The 942 is HERE!

[Scott Greczkowski]

I couldn't wait to get home today, I was hoping to leave work by 3 however that did not happen, I left work at 5:30.

When I got home my wife had setup my 942 box on the dining room table to wait for me.

I got in grabed my Digital Camera and began taking pictures of the new longly awaited Dish Network 942 receiver!

I opened the box and snapped photos along the way. I was happy to see they had a new channel lineup card which actually listed the HD channels. (The 921 came with a card as well but no HD channels were mentioned)

As I ate dinner I looked through the impressive 942 Users Manual, eash time Dish Network comes out with a new receiver their manuals get better and better each time. While quickly going through the manual I noticed something I do not recall seeing anyplace else, and that is that the 942 will be able to do Video On Demand with a software update. I was excited to see this!

I started downloading my photos I took when I noticed that the HDMI port had a sticker over the letters HDMI instead it said HDTV Digital Output on the Sticker. I peeled off the label and the letters HDMI were there under it.

I have not hooked up the unit but I will do so after I send you guys (our pub members) our first photos of the 942. This is not a beta unit like you may have seen before this is an actual shipping unit!

Here are some photos to get us started.

 

[Horsnuts]

Thx for the pix scott. Is this the first Dish reciever capable of VOD?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

No the 625 is the first unit where VOD actually works, the 942 does not have the software support yet for VOD.

Got it hooked up now.

Setting it up now.

 

[BFG]

Neat. More pics, pics. Each pic you take equals a 1000 words

I wanna see the widescreen interface and some video of the thing actually working

 

[korsjs]

thanks for the pics. do you think the 942 will ever get the software update to do VOD? i know there where alot of empty promises for the 921. i am curious if the HDMI will work or ever work.

 

[korsjs]

i like how the have that sticker over the words HDMI.

 

[BFG]

dude, the HDMI works now, they just put a more user friendly label on it.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The HDMI works I am using it with the DVI adapter. I believe the reason why they are not calling it HDMI is because the Dish Network 942 port does not pass the digital audio.

I do think we will see the VOD software update for the 942 as it makes Dish Money.

I have already made the Dish 942 crash once. I also found a bug in its setup process.

 

[korsjs]

dude, the HDMI works now, they just put a more user friendly label on it.

you know what, i feel like an idiot. i wasn't thinking HDMI = picture. for some reason my mind was thinking of the firewire on the 921 that never worked.

 

[Neutron]

I have already made the Dish 942 crash once. I also found a bug in its setup process.

Surprise Surprise

 

[korsjs]

Surprise Surprise

you are acting like dish network receivers always have bugs when they are released.

my guess is scott will find at least three more before the end of the night.

 

[vurbano]

Surprise Surprise

O thats funny.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok I have been playing with it some more. And I like it, although it does have some quirks.

But since its an Echostar product I am not surprised.

I am hooked up via DVI using the enclosed HDMI to DVI converter. (Picture 1)

After setting up the unit the first thing I saw was a signal strength screen. I went in and did a Check Switch. This check switch took a long time compaired to my 921, it did 4 of 4 checks as I have a DishPro Plue 44 Switch.

It detected everything ok.

After I exited the check switch screen it took the inital software download. This download only took a few moments not almost an hour like on the 921.

Then after the software download I though my 942 was DOA. On my screen was a message saying "Warning - Your receiver's memory is now being programmed. Do not disturb or unplug your receiver!"

That message stayed up there for about 25 minutes, no moving icons showing it was working, no status bars showing its progress, nothing. I really thought it was fried.

After it updated itself the unit rebooted. A screen came up and wanted me to hit the record button on remote number 2. I did that and progressed to the next step.

A Screen appeared and it told me to hook up a phone line and it was going to run a test. As I was taking photos of this screen I got a quick white flash of the screen, (I think this was a bug) next thing I know I was watching Dish Network channel 101 in glorious 480i. I quickly went into the setup and changed it to 1080i.

After I went through the menus and adjusted my preferences to the way I like I went to the system information screen and called Dish Network to activate it.

After a few moments on hold I was helped by a friendly rep who liked staying to her script even though I was watching TV and had the latest software version she wanted me to go through the entire setup process again including doing the check switch. After about 15 minutes on the phone giving her my signal reading switch configuration etc my 942 was finally activated. At first the clock set itself to the correct time, then channels started turning on in groups, the last group to get activated was the HD tier. After that was done I went to tune to my locals from Dish Network and they were not there yet.

I then went into Dish Home, as I was interested to see how it was on a HDTV, and I wanted to see how fast it was. After about 40 seconds Dish Home loaded in a 4x3 screen I was going through and was not surprised to see most applications like all the good games were not available on the 942. When I went back to the main screen, my 942 froze up. Got a picture of my 942's first crash.

So I had to hold down the power button to reboot the unit, after it rebooted (a lot faster to boot then a 921) it did a check of 5 transponders for satellite signal. After that it did a download of the program guide. The guide download took 5 minutes. While you can cancel out of it there is no reason why it should make you watch it download guide data when you have a Dual Tuner DVR.

I went back in again to Dish Home and noticed a few things I have never seen before, including Dish Communications, which lets you buys ring tones and photos for your cell phone. There was also another one I have not seen before and this was a simple WWE WrestleMania aplet which told you about Sundays show (Wow $50?!)

I went out and looked and all my locals were available now, My wife saw that NCIS was on so she grabbed the remote from me and has been watching TV ever sense. I should note another bug I saw was she went to record the rest of NCIS so she pressed record and setup a time for it for new shows. After she did that the screen showed it was recording (which it was) however also on the screen was Closed Captions. We had to go in and turn ON the closed captions, then turn them off again, now the closed captions were gone.

Here are some more photos.

More I am sure when I really start playing with it, onlike others I have not had this unit for months before time so what I am writing are my honest opinions of the unit as they happen.

 

[bleodler]

How big of a hard drive and how much recording time is the 942 supposed to have? If it's going to have vod wouldn't they have to have put a larger drive in than originally planned? Unless of course they plan on taking away recording space when they release the vod software.

 

[korsjs]

congratulations on your first crash. i see many more in your future.

 

[csschrot]

Scott, We have a 942 set up in the show room and was wondering if you are seeing the samething we are. To be honest I haven't had the time to go through the manual or check out the web. Here is the issues we are having. First we notice the picture is shifted to the left on the screen. (We are using the 34" DISH monitor.) I can't find anything in either menu to center the picture. Also the format is not working.

Are you seeing the same problems?

Thanks
Shawn

 

[BFG]

what do you mean by picture shift? do you mean 4X3 content is not centered?

as for the format modes, it only works on the dish sd channels, HD channels and digital antennas have no format modes

 

[csschrot]

yes in the 4x3 SD modes everything is shifted to the left ( not centered) that is where is noticeable.
With the digital antenna when they are broadcasting a digital siginal (nonHD) it is in 4x3 and on a 16x9 screen you have the side bars so using the format key (* old way or page up for HD side) you could strech, partial zoom, full zoom, gray bars, or back to normal. At least that is how the 811 worked. However on the 942 that feature isn't working and it drives my boss wild when he see the blackbars from the local broadcasting.

 

[korsjs]

i don't know about the 942, but the 6000 had a way of shifting the picture from left to right or right to left.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Mine is centered, however mine has been calibrated.

I am going to move this thread to the Public Area for all to enjoy, in a bit I will post my thoughts (and my wifes) after using the 942 for one night.