Dish Player Advice sought

[Cyclone]

Hey there.

A friend of mine has a Dish Player (not sure if its a 7100 or a 7200) that he doesn't use any more. He never used it as a PVR and I suspect he never paid a PTV fee. Well I asked if I could have it, he said sure. So now I have a few questions since I am unfamiliar with this fine unit.


1. Is this worth it? I've heard some good things about the DP. What is the consensus.

2. How much? I think that there is a $9/mo fee for the DP.

3. Do I need to subscribe to WebTV to use the PVR functions?

4. Is the remote UHF and IR?

Thanks,

Cyclone

[boba]

Personally I would say the best value for the Dishplayer is sell it on EBAY then buy a PVR-508 they should be a wash cost wise. As I sell more and more DISH equipment I have more questions about their engineering ability. The 508 is relatively stable and workable but way behind TIVO.

[TNGTony]

I wouldn't trade my Dishplayer for a 508. Feature-wise the Dishplayer is more attractive to me that the 508. ...especially if you have PTV. No you do not have to subcribe to WebTV to get PTV and the remote is IR.

As far as stabillity, the last two or three software versions have been rock steady. The only thing that you MUST have with a Dishplayer now is a view of the 110° location. The dishplayer gets its program guide information ONLY from transponder 29 at 110°. If it can't see that, you have a door-stop when it comes to the PTV features. The 508 does not have that limitation.

See ya
Tony

[Cyclone]

I have a 6000, so I see 110, 119, & 61.5. So I'm sure I'm safe on the EPG.

My next question would have to be; What exactly do I get by suscribing to PTV? Is it just the ability to record?

[boba]

Tony how much does it cost you to use PTV on the Dishplayer? How much on the 508?

[TNGTony]

Boba...*I* pay nothing for the PTV service since I bought the Dishplayer during the "lifetime...oops we meant 3 year...well...maybe 3½ year...well, we'll let you know when it ends" special in 2000. The 508's record features are part of the package...no extra charge. (I won't say "free" because if you don't subscribe to SOMEthing on Dish, you get NOTHING. :))

Cyclone,

The PTV is the record feature and long pause feature. Without the PTV service you can pause programs for (I think) 10 minutes and you can record all the programs the hard drive will take, but you can only watch the first 5 minutes of them when you play back.

See ya
Tony

[Geronimo]

I don't think you can record without paying for PVR. I never could. And it is the first 10 minutes that are viewable.

[Jacob S]

You have the pause functionality without being able to skip ahead or skip back at will, only to go to live again, so basically its just pause (and restart from where you started from) and live that you get when you do not order the pvr service. It is $9.99 per month but maybe there is a $99 service where you can get it for a longer term, but I do not know the details about it.

The benefits of the dishplayer is that there are a lot less hardware issues with this receiver, and you can upgrade your hard drive as well. Also you can get webtv with this receiver. I believe MSN has a deal where you get MSN internet and webtv (actually its called MSN tv now) for one price. You can also pause a show without the 2 hour limit. The bad news is that the 7100 can only store 5 hours and the 7200 can only store 10 hours, but the hard drive can always be upgraded.

You are better off just selling the dishplayer and use that money to buy a new 508 where you get 60 hours of recording without having to pay for the pvr service (saves $10 a month) in which would save you a lot of money in the long run, enough to buy another new pvr every 3 or 4 years when the technology changes or to buy more programming. Also you get all that extra storage and IR/UHF remote in which is adaptable with the other Dish receivers unlike the dishplayer remotes.

[Cyclone]

Great info. I'm geek enough to swap out the hard-drive. But there are superior arguments for the 508. I already have an MSN account, but rarely us it. I wonder about if could use it for DP net access? hmm.

[TNGTony]

My 7200 with the original hard drive has had as much as 15 hours of programming on it.

See ya
Tony

[Geronimo]

I was told by DISH that the whole $99 dollar deal was a mistake. I cannot say anymore than that.

[Jacob S]

They were saying lifetime PTV service for $99 and later realized they made a mistake and changed it to $99 for a period of time like a number of years until a certain date. For little or nothing more you can get the internet access on the dishplayer if you have MSN internet access.

[Geronimo]

I mean that the recent application of the $99 fee was a mistake. I thought tthat was what you were referring to above Jacob. i must have misinterpreted your comments.

[Jacob S]

What I was meaning is that they are charging people $99 again therefore it seems like there is another option other than the $9.99 fee, but I do not know how many months worth of PTV the customer gets for $99. People's bills are being charged this automatically.

[Geronimo]

Again I have been told that the charge is a mistake. Out of curioisty has anyone actually apid it and if so waht are they getting? Perhaps I am mistaken about all this.

[Nick]

I still love and appreciate my 2 DPs as much as I did when I first got them 3 years ago. 20-25 hrs of recording time - I don't archive, I watch it and dump it. I won't upgrade until the 921 is available. Never paid a PTV fee yet. Hope I never do. (Knock on plastic!)

