Initial Look at 721 - L1.05 (L1.07?) Upgrade!

[Scott Greczkowski]

DBSTalk.COM is proud to bring you the first look of Dish Networks new PVR721 software (known as L1.05)

Because this is beta software some of the screens may change when the official software is released.

A more detailed write up of the software will be done after I have a chance to test the software more. There are a lot of BIG graphics on this page which I apologize for, please give them time to load.

But until then enjoy the first look at L1.05 from your friends here at DBSTalk.COM

We would like to thanks Echostar and the 721 team for providing us the first look at this new software!

DBSTalk.COM is proud to be the first ones to be able to show you this very exciting upgrade!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is what the guide looks like in L1.05 it looks basicly the same as L1.04 however the colors have been slightly tweeked.



In the banner you will notice that the Channel number is slightly larger



When you are browsing from the guide and press info, you get a new information screen. On the new screen you now get a PIP on the screen as shown below

[Scott Greczkowski]

Shown below is screen 1 of the Preferences Setup Menu on the 721. Note that you can turn off the Blinking Timer Option, plus there is a new keyboard setting. (We will show you the keyboards later)



Here is the second page of the Prefrences screen. All of these choices are new to the PVR 721.



You want to see what a transparent guide looks like? One is shown below. Notice how you can see Beverly Hills Cop playing in the guide. You can get this Transparent guide by turning it on in the second Preferences menu or you can turn it on by pressing Guide then SWAP on your remote.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is the new PVR Timer Screen. Notice you can now sort your listings.



When you sort your listings you can sort them by the specification shown below.

[Scott Greczkowski]

The L1.05 revision of the Dish PVR 721 software also contains a few new games! Below is a listing of all the game now on the 721.



One of the new games is Tux Math, which is shown below. My 8 year old instantly took to this game, its like Missile Commend but instead of shooting down Bombs you must solve the falling math problems by using your remote. This game seems like a high quality game and it has been customized for the 721



Another game that has been added is XHYPEROID which basicly plays like the classic Asteroids Arcade Game. (Shown below)



Of course the Solitaire Game is the classic game, the 721 version is kind of hard to play, instead of moving a cursor to select your cards you must punch in the row numbers on your remote. Also this game has no back round so the card get lost when you have a bright program behind it.



There is a fourth new game called Awele, I have no idea what this game is or how to play it. The instructions for it say its an ancient African game. Maybe someday someone will explain it to me.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Now that we are past the same here is the new improved search feature which is much easier to use! I like the feature you can type in the search box using the numbers on your remote (like a cell phone) You can also use one of the keyboards shown below.



Shown below is the Classic QWERTY Keyboard, which is like the keyboard you are using on your computer.



This keyboard (shown below) is the Alphabetic keyboard.



And this is the new "DISH" Keyboard its a smaller version of the Alphabetic Keyboard and it's slightly easier and faster to move around in.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is the improved PVR Recorded Shows List. Note that you can sort by all kinds of options now, making it easier to find that show you recorded 2 months ago. (I would still like to see Personal folders but this is a step forward)



You can also sort shows by Themes, here is the Themes list you can sort by.

[Scott Greczkowski]

One of the big new features on the 721 is Slow Motion and Frame by Frame advance!

To use Slow Motion Press Pause, then press >> (FWD) on your remote. When your press >> (FWD) the first time the motion goes at 1/15th of a second (super slo mo) Press >> (FWD) again on your remote and it goes faster 1/4th of a second. Press >> (FWD) again and the video goes back to normal speed. (Note you can also press << (Back) and do slow motion going backwords!

(Note the banner Display on the bottom of the screen goes away after a few seconds so you can see the entire screen with doing slow motion or frame by frame!)



You can also go Frame by Frame going forwards and backwords on your 721. To do this pause the video, now press the Skip Forward Button or the Skip back button, eash time you press it it will advance (or go back) a frame at a time. By unpausing you are back to watching regular motion TV again!

