First Look: Dish 942 HD/SD Receiver (Updated 1/24/05)

[Scott Greczkowski]

At Team Summit 2004 we were given the first look at the upcoming Dishplayer-DVR 942 High Definition Digital Video Recorder.

As you may have seen over the past few weeks there was reports of a new Dual Tuner HD unit with 2 outputs, and it was rumored to be called the 922. Well this is the unit that has been rumored and it has been renamed to the 942 to go along with some new products which will be available later this year.

Unlike the rumors that were going around this unit will NOT output 2 HD signals to two seperate television televisions, instead it will output HD to TV 1 and SD to TV two.

The new 942 is smaller then the 942 and has a new look

The 942 has a display on front with LCD leds which shows you the mode the unit is in if the second tuner is in use as well as recording lights showing if a tuner is recording.

The rear of the unit has lots of connections as shown below.

​

http://www.satelliteguys.us/ts2004/rearbig.jpg​

The connections include a Antenna / Cable In Port, an stereo agile tuner output as well as composite video and audio outputs for tuner 2.

The Tuner 1 outputs include component Y/Pr/Pb outputs, analog audio, Digital Audio output and a DVI output.

The unit also has 2 Satellite Inputs which are DishPro plus compatable, a USB 2.0 port and a phone jack.

The big problem I have with the 942 is that the unit only has one over the air tuner. This means both TV's can not watch seperate over the air broadcasts at the same time, if someone tries to watch the Over the Air tuner and its in use they will get an error message telling them the tuner is in use.

If they keep it one OTA tuner they they need to add a function to let the user take control of the tuner. Some kind of popup screen saying something like "TV 2 would like to watch over the air programs, is this ok?" then if the person at TV one can answer yes, if that TV is off or the person is sleeping or the person on TV 1 gives no reply to the message they control of over the air is given to TV2.

Again the best thing to do would be add a second OTA tuner.

The unit is much like the 522 and is based off the 522 software. The 942 unit we saw was one of the first units made and I was told that they just got the unit working 2 days before the show. It was kind of cool seeing the first unit, it was even painted on the pack showing that the unit was not for sale.

One of the nice features of the unit is you can watch HD broadcasts on your SD televisions. So now you can enjoy Hockey on HD net on your SD set. You can also record HD programs on the DVR and play them back on TV2 (the SD set)

While there are no plans yet to add the Dish Network Multimedia Center to the software we hope they would implement this feature on the 942 so you can share music and pictures in two rooms, and plus you can view photos in hi resolution on your HDTV.

I believe that the 942 will replace the 921 when it is released. I would like a 942 except that the OTA problem makes the 942 a half baked idea. I also wish you could send HD signals to the second television.

So there you have it, your first look at the 942 receiver! Thanks for visiting SatelliteGuys.US!

 

[GaryPen]

Did they give any hint at all to an approximate price point? I believe you said something like "surprisingly affordable" or something like that. I take that to mean a maximum of $500. Is that a good guess, or is it expected to be higher? Lower?

I must add, like everybody else already has, that it is a tremendous mistake to have only one OTA tuner. If this is designed for use with two TV's, then it needs two OTA tuners, in addition to its two sat tuners.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes they said it would be afforadable (meaning it won't be $1000)

However they gave no hints of how affordable.

If I were a guessing man I would expects between $500 - $600

 

[jeffwtux]

The best thing I can see about this unit is that it's signficantly smaller(shorter) than the 921. If the price is $600 or lower, this might be the straw that broke my back to convincing me to get an HDTV. Comcast in most of Detroit(everwhere but 4 suburbs including mine which have Brighthouse) has launched their HD PVRs which can be rented for just $9.95/month so Dish better come up with a cheaper price than $1000 for the 921, although I heard that the $9.95 was just a short-term promotional price. The long term price will probably be $12.95+/month.

 

[mattyro]

If this kind of machine can be produced for 5-6 hundred bucks, where is the basic high def pvr?? I'm talking 1 or 2 tuners, a big hard drive and THE ABILITY TO RECORD HIGH DEF PROGRAMMING!!!!! Thats all a lot of us want--a 508 for high def. Is there anything in the works for a $399 unit like I just described?? I dont need multiple tv's or i have no need to send my cousin's bar mitzvah pictures to uncle Leo in the baement. I just want to be able to see Enterprise in HD without taking 2 hours off from work.

 

[A_Noland]

The also didn't put any S-video output on the SD2 unit. It would have been nice to be able to send the SD output to my SD TV's via s-video. But I guess that isn't the market they are trying for.

It will look nice setting next to my 921.

