Hopper27
03-29-03, 12:31 AM
Wahoo! Finally, I've got my new 721 up and running...
Err, actually I've had it for almost two weeks now, but I've been wanting this for some time...
Wanted to get some experience with it before posting my thoughts...
Good points:
1. It is superior to the 501 I used to have in *almost* every way
2. The guide is quicker, the menus are cleaner, it shows more info on each page. The fact that it shows the program info in the upper right corner while using the guide is amazing, no more having to press *info* just to see what the details are.
3. The single best feature is of course the dual tuners, I use this just as often as I expected I would, not just by recording two things at once, but by being able to watch live TV while a timer fires in the background.
4. The PIP swaps instantly, far quicker than the PIP on my TV does, nice! The downside, it doesn't buffer both tuners, so I can't skip forward and back between the two tuners. Minor grumble.
Bad points:
1. Bugs, this thing is obviously still buggy and rough around the edges. I realize that E* has limited resources to spend on these things, but 9 months after a fixed product like this comes out, I would have expected more.
2. I have had two outright freezes that required soft reboots, which isn't horrible, but still bad. The 501 had more problems when it was brand new (I got it when it first came out).
3. Audio lag, when using the 10/30 second skip, the audio lags the video. This is a minor nit and I can live with it, but it would be nice to be fixed.
4. The system sometimes simply does not respond to the remote for 5 to 30 seconds, but it is accepting each command, then when it catches up, it runs them all at once. That is annoying, and it happens often enough that I've learned to not fight the system when it is in such a mood.
5. One hard drive is just not enough for this box. Now that I have about 70 hours of stuff recorded (with lots of recorded and deleted stuff), when I have two timers fire at the same time while watching a recorded program, there is often a freeze for two or three seconds, the video skips a bit and takes a bit to catch up. Minor issue because the recorded programs are fine, it seems to be allowing the timers to use system resources and the playback suffers as a result. You can hear the hard drive thrash when this happens, and sometimes the seeks can get pretty wild for a few minutes.
6. With two timers and the improved program guide, a single 120GB drive isn't really enough for all the stuff that gets recorded. I only watch about 1/3 of what is recorded, due to all the daily and weekly timers, so the drive fills quickly. In addition, with the system resource issue, I think a pair of 120GB drives is called for here, allow timers that fire together to put one program on each drive, split the access load and provide 180 hours instead of 90 hours.
Overall, if I had it to do over again, I would buy it for sure. The issues are minor nits, not showstoppers. This is cutting edge technology and I know it. TV simply isn't the same with PVR, and having dual tuners does make a lot of difference, even more so than two stand alone 501 boxes would. The ease of use, improved guide, improved PVR screen, all make for a winner.
Those who warn about the setup are right. It took at least 20 minutes to download the software when I set it up, and the unit didn't really work completely for the first 12 to 24 hours. Not even all the channels were there, and some that were, were in red and blocked. I called Dish and the lady there said to just give it time, the box has to do a bunch of downloading the first day.
She was telling the truth, the channels were all there within a few hours and all the red channels were properly viewable by the next morning.
If you've got $500 laying around, place your order with Dish Depot, this thing is great. If you're new to Dish, you can get it for $330 as a new subscriber.
Now I'm just waiting for v1.10 of the software for a few bug fixes, the improved triple timer conflit screen, and most of all, THE SKIP TIMER ONCE feature!!! :D
Jason
Err, actually I've had it for almost two weeks now, but I've been wanting this for some time...
Wanted to get some experience with it before posting my thoughts...
Good points:
1. It is superior to the 501 I used to have in *almost* every way
2. The guide is quicker, the menus are cleaner, it shows more info on each page. The fact that it shows the program info in the upper right corner while using the guide is amazing, no more having to press *info* just to see what the details are.
3. The single best feature is of course the dual tuners, I use this just as often as I expected I would, not just by recording two things at once, but by being able to watch live TV while a timer fires in the background.
4. The PIP swaps instantly, far quicker than the PIP on my TV does, nice! The downside, it doesn't buffer both tuners, so I can't skip forward and back between the two tuners. Minor grumble.
Bad points:
1. Bugs, this thing is obviously still buggy and rough around the edges. I realize that E* has limited resources to spend on these things, but 9 months after a fixed product like this comes out, I would have expected more.
2. I have had two outright freezes that required soft reboots, which isn't horrible, but still bad. The 501 had more problems when it was brand new (I got it when it first came out).
3. Audio lag, when using the 10/30 second skip, the audio lags the video. This is a minor nit and I can live with it, but it would be nice to be fixed.
4. The system sometimes simply does not respond to the remote for 5 to 30 seconds, but it is accepting each command, then when it catches up, it runs them all at once. That is annoying, and it happens often enough that I've learned to not fight the system when it is in such a mood.
5. One hard drive is just not enough for this box. Now that I have about 70 hours of stuff recorded (with lots of recorded and deleted stuff), when I have two timers fire at the same time while watching a recorded program, there is often a freeze for two or three seconds, the video skips a bit and takes a bit to catch up. Minor issue because the recorded programs are fine, it seems to be allowing the timers to use system resources and the playback suffers as a result. You can hear the hard drive thrash when this happens, and sometimes the seeks can get pretty wild for a few minutes.
6. With two timers and the improved program guide, a single 120GB drive isn't really enough for all the stuff that gets recorded. I only watch about 1/3 of what is recorded, due to all the daily and weekly timers, so the drive fills quickly. In addition, with the system resource issue, I think a pair of 120GB drives is called for here, allow timers that fire together to put one program on each drive, split the access load and provide 180 hours instead of 90 hours.
Overall, if I had it to do over again, I would buy it for sure. The issues are minor nits, not showstoppers. This is cutting edge technology and I know it. TV simply isn't the same with PVR, and having dual tuners does make a lot of difference, even more so than two stand alone 501 boxes would. The ease of use, improved guide, improved PVR screen, all make for a winner.
Those who warn about the setup are right. It took at least 20 minutes to download the software when I set it up, and the unit didn't really work completely for the first 12 to 24 hours. Not even all the channels were there, and some that were, were in red and blocked. I called Dish and the lady there said to just give it time, the box has to do a bunch of downloading the first day.
She was telling the truth, the channels were all there within a few hours and all the red channels were properly viewable by the next morning.
If you've got $500 laying around, place your order with Dish Depot, this thing is great. If you're new to Dish, you can get it for $330 as a new subscriber.
Now I'm just waiting for v1.10 of the software for a few bug fixes, the improved triple timer conflit screen, and most of all, THE SKIP TIMER ONCE feature!!! :D
Jason