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Dish Network DVR-921 HD DVR Reviewed

Posted by timothy on from the more-dots-to-stare-at dept.

cblount writes "The Dish Network DVR-921 is the first home satellite receiver capable of recording and time shifting HDTV signals both from satellite and local Over-The-Air broadcasts. The first comprehensive review has been posted at DBSTalk.Com."

57 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Tivo by drivelikejehu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There was an article in the local paper this morning about the troubles tivo has been having, what with all the cable & dish companies offering PVR's... I wonder how long it'll be til my lifetime tivo service is worthless :(

    1. Re:Tivo by jeffkjo1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But TiVO has teamed up with DirecTV, so I don't know how true that really is.

    2. Re:Tivo by hondo77 · · Score: 3, Informative

      They're teaming up with DirecTV but Comcast, for example, is not teaming up with TiVO. Since they're the largest cable operator in the US, it's a big deal.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    3. Re:Tivo by topham · · Score: 1

      I've had my Series 2 for a year and have NOT expierences any problems with it. (80hr Unit with 80G drive; standard).

      In all my reading of the tivocommunity groups I haven't seen mentioned on an on going problem; although I have not been there for a couple of months.

      Don't put the unit in a closed up tv standad and don't expect to be able tp upgrade the HD without dealing with excess heat.

    4. Re:Tivo by drivelikejehu · · Score: 1

      I wasn't talking about actual technical problems - I've had my series 1 for over 2 years now and have had no problems with it - i can only think of once or twice that it didn't record the program it was supposed to (other than the occasional time the cable company shows something else, but the tivo worked fine.) I've hacked it up quite a bit, with a turbonet card and a second hard drive, and have had no problems with cooling.

      I was referring to all the competition these other services are cropping up, including the do it yourself options with capture cards and the free guide download stuff..

    5. Re:Tivo by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      don't worry, I am sure that if Tivo goes out of business, some one some where will figure out a way to hack the system in order to direct it to a free listing service. hell, maybe Tivo will be nice enough to do so when tehy go under rather than leaving its customer's high and dry.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
  2. Best of show by cdrudge · · Score: 3, Informative

    The DVR-921 won CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Best of Innovations for 2003. Of course, it should have won it for 2004 since that is when they will actually be available.

    1. Re:Best of show by spectecjr · · Score: 2, Informative

      Personally, I'm waiting for the TiVo version, which won Best of Innovations for 2004.

      Pics here

      --
      Coming soon - pyrogyra
    2. Re:Best of show by jwo7777777 · · Score: 1
      ...it should have won it for 2004 since that is when they will actually be available.
      But this way the manufacturer can put "We won this award!" stickers on the boxes. A great boon in the mind of marketers.
    3. Re:Best of show by cdrudge · · Score: 1

      But what would be more impressive...saying you won best innovation last year...or this year? Dish's competition won for 2004 with their HD PVR. Of course it's equally unavailable currently. The earilest it will be available will be summer...if not later.

  3. Oh yeah... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    I so so have been wanting and waiting for this unit...

    (so hoping it has all the features I heard about, including support for DVI)

    =)

    Going to read review now...

    1. Re:Oh yeah... by TGK · · Score: 1

      It does have DVI. It should also be available with the Dish Network "HD In a Box" promo when available. Currently that promo gives you a 34 or 40 inch HD TV with a 811 receiver (HD, no DVR, single tuner) for $999. Not a bad price, the TV is pretty sweet.

      --
      Killfile(TGK)
      No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
  4. Bye-bye, Dish. by Seth+Finklestein · · Score: 1, Informative

    I don't own a television set, so I had to ask one of my close personal friends to write a review of this device. Here it is.

    As you all know, High Definition Television represents a clear and present danger to customers' right to time shift. The so-called "broadcast flag" prevents casual users from exercising their Fair Use rights.

    Nevertheless, I watch a lot of television thanks to my TiVo. TiVo lets me skip the commercials, which makes me a "thief" but lets me enjoy the entertainment I deserve. Let's compare some features.

    Dish Network DVR-921 HD DVR does not have a "Season Pass" option to let you record a whole season's worth of programming.
    TiVo has a Season Pass option.