 

[JohnR]

Was there any information on the hard drive capacity? In my opinion, any new HD DVR should not be made without a minimum of a 200GB hard drive. In the alternative, user upgradeable drives should be possible (ala TiVo).

With hard drive prices plummeting and hard drive sizes skyrocketing, it is very short sighted of any manufacturer of a DVR to be used for HD purposes, not to use a hard drive with a very large capacity.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ahh yes, I forgot to include the Hard Drive info.

On this unit at the show they had a 160 GB drive in the unit. However by its release they are hoping to put at least a 240 gig drive inside. If costs on drives are good the drive could be even larger. Dish wants the unit to have at least 40 hours of HD recording time.

BTW this unit does function as a SD DVR on tuner two as well.

 

[markusian]

Scott,

Did the demo unit run any software? Was it hooked up to anything?

-Mark

 

[mike123abc]

Can the unit record 2 HD programs at once?

Is there 2 HD sat tuners so you can record 2 E* HD programs at once?

Can you record HD OTA and HD sat at the same time?

In other words are the HD recording options the same as on the 921 (or better record OTA and 2 HD Tuners at the same time, or worse 1 HD OTA view/record or OTA).

Of course the issue comes up if you are recording OTA HD, Sat HD and TV2 wants to tune into something else...

 

[marko]

Hmm, the one over the air tuner doesn't bother me all that much. Would still have dish locals for $5.99 anyway for the guide info. All this machine needs is firewire.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Firewire on this unit is NOT going to happen, that they told me was for sure.

 

[A_Pac]

wheres the s-video output for sd?

 

[David_Levin]

40 hours of HD recording? They are going to need a lot more the 240 gig.

More like 400 gig.

They could try dual drives, but they have enough trouble making 1 work.

The really just should allow for a user upgradable (or addable) hard drive. This way they can sell at the price point they want - and the user could spend extra $$$ as he wishes.

I'm afraid it'll never happen unless God (or the Devil) visits Charlie in person.

 

[Stargazer]

This is why I never bought the 921 because I knew they would come out with another one to replace it that is cheaper and better. They have delayed the 921 so long that by the time they released it it was almost time for another type of HD DVR, almost outdated before its release.

Dish may have chosen to have only one HD tuner because of the high costs of a second one. It looks like Dish has found cheaper parts and was able to reduce the size to save on the costs of this new receiver. With as high in demand that the 921 is I would not expect them to reduce the cost on them as they could sell all of them out easily (unless too many get wind of this new receiver and its cheaper price then they would have dropped the price on them a bit).

Considering the retailer has a pretty decen markup on the 921, I would expect there to not be nearly as good of a markup on the 942 for the retailer if the retail price were to drop a bit, which in itself would help drop the retail price, in addition to cheaper parts and making the unit smaller, to help lower the cost. The actual cost, if dropped $200-300, would make it an affordable unit, around the price of what the 721 had cost when it first come out.

If the price does drop to $500-$600 on this receiver then we may also expect another price drop on the 510 receiver down to $250 instead of $300. It was $350 when it first came out then dropped $50 in price. I would also expect the 811 to drop in price by $50.

 

[Mikey-D]

USB and release date

Howdy

The new DVR looks sweet and is the only thing missing from my home theater setup at this point

2 questions....what do they plan on using the USB plug for, or better yet what will *we* be able to use it for? and is there any kind of release date for the unit?

Thanks for all the great info!

 

[GaryPen]

Hmm, the one over the air tuner doesn't bother me all that much. Would still have dish locals for $5.99 anyway for the guide info. All this machine needs is firewire.

A. They are supposed to be adding OTA EPG info. (Finally!!!!)
B. I would like to not have to pay for Dish locals for the 2nd output, if A actually happens. (I shouldn't have to pay $5.99 just for program info, anyway.)
C. I would like to have the option to record 2 OTA programs, simultaneously.

As such, I think the lack of 2nd OTA tuner is a BIG shortcoming.

 

[Chris Freeland]

I also agree that this unit should have a 2nd ota tuner like the D*HDTivo has. Like the D*HDTivo the 942 should have the ability to record 2 HD shows at once, 1 satellite and 1 ota or 2 satellite or 2 ota at once, plus have the 2nd ota tuner available to TV2 out.

 

[Stargazer]

There seems to be a lot more work needing to be done until they get it right. It needs to record OTA to hard drive, have two OTA tuners, two SD tuners, and two HD tuners. That is a total of six tuners.

 

[markusian]

There seems to be a lot more work needing to be done until they get it right. It needs to record OTA to hard drive, have two OTA tuners, two SD tuners, and two HD tuners. That is a total of six tuners.

HD tuners will receive SD too. 2 HD + 2 OTA tuners are enough.

-Mark