[Lee L]

Geronimo, I have also been told it was a mistake to charge the $99 fee. From what I've heard and read on the net, I believe that E* is supposed to come to a determination on what to do regarding DP fees by December. In the last couple of days, after reading that the latest WebTv beta SW for the DP has the games and the channel 201 stuff removed I have further developed an opinion that E* will make PTV free for everyone at some point soon. First, they stopped using MS's guide, then the ITV features, what else is there that binds MS to continue to spend money on the DP after that?

[Jacob S]

I thought you meant the initial $99 charge they had about 3 years ago for the lifetime PTV service and not this recent one. Thats where the confustion came from. Sorry about that.

[Nick]

Just received my July 'Dish' bill - no PTV chargeyet. This month completes (ends?) my 3-year "free PTV" period. Now, if I can just get the city to stop charging $14.50 a month for trash pick-up, a service I do not use.

[Geronimo]

They did say that those who had feree PTV will continue to have it until December (at least). When this happened I inquired about why the rest of us do not have free PTV. I was offered free PTV through December but they declined to answer the question about why it was not offered to everyone.

I am curious as to whether anyone actually PAID the $99 thia time. I wonder if those who did will see a refund or whether they will indeed get PTV for 36 months regardless of the December decision.

Anyway you look at it this was PR bluner.


As to what else belongs to MS I always thought that the Web Player OS was theirs but I am not sure how all that works. I will not miss channel 201----I hardly used it.

[Jacob S]

Maybe they were just seeing who would pay it.

[dfree617]

Maybe they were just seeing who would pay it.

Well, I wound up with it on my bill. When I called Dish to get the charge removed, they refused to do so unless I dropped the PTV service. So I did, but they wound up charging my autopay the $99 anyway even though I dropped my bill. When I tried to get them to put a $99 credit on my credit card, they initially refused, saying that they would take it off of next month's bill instead. I had to go to a supervisor just to get the credit.

Now I am eagerly awaiting the 522.

[Jacob S]

Sounds like Dish alright. They seem to work with some customers without a problem while giving other customers a big problem for their own mistake or without advanced warning of a charge. Was there any statement saying that you accepted the charge automatically after taking their so called 'lifetime' PTV service or was this not mentioned of there being a charge at the end of the service?

Obviously something is not right if they are giving other people credit and not you credit. That just proves my point right there that they are trying to get whatever money they can get. No wonder why my customers get so mad with Dish and that I lose them as customers as a result. Things like this. Then Dish tries to penalize me in return. I tell my customers just to call me if they have an issue and I try to take care of them for them because I know Dish is going to tell the customer a load of bull at times and just cause me more trouble and take it all out on me. Its hard telling the customer something after Dish told them something and having to go against what they said. Makes me look real bad.

Another one of those so called black eyes. Perhaps you can get them to send you a 508 for your trouble for the amount they done took off of you (saving $50-$100 from the normal deal). At least you can sell your dishplayer and get a few hundred out of it.

[Cyclone]

I got the Dish Player from my friend on Friday and hooked it up.

The hard-drive is too loud for the bedroom I was going to put it into. The funny thing is that even though the DP has been disconnected for a year, when I plugged it in, it got all of the same channels without having to be activated. :D. Still its too loud and my wife would go bonkers if I kept it in our room.

Besides I run the RF output down to the Exercise room in the basement from our 4900, and she takes its UHF remote down there to watch TV.

I guess this 7200 will end up on Ebay. Shame it did look pretty cool while I was playing with it. If it had a UHF remote I could have put it in the exercise room and RF'd it up to the bedroom. Guess I'll have to either get a 508 or more likely get a 522 when it comes out.

[Randy_B]

The HD is easily replaceable in the DP. Might investigate putting in a quiet model.

[Cyclone]

I actually have 3 old hard drives in the basement. I might just play around and see if I can get a quieter model in there. Problem is that those 3 are smaller than the 17GB that the 7200 already has. But it will be a test to see. I bet the HTPC forum at AVS would have someone with info on quiet HD models.

It turns out though that the big sticking point ends up being that the wife really likes the UHF remotes flexibility.

[Jacob S]

You can get the cones to work with the dishplayer remote.

[Randy_B]

. . . the wife really likes the UHF remotes flexibility That's a killer. IR extenders work for the DP, but performance can be spotty. Could be even more problematic if your trying to hit the cone from the treadmill!

IBM Deskstars are very quiet. Might find a good deal on an older 40GB model on the web. That would give your DP about 32 hrs of record time. I had replaced the original HDs in ours with a 40GB Western Digital that was fairly quiet (not sure that it is bedroom quiet, though) and a 30.5GB Maxtor, that was not as quiet.

[Jacob S]

Try LeapFrog in which you can use your existing phone lines to transmit audio, video, and remote signals room to room in the house or anywhere that has that phone line. Each room you want to view those channels you have to have that LeapFrog receiver.

I believe they also make a devide that you put over your remote where it transmits the signal beams and it turns it into UHF where you can turn channels in other rooms.

[BrendonW]

Try a Seagate Barracuda drive. They are some of the quietest. I use a 60gb model in my DP.

www.storagereview.com rates the heat and noise of a number of drives in their reviews.