# Ultimate insult to the 921



## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

This has got to be the ultimate insult to what a POS the 921 is. I just did a search on EBay and there is not one 921 for sale. It appears there is no market for this crap at any price.


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## bavaria72 (Jun 10, 2004)

Or perhaps nobody wants to sell theirs.......


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

I'm sure there are people that don't want to, but I would be willing to bet there are many 921 owners that wouldn't part with their's in a sec. if they could get a decent buck for it.


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## jgra (Jan 6, 2005)

I will be getting rid of my 921 by giving it to Comcast for some service credits they have this dish buy back offer and they will give me the highest rate plan for $40 cheaper. 921 is a crap anyone that believe's otherwise are brainwashed.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Why'd you post this in the 942 forum? Moving, and you're lucky I didn't delete it outright.


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## kspeters (Aug 12, 2003)

I don't know how you searched but there are plenty of 921s for sale,,,,including mine. I have not experienced all the problems many have had here, I just wanted NBR recoding.


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

Don't know either, I searched two or three way, seemed a little strange to me when I did it that there were 0 results. 

Also, wrong place or not I have to agree with jgra, it's a POS and every one that purchased one has been lied to and stolen from by Dish.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

currently which is worse the now buggy 721 or the always buggy 921?


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

1. My 721 is working great and has been for a long time now.

2. People that make judgments based on their search not working on EBay -- and then continuing that same judgment even after they are shown that they were wrong about said search -- are quite humorous to me. heh.

- John...


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## jgra (Jan 6, 2005)

jgoggan said:


> 1. My 721 is working great and has been for a long time now.
> 
> 2. People that make judgments based on their search not working on EBay -- and then continuing that same judgment even after they are shown that they were wrong about said search -- are quite humorous to me. heh.
> 
> - John...


 What are you talking about?


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

jgra said:


> What are you talking about?


Try reading the thread. I'm talking about the fact that this entire thread was based on him not finding any 921s on EBay -- even though there has been plenty of them on there for a long time now -- and still are.

In other words, he either searched incorrectly -- or EBay was malfunctioning. In either case, he based it on that, someone then informed him that he was incorrect about the search, and he changed his reasoning so that he could still have the same negative judgment even without his original point. I think that is funny when people do that instead of just going "oh, oops!"

People rarely admit when they were incorrect. No biggie.

- John...


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

jgoggan said:


> In either case, he based it on that, someone then informed him that he was incorrect about the search, and he changed his reasoning so that he could still have the same negative judgment even without his original point.
> - John...


Nothing was based on the search. I own a 921, it's a POS, that has nothing to do with my faulty search. It turns out I must have done something wrong cause there are many there but the bottom line is I did not change my mind or what ever you are trying to say because my search turned out to be wrong. :nono:

One does not need to make up reasons the 921 is garbage, all they need to do is use it very much or have owned a DVR/PVR Mfg. by someone else that actually does what it is advertised to do.


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

jgoggan, your 921 works great, you must have the only one ever made that does cause there are a few hundred if not a few thousand posts here that say the 921 doesn't work right. If you have had no problems or bugs with yours you should head for Reno or Vegas.


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## jgra (Jan 6, 2005)

I agree the 921 is hunk of junk. For heaven sakes a year or so ago this POS was worth $1000 (actually is not the appropriate word, because it was definitely not worth it). Anyway now it costs over $600 and it still to high of a price. Certain people say they think certain people are humurous after they get new information and they still stick to their original judgement. Well I don't like people that have not tried other thinks before they pass a judgement. For example some people need to try other services which I have and I can say honestly that the 921 is POS. I am going to Comcast and dont have to buy anything. If Charlie in the next chat says that he will start giving away 942 or 921 I would not go back. Good Luck


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

Sundance said:


> Also, wrong place or not I have to agree with jgra, it's a POS and every one that purchased one has been lied to and stolen from by Dish.


Sounds like you need to get with bushcasa over in the generall forum. He seems ready to sue E* over the 921. As for saying that that "everyone that purchased one has been lied to and stolen from by Dish", I would say that there are a good size number of people who would not agree with you, so be careful making a blanket statement such as this. If it's such a POS, then get rid of it and find something that works. There are a lot of HD TV owners that whine that there isn't nearly enough HD for their TV, but those 90-95% of us subs with good old SD sets are just peachy with what we are watching.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Larry: With all due respect, I HAVE been lied to by the tunaboy several times over the 921. Firewire, HD nets, NBR, and Dish Home immediately come to mind.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Boy there are a number of threads discussing this same topic just in various forms. My guess is this one just used EBay as an excuse to rant about what a POS it is. I have a 921, and personally I do feel that Dish should do the right thing and swap the current 921 users that are having issues with a 942. For me the 921 has been fragile and I don't have the confidence I had with my 510 and 721 at correctly recording a program. As to it being a POS, I personally would not place it into that catagory, but it also has still to reach a level of stability that is expected by the average consumer. 