    Dish Network DVR-921 HD DVR does not offer the ability to play multimedia content streamed from a personal computer.
    TiVo's Home Media Options turns your TiVo into a multimedia access centre!

    Dish Network DVR-921 HD DVR does not run Linux.
    TiVo is an open-source-friendly company.

    Based on my good friend's comments, I rate Dish Network DVR-921 HD DVR a 1 on the Seth Finklestein scale of greatness. Do not buy the Dish Network DVR-921 HD DVR.

    Sincerely,
    Seth Finklestein

    --
    I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
    1. Re:Bye-bye, Dish. by Kagato · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Do a little more research Seth. While Tivo does have better software (i.e. Season Pass), there a lot of things the DirecTV version of Tivo does not have.

      HMO is NOT an option for any DirecTV based Tivo. It says so right in Tivo's FAQ.

      The 921 DOES run on Linux you idiot. In fact the baby brother PVR, the 721 also runs on Linux. Dish network serves the Linux PVR GNU codebase off an internet attached DVR 721. It's even got the lame X Window screen savers and 6 or so GNU games.

      The DVR-921 has "Dishwire" aka, Firewire, which, when enabled, and connected to a JVC DVHS recorder will allow you to archive your time shifted progams.

      The HD Tivo (and in fact all DirecTV HD STBs) has no firewire.

    2. Re:Bye-bye, Dish. by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      Actualy you do deserve the content as it's going through the air to get to you (except for cable and even then it does to the head end) thats part of the commons in the US it should be used for things that are for the advantage of the people not for somebody to get rich off of. We cant use the RF space because we rent it to the companies to provide entertainment news etc at a reasonable cost. Anything OTA the commercial skipping bit is simply stupid. Personaly anything you pay for should have less commercials ala HBO and pay channels in general. Simply embedding could replace commercials that layers the comercial with content good for entertainment horid for news. DirectTV is about 100 a month for me thats a full package and a few receivers how many housholds are paying 50 or more a month and why isnt this enough to pay for the programming. The BBC is exelent for content and they have a similar pay scedual granted no actor makes a million an episode ala friends but there level of content is high and there storylines good (most of the time to each there own though) It's the same with HBO and Showtime why do they have some of the best episodics out there it's all ontent and no making shure the advertisers are happy.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    3. Re:Bye-bye, Dish. by anakin876 · · Score: 1

      an interesting idea. That's true though, what do the american people get for having given up their rights to the airwaves? At the moment it would seem we have the right to have to pay for the programming...and I would much rather pay a certain amount for the programming itself rather than be bombarded by the commercials we have to deal with. Interesting point (as for the the money we pay to dish and whatnot....of course that isn't enough to pay for the programming. Nearly all of it goes to someone already :-P Notice how HBO hasn't become cheaper over the last 20 years even though it's popularity has increased?"

    4. Re:Bye-bye, Dish. by Kagato · · Score: 1

      I believe you. Too bad your link is broken. It's still not a plug and play option any joe six pack user can enable. And DirecTV/Tivo is actively shutting down sites that tell how to add HMO to direcTIVO. Although they do provide API info for sharing media off of linux to the tivo via HMO on the series 2 SA Tivo.

      As far as the link, yes, DISH Network is compliant with GNU. They serve the source off of a 721 they have running web services. It's been covered on slashdot for christ sake. How dense are you????

      DVHS is not VHS, it's DVHS, it's records at better bitrates than over the air HDTV. Besides, it's firewire, meaning it would also archive to any future BlueRay/ DVD-HD writters. Jesus, you're wrong and talking out you're ass, admit it.

    5. Re:Bye-bye, Dish. by wonderdog · · Score: 1

      > there a lot of things the DirecTV version of Tivo does not have

      And even more that Dush lacks

      > HMO is NOT an option for any DirecTV based Tivo

      Nor is it an option for ANY Dish PVR, HD or otherwise.

      > The 921 DOES run on Linux you idiot.

      Ah name calling in all its beauty.

      How's Dish PVR hacking going? Adding HD's and things like that? Ethernet ports? Simply basing your product on Linux doesn't make it golden.

