New 721 users... whatcha think?

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bcshields

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Nov 28, 2003
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Delaware
I know there's a bunch of us who shelled out for the 721 deal... I particularly love all the new functions, and it was well worth the $249.

Whatcha think?
 
Like my new 721. Really wish they would put in a stop recording confirmation for the software though. I hate that it will just stop if you accidentally hit the button ny mistake. That ferature has saved mu butt a couple of times on the 508.
 
record two shows at the same time... NO MORE TIMER CONFLICTS!

Also, you can watch something else when your mrs demands she record judge judy.

the interface is softer, more inviting.

Picture in picture is also a nice feature.. your TV doesn't need to have the ability.
 
bcshields said:
record two shows at the same time... NO MORE TIMER CONFLICTS!

Also, you can watch something else when your mrs demands she record judge judy.

the interface is softer, more inviting.

Picture in picture is also a nice feature.. your TV doesn't need to have the ability.
Err, occasionally I now have 3 shows I want to record at the same time, and then we DO get conflicts.

I have 2 501's and a 721, and prefer the 721. Reminds me of my 7x00 dishplayers. I prefer the 721's interface to the 501's. I like it.

The only thing I miss is the name-based recording stuff.

Hopefully we'll see it some year. :)

LER
 
Out of curiosity where did you get a deal for $249 for the 721 on e-bay the cheapest I've seen them for is $325. Dish won't sell them to consumers you have to buy it from a dealer and they want $500. I have to upgrade one more TV in the house to a reciever and was going to get another 510 I now have a 522 and two 510s but I would rather have the 721 cause then it would do what I need. I need to record multiple shows at the same times. I dont have the $350 or better I would need to get it yet though. By the way if anyone is reading this and they wonder why the two reciever dvrs and plain old two set recievers don't get the interactive TV channels working right it's because of a software bug that they are aware of and are working on. My two 510s work fine on channel 100 almost full access. (I think one or two functions are still iffy). By the way I am a new poster and a new customer of DISH (1 Week) so I really like this forum to see what I have bought into. Thanks, Gary
 
GaryMarcella - Your Dish dealer should have info about the $249 offer available to him on the Dish dealer web site IF they are still available. Rumor was that the supply was limited. My dealer ordered one for me which I received 4 days later on May 10. In my home it replaced one of my 508's. It works great! Stingray :)
 
garymarcella...

I was given the $249.00 price with no tax or shipping charges direct from Dish. They also included a DP34 switch at no additional charge. I sent an E-mail to ceo@dishnetwork.com at 5:30PM and was contacted the next day at 10:15AM. They told me to call back after everything arrived to arrange the install. This won't be necessary as I already have the 2 lines run from 2 DP34's installed in my attic. The installer that recently hooked up my 921 said it wouldn't hurt to have an extra DP34 switch so I asked for it and they gave it to me at no additional cost. I subscribe to AEP + locals, Dish customer for 2 1/2 yrs, and C.C. autopay.
 
bcshields said:
I know there's a bunch of us who shelled out for the 721 deal... I particularly love all the new functions, and it was well worth the $249.

Whatcha think?

So far I like what I see. I like the program guide (more items listed than the 508/510), the menu structure, and of course having two tuners!

The USB port on the 721 won't ever amount to anything, right?
 
I was quite surprised to find that this is quite a different animal than the 508 DVR receiver. I thought I would be fine redoing my cables to the main TV. I had four cables going to the main TV. Two were for my two sat receivers (508 & 811) and the other two cables were for OTA antenna and Comcast cable. I was planning to get the 921 when it came out, but since no one still has the 921, I decided to get this deal on the 721 instead, except when I wanted to replace the 508 receiver with the 721 I still needed another sat feed. The easiest thing for me was to get a pair of sat diplexers and combine the cable feed with another sat. output from the SW-64 switch.

The 721 didn't like the "check switch test" on the input 2 w/ had the diplexers so I had to remove the short RG59 cable I had after the diplexer and replace it with a RG6 cable. The "Check switch test" still didn't work (or match) but it was closer since I getting only the odd transponders, so I tried switching the cables on the SAT 1 and SAT 2 on the inputs of the 721. While doing a third "check switch test" I lit a couple of candles and prayed to the satellite gods that it would work this time.

IT WORKED! Both sat. inputs could finally see all three sat. locations.

I really like to able to buffer and pause the other tuner while watching the other tuner. I wish I could have the opition to have no TV screen on the PVR menu. I will often come home to watch my favorite baseball team and like be able to watch it from the beginning and speed then through and catch up to live. With the TV on the DVR menu I now have to make sure I mute the TV and not look at the small square with the live game on.

Other than the picture frezzing when using the 30 second skip button sometimes and pressing the channel up or stop while in the buffer and losing everything up till then I'm fairly happy with it. I do wish it could change the channel faster. It's pretty slow when changing channels, slower than my old 4000. Is the 921 this slow too.

Does anybody know how to do a search of the baseball games on the ESPN/FSN alt. channels? Ever since they show who's playing on the title, there's no way to do a search anymore. I also wished the remote would know my TV input code on my Philips Cineos TV. It seems none of the DISH remotes have this code or any of the codes for my Denon A/V receiver. Looks like I need to buy on those learning remotes. The Denon LCD remote is a learning remote, but it's way too clumbersome.
 
styfix,

when i'm recording something that i don't want to look at until later,

I will usually do one of two things so that it does not show up in the little pip window in the guide and pvr screens.

1. I will deliberately change channels if one of the two tuners is available (two tuners helps in more ways than just recording two shows at once!)

2. I will deliberately start 'any' pvr item and pause it if one of the two tuners is not available.

hope this helps?
 
Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a try.

I also couldn't use the sat. input that the 811 was using because it is cascaded w/ a SW-21 so I can see HD programing from 61.5 and 148 satellites.
 
Cascading an sw21 w/ an sw64?

Why in the world are you cascading an SW21 w/ an sw64? Are you using both the 148 and the 61.5? I can think of a few reasons to do this, but is it really worth it just to get the west coast CBS HD?
 

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