... and agree with the above. I have not rebooted mine in well over a month, if not more... I'm a happy camper with mine...mwgiii said:
I have a complicated switch setup (2 legacy SW64 switches looking at 110/119/61.5) which may have me more vulnerable to ZSRs although I dont have an OTA antenna in service which may spare me from some of the problems others have faced.)
99% of the time it wroks great. I've never had a problem with SD progarms and only the ZSRs on a few HD channels have been annoying. I back up the HD timers when possible (west coast feeds, etc.) and this saves me most of the time.
An important warning though. IF you EVER see 0 sec. as the length of your recording, DO NOT try and open it, or you could ice all your recordings. This is the killer bug in this normally killer app...... I have no need to split this receiver to 2 TVs and name based recording isn't critical to me, so the 921 is just fine for me until the MPeg4 receiver come online........ You may be able to get some good prices now since they are being phased out.......
99% of the time it wroks great. I've never had a problem with SD progarms and only the ZSRs on a few HD channels have been annoying. I back up the HD timers when possible (west coast feeds, etc.) and this saves me most of the time.
An important warning though. IF you EVER see 0 sec. as the length of your recording, DO NOT try and open it, or you could ice all your recordings. This is the killer bug in this normally killer app...... I have no need to split this receiver to 2 TVs and name based recording isn't critical to me, so the 921 is just fine for me until the MPeg4 receiver come online........ You may be able to get some good prices now since they are being phased out.......
Thanks everyone that posted on my query concerning the 921. I got mine installed last Friday and have really enjoyed it so far. The PQ is not quite as good as my 811 which I still have operational so I can compare but the ability to pause and time shift more than make up for the slight PQ differences. The only eccentricities I have encountered thus far are some error messages that pop up when I have attempted to set some recordings. The messages state that "the programming is either blacked out or not authorized" when neither is the case. The unit then proceeds to record the program anyway. Also, yesterday I set it to record an episode of Smallville on HDNET and for some reason it recorded over 5 hours of HDNET including the program I wanted.
Are the above known bugs or am I doing something wrong?
Are the above known bugs or am I doing something wrong?
When manually setting the timers you do have be careful to AM/PM correct. There have been a few reports of midnight being interpreted incorrectly. Just some possibilities.FLee1936 said:
-Ken
The Smallville problem occurred Sunday morning. The 921 did it again Monday night. I set it to record CSI Miami at 10 PM. When I got home from work Tuesday evening it was still recording and had filled the hard drive. I hit the stop button and lost the whole recording before I could watch CSI. I have since rebooted the unit and will do that every night before I go to bed. Hopefully, that will solve the problem.
I've had my 921 since Tuesday (May 17) and it works great so far. My problem is on the program guide there is no programming for my locals. Neither analog nor digital. On analog channels it says "Local Programming", while on digital channels it says "No Information Available". Is there something that hasn't been set up right in the 921 or is it never going to show me what's on? I called a CSR last night and he doesn't seem to know what an OTA antenna is. He said I had to subscribe to a local package to get my local channels along with the programming. I asked him "why was I paying $4.98 for the DVR programming, if it wasn't going to give me my local programming information? He said that was to make the DVR function properly. I said if I can't use the timer because there's no information there, it must not be functioning properly. I was so mad by now, I just gave up, besides I had to get to bed. If someone here can't help me, I'll try again this weekend. Thanks for any help!!
That's right. If you don't sub to your crappy locals you don't get any program info on your EPG and it makes creating timers a much more of a pain. Do a search and you'll find a bunch of rants about this, even from me. Only the HD DVR 921 and the HD DVR 942 work this way. The HD 6000 was never design to do it, but the HD 811 will show local info on your EPG w/o subbing to locals. It's just another stupid DISH rule.
