Sad news for DP owners

[Nick]

On the Dishnetwork website, a search for "dishplayer" yielded this result:

"No results were found for 'dishplayer'"

[TopCat99]

Their search engine is *almost* as useful to the one on radioshack.com

[BobaBird]

They've been very busy removing information from the site including all the other no-longer-produced receivers, their receiver comparison chart, the basics of HDTV along with the model 5000 solution, receiver software versions (put back a month or so ago), and take months to add information on products like the IR-to-UHF Upgrade Kit and PVR721. E-VIII is still not on their satellites page.

[Steve Mehs]

Their search engine is *almost* as useful to the one on radioshack.com

Nothing can be as useless as the RS search. It's a real shame they will no longer have print catalogs :( I hope RS can devote the time and effort that went into the print catalog into their search functionality on their web site.

[Nick]

I think it's pretty good. Only thing is, when doing a search at RS.com, you need to be very precise in your terminology, or it will toss your search into the dumpster out back. And then they changed their inventory numbering scheme (sku) a while back, going from xx-xxxx to xxx-xxxx, and it screwed up everything.

Hope your having a nice day. It's been raining like hell all day here on the coast. :(

[TopCat99]

The numbers work the same whether you have the trailing zero or not (at least internally), thus 43-1108 is the same as 430-1108. If you want to pad with zeroes, the important thing is to have a total of seven digits.

Of note, the .com website search works the same for catalog numbers. If you want the manual for your heavy duty appliance module, entering "61-2684" or "61.2684" or "6102684" all do the same thing. If there is a trailing letter after the number, do NOT include it.

(If anyone cares, 43-1108 is/was a cheap 900 MHz analog cordless telephone. I believe 8 is the white one, and 7 the black.)


EDIT: Don't ask me about RS' DHP stuff as I left just as they started it :p

[Nick]

TC, is that why you left??? :D

Seems like I have enough RS stuff to start my own franchise without having to invest in a lot of inventory. :lol:

[TopCat99]

No, I left cuz I got offered a better job closer to home :D

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs


Nothing can be as useless as the RS search. It's a real shame they will no longer have print catalogs :( I hope RS can devote the time and effort that went into the print catalog into their search functionality on their web site.

The print catalog was good up until they began charging for them. I used to be a fan of RS when they had much more electronic hobbyist type stuff, but now I mostly find myself going there when I need something in an emergency.

[Swampthing]

IIRC, Echostar discontinued the Dishplayer at least a year ago. Pretty old news.

[Nick]

That has nothing to do with it. Technical archives should still be available online to DP owners.

Earlier this year, I bought an old non-working NEC 486 laptop made in 1995, with no docs, for $12.62. Thanks in part to still available tech archives on NEC's USA website, I was able to revive that little sucker.

Maintaining, or at least archiving technical documentation for discontinued models is pretty much the norm today for product manufacturers.

Echostar appears eager to bury the DP, but we all know there are tens or hundreds of thousands of DPs still in service. Owners of these units should continue to have Echostar's technical records and resources available.

[cnsf]

Nick, even though I gave up my DPs a while back, I completely agree. There is no cost to them to archive support documents. IT won't make people give up their DPs faster. What will do that is financial incentive.