Dead 721 vs DishPlayer & new 721

[LV2HACK]

My 721 died after several months of faithful service. One of the tuners died, could not see any signal nor the switch. Must have been the Connexant QPSK downstream device :D

While waiting for a new one to arrive, I dusted off the old DishPlayer and plugged it in. Discovered some interesting things.

DishPlayer is MUCH quieter. No fan, and it turns the HD off at night or when the unit is 'off'. It even turns the HD off when its done downloading the guide and done recording. Very nice feature.

DishPlayer picture quality seemed better than that of the 721. Could be the 721's QPSK device making too many errors for the rest of the system to compensate? :shrug:

Just go the replacement 721. Noticed that it has two new connector openings behind the unit. One for home networking and another for ethernet. They are both covered with color matching tape. Future rev?

I will be one pissed customer if there is no upgrade path. :bang

[Jacob S]

I figure someone that knows more about computer programming and the such could figure out some kind of software to go and allow it to activate such functions.

[jcrash]

ethernet!?? damx, I want that one. Wanna trade? ;)

[Scott Greczkowski]

I received a 721 that also has the Ethernet and Home Networking ports on the back (which are taped over)

From what I know (and this may not be 100% accurate) the chassis that you and I have was made for non Echostar units. The design of these units was changed but these chassis were already made so instead of Junking them Echostar used them on the 721 model.

I don't think there is more to the story then that. I know that when Internet access is available on the 721 it will be via a USB ethernet card.

[Jacob S]

Mine also has these taped over. I think they may have done so for future use but did not want people questioning about them. It reminds me of when they taped over the box about the internet feature.

[Scott Greczkowski]

There are ZERO plans to use them in the future. If you rip the tape off you will see nothing is there.

Again the Chassis was built for something else and since that project has been scrapped they decided to use them for 721's since there were the same size.

[Jacob S]

I wonder if the cost would have been more with those features, or if Dish was just trying to save money? I never have seen a Dish receiver have a home control feature like the DirecTv receivers do, a seperate phone line for it.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Jacob, I don't know the answer for sure, it could be a cost cutting measure however I am more inclined to believe that there is some kind of patent issue that keeps them for doing it.

I know there is lots of things they would love to do with their products but because of Patents they are unable too or it take a long time to make agreements with the patent holders.

I don't know if you remember a few years ago Dish had Caller ID on some of their receivers, the Patent holder of On Screen Caller ID sued Echostar, it took a long time to come to an agreement with the patent holder, however once they got all sorted out On Screen Caller ID was made available to many more Dish Network receivers.

Chances are if there is something that people have wanted added to a Echostar product the folks at Echostar have already thought about it but because of these types of issues the features have not been added the the products.

[MrAkai]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Chassis was built for something else and since that project has been scrapped they decided to use them for 721's since there were the same size.

Moxi perhaps? ;-) multituner PVR with ethernet and home PNA... run linux... sounds somewhat 721 compatable :)

[Jacob S]

Or maybe Dish cannot add it but the end users can, but I do not know how hard it would be to add. They should at least make places in which you can connect these devices, expansion slots just like computers. Does the 721 have slots where they were going to have those two extra features that they have taped off? If so maybe they could be added by end users just as the hard drive is upgraded by users.