      Dish's PVR's are shit. I just wasted 15 minutes trying to get my Dish PVR to display a list of recorded programs. Finally, I had to reboot it by removing power (warm restarts failed to recover). This happens every coupla weeks, vs my TiVo's 2 yrs of solid service. Oh yeah, this is my 3rd unit from Dish cuz the first 2 died (wouldn't revover from from cold restarts).

      And we're not even addressing the "interface" on Dish junk. I can see, what, 4 channels at once in the guide, comprising maybe 8 programs? Ooooh. And the "browsing?" What a joke. 99% of the time, I can only go forward one program slot. The data caching algorithm sucks like the rest of Dish's interface efforts. I forgave it back in '97 with the 4000, but crikey man, the entire 14 day program should be queued up and ready to go with today's RAM prices and a 60G drive at your disposal. Even in the guide, I still get "info not availble" sometimes. Dish S-U-C-K-S.

      Gotta go... wife's pissed cuz her "While you were out" recording is totally fubar'd. Again.

    6. Re:Bye-bye, Dish. by Kagato · · Score: 1

      Yeah, Dishplayer (Software by Microsoft) was subpar. The 500 series PVR's is pretty much OpenTV on Dish. That is to say other than some look and feel stuff it operates on the same software many cable company STBs/PVRs do. However, judging from your comments you've never used the 721 (which is linux based).

      It's ships with a 120 GB hard drive, has two tuners, Picture in Picture, is actually pretty fast and has a 10+ day guide. And has similar stability to Tivo 1-2 year after introduction.

      Hacking on the 721 has been pretty minimal to be honest. I upgraded my original Philips Tivo because it didn't ship with much Hard Drive space. Since the 721 had a fairly large Hard Drive space from the get go not a lot of people have wanted to crack it open.

      You want Ethernet? Hook it up the USB port. Not that you can do much with it, but you can hook up extra hard drives, net cards, etc. The application that actually runs the box doesn't do anything with them, but the Linux Kernel is compiled with support for most devices. Keyboard support is reconized however, handy for searching the 10+ day guide.

      The "self healing" features of the 721 make major software changes hard. If certain filesystems fail a checksum it redeploys the PVR. It does make hacking hard, but it also makes minor software glitches recoverable. I ended up giving away my SA Tivo because every few months some data on the Hard Drive would garble and unless you'd cracked the case and made a back up you're SOL.

      Is the 721 better than the DirecTivo? No, the name based timmers make it better. Is the DirecTivo HD better than the 921. Wait and see. You need absolutely huge ammounts of Hard Drive space to store HD Content. 20 hours is not enough.

      I could drill a hole in a $2 SVHS tape and use it in a DVHS deck to archive a movie. Five HD movies for $10. Assuming the HD Tivo could take an extra hard drive, that's about $99 for the same five movies.

      My point is the PVRs the thread is acutally talking about are not as bad as you think. The problem is the 721 was never that popular. The major retailers that carried dish (Sears, Sams, Suncoast, etc.) never carried it. The cheap/free 500 series is what got pushed and that's what skews peoples impression of the Dish Network DVR/PVRs.

  5. What about the flag? by jdreed1024 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Well, the article is dead with only 8 comments, so I can't RTFA (not that anyone does), but what I want to know is what about the broadcast flag? Will this still timeshift programs that have the "this is not the program you want to record" flag set?

    IIRC, the flag also tells you how long recorded copies can exist for - will this pay attention to that field? Will I be able to time-shift a show, but only by 60 or 90 minutes?

    --
    There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
    1. Re:What about the flag? by Stigmata669 · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's why you should buy a HDTV pci card now. I have an MIT MyHD MDP-120 which displays and records beautiful full rez HDTV. The drivers are a little sketchy (no linux support :( ) but it has none of these silly broadcast flag limitations.

      --
      Yawn.
    2. Re:What about the flag? by fishbert42 · · Score: 2, Funny

      These are not the programs you're looking for.

      "These are not the programs we're looking for."

    3. Re:What about the flag? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, buy this card. Linux support!! And MythTV is adding support.

    4. Re:What about the flag? by TGK · · Score: 1

      Much as I'd like to blame the evil companies for this one, we can't.

      DVR is the heart and soul of the DBS industry. It's the only weapon they have to fight the higher bandwidth and better security the physical infrastructure cable uses can offer.

