I finally
received it. The Dish Network 921 exists.
Here is my overview of this new toy.
If you don't know anything about this technology, here is the basics.
The dish 921 is a Satellite DVR (digital video recorder) with 2
Satellite tuners. This means that you can be watching one
show while recording another. Plus like other DVRs, you can
also pause and rewind live TV. It does all of this
magic by constantly recording the bits coming from the satellite to an
internal Hard Drive. Think of it as a satellite tuner with a
built in VCR on crack. When it works well, it adds up
to a TV watching experience that once experienced is hard to live
without. That is where most DVR's stop (or as TiVo
calls them PVR's) The 921 ups the ante for Satellite
DVR's by adding the ability record HDTV not only from the Satellite (if
you have the HD package) but also over the air from an antenna.
This means that I can finally pause and digitally record ALL of my TV,
not just the SD stuff.. As I said, once you have the ability
to pause live tv...it's hard to live without.
As if that wasn't enough, this satellite tuner lets you output via DVI
which means it is a great complement to a DLP or LCD tv.
However, there is just one problem.
This is a receiver made by Dish Network.
This means that the receiver is only half done and pretty unstable.
Let me give you a couple of examples. First of all, it does
show the OTA channels in the guide but...it doesn't show any information
about what is on those channels. Second, it seems to
just spontaneously crash on me every once in a while.
Finally, while it can pause and record HDTV Over the Air channels... it
can only do this magic on SOME channels. Little
did I know this problem until I tried to rewind the Super Bowl to see a
particular section (wink wink). The receiver just
looked at me like I was an idiot. It turns out
that it can only record basic shows on channels that don't have sub
channels. Well, hopefully it will get worked out soon.
It's not all bad. When using
the satellite tuner, everything works VERY well. I have
recorded a number of shows on Discovery HD Theater and the picture is
amazing. Being able to record one channel while watching
another is a great feature.
Well, so far the experience is very
mixed. On the one hand, it does things no receiver can do.
On the other, it doesn't do anything reliably. I have
decided to live with it for the next couple of months.
I will keep you up to date as new versions are released. If
it doesn't improve by then... it's HDTV TiVo time. |