As to the blanket statements, well just do a search and you will find some happy people, some people on the fence, and some people ready to jump. So making statements that everyone feels the 921 is a POS is just not correct. A search on here will prove to anyone wanting to make that assertion that it is just noe correct. 

As to being lied to, I think the biggest promise broken on the 921 was firewire and this happend before I purchased mine. As to NBR, well I don't think that was never really promised for the 921, you do however have valid points Simon. 

I see this same thread about once every couple of weeks. I hope that Dish does the right thing in this case and right what I would consider a wrong. Then again Dish my wait to MPEG4 and do it then. Sadly they will lose some customers for sure if they wait, but in the scope of things we are very small percentage of the Dish customer base. Question is, How much does Dish value word of mouth opinions?


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

WJD said:


> Then again Dish may wait to MPEG4 and do it then.


And in fact, that's the smart thing to do, and what I'm waiting for. If tunaboy shafts me on that, I'm gone to D* (no other option), and will also take as many of his customers as I can. Considering my position, that could be hundreds.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

The firewire problem has more to do with the DMCA and the lawyers than actually using the thing. Since I don't have a 921, I can't say whether it not it can actually be activated by messing with the system. However, since it is Linux based, I would be willing to bet there is a way to make it work. And, it's like the internet access that the 721 was supposed to have. Advertised, but never implemented. As for dish home, whop-te-do. Most subs never use that worthless peice of crap. I like the 721s weather feature, when it actually works(which depends on the s/w updates). Much faster and nicer than the other one. HD Networks are irrelevant to the issue of the 921 being a POS, and NBR may end up on it eventually. With 3 different code bases, it's no wonder the 522/942 so far are the only ones with it since there are the new standard.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Boy there are a number of threads discussing this same topic just in various forms. My guess is this one just used EBay as an excuse to rant about what a POS it is. I have a 921, and personally I do feel that Dish should do the right thing and swap the current 921 users that are having issues with a 942. For me the 921 has been fragile and I don't have the confidence I had with my 510 and 721 at correctly recording a program. As to it being a POS, I personally would not place it into that catagory, but it also has still to reach a level of stability that is expected by the average consumer.
> 
> As to the blanket statements, well just doing a search and would find some happy people, some people on the fence, and some people ready to jump. So making statements that everyone feels the 921 is a POS is just not correct. I search will prove it to anyone wanting to make that assertion.
> 
> ...


Ron, your statement and the fact that your a moderator, all I can say is WOW!

John


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

SimpleSimon said:


> And in fact, that's the smart thing to do, and what I'm waiting for. If tunaboy shafts me on that, I'm gone to D* (no other option), and will also take as many of his customers as I can. Considering my position, that could be hundreds.


From a business point of view that is the smart thing to do. However, depending on the timing of the transition a double swap might also make sense as a win/win. It all depends on the MPEG-4 timeline and when Dish thinks they will really roll out MPEG-4.

Boyle: I don't think I said anything that deserved a WOW. Maybe it was mis-interperted. I just said everyone does not think the 921 is a POS, but I personal feel they should swap them out. On the record to be clear, I dont thing the 921 is a POS, but its reliability is not at what I consider an acceptable level for my use case. For others it can range depending on their use cases.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Boyle: I don't think I said anything that deserved a WOW. Maybe it was mis-interperted. I just said everyone does not think the 921 is a POS, but I personal feel they should swap them out. On the record to be clear, I dont thing the 921 is a POS, but its reliability is not at what I consider an acceptable level for my use case. For others it can range depending on their use cases.


I didn't mean to mislead, but your statement was pretty honest and straight forward. It was worth a WOW! I would like to see exactly what you said:


> I do feel that Dish should do the right thing and swap the current 921 users that are having issues with a 942.





> I see this same thread about once every couple of weeks. I hope that Dish does the right thing in this case and right what I would consider a wrong.


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

Sundance said:


> Nothing was based on the search.


Apparently, this THREAD was. 



> I own a 921, it's a POS, that has nothing to do with my faulty search. It turns out I must have done something wrong cause there are many there but the bottom line is I did not change my mind or what ever you are trying to say because my search turned out to be wrong. :nono:


I didn't say you changed your mind. I said that I think it is funny when people start a whole thread -- that turns into a big discussion -- when the reason for the thread was completely incorrect. You seemed to have started this thread just to point out that the 921 must be worthless because they aren't even on EBay. Everything grew from that point -- and that point was completely incorrect.

