New Dish Receivers Coming Soon?

[Scott Greczkowski]

I was looking over a document from Dish I was sent this morning, in it, it was talking about Dish Networks Upcoming "Team Summit" which is confrence of independent satellite retailers.

There was a listing of Seminars available at the Team Summit and these two caught my eye.

Two Tuners Part 1 – The Installation Experience: Take advantage of the new Dish322 and DishPVR 522 two-tuner independent viewing technology. Discussion items will include the Agile UHF modulator set-up and home distribution systems.


Two Tuners Part 2 – The Customer Experience: Want to watch something else on another TV and you only have 1 receiver? No problem! The new Dish322 and DishPVR 522 offer great advantages for customers. You’ll learn about the single vs. dual tuner viewing experience, the two remotes – including the new UHF Pro remote – and how to provide a positive customer experience.

So it appears that we will be seeing the 322 and 522 soon. Exciting stuff. :)

[RAD]

Sorry, not excited. Where's the new HDTV receivers, I've put up with the 6000 long enough!

[JohnH]

Discussion items will include the Agile UHF modulator set-up and home distribution systems.

This is a nice feature. Would be interested in the specs.

[Martyva]

The rumor is---JVC TU9000 2nd quarter, Dish 921 3rd quarter, Dish 211 not sure maybe soon.

[Bob Haller]

522 really soon. I may buy one and sell my 721

dont need or want games or internet access

[Randy_B]

I think this is a significant hurdle for breaking into the larger portion of the cable consumers that are reluctant to switch over. This is the group that wants to watch different programs on different TVs without a box for each TV.

[dlsnyder]

Just think - if the 522 costs about $300 and has no mirror fee to use the "whole house" option it will pay for itself in about 5 years of saving the $4.99 mirror fee! :D

[boba]

Scott you have been around long enough to know DISH dreams for a year then introduces a software deficient product then maybe gets a working product. At last years TEAM SUMMIT the 322 & 522 were introduced to the dealers the output on a modulated UHF channel is nothing more than taking 2 301's and running one out on CH3/4 then running the other into a UHF modulator. The big difference would be only charging as one receiver. If your rumor thread about doing away with the duplication fees has any credence that won't mean anything any ways.

[Bob Haller]

Well a PROPERLY DESIGNED box acting as a whole house server would speed installs and be a great box.

Someone posted the 522 has one UHF remote and one IR remote. If thats true its a dumb design. 2 UHF remotes would be muvch better...

[Jacob S]

Well if they have an IR remote and a UHF remote then they are just being plainly cheap. It probably dont hardly cost them anything extra to have a UHF made vs. an IR remote. Does it make sense to include a UHF remote with a one tuner 501/508 yet only include an extra IR remote? That almost defeats the purpose.

Also when they two remotes instead of one with the 508 when they first came out as a promotion was it an extra UHF remote or an IR remote?

Also I see that there was a mention of a new UHF Pro Remote. I wonder what the difference in this remote will be vs. the current UHF remote that we now have? If they are changing the UHF remote to a Pro series then would they be changing the IR remotes to Pro's in the future as well? We have had the same design remote for a good while now, even in the last box design.

[John Corn]

This is definately in my future, I plan on getting the 522 to replace my 501.

[Chris Freeland]

The 522 may be in my future as well to replace my very old 2000, depending of course on how much it retails for? Having one UHF remote and one IR remote is no big deal to me, I would simply use the IR remote in the main room only and the UHF in my bedroom. Unless one is going to place a 322 or 522 in an equipment closet away from all tv's that are connected to 322 or 522, having one UHF remote and 1 ir remote should be sufficient for most people. I also like the idea of the 2nd tuner having a built in UHF modulator in addition to the 1st tuners standard channel 3/4 modulator, this would allow easy connection to 3 tv's, channel 3 or 4 output to one remote tv, a UHF channel output to a 2nd remote tv and A/V and S-Video out to main tv, nice feature.

[Bob Haller]

Pro remote allows control of 2 E reeivers with ONE remote. This will be great!

[ScottC]

Any word on MTS stereo modulation?

