DBSTALK FIRST LOOK: In-Home Dish DVR-921 Review

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

A complete specifications sheet in PDF format can be downloaded HERE.

This review is based on beta software version L142, and will be updated as future software versions are released.

Introduction

Here's the front of the 921 sitting on my coffee table, getting ready to be installed into my equipment rack.



Here's the back of the 921.



Closeup of the satellite and antenna inputs on the back of the 921. I was afraid they would be too close together to easily get the three coax cables connected, but the spacing does allow for comfortable connection.



Here's another closeup of the back of the 921 showing the DVI port, the rf output, 2 composite/RCA audio outputs, 1 composite/RCA audio input, the component output, 2 DishWire ports, a usb port, and the phone jack. The svideo and toslink outputs are just to the left of the DVI port.



Installation of the 921

I placed the 921 in my equipment rack and connected all of the cables on the back. Note - you must have both satellite tuners connected to coax coming from your switch or dish. That's 2 lines connected. Just below and to the left of the 2 satellite tuner inputs is where the over the air coax antenna line is connected. I'm viewing HD material via component cables, as I don't have a DVI connection on my television. Audio is via the toslink (optical) port that I have connected to my receiver. I also connected svideo and composite video to a vcr and to my computer to take the screenshots you see.

After the connections were made, I turned on the receiver and got ready to wait. It's always been my experience that when a receiver is first connected, you have to sit and wait for the software to be updated before you can do anything. But, like with the 721, not in this case. I turned the power on, and channel 101 appeared immediately. So, I went into the system setup screen to set up my satellites. A quick check switch later, and both satellite tuner inputs recognized my DP34 switch. I then went back to live television and picture was there. A side note here - at this point I would have had to call Dish to authorize the receiver, but the receiver had already been authorized for my account before I picked it up from Dish.

I was pleasantly surprised when the 921 powered up. I've lived with the jet engine fan noise coming from the 6000 8VSB module for the last 2 years. I am very happy to say that the 921 is MUCH quieter than the 6000 (unless of course you disconencted your 8VSB fan). If nothing else is on, and there's no noise in the room, then the 921 fan can be heard, but if there's anything making noise in your room, the 921 noise is just about completely inaudible. The fans in my HTPC are louder, and I've worked very hard at making it as quiet as possible. Is the 921 fan too loud for a bedroom? Probably. But, it's a night and day difference coming from the 6000.

View of the Point Dish screen.



View of the Check Switch screen.



Screen showing my check switch was successful.



So, I now have all of my channels available. Switched over to HDNet and watched a bit of Bikini Destinations. Flipped around - sure enough, all of my channels were there. Then I tried the PVR functions. Nothing… Up pops a message about this program is being downloaded from satellite. Please try again later. I figure I need to check the software version and try to force the software upgrade that I know is waiting for me. So, back into the setup screen, to the software upgrade option. And lo and behold, the software upgrade is already in progress. In fact, it has been in progress since I finished the check switch. I had been watching live television for the last 15 minutes while the software was upgrading in the background. Very cool! No more having to wait the hour or so for the software to download before doing anything! It took right at 46 minutes to complete the software download, install and reboot process. Once it was done, I was ready to go. All of the menu functions were now available as well as the PVR functions.

Software upgrade screen with the download partially done.



Unlike the 811, this 921's video output was set to 480p as a default rather than 720p. If the shipping versions of the 921s are set to 480p as the default, then no one should have to connect the svideo or composite to get a picture first. More about the aspect ratios later on.

Default shipping setting is 480p. Display setup screen showing current output of 480i.

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921, Page 2
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

The Remote

Like the 811, the uhf pro remote that comes with the 921 (it's the same remote as the 811) does not send IR signals to the 921. It sends UHF only signals. That's a problem for pronto users, and users of other learning remote controls. I'm going to work with Dish to compile a selection of IR codes for the pronto remote for the buttons on this remote that aren't available anywhere else for all remote addresses. Other than the lack of IR from the remote to control the 921, the remote is well laid out and comfortable to use. It looks very similar to the older platinum remotes that ship with the 5xx series of receivers, except that some of the buttons are more recessed than others. For example - the * (format) and the # (search) buttons are only about half as high as the rest of the number pad. Makes it very easy to use the remote by feel without having to look at it.