      Neither Dish nor Direc wants to knuckle under to the broadcast flag, but it's the law and they can't exactly break it at will.

      We'll see how this plays out, but the new regulations on this are a hammer blow to the integration of the DVR into the standard home theater. The entire satelite industry hinges on that integration.

      Boycotting will only serve to benefit those you oppose.

      --
      Killfile(TGK)
      No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
    5. Re:What about the flag? by espressojim · · Score: 1

      Of course, if you wanted to record HDTV off a satellite or cable TV, you're screwed. From the website FAQ:

      Q. Can I record cable or satellite HD programs?
      A. No. All HDTV card "stores" high-def signals in their raw data form and decodes the signal during playback. Since Cable and Satellite services do not use 8VSB modulation, their signals require dedicated tuners, and once decoded, cannot be routed to the input of the HDTV PC cards.

      D'oh.

    6. Re:What about the flag? by Stigmata669 · · Score: 2, Informative

      That may be true with the linux hd-2000. I don't get any HD channels on my cable, but the MyHD card decodes analog cable, and has no trouble recording from the Comcast digital cable box. If the Direct TV HD box can get digital out of a tuner box, you can probably do it too with a little effort.

      --
      Yawn.
  6. Link to product line by Bram+Stolk · · Score: 4, Informative

    The review site is unreachable, but the
    Dish Network DVR product line is here:
    http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/products /receiv ers/dvr/index.shtml

    --
    Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
    1. Re:Link to product line by Bram+Stolk · · Score: 1

      Sorry, look here.

      --
      Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
  7. Time Warner by NetJunkie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Time Warner will start deploying the Scientific Atlanta HD PVR soon as well. I can't wait. Right now I have a TiVo for normal TV that I can't use when I watch an HD feed. That's really cut in to my TiVo use as I normally use it to rewind and pause sports, which are commonly in HD now.

  8. Sounds great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Can you skip commericials with this model?

  9. The 721 is pretty good by XenonOfArcticus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have the (Linux-based!) 721 dual-stream receiver/PVR. It is pretty good, with the latest software. It has had some flaky bugs, but it's still the best PVR I've ever used.

    I'm sure the 921 will have some quirks too, but if it runs the same core PVR application, it should be pretty good.

    I'm not planning on getting a 921 as I already watch too much TV as it is, and there's not enough HD stuff being broadcast yet to warrant the expensive display I'd need.

    --
    -- There is no truth. There is only Perception. To Percieve is to Exist.
    1. Re:The 721 is pretty good by miniver · · Score: 1

      I got my 721 last week, and while my wife had some doubts about it initially (the cost), at the end of one day's use, we are both convinced that this is definitely the best thing since sliced stupid people on toast.

      --
      We call it art because we have names for the things we understand.
    2. Re:The 721 is pretty good by Kagato · · Score: 1

      I have the 721. It's a good PVR, but the SD DirecTivo is better. Name based timers really make it all work.

      That being said, the 921 will have firewire to archive HD material to DVHS, HD DirecTivo will not. Which pulls dish ahead IMHO.
      ---

      www.hometheaterescapes.com

  10. Re:two comments by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 1

    Um, no. I clicked on the article and told it to load in the background while I commented.
    It was still not loaded by the time I had commented and I'm on a seriously good cable connection that I'm exceptionally pleased with.
    That is provided I'm connecting to the right places.. :)

  11. Unfortunately for Dish by NitroWolf · · Score: 3, Informative

    The 921 is based on the 721 software...

    If any of you have ever used the 721, or really any Dish PVR... you'll know how pathetic and bug ridden dish PVRs.

    One of the biggest issues with the 721 and 921 is the fact that they totally and utterly lack any sort of Name based recording. Every other PVR on the market, Tivo, Replay, UltimateTV, etc... all have name based recording, but Dish saw fit to leave this critical feature off.

