Thinking of Switching to Dish

[phenixdragon]

Today I was tiinking of switching to Dish and getting the VIP 922. I currently and running Media Center with CableCARD and love it but there are some things zi like about Dish, such as beinng Sling loaded.

So a question I have about the VIP 922 is this. With Media Center, if I have multiple shows on at the same time that are to be recorded but there aren't enough tuners, will Dish automatically record the shows that couldn't be recorded due to a conflict at a later time? Media Center does this while Tivo does not. TiVo wont auto record a missing recording due to a conflict at a later time. Really bugged the heck out of me only having 2 tuners when sometimes I had 3 or more shows on at the same time. Media Center, no problem. It will pick up a recording at a later time.


Also, is there a way to steamed ripped dvds from your home computer to the VIP 922?
I have al my DVDs stored on a home server and I can of course stream them to Media Center. Works great, has my collection, album art, movie details, sometimes trailers, etc....

Thanks!

 

[/dev/null]

So a question I have about the VIP 922 is this. With Media Center, if I have multiple shows on at the same time that are to be recorded but there aren't enough tuners, will Dish automatically record the shows that couldn't be recorded due to a conflict at a later time?

Yes, but only if it is scheduled to be aired again.

Also, is there a way to steamed ripped dvds from your home computer to the VIP 922? I have al my DVDs stored on a home server and I can of course stream them to Media Center. Works great, has my collection, album art, movie details, sometimes trailers, etc....

Probably not... why not just make your life even easier (and more flexible) and ditch Windows Media Center altogether? Replace it with XBMC on a dedicated HTPC (such as an Acer Aspire Revo) and you'll probably be way happier...

 

[breser]

Also, is there a way to steamed ripped dvds from your home computer to the VIP 922?
I have al my DVDs stored on a home server and I can of course stream them to Media Center. Works great, has my collection, album art, movie details, sometimes trailers, etc....

The 922 has DLNA support but the video support isn't in yet. Right now you can view pictures and listen to music. Video is supposedly coming. So in the future I'd imagine the answer would be yes, as long as they are in a format that the 922 will play and the computer is running a DLNA media server.

 

[phenixdragon]

Yes, but only if it is scheduled to be aired again.



Probably not... why not just make your life even easier (and more flexible) and ditch Windows Media Center altogether? Replace it with XBMC on a dedicated HTPC (such as an Acer Aspire Revo) and you'll probably be way happier...

In your opinion XBMC is better, I have used it before and I think it is crap.

 

[phenixdragon]

Thanks for the replies. I may check out Dish network. Works case is I can keep my Media Center or use my 360 to watch my movies through. We will see though. But i did look at my bill with Comcast and for what I am paying now I wouldn't be saving anything going to dish, but I may still at least give them a try. I do like the fact Sling is built it which I would use a lot while at work. Would be cool to see Dish open up to streaming video or allowing others to create apps for their box since you say it supports DLNA.

 

[Goattee]

Today I was tiinking of switching to Dish and getting the VIP 922.

My advice is that the VIP922 is a very promising DVR but it would not be wise to switch to a completely new account and to the VIP922 right now. The product seems to be unfinished and rather unstable.

You might want to keep checking back here after there have been two or three more software updates to see whether things have improved.

 

[phenixdragon]

Hm...what type of issues are being seen? I tried searching for some reviews but it appears there isn't many reviews out there right now.

 

[Goattee]

• Unstable DHCP connections to ethernet
• Problems using the external hard drive to restore old shows (that won't affect you as a new customer)
• Inability to export shows to external hard drive at the current time (they say a future software release will solve that)
• Sluggish response on web: "Dish Remote Access".

These are the ones I have already discovered. Also if you are planning on exploiting the Sling technology-- it currently only works with the web plugin (and only on some browsers) and on some mobile players for supported phones.

It does not seem to work with Slingcatchers or modern PC/Mac Slingplayer software.

Frankly those are the ones I have personally discovered in less than 24 hours since installation. Having owned and operated several DVR's and both satellite companies, I can tell you that this product is very promising. But it really shows LOTS of rough edges. I would say that this company has a history of rushing things out the door and then assuming they will fix the issues later.

They own Sling Media and the Slingcatcher still has bugs that beg for fixing.

