Spoke to an Engineer at CES on the 921.

[conner65]

I had to post this after experiencing the fiasco that is the 921. I basically lamblasted a dish engineer, standing proudly in front of the soon to be released 942, for all the problems we have had to endure as 921 owners. The following is a loose recap of our conversation.

He was clearly uncomfortable with my direct questions but did try to answer my concerns. He admitted that as one problem gets solved two more are created. He would not admit that the 921 was a colossal failure(my words). I told him I thought it was ridiculous to make us beta testers and charge us a thousand dollars to do it. He did not comment. I also pointed that it unacceptable that it has been over a year and we still have major bugs(video jitters, 0 sec recordings, etc) and He agreed. He stated that the team was working diligently to solve these problems. I told him to forgive me if I had lost faith in their engineers. The most intresting thing He said regarding future products was that a $250 fee would be charged to 921 owners to upgrade to the 942. It is supposed to retail at approx. $600. The 942 unit will not have MPEG 4 compatibility just like the 921. The 942 operates on the same format as the 522 which he stated is much more stable than the 921. The last thing was the most far fetched statement but I can only hope that what he said will be true. He said when Charlie gave his keynote address to CES Charlie said that there will be some sort of swap out for good customers that have HIGH DEF boxes when they move to MPEG 4 in the fourth quarter. He implied it would be free or of very little cost to us as good customers. If any one can verify this I would love some hope that this company is going to get this HDPVR problem resolved and start delivering on some past promises.

I want my HDTV now and a heck of a lot of it, starting with the networks in the top ten markets.

[conner65]

He also said He reads these forums. I Hope he remembers me!!

[Paradox-sj]

That 250.00 upgrade is what EVERYONE will be charged to get te 942 on a lease basis. The questions is who will be stupid enough to do it?

[DonLandis]

I think I know the one you spoke with, conner. I did similar too and here's my take on my experience at Echostar booth at CES. All the reps, engineers included were responding like "shoot from the hip" rebuttals to all the valid complaints. I really don't believe they know what direction they will be going in next week let alone next year. I feel we should all just take it as it comes and put very little stock in any claims made or promises from any of them. e.g. One rep I spoke to at the 942 stand, assured me that the 921 has guide info on OTA channels and I did not need to subscribe to my locals to get it. I asked how long and he said since beginning of last year. His name tag stated he was from the Phoenix area. The argument went on and on and we even went to two other reps and what this guy said was confirmed by them. Then we hooked up with an old friend of mine, probably the same engineer I think you spoke to as well. He then felt that the other reps were wrong and I did have to sub to the locals for $5.99 per month to get the guide data. All this just demonstrated these reps, like the CSR's don't know what they are doing and damn near anything goes. Basically, the bottom line is you can't believe anything they promise. period, end of story.

So what to do? If it's lots of HDTV you want, look to VOOM but don't get too heaviliy invested in their equipment until the company appears financially stable. Just rent it and pay for their excellent service.
If its general DBS service with a good DVR, look at D*

After being away for 2 weeks traveling, I wanted to watch some HDTV last night and once again I was reminded of the jitters on the 921 and switched to VOOM and D* for the evening. What the heck am I paying E* for?
Tomorrow, I plan to call the CSR and request a credit for December and January billing because the jitter quality makes the programming unwatchable. I hope they don't give me the tech idiots who want to have me spend 5 hours on the phone as they test my ability to reboot the 921 15 different ways. I don't have the time to play their games anymore. VOOM and D* just don't have these problems over and over again.

[Big D]

re: If it's lots of HDTV you want, look to VOOM

Don, while you were traveling there was a major announcement regarding VOOM that you must have missed and will want to check out! Postings all over the place on it.

[DonLandis]

re: If it's lots of HDTV you want, look to VOOM

Don, while you were traveling there was a major announcement regarding VOOM that you must have missed and will want to check out! Postings all over the place on it.

Sure did! Thanks. Just read over the surface and this will change some of my plans.
A while back I had said that it would be good for VOOM to be purchased by E* as that would put them on top again as far as programming is concerned but it appears that E* is only buying a sat , uplink and frequencies licenses so this spells more redundant channels hogging the spectrum in a tremendous waste of limited resources. Just terriffic, with HD locals off of satellite, I will have two ways to get my local HD channels. one free with no compression and one that costs with picture degredation. Does it take a rocket scientist to figure out which I will buy? Free vs. cost? High quality vs low quality?

I sure hope one of the services will pick up all those other HD channels like CinemaxHD and starzHD and Playboy HD etc. Finally, I was approached by Voom for their DVR beta program and had accepted the offer. With this news, looks like that is now dead too. Oh well.

So with all this news, the real $64million question is when will E* get the 921 working right?

[SimpleSimon]

The $64M question is not "when", but "if", and I think we all know the answer to that. :mad:

As for the first so-called engineer. Anybody that thinks the 522 platform is a much better than the 721/921 is crazy. Maybe it will be someday, but certainly not yet.

[conner65]

I have seen the the 522 in action and it definitely seems less buggy than the 921.

[DonLandis]

The $64M question is not "when", but "if", and I think we all know the answer to that. :mad:



Sorry, but I don't just want to know "if" I want to cut to the finish line and know when. "When" includes "if" "If" does not include "when."

[BobMurdoch]

The chief early 2004 complaint about E* was that they couldn't produce any HD receivers to sell.

The primary early 2005 complaint is that they can't produce a stable one.

E* needs to partner up with someone one like Tivo OR drop a large amount of money to increase the number and quality of programmers working on their PVRs. Kudos to E* for helping to pioneer the use of PVRs with their "free PVR" promotions of a few years ago. Now they need to follow through and make them more stable.