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Hi-Def's Missing Link
By Stephen Manes
The vast majority of TV programming is still standard-definition. Prerecorded HD material won't be widely available soon. That means a personal video recorder is de rigueur if you want to watch HD on your own schedule. Getting HDTV without one is like buying a great sound system whose only program source is an FM receiver.
When I tested Dish Network's new Dish Player DVR 921 personal video recorder, it effortlessly recorded Janet Jackson's gleaming breastworks in high-definition glory, ready for replay in slow-motion, reverse-motion, still-frame. But with nine minutes and four seconds of the game to go, the damned thing crashed, sending me frantically to my standard-definition set to keep up until the recorder finished rebooting several minutes later. That's the bipolar nature of the 921: It offers a glimpse of the promised land, then summarily yanks it from view.
The 921 demonstrates conclusively that a hard-drive recorder is high definition's missing link. Its 250-gigabyte hard disk can accumulate 25 hours of high-definition programming (180 of standard def) for your viewing pleasure. It can record two hi-def programs at once while you view another that's already on the hard drive. Hook up an antenna and you can watch and record local and network hd programs off the air. Though the box is big and rather noisy, you can stuff it in a cabinet and still control it via its radio-based remote, which also includes standard infrared to control other devices.
But that midgame crash reveals the 921 as a first-generation product not quite ready for public consumption. When I first received the test unit, it crashed roughly once every two hours, and using over-the-air channels was an exercise in futility. A software update improved stability, but not enough to avoid that game-day gaffe.
This thing screams "version 1" in other ways. The text it generates for things like the program guide is standard-def, and the guide provides no listings for over-the-air channels. Compared with TiVo (news - web sites)'s, the user interface is hopelessly complex, unresponsive, unforthcoming and thin. The 921's one advantage is that it lets you watch programming in an inset while you're fiddling with most functions; alas, that inset tends to bleed annoyingly into the information below it.
So don't rush to fork over $1,000 for the 921, though the deal gets more interesting if you let Dish sell you one of two smallish, mediocre HDTVs for $600 more--about half what you would pay at retail. Soon DirecTV, whose programming lineup strongly resembles Dish's, will offer a $1,000 unit with similar capacity and a TiVo interface. Voom, a new satellite service aimed directly at high-def customers, has promised a recorder of its own at a competitive price by summer. LG's new $1,000 unit can record 121/2 hours of terrestrial and cable signals.
Cable-subsidized PVRs look like the best deal of all. Providers are beginning to roll out models from Scientific-Atlanta, Motorola and Pioneer with hard drives one-third to one-half the capacity of the Dish and DirecTV models. But they're expected to rent for no more than $10 a month, and since there's no contract, you can call up and request a new one when bigger models come along.
Hi-Def's Missing Link
By Stephen Manes
The vast majority of TV programming is still standard-definition. Prerecorded HD material won't be widely available soon. That means a personal video recorder is de rigueur if you want to watch HD on your own schedule. Getting HDTV without one is like buying a great sound system whose only program source is an FM receiver.
When I tested Dish Network's new Dish Player DVR 921 personal video recorder, it effortlessly recorded Janet Jackson's gleaming breastworks in high-definition glory, ready for replay in slow-motion, reverse-motion, still-frame. But with nine minutes and four seconds of the game to go, the damned thing crashed, sending me frantically to my standard-definition set to keep up until the recorder finished rebooting several minutes later. That's the bipolar nature of the 921: It offers a glimpse of the promised land, then summarily yanks it from view.
The 921 demonstrates conclusively that a hard-drive recorder is high definition's missing link. Its 250-gigabyte hard disk can accumulate 25 hours of high-definition programming (180 of standard def) for your viewing pleasure. It can record two hi-def programs at once while you view another that's already on the hard drive. Hook up an antenna and you can watch and record local and network hd programs off the air. Though the box is big and rather noisy, you can stuff it in a cabinet and still control it via its radio-based remote, which also includes standard infrared to control other devices.
But that midgame crash reveals the 921 as a first-generation product not quite ready for public consumption. When I first received the test unit, it crashed roughly once every two hours, and using over-the-air channels was an exercise in futility. A software update improved stability, but not enough to avoid that game-day gaffe.
This thing screams "version 1" in other ways. The text it generates for things like the program guide is standard-def, and the guide provides no listings for over-the-air channels. Compared with TiVo (news - web sites)'s, the user interface is hopelessly complex, unresponsive, unforthcoming and thin. The 921's one advantage is that it lets you watch programming in an inset while you're fiddling with most functions; alas, that inset tends to bleed annoyingly into the information below it.
So don't rush to fork over $1,000 for the 921, though the deal gets more interesting if you let Dish sell you one of two smallish, mediocre HDTVs for $600 more--about half what you would pay at retail. Soon DirecTV, whose programming lineup strongly resembles Dish's, will offer a $1,000 unit with similar capacity and a TiVo interface. Voom, a new satellite service aimed directly at high-def customers, has promised a recorder of its own at a competitive price by summer. LG's new $1,000 unit can record 121/2 hours of terrestrial and cable signals.
Cable-subsidized PVRs look like the best deal of all. Providers are beginning to roll out models from Scientific-Atlanta, Motorola and Pioneer with hard drives one-third to one-half the capacity of the Dish and DirecTV models. But they're expected to rent for no more than $10 a month, and since there's no contract, you can call up and request a new one when bigger models come along.