I didn't say you changed your mind about anything really -- I just said that I think it is humorous when something like that happens (huge discussions based off of originally faulty information). Happens all the time, unfortunately.

- John...


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

Sundance said:


> jgoggan, your 921 works great, you must have the only one ever made that does cause there are a few hundred if not a few thousand posts here that say the 921 doesn't work right. If you have had no problems or bugs with yours you should head for Reno or Vegas.


Um, again, please read what I said. I said that my 721 works great. It was in reply to the post above it implying that everyone with a 721 is having problems since a recent update. Not everyone is.

I don't have a 921. I almost bought one, but financial matters changed.

- John...


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## jgra (Jan 6, 2005)

Actually in my area the dish buy back offer is incredible I will get $40 credit for 12 months. Which will make my monthly service at $69.99 a month for 12 months for way more good channels then dish and directv combined including more hd channels as well as local hd channels included for free. As I mentioned in other posts comcast has a unique set top box which includes the following: dvr, receiver, hd, ota all in one. The service includes all of the popular on demand channels starz, hbo, cinemax, tmc, showtime which each have tons of movies, series, specials etc.... and comcast offers it's own on demand channels which include tons of free content and pay per view including hd ppv on demand. (But I guess all of this depends on the area) I paid about $5-600 for my 921 after the 12 months I will be paying 9.95 for dvr, (which by the way is similar to tivo software, which has many options like season pass etc similar to nbr as well) which if I take the $600 and divide by 9.95 a month will give me 60 years thats 60 years of dvr service which includes all upgrades, updates etc. (But again I guess this all depends in the area you live in). Last time I checked I will have over 40 premium movie channels in my area, compared to dish's 28 or so premium movie channels. The downside as I said before might be the dvr disk capacity but with all the on demand channels I can now use all my hd space for ota local, hd movie and special recordings. Also with on demand starz has announced new technology that will bring better service to on demand customers which include (now here this): movie will premiere on the on demand service at least 2 weeks in advance of premiering on the regular (traditional) starz channel and (now here this) technology that when turned on will include personal movie selections. So versus dish I end up spending after the first 12 months a little over $13 more per month but look at everything else I will be getting. The dvr is a dual tuner and has a swap option which is similar to tivo which allows you to pause on one channel hit the swap button and watch another channel pause, reweind etc and flip between each channel. With the dish buy back offer (depending on the area you live) you can give them whatever receiver you have I don't know what proof other than the receiver you will need but maybe a copy of your satellite bill. The downside in my area is I cannot get upn9hd or wb11hd through comcast cable box. Check out this website for on demand and hdtv info: http://comcast.m0.net/m/p/com/mic/index.asp

There is also a way better chance that wwe 24/7 will be coming to cable first.

Some people might make the argument well the on demand selection are not determined by the individual so thats why a person needs a high capacity dvr, the only way you will find out if the on demand selections does not have what you want or whether the dvr memory is not enough is to try. For me is great due to the fact I do not have to record that many programs for kids now so that will save me space because comcast have many family/kids on demand movies, cartoons etc... I had cablevision, direct, dishnetwork, comcast and I believe overall the best was directv (but I do not have comcast installed yet, so I think this will change and I believe the overall best will be comcast). Directv when i had it with tivo was great channel selection was alright but the service was great, changed channels online with no fees (dish network charges for downgrades directv does not). Wish me luck comcast will be coming over in two days. I dont know whether I should give them my 921 or give them another receiver and sell my 921 over ebay any advice is anyone going through what I am going through? Thanks in advance


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

jgra,

You might want to check this out:

http://multichannel.com/article/CA516325.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP

I agree that is one amazing deal but if it means they control in any way what I see on MY TV I personnel would not do it for any price or no matter how great the deal is. I don't know when or if they will roll this out everywhere but I sure don't like the sound of it.


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## Pils (Sep 20, 2004)

I would sell the 921 on ebay and buy a cheap box at a garage sale for like 10-20 bucks to trade in. It doesn't matter what box you trade in, does it? As long as its a E* box? You can still get some decent money for that 921 even though it is unreliable.


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## tm22721 (Nov 8, 2002)

Personally I won't buy any more E* receivers after the 921, until they offer a PC based tuner card by multiple manufacturs.

Dish proprietary electronics are not worth the hassle, buggy, quickly obsoleted features, missing features.

Wtih today's fierce comptetition, why would anybody give an electronics supplier like this a second/thrd/fourth chance ?


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## jgra (Jan 6, 2005)

*link deleted*


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

jgra - the link to your 921 auction is inappropriate in the Dish forums and against our Terms of Use. You've got is posted in the B,S,T forum, so I'm deleting it from here.


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## cyphire (May 28, 2004)

Replace a 921 with a 942??? Are you mad????