The Interface

The 921 interface is based on the 721 interface. The 921's operating system is DishLinux just like the 721. I had never used a 721 before starting to play with the 921. My Dish PVR experience is based on the 5xx series of receivers, so a lot of my comparisons will be based on the 5xx series interface. Please note, that because the 921 operates on a Linux based operating system, rebooting the 921 takes longer than other dish receivers. Average reboot time is between 2 and 3 minutes in my experience.

I really like the interface and the look and feel of everything. Very slick and polished. And even though I had never used a 721 before, the interface is easy enough to navigate that I never felt lost. Let's look at some pictures.

Here's the main menu, along with the TV Listing sub menu.



Here's the first page of the Preferences screen. This is the standard layout for options screens throughout the software. Very nice looking, and very easy to navigate with the remote. Notice the television image in the upper corner - just about every screen has the TV window, so you can go just about anywhere in the software and still keep an eye on what you're watching. And, all of the DVR functions work with the small TV window display! Much better than the 5xx series!



Here's the guide. Seven lines of program information, along with program descriptions in the top left corner and the TV image in the top right corner. This guide is FAST - you can scroll through it so fast that the text isn't readable. It's so much faster than the 5xx guide, that my jaw just about hit the floor the first time I went guide surfing. More about the guide later in the operations section.

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921, Page 3
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

Operation of the 921

So, how does this receiver work? All in all, pretty well. There are a few problems with it, but nothing that can't be fixed in future updates. So, let's dig right in and start looking at how this thing works.

The first thing I want to comment on is directly based on posts that some people have left in forums around the internet regarding the recording capability of the 921. The 921 is very capable of recording TWO high definition programs AND watching a pre-recorded high definition program. Yes, that's THREE high definition program streams being handled simultaneously. The 921 worked perfectly! It, however, can't record three high definition streams (2 from satellite and 1 from OTA) at the same time.

The next important issue to comment on is the pause buffer. The 921 offers a high definition pause buffer of 120 minutes.

So now, let's dig into the menus.

Here's the main menu. Let's first take a look at option 1 - TV Listing.



Under the TV Listing option, as you can see in the picture, we have access to the DVR List, the Search function, the Themes function, the Guide and your PPV purchase history. Of course, all of these except for the purchase history can be accessed directly with the remote control.



Here's the DVR list screen. The 921 has 2 satellite tuners and 1 over the air digital tuner built in. Notice on this screen there are 2 programs currently recording - The Phantom from HBO-HD and Jefferson Starship: Acoustic from HDNet. Yes, that's 2 HD programs recording simultaneously! Also, as with the other screens, The Phantom is playing in the upper TV corner.



Scroll down on the DVR list past your recorded events, and you will see the list of timers that are set to record in the future. I already find this very convenient that the timers are also located here rather than just on the timer management screen.



Selecting Search from the menu, or pressing the # (search) key on the remote brings you to the search screen. Like with the other dish receivers, text can be entered directly from the guide, by using the number keypad on the remote, or by using the on screen keyboard.



Here's the search results screen after doing a search for "The Phantom".



Here's the Themes screen, accessed from the menu or from the left arrow button on the remote. Pretty standard operation like all of the other dish receivers. Select a category, and all of the upcoming events that match that category will be displayed.



Here's the theme results when I told it to search for movies. The red X means that's a channel I don't subscribe to. And of course, how convenient that all of the PPV movies are listed first…



Here's the guide screen, accessed from the menu or from the guide button on the remote. Once again notice the 2 red dots - 2 HD channels recording at the same time. I really, really like this guide so much better than the 5xx guide. All of the standard guide functions work - the skip forward and skip back buttons navigate you 24 hours into the future or into the past. You can enter a number on the remote and press the left or right arrow keys to move forward or back that many hours in the guide. You can enter a number and press select to jump to that channel. Timers are easily defined from the guide.