    This makes the 721 and 921 nothing more than a glorified VCR. The whole point of a PVR is to make recording easier and to handle the mundane, day to day tasks so you don't have to. Leaving off name based recording makes you search through the guide on a daily basis, hoping to find the programs that you want to record, instead of telling your unit to "Record anything with XXXXX in the title/description"

    I switched to Dishnetwork from my UltimateTV and Tivo boxes, and was never sorrier I took the plunge. I always liked Dish over DTV, due to the superior customer service, but after this fiasco with these jokes of a PVR (which I paid far more than a Tivo with lifetime for) and it's just a VCR with a hard drive, I want to cancle my Dish service just out of spite. Unfortunately, I'm under a contract, and I hate DTV more than I hate Dish, so I'm pretty much stuck with Dish for the time being. As soon as Voom comes out with an HD PVR, I will be signing up for Voom.

    As far as the 921 goes, I suspect it's going to suffer from many of the same bugs as the 721 does. Such as random reboots, crashing to the X desktop (requiring reboot), misfiring timers, timers recording until the HD fills up for no explicable reason, unit not responding to the remote, etc... I could go on and on with the problems on the 721 (and by extension, probably the 921) that are never addressed by the Dish developers... problems I never had with Tivo or UTV. They are very easy to fix some of these problems, but they just won't do it, because it would cut into their profit.

    I never realized how much I relied on my UTV box to "do the right thing" until I got my 721, which was suppose to be superior. Now I come home at night and wonder if my programs will still be on my PVR after some wierd crash... I watch shows when I really don't want to, because I'm afraid that if I don't, I'll lose them. These are things that I never even thought of with my Tivo or UTV box.

    Dish is also charging an outrageous and ridiculous price for the unit... $1000? Come on, you are gouging people because it's the only HD PVR on the market, plain and simple. I guess you gotta charge it while you can.

    The bottom line is, if you've ever used another PVR, you'll hate the 921 (and the 721) because of all the bugs and total lack of features and brain dead UI. If all you've ever had is a VCR, then you'll like the 7 and 921's, because they ARE better than a VCR... but when compared to the PVR competition, the Dish PVRs are an utter and lasting joke... a travesty to the PVR buying public.

    Realisitcally, if Dish would just add NBR, I would be less critical of the other flaws, but since that one glaring deficiency is being refused by dish to impliment, I have no sympathy for the company. NBR is the defining feature of a PVR, and Dish DOES NOT HAVE IT. All they have are glorified VCRs with a misleading lable.

    Dish still has the best pricing plans for satellite service though, so it's a big plus in their favor.

    1. Re:Unfortunately for Dish by Rohan427 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have a Dish 510 and it works great. No name based recording, but it's been 100% reliable, costs under $500 (so I'm told, I received a free upgrade), and does not suffer any of the problems that I've read (in this forum) the 721 does. My only gripe is that all the Dish Networks units use the same frequency and codes for their UHF remotes. We have 2 of three receivers (including the 510) that are UHF capable and they tend to interfere with each other (I'll change the channel in the bedroom and my wife can be heard screaming from the living room!).

      Also, AFAIK, it is not affected by the broadcast flag - I can record what I want, when I want, and keep it for as long as I want. They even included instructions on how to copy recorded programs to a VCR.

      PGA

    2. Re:Unfortunately for Dish by ProtonMotiveForce · · Score: 1

      $500? That's _great_...

      DTivo is under $200, why would anyone go with Dish?

    3. Re:Unfortunately for Dish by Babbster · · Score: 2, Informative
      My only gripe is that all the Dish Networks units use the same frequency and codes for their UHF remotes. We have 2 of three receivers (including the 510) that are UHF capable and they tend to interfere with each other (I'll change the channel in the bedroom and my wife can be heard screaming from the living room!).

      Actually, you can change the UHF frequency used by each receiver. I don't remember the exact number, but there are at least 12 channels available so that conflicts as you describe can be avoided. Check it out in the manual that came with your 510 (or other) receiver (page 21 in the 510 manual, "Changing Remote Address," to be specific) or, if you've misplaced your manual, go here and scan through the PDFs to find the information.

      We had the same problem here when we got the 721 (a device we love) and it only took about five minutes to fix. Good luck!

  12. Older Dish Network DVRR has Faulty Firmware by mesocyclone · · Score: 1

    I have an older Dish Network DVR Receiver (model unknown, it doesn't say on the front and I'm, not going to disrupt my video distribution system to find out) that has the worst firmware I have ever encountered in a consumer device. After replacing it three times, I concluded that it was firmware rather than hardware.

