Question reguarding DVI on DishNet

Since this my first post just want to say hi to everyone.

I work for an independent retailer selling dishnet, directv,
starband, direcway, antennas, even C-band. We also
sell big screens, home theater, whole house audio,
and structured wiring you name it we most likely do it.

I like to follow anything industry related. I've been to
CEDIA, CES, and Team Summit.

My question is to anyone at dish net or someone with
a source. I noticed On the last tech chat there was a
couple questions regarding DVI and the post on this
site listing features for the 921.

Televisions with DVI just started really appearing in a few
TVs this year. Already the spec has evolved into HDMI witch
hopefully will appear in TV's next year. For anyone not clear
on the change. HDMI adds multichannel audio and control
to the DVI spec while going to a small pin compatible connector.
For additional info see www.hdmi.org or www.siliconimage.com.
The new connector also has strong industry support.

Since there are no dish network receivers available with DVI
it would make sense to me to skip DVI and include HDMI.
Receivers would still be compatible with the FEW DVI
TV's. With a low cost adapter you can connect the HDMI
output to a DVI input although you lose the audio and other
benefits. However the receivers would provide added benefits
to the customers who have the newer TV's and AVR's that
will become available from here on out. Customers with DVI
TV's will not lose any functionality and customers with HDMI
TV's will be able to take advantage of the equipment the have.
If I manufactured a device I wouldn't want the connectivity to
be outdated in potentially less than a year. I would want to
provide value and future thinking products to my customer.

Also on the Firewire front I hope that Dish Net will provide
at least 2 bidirectional ports with or upgradeable to HAVi
to allow for networking and daisy chaining an A/V network.
To the PVR fans yes this will allow adding firewire hard drives
to the network. Dish network is currently on the right course
they have demonstrated it at the last team summit and
there was an even better display at Mitsubishi at CEDIA with
a firewire hard drive and prototype receiver linked together
with a tv also linked to an additional tv which could potentially
be in another room allowing one to access dish or the hard drive
with full control in the other room, no IR repeaters and no
spotty UHF reception.

I hope Dish Net does just as much or
more to promote the firewire abilities as they would DVI. I
also commend them for choosing to support both not just
one standard. Let customers decide whats best and exercise
there fair use rights to time-shift and record for personal use.

Sorry its long winded any feedback, opinions, or info
appreciated. Thanks.

[cws80us]

E*'s R&D cycles are soooo sloooow that they will probably be behind the curve on HD from now on out. It's taken them so long to get the 921 to market that it will be outdated by the time it is released. It's probably too far into development to make any significant changes now anyway. They have a recent history of being a year or more behind on getting products to market. And then when they are released, they have half the features originally announced and require another year of releasing bug fixes and software updates to make the product stable.

[jeffcarp]

Who else has announced an HDTV-PVR like Echostar has? Behind the curve?

[cws80us]

They can announce whatever they want, but until they get a product to market, their announcement doesn't mean a whole lot. They "announced" the 921 over 18 months ago, and they have yet to even set a solid release date. They're saying maybe 2Q03 now, and that's another 5-7 months at the least. In the mean time the next generation of HD STBs has already been released. True, there are no HD PVRs on the market yet, but I'd be willing to bet that there will be other products available before the 921 is. Most companies will not announce a product until it is close to being ready. E* will announce things that are simply a gleam in someone's eye.

[jeffcarp]

You are entitled to your opinion - however, making a statement that Echostar is behind the curve is ridiculous. Even if I agree with you 100%, that at least makes them even with the rest of the industry. Calling them behind the curve seems like you just have an ax to grind.