S108xajd is up! Anything new?!

What is my overall experience with the new Dish 922 DVR?

  • Very happy!

    Votes: 12 23.5%
  • Moderately happy.

    Votes: 30 58.8%
  • Very frustrated!

    Votes: 2 3.9%
  • I wish I would've waited.

    Votes: 6 11.8%
  • I want to return it!

    Votes: 2 3.9%

  • Total voters
    51

Gadgetfanatic

Member
Original poster
Jul 28, 2010
8
0
Utah
Well, I dozed off on the sofa & woke up to find my 922 updating & I immediately got excited at the possibility that maybe, just maybe a miracle was about to happen & that we'd FINALLY be able to transfer programs from our 922 to our EHD(a basic function of my 722s for years now)..but once again, to no avail. At this point I'd gladly settle for just this option alone & wait until next year or the year after for Dish Pass or manual Timers or the many other things still missing from the 922.

So I immediately grabbed one of my 1.5 TB EHDs, that is currently hooked up to one of my 722s & unfortunately, it's a no go once again for this update...sorry to anyone that got their hopes up like I did! Has anyone heard ANYTHING about when this DVR to EHD update might take place?

Just from looking around for a few minutes, I don't see anything right off the bat that's new or different & maybe it's just like the 107 update & no one will have anything to say, because there's once again nothing new to really report. Maybe this update just includes some more stability for the 922 which I'd have no problem with & is sorely needed, as I've had about every problem here listed by one person or another.

I'm wondering when Charlie might refund our $200 & actually pay us for the inconvenience of being the official beta testers; a privilege we unknowingly paid for, when we thought we were buying a DVR that had already been properly tested & was ready to go.

I guess I should have known better!

Once the basic functions are finally up to par with the 722 & it records what it's supposed to, when it's supposed to..it will be the best receiver I've ever had..but I fear how long it will take for that to happen & there's no doubt they really rushed this thing out, LONG before it was ready to roll. I will say that finally being able to watch shows from the EHD after update 106 was HUGE & the way it is laid out on the screen, with all the pics, just like the regular DVR hard drive is really awesome & I love it..so thanks for that Dish!

I find that I get far more educated answers here than by calling Dish & my blood pressure stays much lower because I don't know more than the clueless person I'm speaking to & I don't have to educate the CSR who rarely even knows or cares what I'm describing or talking about.

The last time I called, the CSR("specialist") told me how lucky I was to have the latest & greatest technology & of course had no clue whatsoever that I couldn't even transfer shows from my DVR to my EHD. I went on to describe how I wasn't lucky at all & was really just a beta tester who paid $200 for the privilege! She basically knew NOTHING about the 922, except that it was awesome, the greatest thing ever, etc.

Anyway, I've been lurking for a long time & this is my first post & so thanks for letting me vent a little as I know that most if not all of us 922 owners are very frustrated at this time & sadly, no one else seems to care but other frustrated 922 owners in forums like this.

I've been a faithful Dish guy for 10 years now & I was anxiously waiting for this 922 for 2+ years(I've really been waiting for this ever since Dish bought sling back in 2007) & according to the Dish installer, back on I think April 13; I was only the 3rd person in all of Utah, Idaho & Wyoming to buy the 922 & I wish I would've waited. At the time I felt lucky..but didn't realize I was just a beta tester! I really hope that Dish has someone reading these forums so that they know how their top customers are really feeling & I hope they care.

Anyway, just wanted to start the thread so that people can post any new things they find in this update, that is if there is anything new to report. Sorry this post was so long..I just had a lot to get off my chest after 3 months of frustration!
 
