Scott's 921 Has Arrived!

Scott Greczkowski

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Cutting Edge
Sep 7, 2003
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Newington, CT
Santa Claus wears brown....

This morning the UPS Guy dropped me off my ultimate Christmas present a brand new Dish DVR 921 receiver!

I plan on doing a full write up on it but if you don't mind here is some of the things I have done so far.

I quickly took a few pictures of it sitting in front of my SuperDISH in the front yard.

I took it in the house and removed it from the box, in the box came a component cable, manual, remote, batteries, UHF antenna (for the remote) a channel lineup card, a phone line, coax cable, av cables and a S Video Cable. (Note no DVI Cable is included)

I unhooked my Dish 6000 and put the 921 above it. I unplugged the 6000 from the Dishpro adapter and plugged the satellite cable into input 1, I threw a cable out the window and hooked it up to tuner 2. I plugged this cable into my SW 34 switch.

I came in the house and plugged the 921 in. I was greeted on the screen by a Dish HDTV logo.

In about 55 seconds I received a notice that my unit was not authorized.

I then pressed the menu button on the remote and went to the switch check and ran a switch check....

This is where I ran into a problem. The input that was hooked up before to the 6000 was not checking as a SW34, it was trying to do switch check 1 or 34, while the other cable tested fine. I went outside and moved the 2 cables for the 921 to port 3 and 4 and moved my 721 to port 1 and 2 on the sw 34. It appears to be a problem with the SW 34 as now I have the problem on my 721.

Also another thing wierd is that it does not detect the 105 satellite from my SuperDISH out of the box. However once the software update is downloaded it supports the SuperDISH fine.

The 921 out of the box has no real software, and most of the functions are not enabled, you need to download the software for it to work correctly.

As I sit here my 921 just finished downloading and installing its software. And like the 721 it IS running Linux just like the 721. (I just saw the grey screen with the X in the center)

Out of the box the 921 comes set at 480p mode. It took me a few minutes to figure out why I could not fill the screen with my 921. After the softwre update is defaulted back to 480p.

The first thing I do not like is its stretch mode, on my 6000 the stretch mode fills the screen nicely, on the 921 I am losing a lot of picture on the left and right.

So far the unit runs just like the 721, it even has the same games and Instant Weather just like the 721.

Now I am trying to activate my system, I have been on hold for awhile....

Another report later. :D
 
Ok finally got activated.

Man HDNet looks good! I don't know if its because of the 921 or because I am just excited but the colors look better to me now then they did on my 6000.

If you try using PIP while tuned to a HD Channel you get a PIP box informing you "PIP Not Available in HD Mode"

I REALLY don't like that an hour into the guide I get no information available. This is a hard drive unit, the guide should be stored on the hard drive.

Anyways its time for me to play. :)

More later.
 
Does the manual indicate how to get the remote to transmit IR (for Pronto learning and such)? I think Mark mentioned that it might, but he didn't have a manual yet.
 
Nope no mention of that in the manual.

The manual does say "The remote control uses only UHF Radio signals to control the receiver and uses only IR signals to control other devices.

I find it funny that the channel guide that comes with the 921 boasts Channel 100 (Dish Home Interactive) yet does NOT mention any of the HDTV Channels. You think with a HDTV receiver it would tell you what channels the HD Channels are on.
 
Scott,

So, the guide only has 1 hour of data? Is it still downloading the guide or is that going to be it for now? I know when I first got my 721, the guide data took forever to pull in all of it.
 
Still only 1 hour of data. :(

Makes the PVR feature kind of useless. Like I know CSI is on tonight but I can't record it as I don't know what time its on.
 
With all the stuff I've been reading about the 921, did I somehow miss only 1 hour of guide data being mentioned? I just assumed that we would have an 9 day guide like with any other PVR.

It still must be downloading Scott. This is useless as you said for PVR functionality.
 
Still an hour guide. I am hoping that maybe it downloads the full guide at like 3am.

Just got done watching Hogans Heros in HD. :)
 
Scott Greczkowski said:
Still an hour guide. I am hoping that maybe it downloads the full guide at like 3am.

Just got done watching Hogans Heros in HD. :)

have you tried shutting it off for 15- 20 minutes? ;)
 
Yup...the 921 has the same (almost) 9 day guide as the other receivers, and it's by far that fastest navigating guide I've ever seen - I really, really love it!
 
How's the quality of the HD recording store in the Hard Disk? What type of connection are you using DVI or component? So, you can't use a PIP window with two HD programs or only SD-HD or none at all?
 
The HD recording is exactly like watching it live (Since its recording the same data stream)

I don't have DVI on my TV so it is connected by component.

I have hooked it up to my antenna and the tuner does not seem as good as the 811 as the two channels that the 811 could get the 921 can not pick up.

The 921 really needs an on screen Siganl Meter for Off Air Digital Signals, since I have a roter it helped locking in those hard to get channels.
 
Scott Greczkowski said:
.......I have hooked it up to my antenna and the tuner does not seem as good as the 811 as the two channels that the 811 could get the 921 can not pick up.

The 921 really needs an on screen Siganl Meter for Off Air Digital Signals, since I have a roter it helped locking in those hard to get channels.

But if you go to the setup for local channels and add the digital channel manually, doesn't it show you the signal strength there ?