    I can crash it, requiring a power up, just by hitting things too fast on the remote control. Whenever it decides to reload the program guide, it loses the ability to schedule a recording by hitting the "record" button! It has various other malfunctions where unrelated functions break other ones.

    As one who does embedded software, I am ashamed for the profession about this lousy software.

    --

    The only good weather is bad weather.

    1. Re:Older Dish Network DVRR has Faulty Firmware by ShawnD · · Score: 1

      I think I have a rebadged one of these (Bell ExpressVU Model 5100 - I think they are made by EchoStar) and agree the software quality is bad. It has gotten better, but still has a few quirks.

      Mine would have trouble playing back recorded video as if the MPEG was badly corrupted. It took 2 calls to Bell and reseting the smartcard to fix that one.

      Even with that fixed I still sometimes get corrupt screen displays and guide entries.

    2. Re:Older Dish Network DVRR has Faulty Firmware by VGR · · Score: 1

      I have a Dish PVR 510 and I can confirm mesocyclone's story: I can make exactly the same thing happen. Not that I try to.

      There are a few other bugs in the system as well, but not many. In damn near every case, I get perfectly recorded shows.

      Considering the price of the 510, particularly compared to the other models and TiVo, I am quite happy with it. Like a lot of other Dish Network customers, it was free for me. Well, okay, I pay $5 more a month, but I'm pretty sure that's for the enhanced program listing. (A normal Dish receiver only downloads the listings for the next hour or so, unless you specifically request them, in which case you'll have to wait roughly 60 seconds for them to download. With the PVR's program listing, everything for at least the next 7 days is already downloaded at all times.)

      --
      The Internet is full. Go away.
  13. sorry to rain on the parade but.... by The+Lynxpro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    DirecTV will be showing their HD-based TiVo DVR at January's CES. Pictures have already been leaked over the net, but I don't have the exact link. So that rather dampens the newsworthiness of Dish Network's wanna-be TiVo.

    With Rupert Murdoch taking control of DirecTV shortly, expect a price war against both Dish Network AND the cable companies. I believe there was a speculative article linked to Drudge the other day about that.

    I myself am tired of Comcast. Here in Sacramento, they are raising our rates again, with the pathetic excuse for them to recupe their investment in expanding pay-per-view. I don't use PPV and I believe it would've been a wiser investment to offer set-top boxes with TiVo built in. Now if DirecTV would offer a decent broadband service using leased space over the cable lines, that would be the winning choice...

    --
    "Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
    1. Re:sorry to rain on the parade but.... by The+Lynxpro · · Score: 2, Informative


      Here's the link to the DirecTV HD TiVo:

      http://www.cesweb.org/shared_files/innovations/i nn ovations_2004/2787/mainphoto2787.jpg

      --
      "Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
  14. Look out by r_j_prahad · · Score: 3, Funny

    You're violating the DMCA. I'm not exactly sure how you are, but I'm sure you are. If you're sharing DVDs with the bro-in-law, then the MPAA isn't getting every last penny it's entitled to. And the DMCA was written to wring that last drop of blood from your lifeless grey corpse. The MPAA stormtroopers are probably subpeonaing Slashdot right this very moment to discover your identity.

  15. Oh well by AGTiny · · Score: 1

    I'm getting the Motorola DCT-6208 HDPVR in about 2 weeks for $3.95/month. It's not even close to a Tivo and only has 1 tuner, but the cost is next to nothing. I'd probably have to pay $500+ for a DirecTV HD Tivo. I am an ex-D* customer and would still be one if my current house wasn't in such a poor spot to receive local OTA HD channels. What is really needed is for Tivo to make a deal with Motorola to supply PVR software on their boxes, or for cable companies to bypass the horrible Moto boxes in favor of an all-Tivo cable box.

  16. Time Shifting Over-the-Air NON-HDTV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This looks great. I'm not ready to go to HDTV yet, so I was wondering about a cheaper model. Since i'm not in a major local area, so no locals over the dish.

    Are there any Dish DVR which can also record over the air broadcasts other than this one? (Non-HDTV)

  17. Fair use and right to copy by Marco+Polo · · Score: 1

    (a little off topic)
    There is a chance they could try to take away our fare use...