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I agree with most of your sentiments there . I think this receiver was definitely rushed out the door. It angers me to this day that I spent $40.00 to get archiving features that I can NOT use to this day going on 3 months. I was hoping that this feature would be one of the first activated. The manual timers is also something that I would of thought they would of put in this box going on day 1 since all dvrs can do manual timers ,even the older 500 series of dvrs. The dish pass is in that category too. This box has the potential to do some great things with the internet ,like the play on application that I recently got to work with my NEW computer. The sling media hd extender will make this box a true great innovation, when you can sling tv2 in full hd to another tv in your house. But that too is now been pushed to the end of the year or longer. I think that DISH needs to get a move on and get these software changes to the subs quickly. DIRECTV is fast moving ahead over DISH with their multi-room viewing feature over coax. DISH is losing their cutting edge in technology sitting on this 922 like this. But that being said I have had limited problems with this receiver in regards to it not recording shows I want it to. But the true test will be in Sept. when the fall tv season starts again. Then the 922 will get a workout with 4 shows at a time recording 3 to 4 nights a week.
 
I voted moderately happy, primarily because I am not using a whole lot of features. I got it just because of the built in Sling and I am sure there are several like me who just wanted to avoid the clutter and have an all-in-one solution. I do agree with it being a beta unit and do not like the fact that we were charged $200 for it. Some advanced users must be truly unhappy with lack of features found already on stable devices so it doesn't seem to be an "evolved" unit so to speak. Hardware should always mature with time but this one is far from it.

One other feature than I have been testing is the Home Media. 108 doesn't offer anything for it I guess. AVIs still not playing. When I browse my pc and select a movie to play, it randomly plays some other movie I have watched in past and still do not see fwd/reverse and other buttons. I guess no update for DLNA client with this update.

One more thing

I find that I get far more educated answers here than by calling xxx


This is a generally true statement on all forums so let us cut the CSRs some slack please. Any forum you go to like cell phones, receivers, techonology or any other for that matter will have more collective knowledge than CSRs.
 
I have been pretty satisfied over all with the 922. I really like the user interface much better than the 622/722. Although it has some bugs I think that with the last couple of software updates it has become more stable. One thing that seems to have helped mine is that I removed the OTA module. I had an OTA module in it for a while, but it seems that the OTA module makes it hotter and less stable, at least that was my experience with it. I don't know if any of you had one, but the buggiest receiver that I ever used was the General Instrument DSR-920 (first 4DTV) I got one not long after they came out, in June of 1997 and it was an experience to live with. With the 922, sometimes I wonder if Echostar has some old GI engineers working there :)
 
I will agree the 922 was indeed rushed out... but you should have seen when they wanted to release it before... when I got word they were thinking of releasing it just to get it out there for the holiday season as god as my witness I went to Charlie directly and begged him not to release it. To Charlies credit he listened and agreed.

I don't know if I would have released it when they did, but to be honest the state of the system was MUCH better then it was just a few months before.

I have been having good luck with my 922, it hasnt missed recordings and has been for the most part stable... my biggest issue is when I go to access my 922 from the DISH Website only to be told my 922 is offline... (which looking at my 922 shows the connection being green and connected) they really need to fix that issue.

I don't know whats in 108 they dont give me release notes... I wish they would as it would make a lot more of us feel better about our purchase of this receiver. I think its great to know whats going on with it. :)
 
I don't know whats in 108 they dont give me release notes... I wish they would as it would make a lot more of us feel better about our purchase of this receiver. I think its great to know whats going on with it. :)

Please use your influence to persuade them in releasing change logs. It will be really cool if they can do it ala PS3 firmware updates.
 
Mine dumped all my timers and will no longer communicate with the remote! So far S108 is a disaster. I will have to find the directions to unlink and relink the remote. All efforts so far have failed. Thanks Dish!!:rant:
 
No evident changes/problems from me.. And unfortunately that applies to iPhone app integration. Still does not work as designed, only works using the on-screen virtual remote and not the cool iPhone menus.
 
well my timers are all messed up and are showing conflicts with everything....I have left the unit unpluged for 10min. and it is not reloading the guide....any thought on how to reload the guide data....I think that is why my unit has all of the timers goofy.
 