[Lyle_JP]

I know of no cable or sattelite box that has ever had an MTS stereo encoder built-in for use with a stereo TV. With nearly 100% of televisions made today having RCA stereo inputs, I see no reason to ever build one.

[Eyedox]

I assume the 322 will NOT be PVR though ... just satellite receivers (2 tuner). Maybe the 522 is like the 501/508 PVR and the 322 is like the 301 ... both just two-tuner versions. Or am I wrong?

[scooper]

considering that the CHEAPEST stereo modulator I've seen costs about $250, don't expect stereo ever. RCA will have to be good enough.

[dlsnyder]

Originally posted by Lyle_JP
I know of no cable or sattelite box that has ever had an MTS stereo encoder built-in for use with a stereo TV. With nearly 100% of televisions made today having RCA stereo inputs, I see no reason to ever build one.

The advantage would be in a whole house system as these new units claim to be. If you had a UHF stereo modulator built into the unit it would provide the best sound possible to the remote TV that was connected to it via RF. This solution would make sense for me and I suspect for many others too.

I recently saw a frequency agile stereo UHF modulator at Fry's in City of Industry, CA for well under $100. I probably should have bought it!

[Mark Holtz]

This was about 10-12 years ago, mind you, and I saw some C-band receivers that included MTS encoders.

I also believe that there are RF modulators that will convert the L/R/Composite video into MTS Stereo, but the cost was around $250. At that cost, you can buy a new television, but it might be useful if you had to send a signal to multiple locations.

[scooper]

Yes and ChannelPlus makes a box that will convert most mono modulators to Stereo - $150 or so, + your mono modulator.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Randy_B
I think this is a significant hurdle for breaking into the larger portion of the cable consumers that are reluctant to switch over. This is the group that wants to watch different programs on different TVs without a box for each TV.

I actually prefer a cable box/satellite receiver as it allows me to send video to the TV and audio to a separate audio system.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Lyle_JP
I know of no cable or sattelite box that has ever had an MTS stereo encoder built-in for use with a stereo TV. With nearly 100% of televisions made today having RCA stereo inputs, I see no reason to ever build one.

The reason they don't have MTS stereo modulators is because of the high cost of licensing DBX noise reduction technology, which is part of the MTS standard. There are a few, like Channel Plus that make stereo modulators, but these are more specialty items than standard fare. Manufacturers find it much more practical to build A/V jacks into TV's than build other equipment with stereo modulators.

You also lose some degree of channel separation and frequency response when you broadcast two signals as a MTS stereo signal.

[Marcus S]

Radio Shack actuall made a MTS RF modulator that sold for $49 at one time as well as Recoton, and Emerson, they all dropped it and only offer the $29.95 RF modulator less MTS a boon to Channel Plus which immediatly raised their price to $125 for their most basic modulator. Interestingly I went searching for MTS chips, minimum order is 500+ per order.

[DoyleS]

Do you think with these new receivers they will add enough memory so that the guide can handle more than 2 hours without having to go into nowhere land?

..Doyle

[Lyle_JP]

Yesterday I was at Best Buy and decided, out of curiosity, to peruse the hardware offering available for D*. I must say, if I were making the decision today, I would go with D* all the way just based on receiver selection alone.

They had a Samsung unit there which featured Component Video and Dolby Digital out for only $129! Now, in order to get Dolby Digital on E*, you have no choice but to shell out for an expensive PVR unit, and component video can only be found on their (very) legacy HDTV unit. E* offers no non-PVR unit for the Home Theater crowd.

Come on E*, how about giving us a 401 in the < $150 price range? Just build a 301 with Dolby Digital and component video outputs! It can't be that hard and would really fill a gap in the receiver product line.

[Steve Mehs]

Yes, I saw the S75 at Best Buy too. I knew it had component and DD from reports on AVS, but I was shocked at how low the price was.

[gnbarr]

Any news, facts, or outright rumours regarding the availability of the Dish 211? The best so far is ... soon!

Sigh.

[Steve Mehs]

Nope nothing has been said about the 211. I don't think the 211 was ever acknowledged on a Charlie or Tech Chat.