    The argument of timeshifting would have been answered... even if we couldn't extract the video for archiving...

    1. Re:Fair use and right to copy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      They can't take away what you dont have! Read the law! The law states that you can copy for personal use... blah blah blah... it doesn't say that you have to be able to! If they make it so that you can't copy the signal... thats NOT Ilegall. Vote with your paycheck... don't buy stuff with retarted copy protection.

  18. Ooh, nifty. by Omniscient+Ferret · · Score: 1

    It has Firewire & USB connections on it, & it runs a variation of Linux. I think that the broadcast standard is MPEG-2, & that a later variation of this will burn DVDs.

    I want one... It's important to archive The Daily Show for posterity.

  19. Re: HDTV adoption by Ferrule · · Score: 1

    The satellite and cable providers don't have the bandwidth to send much more HD content down.

    They can up-sample any content to HD res, but without the bandwidth to make it look nice it will look horrible.

    What we will have when HD is mandated in 2006 or whenever is a whole bunch of pixellated high resolution channels.

    The whole thing is a complete waste of time before the carriers are ready.

  20. Re:You mean wait for HD-DVD, right? by NetMagi · · Score: 1

    ouch that sucks. . I have like 145 dvd's :( how long till we start seeing the new stuff mainstream?

  21. Dish PVRs Suck by wonderdog · · Score: 4, Informative

    Been a DishNetwork sub for 8 years now, and a Dish PVR user for a little over a year. I also have a TiVo (2 yrs old). There simply is no comparison. Going from the TiVO to Dish's PVR is like going from XP/OSX back to Windows 1.0. The interface is so horrible in comparison. It just plain sucks. AND the damn thing's buggy (I have to cold reboot it once every coupla weeks). AND it does weird things (stops buffering the current show if you play a recorded event, eg). And you can't easily add HD space.

    I was all set to switch to DTV when their HD TiVo combo comes out... Problem is DirectTV may be owned by Rupert soon. Yech! Hate the idea of feeding money to that monster. Support The Evil Empire, or buy (vastly) inferior tech. Arg.

    If only Dish would use TiVo instead of torturing their customers with their horribly inadequate PVR skillz.

  22. Still waiting.... by Duncan3 · · Score: 1

    Still no 1080p... which if i'm gonna blow $5k+++ for a TV and new VCR (try $9,999 for a 720p unit at best buy, yea right), it better support 1080p without any DRM.

    Oh, and it better be under $500 if they expect Joe Public to buy it.

    --
    - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
    1. Re:Still waiting.... by amukhael · · Score: 1

      Umm....1080i?

  23. Total Video Storage on this thing? by perlow · · Score: 1

    While the technical achievement itself is impressive, what has been ignored in this review is the total amount of disk storage that is required to store JUST ONE HOUR of high-def 1080i video uncompressed DTV signal (you got it, uncompressed, they cant mpeg encode on the fly with these things yet, its too processor intensive and the specialized hardware is expensive) is 35 GIGABYTES.

    So in other words, you need basically an ENTIRE STANDARD TIVO's worth of storage allocated for just one hour. So if you want to store any decent amount of programs, youre gonna need 700 gig just to do 20 hours of 1080i programming. Thats 4 200 gig ATA drives if you want 800 gig. Thats a helluva lot of heat to be generated in such a small chassis not to mention a huge expense.

    Whats needed for mass adoption of this technology is terabyte sized hard disks, because having to create a contiguous file system using a RAID of 200 gig drives is rediuclously impractical and expensive to do. Not to mention prone to failure.

    1. Re:Total Video Storage on this thing? by perlow · · Score: 1

      Here are the specs on the unit:

      http://www.vssll.com/pvr921.html

      It uses a 250 gig drive to store up to 25 hours of HDTV. However I beleive this is 25 hours of 720p or 480p, not 1080i.

      The 35 gig per 1 hour of uncompressed 1080i figure I got from somone at SONY who's been working on similar technology.

  24. for Digital Cable by Snover · · Score: 1

    Still looking for one for Digital Cable. Any ideas on THAT?

    --

    [insert witty comment here]