The only way I have found to update the guide on the 922 is to set the update time to about 5 minutes from now and let it do the update. (then you can set the update time back to what you normally keep it at)
 
I'm moderately happy with my 922. I love the receiver itself. Been rock solid. My only issue is my inability to record off my OTA tuner. Because I don't have guide info for my OTA stations and no way to do manual recordings, I can't record anything with it. That part is frustrating.

As a side note Scott, can you PLEASE get it through someones head at Dish to change the way they get their OTA guide info. Like the way that Directv does it. It's very frustrating not to have that information.
 
Is this new on 108 or did I miss it in the last update? On my recordings their is an edit button. Once I click on that I now get the amount of time left on my recordings. Is this new?
 
Just to update, I was able to get the remote unlinked using the remote itself, but it still won't relink. Everything seems to be working well now using an old IR remote with limited functionality. Timers reappeared after about the fourth reboot.

I Called Dish advanced tech and they are sending a new remote. The guy said this has been an issue on S108. My receiver was locked up Wednesday night when I got home after the S108 download. Tech support thought this might be the reason as there was a remote firmware update in the package which may have been interrupted by the receiver lockup causing the remote to fail. Hope so since I can't yet archive to the EHD, I'll lose a lot of stuff I wanted to keep if I have to swap receivers. I'll report back when I get the new remote.
 
1 day after it installed, I came home, during a moderate rain storm in Denver, to see no channels. I went to System Info/Details, and saw messages indicating a LARGE number of signal losses since the update installed (54 in the previous 6 hours, 85 in the 6 before that, 29 in the 6 before that, etc.). My wife told me that there was no signal (922 trying to acquire satellites) while it was sunny and calm out that morning.

Called Dish, and they had me power cycle (not reboot) the 922, and the problem went away.

Have never had dropouts of more than 5 sec before this, and haven't had any since, and System Info/Details now shows no dropouts.
 
Still NO ETA or ANY INFO on when we'll be able to transfer shows to our EHDs!!

Here's my latest correspondence with Dish regarding when, if ever, they will add the very basic feature of transferring shows to our EHD, like we've been able to do on the VIP722s & other VIP receivers for years now! There was no progress whatsoever & this is the 3rd conversation I've had with them over the last month & nobody there claims to know anything about when this will be available, with no ETA at all.

Have you heard anything Scott?!! It's getting a little ridiculous that NOBODY knows ANYTHING about this & I know that many of us are growing very impatient & I'm frankly getting pissed with football season & the new TV season now underway, with NO WORD WHATSOEVER from anyone at Dish. I check in here everyday hoping to find SOMETHING..ANYTHING..but I find NOTHING!

Somebody knows SOMETHING & either they aren't talking or just aren't telling us, you or anyone that is in a position to properly communicate with their supposed "valued customers" that Charlie wants to "watch TV" with, as we simply want to "transfer shows to our EHD" in addition to "watching TV" with or without Charlie! Surely he has to know this basic function isn't available & that most if not all 922 customers are clamoring for this!

Why the deafening silence on such an important matter? Have they said something about this recently that I've missed? Why don't they provide a DETAILED listing to their "valued customers" of what is in each update, so that we, the "valued customer" know what's going on with OUR equipment? Why do we even have to come to a forum like this to ask others if they've noticed what's different with the new update?

Why doesn't Dish provide this to the public right on THEIR website? Are you kidding me? Is that really how Dish wants to run things? Nothing official about ANY of their updates & we just find out through trial & error & asking complete strangers in a Dish Network Forum what they've noticed? It just seems asinine!!

I can't honestly believe that NOBODY at Dish, in their "special" 922 technical department have the slightest clue. If it's true that they don't know; then the problems are even bigger & come from higher.

I'm guess I'm stuck recording everything on my other 722, then transferring it to my external drive & then connecting said external drive to my 922 so that we can finally watch them. That function wasn't even available until a little over a month ago, but I was very grateful that that even more basic function, that was also missing for many months, was FINALLY made available.