The 942 is a WAY bigger POS than the 921.

It's slicker, but the software is far more buggy and poorly designed. I will take my buggy 921 with it's pathetic software any day over my horrible 942 which, based on previous experience, will never get better due to it's horrific programming interface.

Face it, the 942 is for people who want picture quality, aren't worried about hiccupping sound, and don't have any favorite shows they want to record!!!

Perhaps Dish should make a deal where they go to a quality software development firm to rewrite the system, using the same hardware we have all purchased, at huge expense, only to find out that it's worse than a 921!!!


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

I have a POS 921 as well and decided not to go to the 942 as I didn't see many if any advantages and several reason not to. (for me no way to send down converted HD to a CD or other device, wish they would get off their butt's and fix the luminous problem with the down converted out put) Wish someone would start a class action. It is criminal that they are allowed to put products out like this and promote them with the miss-leading information they use to sell them.


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

Sundance said:


> I have a POS 921 as well and decided not to go to the 942 as I didn't see many if any advantages and several reason not to. (for me no way to send down converted HD to a CD or other device, wish they would get off their butt's and fix the luminous problem with the down converted out put) Wish someone would start a class action. It is criminal that they are allowed to put products out like this and promote them with the miss-leading information they use to sell them.


What are you talking about??? The 942 outputs downconverted HD just fine.


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## moooog (May 10, 2002)

I have two 921's, and found them to initially be very buggy, but have been having zero problems with them over the past few weeks. The fixed aspect ratio was the main problem I was having, but lately even that seems to be o.k., and I haven't had to do a reboot for weeks. Is anyone here having similar good fortune, or am I just lucky?


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

> Is anyone here having similar good fortune, or am I just lucky?


You're just lucky. You on L272 yet? For me it took THREE power-cord reboots just to get the 921 running again, then a couple of remote off/on cycles to get it to show video. POS.


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

LtMunst said:


> What are you talking about??? The 942 outputs downconverted HD just fine.


I posted here (or maybe another forum) and asked that question, does the 942 output down-converted HD and was informed it does not. I do not own one so I don't know first hand. The impression I got from the answers was the only output the 942 has is the output's for the 2nd TV and they are only SD and not HD. I also asked if the 942 out put HD down-converted to the 2nd TV and was told it did not.

I stand corrected and maybe I need to change my ideas on upgrading to a 942, but I don't think I will, sounds like I'll be trading one poorly designed, poorly implemented DVR for the same thing in a different package.


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## Sundance (Mar 6, 2004)

I might be content with the few minor bugs the 921 has if they were not being such A H about not providing the program guide for 921 users and if they would fix the luminous problem for the down converted output of HD. I would REALLY like to see show based recording also.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

At this point we pray for the dream scenario...

Tivo wins the patent infringement court case. Massive judgement imminent. E* panics and buys Tivo outright (or cuts a deal insuring that Tivo branded software gets added to E* receivers). 

Hey, it could happen.... that obnoxious TV Guide logo on the program guide is due to them being forced to make nice nice with Gemstar (who owns TV Guide) over the patents they sued E* to enforce.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

Sundance said:


> I might be content with the few minor bugs the 921 has if they were not being such A H about not providing the program guide for 921 users and if they would fix the luminous problem for the down converted output of HD. I would REALLY like to see show based recording also.


YES! When they replaced my 921 after a hard drive failure, the replacement one makes every SD recording look like the sunny planet that washed out all the color in the Pitch Black movie.

Is this a hardware issue or a software one? I've given up archiving shows to DVD as they are unwatchable.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

BobMurdoch said:


> .... that obnoxious TV Guide logo on the program guide is due to them being forced to make nice nice with Gemstar (who owns TV Guide) over the patents they sued E* to enforce.


It is a dam eye sore!


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

Speaking of the TV Guide logo and such... So, does Gemstar provide the show descriptions? Or who does that? I've noticed that, over the past year, the descriptions have gotten less and less accurate. Recent descriptions for current network shows have been significantly wrong on several occasions -- including shows such as Law & Order, According to Jim, ER, and others. I'm really getting tired of it... 

- John...


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Well... I'm on my *5th* :eek2: 921. The only time the 921 was stable for me was when I had guide data for the OTA's during 2.15 (and the temporary "free" LIL's during 2.16). Without complete guide data the timers are more likely to screw up.

E* continues to shoot themselves in the foot with the 921. I believe it is possible for this big silver box to work as advertized, however due to business decisions the "dream fix" software is being prevented from deployment.


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## stonecold (Feb 20, 2004)

When the 921 users put up with 6 plus years of bugs and **** then they can complain. 



The last 7200 Survivor.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Jawa78 - you're not the last...

There is.. Another..

(That would be me)


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