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921, Page 4
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

Operation of the 921, part 2

Now, back to the menu. Option 2 on the main menu "Staying in Touch" brings up the Caller ID History. I'd show you a screen shot of this, but I don't have caller ID on my land line…



So, on to option 4. The preferences menu is where you define favorite lists, view and change your preferences, language settings, dolby digital settings, DVHS DishWire settings and closed caption settings. As you can see, the DishWire feature has not yet been activated. Let's take a look at the View Preferences option.



You can see the options that are set from this screen. I really wish they'd add the Timer Icon Popup option to the 5xx series of receivers. Here's page 2:



I want to talk about the transparent guide and display. I think it's a really great idea, except it just doesn't work very well. I don't have a screenshot of it because it just doesn't look good yet. I think it has the potential to look really great in future software updates, but it's not there yet in my opinion. This is also the screen that you can adjust your horizontal and vertical screen position.



The Favorites setup, Language setup, and DD setup are standard screens just like the other receivers. No changes, other than the look of the screens.

Here's the Closed Captioning screen. As you can see, lots of different options.



And here's a shot of the closed captioning working on HBO-HD.



Now, back to the main menu and selecting the Locks option brings us to the Locks screen. Same options as the other receivers.



Now let's take a look at the System Setup options from the Main Menu. Here's the System Info screen option, accessable from the menu here. The system information screen is also accessible from theSysInfo button on the front of the 921. Note, there is no SysInfo button on the remote.



Software version L142 will not be the software version of the 921 when it ships. It's a pre-release beta version that I am testing. Overall it's pretty stable, but there are still a few issues that need to be fixed before shipping the 921 to the public.



I like the look of the point dish screen. It's easier to navigate than on the 5xx series receivers.



Here's the telephone setup screen. In the future, Dish may require all receivers be connected to a phone line in an attempt to cut down on signal theft. This'll be a tough requirement for me to meet, as I currently have 3 dish receivers sitting in the same location, and don't have a phone jack anywhere close to that location. My setup is in my finished basement, so running a new phone line through the walls isn't an option. So, when the day comes that I have to plug in the phone line to all of my receivers, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Hopefully, Dish can come up with a solution to this problem. I'm all for cutting down on signal theft - the thieves deserve to be caught and shut down. Enough with the rant…



Here's the standard VCR setup option. Note - this isn't where you will set up a DVHS vcr for digital recording of high definition material via DishWire. That option is not yet enabled, but Dish has told me that it will be enabled as soon as possible. They are very aware of our desire to transfer HD material off of the 921 to DVHS.



The Diagnostic tests screen is where you test your phone line connection. There is also an option called Hard Drive that isn't yet enabled, and I have no idea what it will test if and when it is enabled. Factory Defaults will reset your receiver settings to the default settings. Software Update shows the status of any software update you are receiving, as shown earlier in this review.

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921, Page 5
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

Operation of the 921, part 3

So, let's now look at the local channel setup. This is what the local channel screen looks like after Digital channels have been added. Pressing Scan DTV will cause the 921 to scan for local OTA channels.



The 921 scans from channel 2 to channel 69. The process takes between 3 and 4 minutes to complete. The channel counter updates as new channels are found. The bar graph is pretty, but I think I would have preferred a numerical counter as opposed to the graph so that I could see exactly which channels are added, and which ones are missed.



Here's the Add DTV screen, where you manually add DTV channels. This is the only screen on the 921 where you will see a signal strength indicator for local digital channels. The 6000 used to display the signal strength in the channel banner. The 921 does not. I'm not sure what the 125 scale means - no other receiver that I know of uses a scale for signal strength above 100. So, it makes it difficult to directly compare local tuner sensitivity to other receivers. What I can say, though, is the 921 tuner is more sensitive than the 6000 8VSB tuner. In Denver, very few of us can receive our ABC station, channel 17 because they broadcast their signal from the top of their 6 story building downtown. I live 3 miles away from there, and could just barely receive their signal on the 6000. On the 921, I pick up their signal better, as the following screen shows:



For the Denver readers, this screen may be of interest to you.