I guess I just expect more for my $200 upgrade fee & almost $200 month we're paying for the service. Just so everyone knows: we have the 922, 2 722s(one leased & one we bought) and a 625. We have the Everything package(had that for at least 7-8 years now), including the Platinum HD for an extra $10 a month & I'll be adding NFL Redzone Sunday for yet another extra $7 month. Like I said(with the new DVR fees), we're closing in quickly on $200/month now, which is a lot to pay.

Hopefully Charlie will at some point actually care what his "valued customers" have to say & get things rolling! He needs to spend less time recording commercials & talking about how excited he is about future technology & what's around the corner & Google TV, etc & spend more time making sure his current products(especially his 922 "flagship" that he is/was so proud of) have the very basic VIP functions that they should have had long before they were even sold & made available to the public, especially when we're talking about a $200 upgrade fee. He should be embarrassed by this!!

Anyway, here's the convo:

Gregg: Great, thanks, I really appreciate it..hey I do have another question & it's about my 922 receiver..not sure if you can help me or if you need to transfer me to a 922 specialist?
(03h1) Austin P.ZE1: You're welcome, Gregg.
(03h1) Austin P.ZE1: Yes, you're right. I will have to transfer you.
(03h1) Austin P.ZE1: But before transferring, can you please provide me your home phone number or your account number?
Gregg: I know you have a department just for the 922..so I figured you might have to transfer me..
Gregg: Yeah..why do you need that info..I just had a simple question?
(03h1) Austin P.ZE1: So that we'd be able to pull up your account to assist you better.
Gregg: I'd rather not..it won't make a difference, as our account has nothing to do with my question..if we can't proceed, that's okay.
(03h1) Austin P.ZE1: Okay.
(03h1) Austin P.ZE1: Please be online while I get you connected to the technical department.
(03h1) Austin P.ZE1 has left the session.
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(04-23Rp**) Stevi B.SG9: I'd be happy to assist you with that. Do you have a question regarding the 922?
Gregg: Yes, I, along with countless others that have the 922 are desperately wondering when we will get our next firmware update that will include the ability to able to transfer our shows to our EHD. Update 107 included being able to finally watch from the EHD, which was great, but with the new season & football season coming up right around the corner, we need to transfer our shows to an EHD soon as our hard drive has been full for a while..I hope you can help. They keep saying they're working on it, but we're going on 5 months now & not a single word..I just want to know if it should be expected soon or possibly not at all..I just need to know one way or the other.
(04-23Rp**) Stevi B.SG9: I see that you currently have a Sling Loaded VIP922 receiver. Since this is a new state of the art receiver, we have a specially trained department that handles all technical issues with this receiver. They will be able to troubleshoot and get this issue resolved for you.
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(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: Thank you. How may I assist you this evening with your 922 receiver Gregg?
Gregg: Yes, I, along with countless others that have the 922 are desperately wondering when we will get our next firmware update that will include the ability to able to transfer our shows to our EHD. Update 107 included being able to finally watch from the EHD, which was great, but with the new season & football season coming up right around the corner, we need to transfer our shows to an EHD soon as our hard drive has been full for a while..I hope you can help. They keep saying they're working on it, but we're going on 5 months now & not a single word..I just want to know if it should be expected soon or possibly not at all..I just need to know one way or the other. I was also told several months ago that you'd have a dedicated page on the main Dish Network page linking to the specifics regarding the 922 & future firmware upgrades, etc. Just wondering if this page exists & if so, where is it?
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: At the moment I have not heard of anything regarding the capability to transfer recordings back to an external hard drive having yet been activated, but the software updates we generally will not hear about until it has been released. Hopefully that will be available soon, but we don't have any kind of ETA regarding that.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: As for a page on the website regarding the 922 software, I have not heard of anything specifically about that.
Gregg: Still nothing eh..that's too bad! Any reason why we or even YOU can't get more info on this situation..it's a huge problem to not have a basic function that I've been using for years on my 722..it just seems that someone has to know at some level & why they won't tell anyone until they come out is beyond me..any ideas on this lack of communication? Sorry, it's just getting very frustrating, especially since we paid $200 for the upgrade & have basically been beta testers.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: I understand, and I apologize for the inconvenience. In general, we never have timetables on when software comes out because there is no guarantees. Something may be found that sets the release date back, for instance.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: That is the same with all of our satellite receivers.