On the other hand the VIP722 is mature now and relatively reliable-- as long as the internal hard drive is good. The only other matter with the 722 and 922: if you plan on getting the tuner for OTA (over the air) digital channels, make sure you have strong, excellent signal strength. Anything less and all the other DVR functionality becomes flakey. I had to turn off all OTA channels to stabilize. Once I did that it was a decent DVR.

 

[phenixdragon]

Curious. If you do do OTA, does that also add to the tuner pool? Where I live OTA signal isn't a problem.

I am probably going to see about switching in a couple of months but maybe sooner. I don't mind products rushed out as long as fixes come pretty quickly. But right now I am still deciding and like I said, I'm not really saying going from Comcast to Dish since I am already discounted with Comcast.

 

[Goattee]

Good luck. I would wait longer than two months.

 

[myron243]

Curious. If you do do OTA, does that also add to the tuner pool? Where I live OTA signal isn't a problem.

Yes. The OTA module, which is not included (but mine was) adds 2 OTA tuners for a total of 4. 2 each sat and OTA.

And out of curiosity since I don't use a HTPC of any sort, why would you use the 922 for your ripped DVDs?

Got my 922 Saturday and I'm very happy with it. It was an addition to my DVR collection

 

[phenixdragon]

Yes. The OTA module, which is not included (but mine was) adds 2 OTA tuners for a total of 4. 2 each sat and OTA.

And out of curiosity since I don't use a HTPC of any sort, why would you use the 922 for your ripped DVDs?

Got my 922 Saturday and I'm very happy with it. It was an addition to my DVR collection

Very cool then.

The reason to use the 922 to watch my DVDs is because I then could just part out my HTPC and clear up space. All my media is on my Windows Home Server and not directly on the HTPC. But I could just use my 360 to view my movies. I do lose the cover art, movie details, trailers, etc...but it will work.

 

[/dev/null]

In your opinion XBMC is better, I have used it before and I think it is crap.

True (just like in my opinion WMC is crap). When was the last time you used XBMC? And granted, it still has some issues (but not many any longer).

 

[phenixdragon]

Last time was a few months ago. I just don't have a need for all of what it is. Media Center is just simple and basic. Plus either way. each still still requires a HTPC and I am looking to eliminate that.

 

[/dev/null]

Last time was a few months ago. I just don't have a need for all of what it is. Media Center is just simple and basic. Plus either way. each still still requires a HTPC and I am looking to eliminate that.

I prefer XBMC simply because of it's advanced features... fortunately my wife finds it easy to use as well. I wouldn't mind eliminating an HTPC but one of my requirements is to be able to stream my DVD ISO rips stored on my server (a 360 can't do that). I doubt the 922 would too.

 

[phenixdragon]

Well I have my DVDs ripped to .dvr-ms files which work great for MC but may not work on other setups. However, it's not hard to convert them to MPEG2 again and there is no quality lose since .dvr-ms is MPEG2. Just changing the container.

 

[/dev/null]

I didn't know that MS had their own DVD rip container format (not surprised however). For me, I rather stick with industry standard formats. Nevertheless, even with MS' container no transcoding is a good thing (storage is dirt cheap so I really don't care about running out of room on a disk; plus, it's way easier with logical volume management). Thanks, I just learned something

 

[scdown]

Had mine installed yesterday. Initial observations:


Installation

1. Installer was on time, friendly, professional
2. Watched the installation. He took good care of my roof, did a good job installing and grounding the dish (I know the grounding part sounds trivial, but DirectTV didn't ground mine 4 years ago, and I booted them for it - if anyone's gonna create a fire hazard it's ME)
3. This was the installer's first 922, so he had to make a couple of quick calls to cover differences in the installation. He wondered why there was only one remote. I looked it up and told him I think this was how they're handling this box

Picture

1. Seems *slightly* better than Comcast - just a bit sharper, and it just seems like I get better black leve with it. On Comcast, I'd get weird dithering in really dark scenes
2. No drop-outs, blocking, pixelation - and yesterday was a really (65 mph gust) windy day in Denver (I was actually worried about the installer getting blown off the ladder while holding onto the dish)

922

1. Took overnight for Sling downloads, search indexing. All features are now working.
2. Sling works - the web interface, as you'll read elsewhere, is usable but not, IMHO, completely there yet in terms of stability/performance. Good news is, I'm sure it will be
3. My wife was really apprehensive about leaving TiVo - and I get that, because I really liked the TiVo interface too. This is better, in many, but not all ways.

Thus far, I'm optimistic - no major problems yet.