Is Dishplayer performance actually getting worse

[rbaer]

I've had my dishplayer for many years (whatever the first year the 7100 came out). Until the past year, I had very few complaints with it. When it first started to drop the sound during playback of a recorded event or after rewinding a show I am watching, it initially just happened infrequently. Simply rewinding or fastforwarding to another location quickly restored the sound. Now the sound drops every single time that a live or recorded event is rewound or put on fast forward. It is no longer as simple to fix either. I spend more time trying to restore the sound, then I do watching the programs. Similarly, this fall was the first time that scheduled events didn't record. Has anyone discovered any solutions yet, or is it time to just write off the Dishplayer as obsolete and move on to the latest and greatest E or Direct product. I was really hoping the 7100 would hold out until the 921 was released. I can understand that Dish has been moving away from the Dishplayer, but it is really quite shocking the extent to which the performance of the Dishplayer has slid in only the past 6 months. IT is no longer just quirky, but now nearly useless.

[buzzdalf]

I would disagree somewhat with you.
I, too, have had my DP since the beginning (adding 2 since). Mine are all close to the most stable they've ever been. If it weren't for these annoying audio issues and the html issues, I'd be A OK.
I actually have programs still on the hard drive that were recorded in October. In the old days I would have never attempted to leave something on that long because after a few weeks it would blow away the hard drive.
It seems that the major bugs are better, and now I'm down to annoyances.
Realistically though, I think it's time to write this dude off. Especially if DISH is expecting us all to start paying $9.95/month this June (which I do not plan on doing).

[Bill R]

I think it is "the luck of the draw". I had two DishPlayers and both of them were (are) troublesome. The biggest problems that I had were missed (or incorrect) recordings and failure to be able to tune to my local channel (this started when DISH moved my locals to a spot beam and I have spend HOURS on the phone with advanced tech support trying to get that problem solved). I recently replaced one of them (the one that seemed to have the most problems) with a 721. It has never missed a recording or had a problem tuning to any of my local channels. My remaining DishPlayer still has the "locals problem". I just tried to tune to a local channel to watch the 4 PM news but the DishPlayer says it is on that channel (banner displays for that channel) but shows sound and picture from a different channel.

DISH hopes that the new CLIENT software that will be spooled next month will fix my locals problem. If it doesn't, as Buzz said "it's time to write this dude off". The new CLIENT software is going to change the DishPlayer to the 9 day EPG that the 501, 508, and 721s use and it also is suppose to have some bug fixes including the HTML in the listings and the sound problem.

As for the $9.99 PTV fee I think DISH is going to lose quite a few DishPlayer customers if they start charging it in June. I know that they are talking with Microsoft (who, as I understand it, gets most of the fee) and maybe they will work out a deal.