Analog channels are added in the same manner. Here's the Scan ATV screen. This scan takes much less time to complete than the Scan Digital channels.



And, here's the local channels screen with all of the analog channels added. The local channels show up at the beginning of the guide as 2-0, 2-1, etc.



And finally, let's look at the Display Setup. First of all, unlike the 811, the 921 does not simultaneously output HD via the component cables and SD via svideo or composite video. It's one or the other, and is switched with the HD/SD button on the remote control.

I have a 16x9 Sony HDTV, so I have the 921 set to 16x9 mode. A very interesting note - when set to 16x9 and 480i mode (when the receiver is in SD mode), and you are tuned to a HD channel, the video output is anamorphic, meaning your 16x9 television needs to be set to Full or Anamorphic mode as well to display the image correctly. This is new to me - on all previous dish receivers that I have used, the 16x9 function didn't do anything. Now it does. 16x9 mode offers aspect ratios of Normal, Stretch, Zoom and Gray Bars. 4x3#1 mode offers aspect ratios of Normal, Zoom, Letterbox (puts black bars on top and bottom of image) and Gray Bars (puts gray bars on top and bottom of image). 4x3#2 mode offers aspect ratios of Normal, Stretch, Zoom and Gray Bars. All aspect ratios are labled in the browse banner.

Also, unlike the 811 currently, the aspect ratios do work on the 921. By the time you read this, the 811 will probably be fixed, but it's not yet at the time of writing.



Here are some screen shots showing the different aspect ratios. What's interesting about the gray bars mode, is that the gray bars fade in over 2 or 3 seconds when the gray bars mode is selected.









Ok, let's now look at the timer management screens. Pretty standard timer screen.



Timers can be sorted in several different ways. Clicking on the Sort option brings us to the Timer Sort screen. Timers can be sorted alphabetically, by frequency (once, daily, weekly, etc.), by type (DVR, Reminder, VCR, etc) or by order they will be firing.



Here's the first screen seen to create or edit a timer. The start and end pad options are new to me, as I'm coming from a 5xx background, but they're old hat to you 721 users.



Here's the 2nd screen. Pretty standard.



So, the next item on the menu is the Interactive TV. Under Interactive TV, we have Games and Weather. First, the Games. Nice selection of games to try out. Note that these are not the OpenTV games that are available on the 5xx series of receivers, as the 921 does not have OpenTV loaded yet.



Now, the weather. I can see using this quite a bit. The list of cities that can be set look pretty extensive. The first weather screen is the 5 day forecast.



Pressing the Current button will bring up the Current Conditions screen. It looks like the weather data is updated hourly.

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921, Page 6
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

Operation of the 921, part 4

So, that's it for the main menu options. Now, let's take a look at how the DVR options display on screen. First up, here's what appears when you press rewind. Rewind speeds of 4x, 15x, 60x and 300x are available. Same with Forward Fast.



Here are the skip back and skip forward functions. Skip back is the standard 9 or 10 seconds, and skip forward is the standard 30 seconds. All DVR functions work very well with the HD material as well as with the SD material.





And pause.



Here are the slow motion and frame advance functions. Slow motion control is accessed by pressing Pause, and then using the REW or FF DVR buttons. Reverse slow motion is available at 1/4th speed, while Forward slow motion is available at 1/15th speed and 1/4th speed.







Frame advance is controlled by pressing Pause, and then using the DVR functions Skip Back and Skip Forward to advance frames in the reverse or forward direction.





The browse banner is a big improvement over the 5xx series receivers. Let's take a look by pressing the browse button (right arrow button) on the remote. I really like the REC icon in the banner. I also really like the next show information displayed to the right of the current show information. It makes the browse banner very useful.



Pressing the Info button on the remote will display program information in 2 modes - transparent and opaque. Transparent is displayed first, then pressing info again will make the display opaque. Here are the screenshots showing the difference. Of course, you can cancel out after the transparent display if you like.

