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EchoStar Communications Corp. has rolled out its new
interactive-television service, 'Dish Home,' to about 10,000 homes,company executives said Monday night during an on-air 'Tech Chat' for Dish Network subscribers.

All Dish customers who own model '4900' direct-broadcast satellite receivers should have the new software to enablethe interactive-TV features by the end of February, senior vice president Mark Jackson said.

I have a fairly new 4900 so I'll probably be one of the last ones to receive the upgrade.

 

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I didn't get upgraded until pretty late in the scheme of things. I'd assume that the same order would be used for this upgrade. Hopefully it will happen quicker

 

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I haven't figured out yet how to determine when you get this upgrade. What changes, and how do you activate the dish home services? On the 301 and 501, it will be via the red dish button, but I haven't yet figured out how to do it on the 4900. Anyone know?

 

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I guess you just go to channel 100, thats the way I thought i heard it.

 

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Yeah, I saw that over at DBSForums this morning. I'll have to check it out tonight and let you know if I have the upgrade yet.

 

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My 4900 is upstairs in my kids room, I will check to.
Guess we better start turning it off when were not using them, thats when I get my 501 upgrades.

 

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Yes, I have the upgrade. I'm pretty sure that I got it last night. Yesterday my software version on my 4900 was p104, and today it is p147. Here's the changes that I see:

Channel 100 is now Dish Home. It's loaded when you tune to the channel. After looking at everything there for a while, my initial impression is "so what?" Or maybe more to the point "yawn". Navigation with the remote is tricky at best - especially in those games that look like they're right off the Atari 5200 (notice - not the 2600...the graphics are slightly better than that). Controlling the games with the remote is an excersise in futility, and you'll just end up getting frustrated with the entire thing. Another thing about this interface - IT'S SLOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW...get the picture? Hopefully it will be faster on the 501 if it's stored on the hard drive. None if the info is stored in memory on the 4900, so everytime you change screens it has to load up the next one from the satellite. Makes for delay times of up to 30 seconds between screens.

The Menu has been changed. There's a new option 8 called Customer Support that will take you to the forthcoming Dish customer service app, and an option 9 that takes you to Dish Home.

Pretty much everything else seems to be the same as it was before. Can't look at 4 satellites with the 4900 - that appears to be limited to the 501 and the 6000 (maybe the 301 as well?)

 

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Was you receiver on or off last night ?
I can't imagine playing a game with a remote....LOL

 

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My receiver was off last night - pretty much anymore I always turn my receivers off at night. I didn't use to, but now that they live in audio cabinets, they build up too much heat if I leave them on all the time.

 

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Still haven't got mine yet.

 

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I got the upgrade about a week ago now (?) - I noticed one day that the receiver's modulator was on and generating a black screen on ch3 despite the Green LED being off, and this usually indicates Dish has done something to reset the unit - either added/modified the channel map or software. I have had my 4900 for about a year now - no problems but I do plan to add the Dish extended warranty soon, simply because I'd rather pay a low fixed amount than an unexpected large one.

So I poked around in the Guide and noticed ch. 100 was now activated with Dish Home.
Ho hum. Nothing that really impresses me much. I suspect it will improve if or when Dish can either integrate some Wink channels or get more content providers to sign on and provide OpenTv format.

I think the first thing one notices about many of Dish Home's screens is that, by and large, it's a blank slate waiting for more content to fill it.

I like having the games on the the Dish - but I don't really even like anything but Carrot Mania (which, for some reason, I keep thinking of as Carrot Munch). I don't think the games are worth the price of admission. $4.99 a year might okay, but not a month. And my digital cable box has solitaire anyway - and it's better than PlayinTv's.

And, Zap2It appears on the surface to have little content, but if one navigates around, there is a reasonable amount.

The Horoscopes channel is somewhat of an enigma. I get the impression that since it stands alone, by and large, that it got "padded out" a bit with quite a bit of horoscope material. There is almost as much there as you can get on some of the online services. The only thing missing is a Magic 8-Ball and a Fortune Cookie.

 

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I'm still patiently waiting for my upgrade!!

 

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Last day of the month and I finally got the Dish Home upgrade. I must say the movie search and reviews feature is nice, I like that alot. My kids like the games , but im sure those cheesy little games will get old quick.