Gregg: I think I'll Email Charlie himself to see if he might know..if he doesn't know..then I give up. Honestly..I'd rather have another 722 with all of the expected functions than the 922 or at least an answer as to when we could expect this upgrade..it has been over a month now since the last update.
Gregg: Have you heard if maybe they are NEVER going to allow this function? Maybe it will NEVER happen for some reason I have no clue about?
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: I've not heard that. As far as I know, it should be available at some point in the future.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: Why there is the delay there has been to get that feature reimplemented I do not know, but hopefully that is available fairly soon.
Gregg: Any word if Dish is going to issue some type of credit to those who paid $200(a small upgrade fee as Charlie said in the last Charlie Chat) for the 922? There are a lot of us out there that feel the same way as I know I'm not alone in this & Dish really needs to address this issue soon & let us know what is happening. Please pass my comments on to Charlie or whoever it is that is in charge of the 922!
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: I've not heard anything about credits, but if that were to happen then that would be automatically implemented.
Gregg: The 922 should have never been released until it was ready & functioning just like the 722 as it has so many problems & glitches that need to be fixed in addition to lacking this EHD feature.
Gregg: Well, I guess I have no choice but to Email Charlie & hope that he or someone responds..would that be the best option?
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: I do apologize for the inconvenience. If you wanted to send an email, you can send an email through the website. If you go to Contact Us at the top under customer support, there is an Email Us link that you can use to send feedback, suggestions, complaints, and so forth.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: Can I help with anything else this evening Gregg?
Gregg: Yeah, I think I need to send one directly to Charlie, as I don't trust that anyone else would forward it to where it needs to be. I mean he has to already know..but he needs to hear from a loyal customer of almost 10 years that is paying almost $200 a month about how unhappy I am. I believe his address his ceo@echostar.com, right?
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: I could not tell you to be honest. The email addresses of the various Directors and such are not readily available that I have seen.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: For sending emails, the only thing that I can recommend is the options on the website.
Gregg: I'm sure I won't hear anything back as Dish has millions of customers..but I guess one can always hope. I just wish that they'd arm you with the information you need or some type of time frame so that I didn't have to even send an Email..I hope they improve this process in the future.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: I understand your frustration, and hopefully the problems get resolved for you in the near future.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: Can I help out with anything else today Gregg?
Gregg: Hell, I'll send the same Email to every address I can find & I just verified that the one I posted above is accurate..so I'll just try it & see what happens. Other than that, I'll wake up everyday & see if we got an upgrade & I guess I'll probably know before you do, which is sad. They really need to give you guys more info on things like this..it's very disappointing..but thanks for your time, I really appreciate it & please pass on my comments to someone, anyone that might care & be able to do something about it.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: You are welcome. I wish I could have assisted further, but if you need anything further please let us know and we will be glad to help to the best of our ability.
(24DrDcb)4 Dan T.M4V: Thank you for choosing Dish Network. Have a great evening Gregg.
Gregg: I'll try & I will if I ever get that upgrade ;)
Gregg: I wish you could have too
Gregg: They don't give you the tools to do your job properly & that's just sad..your hands are basically tied..oh well..what can we do?
Gregg: Have a good night!

I haven't had a chance to Email Charlie yet about this, but I will. Has anyone else here Emailed Charlie about it & did you ever get any response?
 
No emails to Charlie about it. But the ceo@echostar.com is for the executive resolution department. They will answer your questions and or provide a solution to your problem that the csrs can't. OF course in this situation they won't know anything about when the external hard drive archiving feature will be available either. You might be able to get some credits for not being able to use it if you ask. Give it a try and report back. Just remember it might take a week to get an answer.