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921, Page 7
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

Operation of the 921, part 5

I've saved this one for the end of the review - OTA Digital recording… The 921 has the capability of recording over the air digital stations, and does it very well. But, currently there is no guide data provided for OTA stations. The 921 does not read PSIP guide data because stations around the country implement PSIP guide data differently. And, not all stations send PSIP guide data in their transmission signals. Only 2 of our stations here in Denver use PSIP to send out guide data, the others don't. So, how do you record OTA channels with no guide data? You have to set up manual recordings, rather than using the guide. Or, you can use the guide to set up a recording off of one of your satellite local channels and then edit the timer to change the channel to your OTA digital channel. That's worked some of the time for me. This isn't a bug, but it is a problem. And Dish Network is very aware that it's a problem. Unfortunately, it's a problem that won't be fixed until well into next year. Dish has a plan for solving the issue, but I'm not allowed to tell you that plan becuase of the terms of the NDA that I signed. I can tell you, though, that it's a very good plan that will make everyone happy once it's in place.

So, that's the basic operation of the 921 receiver. If you're still with me, I want to close this review talking about what's good about the receiver and what's not so good yet.

What's Good:

DVR functions work well with HD. HD recording from satellite works well (including 2 recordings simultaneously). OTA tuner sensitivity is better than the 6000, although it's difficult to tell how much better. The interface is well laid out to make navigation easy. The guide speed is faster than any other guide I've ever seen. The guide layout is great, with 7 lines of program information along with the tv display. The remote layout and key placement are very good. Aspect Ratios work in HD mode. 480p is an output option, rather than forcing upconversion of 480p to 1080i or 720p. Programming can be watched during software download. Can record HD from the OTA tuner. Fan noise is much less than with the 6000.

What's Not So Good

There are still some outstanding bugs that need to be fixed before the 921 will be completely stable. I'm purposefully not discussing them in this review because the receiver hasn't started shipping to the public yet, and because the bugs have been reported to Dish through the beta process. There's no Partial Zoom aspect ratio available. The DishWire hasn't been activated yet. Signal Strength for OTA digital channels doesn't display anywhere except in the local channel setup screens. No OpenTV yet. No OTA guide data yet. No Name-Based recording.

[Mark Lamutt]

Dish DVR-921, Page 8
Review By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
©Copyright 2003 www.DBSTalk.com, All Rights Reserved.

Update #1, 12-21-03

I've gone through all of the questions from the last week, and have gathered together the answers to those questions that I said I'd take a look at this weekend. They are presented here, along with some new screenshots.

Composite Video Inputs

The 921 has 1 set of composite video / RCA audio inputs on the back. A source connected to these inputs is selected by pressing 0 and Select from the remote. The video coming from the input is scaled to your selected display resolution (meaning if you have your display properties set to 1080i, the input video source is scaled to 1080i and output through component and DVI). The scaling doesn't look great, but it does happen. Recording from the input isn't possible.

Frame Advance Back and Forward DVR Functions

I looked at this much more closely, and it appears that the forward frame advance jumps ahead 1 frame at a time, while the reverse frame advance jumps back approximately 5 frames at a time or so.

OTA Local Digital Recording from Subchannels

The question was asked if the 921 records separately from different subchannels, or if the entire stream is recorded. Each digital subchannel is considered to be a different channel by the 921, and as such is available to be recorded separately.

Is there a Closed Captioning option "CC only when muted"?

No. CC is always on or always off.

What's the maximum number of timers that can be set?

I was able to set 64 timers before the following screen popped up:



At that point, I had to delete a timer before I could add another one.

Separate memory for HD and SD, similar to 6000?

The answer to this one currently is no. If a HD channel is set to Normal mode, then SD channels will also be in Normal mode when the SD/HD button is pressed. One AR is active, whether you're watching HD or SD.

Using satellite locals to get program info for local OTA recordings

I had said in my review earlier that I had gotton this to work. I couldn't get it to work again in my testing this weekend. So, it appears that it's not possible (or at least not possible reliably) to set a timer to a satellite local channel, and then edit that timer to change the recording channel to a local OTA digital channel, and still retain the program information for the recording.