[Scott Greczkowski]

On many Televisions there is usually only one set of A/V inputs on a TV, for the best picture most people usually hook up their 721 to their sets to the A/V inputs on their TV. Because there is only one set of inputs it makes it hard to hook up a VCR DVD Player or Video Game system.

With the new software the engineers at Echostar have come up with a solution! With L1.05 you can now plug your DVD Player, Video Game, Etc into the front panel of your 721 (The inputs are hidden by a sliding plastic piece on the front of the 721). By selecting channel 0 the audio and video on your screen will come from those inputs!

(Note that in this mode you can not record what your sending via the inputs to the 721. There is no onboard MPEG encoder on the 721, this feature is a passthrough only.)

[Scott Greczkowski]

Because I have only had this new software for a few hours I have not had a chance to put things through their paces and get to really test things out. So for now that's our first look at L1.05.

Sometime this weekend I hope to write up a full review of all the features as well as write up a instruction manual on how to use all the new features L1.05 offers.

This writeup will be a web page and I will adjust the graphics accordingly. I do realize that there are a lot of large graphics here but it was the best I could do in the short time I have had the software in my hands.

If you have any questions please post them here and I will do my best to answer them.

Again I would like to thank the folks from Echostar for making this possible.

Thanks for visiting DBSTalk.COM!

[Mark Lamutt]

Great writeup, Scott! I really want some of these features for my 501!

[goblin]

You're awesome Scott! Thanks for pulling this preview together for us (and to Dish for giving you access). Any idea when they'll have the final version ready for us mortals?

[John Corn]

Thanks to Echostar for giving Scott and DBSTalk a chance to look at this exciting upgrade!!!

Thank you Scott for getting us something to look at so quick.

Very nice, I'm really excited about the upgrade.

[treiher]

Great work Scott! And I would like to Echo the Thanks to Echostar for providing us this sneak peak through Scott!!

One question. It's kind of hard to tell from the screen shots, but it looks like the fonts might be a little bolder on the new programming guide as well as the tweaking of the colors. Does that appear to be the case to you?

[DmitriA]

Thanks for the writeup!
Question about search - can you remove individual entries now and do the search items get sorted by those that were searched recently (like in 501)?

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes the guide is easier to read, I was going to mention the sharper fonts but I didn't because I wasnt sure if I was seeing things or not.

DmitriA no you can only delete all the searches, no way to delete indivisual searches that I see.

[Scott Greczkowski]

BTW I just noticed this... A New Screen Saver!

Infact the image changes often! (Note I left the guide up for awhile then this screen saver kicked in.)

[MAllen]

Great writeup!! I am lookinf forward to getting my upgrade!!! Any idea WHEN the rest of us might see this on OUR 721's??? Thanks again.

[SParker]

Excellent work Scott!

[Scott Greczkowski]

The update will be available to everyone before Christmas. (Damn now I sound like a tech chat rerun.)

[bkosman]

Scott,

I'm really glad someone outside of Dish has been given the chance to beta test software. Hopefully the issues you identify can be fixed prior to the Christmas release.

But for those of us using the 501, when is Dish going to give you the 50x software update for testing?

As for the 721 screen saver, do you think the programmers really meant to leave the PIP displayed?

Thanks!

[Scott Greczkowski]

I dont think that the PIP being displayed is a bad thing (while I admit it could be a bug) The reason I consider it no big deal is because some of the screen savers cover it, so still no chance of burning the PIP box in.

[marshalk]

Thanx Scott (and E*) for giving us the preview. Scott, have you had a chance to test if the "jump to live" problem is still there?

[TerryC]

Great job, as usual, Scott.

I noticed on your slo-mo capture that the huge progress bar is still present, but on the frame-by-frame capture it is not. But the picture seems like it could be cropped at the bottom of the fbf pic. Is it cropped? I hope not because that bar is way too large and unnecessary and would take out a lot of the usefulness of frame-by-frame (as well as slo-mo) since we can't see so much of the picture.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Terry on both the Slo Mo and Frame by Frame the bar stays up for a few seconds and then fades away so that there are no graphics on the screen.

It's very nice.