Are people giving up on the 921?

[nuts4scuba]

I think it is a step down. The 942 is coming out a year after the 921 and still only has 1 OTA tuner. I was disappointed in this when Scott reported on it from Dallas. They should have put 2 OTA tuners in it to compete with Direct. If they price the 942 much lower than 921, then it might not be such a let down.

 

[WeeJavaDude]

I think it is a step down. The 942 is coming out a year after the 921 and still only has 1 OTA tuner. I was disappointed in this when Scott reported on it from Dallas. They should have put 2 OTA tuners in it to compete with Direct. If they price the 942 much lower than 921, then it might not be such a let down.

A let down and a step down are two different things. I was also dissappointed, but I just didn't see where functionality was being lost compared to the 921. To me that would have been a step down.

Weither the product is competitive with other companies offering is a different discussion. I was curious as to what features compared to the 921 the 942 does not have. Are there any?

 

[TheForce]

"They do at least have stable OTA now & have caught up fixing other problems."

The latest software made it far less stable. It also has reduced Sat channel stability and causes frequent slow downs. The performance for the 921 peaked here with L185 and a user supplied auto timer to reboot the 921 daily.
I also agree with the answer given by David Levin. TahoeRob, I'm surprised you saying what you did. Have you been away fro the DBSTalks forum or your 921 for a month?

I also agree that the lesser posts are because there have been no real bug fixes for several months. New releases are not clear what is fixed but very clear on what is broke from the previous download.

In addition, I suspect that more people are moving to the HDTIVO too. It is not perfect but it, as was already stated, "works"

Basically, it is a better bang for the buck. I too have experienced the problem with sound loss on HDNet but not HDNet Movies, yet. I am now in the process of upgrading my HDTIVO to 4 times the stored program capacity as with the 921. If you need an excuse to remain with the 921 and E*, then I would suggest it is TNTHD as that channel must be had with E* for time shifting.
The tivo DirecTV guide is much much much slower than the 921, until the 921 begins it's daily sluggish problem born of the L186 and needs to get rebooted. However, as I was advised, I am becoming tivolutionized and learning to navigate the system without that guide. Then it works just fine.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The Dish Network Eldon team has not done anything worth wild with the 921 software in 9 months.

We have a tech chat coming up so maybe they will have some good news for us, but I am not expecting any.

The way they are ramping up production of 921's makes me feel that the 942 will not be ready for the holidays.

 

[angiodan]

I have given up on my OTA with the 921. I personally believe it's a flaky tuner rather than software in my case. Dish offered to send me a replacement, but I've got so much stuff on there to watch that I don't have time for during the summer, that I'll just wait till later to get a new unit.

Or maybe some incredible new upgrade might take care of my problems. Yeah, right.

 

[boy921]

Not giving up yet?

There are basically few if any new threads on this receiver. Have people just given up and decided it isn't worth the energy?

What to do about the $1,000? Can we get a refund from Dish before a year is over, and apply it to a new 942 receiver, assuming it's better (huge assumption, I realize)?

I still can't believe they don't display local channel guide information on the local channels.

Things had better start getting better. $1000.00 for what? Lots of software issues? I bought the unit for the OTA HD and Satellite HD. I paid for it, and that is what I want. It needs to work correctly. What I want is fair at very least. Looking at the hundreds of threads, the issues are endless. When I bought it, it was supposed to have the dish wire and the 1394. When I got it there was in insert stating that the dish wire was omitted on my model. Isn't that real cool? It really doesn't matter that the concept was for future use. Now it is of no use. Does this mean that the 921 is still valued at $1,000? At this point E-*, get it fixed and working correctly. Not to grip, but those who now accept less than what was expected, are simply giving too much for too little.

 

[boy921]

I just switched to DirecTV though I haven't disconnected the Dish yet. I was hoping to stay with the DP44+ one-cable run but didn't want to have a second dish for CBS HD and any others that come along. The whole OTA issue may be a non-issue for many of us if NBC and ABC are in HD on satellite in our markets before the fall season. But too late for me, I guess! 6 years of Dish and I'm moving on.

Keep us posted on the performance of Direct TV there may be a large migration depending who provides better service and equipment. By the way, do you know if there is a message service for direct TV like there is for this?

 

[David_Levin]

The 942 is a step down because of the issue of only having one OTA tuner.

The user watching on the remote (standard def) TV can get the locals via the Sat Feed. Yea, it'll cost, but it's doable.

In any case I don't see it as a step down from the 921. And if the hardware/software is stable, it'll be a huge step up.

 

[LosingPatience]

Have people just given up and decided it isn't worth the energy?

Nope. I think many of us have just been waiting for the thing to settle down a little bit. My 921 is "Out For Delivery" according to UPS, so I'll have it in my hot little hands today. Am I excited? Yup. Am I nervous? Heck yup.

I was ready to switch to D* a few months ago, but then I heard that they do not offer a Superstations package. Well, that killed the deal. So I'm left with E*, because they have the programming I want. This past week, I decided to just dump HD altogether and send the 921 back unopened and get a SD DVR instead. But then came the DNC on HDNet. Wow! It had been so long since I'd seen real HD that I had forgotten just how incredible it is. I'll be keeping the 921, and I'll suffer through the current pains, thankful for the brave pioneers, like Don Landis and "SimpleSimon," who have suffered through far worse for far longer and who have worked diligently with E* to get things fixed.

Maybe by the time the 942 comes out, the 921 will have evolved into a nice, stable, reliable and feature-rich DVR... at which time E* will discontinue it and promptly proceed to lose the source code.

 

[SimpleSimon]

... Maybe by the time the 942 comes out, the 921 will have evolved into a nice, stable, reliable and feature-rich DVR... at which time E* will discontinue it and promptly proceed to lose the source code.

You're right about the box being discontinued the nansecond they get it right. It just falls in with the rest of E*'s utter idiocy.

As for the source code, they probably don't have it NOW!

P.S. Thanks for the kudos.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yup they just got the 721 working great and now its discontinued.

 

[Stingray]

Had my 921 for one week now and I am happy with it so far. Since I followed this web site over the last year, I was very aware of it's present short commings. I am hanging my hat on Dish's promise to solve the remaining problems with OTA, timers, etc. I will keep my 721 in service for a while as a backup to the 921. Yea - it's not HD, but the pix quality is very good and better than totally missing a program.