Recording OTA local digital channels

I did a lot of testing on this issue this weekend with regards to file sizes being recorded, and am pleased to bring you these results. Keep in mind that all of this data is approximate, as I don't have access to the actual size of recordings on the disk - all I have to go on is the approximate record time remaining as presented on the DVR screen.

I did 60 minute long test recordings on four different OTA channels: A 1080i channel broadcasting at 19.0 MB/s video bit rate, a 720p channel broadcasting at 12.752 MB/s VBR, a 480p channel broadcasting at 11.93 MB/s VBR, and a 480i channel broadcasting at 4.513 MB/s VBR.

The 60 minute 1080i 19.0 MB/s recording took 65 minutes of HD recording space.
The 60 minute 720p 12.752 MB/s recording took 47 minutes of HD recording space.
The 60 minute 480p 11.93 MB/s recording took 45 minutes of HD recording space.
The 60 minute 480i 4.513 MB/s recording took 18 minutes of HD recording space.

So, from this I draw this conclusion: The OTA recording capability of the 921 is much better than any of the current recording computer cards on the market today. With those cards, every OTA digital channel, no matter the resolution of the VBR record exactly the same size - around 8.2 GB/hr. The 921 obviously processes the transport stream, stripping out all of the wasted space to record smaller files while maintaining the necessary program information.

Does the 921 really have to have both satellite tuners connected?

I tried this...it wasn't pretty. You can't do a check switch if only one of the tuners is connected. If you have no way of running another line to where your 921 will go, then you'll have to wait for the DPP44 switch before getting a 921. There's no other way around it because the 2 tuner operation is integrated into so many different aspects of the programming it's not feasibly possible to run this box on one tuner only. That's the way it is.

Assign ABC/CBS/NBC to local Digital channel like on 6000?

This hasn't been implemented on the 921 like it was on the 6000, so there's no way to assign a major network to the local digital channels.

Locks question

I didn't test the locks, and don't want to because I'm not sure at this point whether I can get rid of the locks once they're put into place. I don't have complete documentation of the 921 yet, so I don't want to screw up my system with locks if I can't figure out how to make them go away after the test.

Does the 6000 have more favorite list storage than the 6000?

I would assume so. The 921 has 4 user editable favorite lists available, and I added all of the channels to all four of the lists, and everything worked fine. If that wasn't the intent of the question, let me know.

Does the OTA side of the box work without a satellite tuner connected? What about DVR recordings?

I can't answer the first part of this yet. Look for an answer after the 1st of the year.

I can, however, answer that the DVR recording are available with no satellite tuner connected. When the 921 is powered on without the tuners connected, it comes up to just a black screen. But, pressing the DVR button brings up the DVR list, and all recordings can be viewed.

Triple Timer resolution

The 921, like the 721, has triple timer resolution. The following screenshots show the timer resolution screens:





Pause Buffer

Sorry about the pause buffer confusion I caused earlier this week. The pause buffer is in fact 120 minutes for both HD and SD recorded material. Here's the screenshot:

[Mark Lamutt]

This space reserved for review updates.

I've had the 921 since Friday afternoon, the 12th, and have spent just about every waking minute since putting it through it's paces. If you have questions, I'll do my best to answer them if I can. Please be advised that there are issues that I can't discuss due to the Non-Disclosure Agreement that I've signed with Dish Network to beta test the 921.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome all of the people coming to DBSTalk for the first time to read this review! We're glad you're here, and hope you enjoy your stay!

[Scott Greczkowski]

So what is the one big bug it has, you have been posting all over the place about the big bug.

Since the 921 is being released this week they should know what to expect.

Congrats Mark!

[Cyclone]

I wonder if the 16x9 Aspect Ratio setting actually does anything this time?

[Mark Lamutt]

Cyclone - read page 5 of my review. It does.

