Dish Speaks about the 921 Firewire / DishWire Ports

[Scott Greczkowski]

No Dish has not said anything new.

Thanks to our members I have obtained footage of Charlie Chats and Tech Chats in which they talk about the DishWire Ports.

I considers Marc Lumpkins statement the 921 had a lot of great features announced that "but 1394 features were not among them." an outright lie, and heres the proof.


The audio files are in mp3 format.

I would like to thank the members who have provided me with this footage.

 

[A_Noland]

I know what the next change to all Tech and Charlie chat slides will be.

"Specifications subject to change without notice."

You will see this scrolled continuously when they are talking about new and upcoming products.

 

[AppliedAggression]

all this is going to do is make Echostar even more secretive about their products and not annouce anything until it's out.

 

[Ken F]

Marc is going to like you even less, Scott.

Have you thought about combining those images and the audio to produce a nice little video?

 

[BobMurdoch]

That door you hear slamming shut is the official line of communication conduit you've had. I'm getting the feeling that we are gonna have to watch press releases for our advance news from now on......

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I havent talked to anyone official in months now anyways.

Got some interesting news coming down the line from my sources now, I will post when I have a better grasp and get some kind of confirmations.

Marc can not ignore me anyways since they are a publicly held company.

 

[SimpleSimon]

all this is going to do is make Echostar even more secretive about their products and not annouce anything until it's out.

And why would that be bad?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah why is it bad and why is it my problem?

Did I tell them to go on national TV and to national Electronics shows and make promises for equipment and features when they were not 100% on if the product was going to have those features?

I believe that Dish should send out its new products with ALL its features working out of the box, no more if this "This feature will be added later by a software update" BS.

BTW I am not calling Marc Lumpkin a lier, he may just be passing on what he is told to say, that I have no idea of. I just know that SOMEBODY at Dish is lying. Once again they got their hands caught in the cookie jar.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

hi guys!!

Just to add my 2 cents. I was given a JVC 30K HDVCR more than 2 years ago. This unit was promoted to provide an archival method for time shifted material when being used with the "soon to be released" HD PVR with 1394 output.

Anyways...

Gregg Loewen
Video Calibrationist
www.lionav.com

 

[Joe Q]

Scott,
Thanks for posting those.

Nothing like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar.

Hearing the first two really gets me angry. I remember watching those shows and hearing them talk about the 921.
Their words were what convinced me to drop the big bucks on the darn thing in the first place.

Had I known then what I know now, I would have waited for the HD Directv TIVO and had all those great features that my 3 year old SA TIVO has.

With the 'removal' of the firewire, the 921 merely becomes a crummy version of D*'s HD PVR.
I am not talking about bugs in the 921 either. That I can overlook.

Anyone who has a TIVO knows what I am talking about.
If you don't then ignorance is bliss

Joe

 

[psycaz]

Scott, any update on that info coming down the line?

 

[phaseshift]

That's all, folks.

Okay, you folks have had a week or so to adjust to this news. I am an only an occassional reader of these forums, and just this morning learned of the Dishwire debacle.

I have been a Dish Network subscriber since the beginning. My first installation, a standard-def non-dvr, ordinary receiver (I've forgotton what the model was called) cost me over a grand. And I loved it.

I've been singing the praises of Dish Network to my friends ever since. I work at a major broadcast station in Chicago, and have talked several of my friends into going Dish.

When I attended the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show, and first saw the 921, I was awestruck. HD, and I can record it to DVHS?!?! Fantastic.

Mid-2003, I went Hi Def, but decided to hold off on a new Dish receiver until I could get the 921. I did buy a JVC D-VHS unit, with two reasons in mind: I could buy D-Theater tapes, and when the 921 had its firewire ports enabled, which I was sure wouldn't be long, I could tape lots of high-def movies from it.

Not.

I'm grateful to Scott for revealing this info that Echostar would have kept secret if it could. I wish Mark hadn't been dumped on so much.

But I'm done with Echostar. Even though it has no Firewire, I'll go with that Direct TV/Tivo system. Damn.

 

[metallicafreak]

Just to fuel the fire a bit, Matt Stevens posted this at AVSforum:
Any plans for any expansions in the 921 are scrapped. It is, in effect, a dead receiver. Once the software is stable, that will be it. The OTA Guide info promised for late 2004 is also scrapped. They are just dropping support for the receiver and moving on to the 922.

This is not a rumor. Nuff said.'

I am done with Dish to. I have been with them for 6 years and have also been singing the praises. I also bought a JVC 30K about 1 year ago in anticipation of recording fromt he 921.

I ahd comcast installed yesterday and will drop dish down to only the HD pack but very sortly to NOTHING.
FREAK!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have been hearing the OTA Guide Data has been scrapped as well but have not got enough information to confirm it to post it here.

Yes I do believe that the 921 will have a short life.

Very sad actually.

 

[DarrellP]

When Ecost.com had the refurb'd JVC 30K's for $299 I snatched one up thinking I could archive from the 921 in the future, I guess Dish won't get my $1000. I've lost all faith in Echostar. I've been with them since early 97 and have been an E* cheerleader up until about a year ago when their declining PQ & lack of HD was the straw that broke the camel's back and I dropped all SD programming and now have just their HD Package & my locals for PVR'ing. GO VOOM!

 

[mike123abc]

Scrapping OTA guide really makes little sense since Dish already sends the analog channel guide info for all the LIL markets, which is probably getting close to 90% of the country now. All they would have to do is match the digital station to the analog guide data.

 

[metallicafreak]

Hey Darrell,
I just dorpped SD also. HBO/Sho/HD pack and CBS-HD only. Down to $28/month
FREAK!

 

[Joe Q]

My reason why I don't give a hoot about the OTA capability

I have been hearing the OTA Guide Data has been scrapped as well but have not got enough information to confirm it to post it here.

.

No skin off of my back. I have never even hooked up my UHF roof antennas (yes, I have 2 of them pointing at the two cities) to the 921.

Maybe that is why I have such few problems with the 921.

I use a MYHD PC HDTV card for all my OTA viewing&recording.
It supports 2 ATSC RF connections and outputs it's video on my RP HDTV.


Never planned on using the 921 for OTA because I knew that the 921 would NEVER achieve the functionality in the OTA area that my PC card does.
No slam at DISH - it is just that my OTA card is optimized to do it's OTA job and do it well. The SW has had regular releases for nearly two years.

It is integrated with Titan TV so it is a few mouse clicks to schedule a weeks worth of OTA programming.
It is also setup to use the PSIP info for scheduling but not a single one of my 13 stations that I get broadcast any PSIP info.

Being PC based, the recording lengths are only limited by the size of my disk.


Oh yeah, I can record and playback to my MITS D-VHS deck with that card also. The format is standard so the tapes are playable on other D-VHS decks.

Joe