Scott - I still can't say what the big bug is, but I can say that about 35 minutes ago I received word from the engineers that the bug has been reproduced and identified and that they are working on the fix now.

[clapple]

IT's ALIVE!! IT's ALIVE!!

Actually, I can't wait. But will have to wait for the new switch (44+ ?? ). that allows one cable input. No reasonable way to run another cable.

[John Kotches]

Did you have opportunity to test Firewire input/output. It would be nice to archive from internal HD to D-VHS, as well as to pass D-VHS MPEG data to the 921, so that you can use DVI out and a single cable, instead of seperate cables.

Cheers,

[Mark Lamutt]

Firewire is not enabled in software version L1.42. The option is disabled on the menu at this point in time - take a look at page 4 of the review, the second screenshot.

[santellavision]

Mark,

What about PQ? 1) HD Compared to the 6000. 2) Upconverting SD to 720p or 1080i?

[Mark Lamutt]

Picture quality is excellent on both the HD and SD side. The SD picture quality, with the display settings set to output 480p is the best I've ever seen a Dish receiver output. HD isn't significantly different than it was with the 6000. 480i SD output via svideo is slightly better than watching via svideo from my 508s, but not noticibly different.

There are a number of people that have reported that the svideo output on the 811 is much darker than it should be. I can report that this isn't a problem with the 921.

SD upconversion to 1080i isn't as good as SD upconverted to 480p. It's not bad, just doesn't look as good. Here's an example. I have always refused to watch SD football off of Dish channels because the distance shots just look awful. On Sunday, watching football converted to 480p on the 921 was actually a pleasant experience. Certainly not nearly so as HD, but the 480p output from the 921 looks better than my analog cable signal and a hell of a lot better than 480i from my 508s.


When do you want to come over and see it Ernie?

[mcowher]

Will the 921 EVER output to SD and HD simultaneously, or is it a hardware limitation.

What about the RF output? Can this output simultaneously with HD?

[nclee]

Thanks for the review.
I have one question, how noisy is the disk drive during the operation? I like my humble 501 except the buzzing sound it creates.

[Mark Lamutt]

I'm working on getting the answers to your questions now mcowher. I don't know yet. I'll post them when I do know.

[JMikeF]

Mark,
Awesome review - thanks.
Looks like a winner, if DISH truly fixes the major bug.

[Mark Lamutt]

Originally Posted by nclee

Thanks for the review.
I have one question, how noisy is the disk drive during the operation? I like my humble 501 except the buzzing sound it creates.

I have the 921 installed in an audio cabinet behind a glass door. I can very slightly hear the fan running when the room is dead quiet. I can't hear the hard drive at all.

The slight fan noise is why I put in the review that the 921 *might* not be suitable for a bedroom application, but should be perfectably acceptable for a home theater room or living room application.

[Mark Lamutt]

Originally Posted by JMikeF

Mark,
Awesome review - thanks.
Looks like a winner, if DISH truly fixes the major bug.

Thanks, Mike. I put some real work into this beast, in addition to the testing I've done since Friday. I've logged almost 40 hours of 921 use since Friday night at 9:00pm.

I was a little concerned that Dish would have trouble tracking down the bug, but they found it this morning. At this point, they should be able to get it fixed pretty quickly.

[tahoerob]

Originally Posted by Mark Lamutt

Picture quality is excellent on both the HD and SD side. The SD picture quality, with the display settings set to output 480p is the best I've ever seen a Dish receiver output. .......

Is there an output button on the remote to easily change from 1080i to 480p, say when changing from HDNet to Food Network????

Do the OTA DTV channels integrate with the Dish locals??
Ex. Dish local ABC 7, then next channel is OTA 7-01???

I am glad o hear that the 8vsb seems to be better for those of us who live >50mi from towers!

[Lee L]

Wow, cool Mark.

The one thing that is a real downer is the fact that they have not worked anything out as far as OTA guide data. This is the first time this limitation has been brought up anywhere and they have eluded to the fact that the guide would provide this functionality. They are going to catch a ton of flak if the HD DTivo can do this and they are still "working on a solution".