# VIP922 - First Impressions, Missing OTA resolved!



## ZBoomer

Ok, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.

First some bad. The HDD in my VIP722 went to the great bit bucket in the sky yesterday. I lost a full drive of recordings, many I hadn't yet watched. Oh well, life goes on. HULU and reruns I can get most.

The good. I called Dish, and after a bunch of trouble shooting, most of which I'd already done 10x, they declared it dead. I decided to go ahead and dish-it-up to a 922, since I would love the ability to sling to my office PC while I work during the day.

Amazingly, she made an appointment for this morning, and they guy was here by 9am with the unit. So my 722 died Tuesday evening like at 7pm, replaced this morning at 9am, NOT SHABBY, great support there. I was doing this all via online chat, btw. GREAT support tool there.

The cost was $205 ($5 charge for something, I forget) just to lease the damn thing, with a new 24-mo agreement. Way high IMO, but I guess you gotta pay to play. I asked her 4-5 times, repeatedly, if it had the OTA module, and she insisted it did...more on that later... She did not charge me a dime for install. Maybe because my 722 was dead? Heck if I know, but no $95 or even $15 install charge I've seen people list here. Another plus...

Ok, some bad. My original Dish installer several years back was top-notch, I mean good. He even wore shoe covers while walking in my house, which is way overkill. The guy who installed my 722 and a wing dish a couple years back was pretty good too, great guys.

The flunky they sent to do my 922 was a joke, lol. Nice enough, but he looked like a REAL Rastafarian, and had the attitude to match. It was the first 922 he'd ever seen, but he assured me he was "Trained." lol.

The whole scene was sorta twilight zone - I stood there watching, and he was working like molasses, just very weird the whole thing. His "install" consisted of unboxing the new unit, hooking it to my existing wiring, and programming the remote. It was very obvious he'd never even seen the interface before, haha.

After seeing all that, I was sooo thankful he didn't have any intentions of doing any network setup, dish tweaking, testing, etc. More on that later too...

I had to firmly ask him to leave the HDMI cable that came in the 922's box, he was going to take it. For $200, I want the damn cable whether I need it or not!

Ok, my first impressions of the 922? The guys bashing it probably haven't tried it, because so far, this thing rocks. It's super fast, and the interface is way nicer than my 722's, even at this stage of development. Trick play is flawless, and so much more responsive. The remote is waaay better too. Great UHF range, and responds fast, with some nice new buttons as well. You program it via a menu item in the DVR, so easy. Single-touch record rocks, and I like the way it sets whether you want to record a single show, series, etc.

Anyway, I also ran into some problems. Turns out, the 922 needs to be online, and in standby mode for some number of hours before everything works right, as it downloads sling firmware, etc. I couldn't connect via sling, some menu apps didn't work, etc. It took me 30 minutes on tech chat to find this out. Would have been NICE for the flunky to tell me this...

Also, as I expected, despite me asking 4-5 times during order setup, it does NOT have the OTA module included, DUH. And of course, the guy didn't have one on his truck. I shouldn't have bought into the rep insisting it was included, but hey, it's a new unit, and I held onto hope they had changed their policy.

So I figured since I'd done my due diligence to make sure I got OTA, but they didn't deliver, they should at least give me one at a great discount, right?

So just now I fired up chat again, and after the third chat transfer, they found someone with 922 knowledge. He kept insisting the unit was $29.99, $15 shipping, plus tax, for a total of $47.46. WTF??  :nono2: :nono:

There was no f'n way I was going to pay another $50 to get a freaking OTA module after all I'd gone through to make sure I got it originally. Not to mention the horrible freaking installer experience I'd just had, no way.

What I had to do to convince the guy to give me a price break after that, I'll just let you read, here is the transcript, lol. (Excuse the spelling, it was chat and I didn't make any corrections.)

Too funny, but hey, I got the module free, for just shipping! It's the freaking least they could do, dang...

More on the unit later, so far I love the thing.

Ok, here is my chat about the OTA module, somewhat funny.

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Please wait while we find a representative to assist you...
You are currently at position number 1 in the queue.
Thank you for being a valued DISH Network customer, I will be happy to assist you today. Please give me a moment to access your account and review the information you have already provided.
(03) Simon V.VVH: Thank you for your time and patience.
Boomer: No problem.
(03) Simon V.VVH: Please give me 2-3 minutes while I pull up your account and assist you further.
Boomer: Thanks.
(03) Simon V.VVH: Thank you for your time and patience.
(03) Simon V.VVH: I am still checking the information.
Boomer: ok
Boomer: My VIP722 died, was replaced by a 922. I specifically asked several times during the process to make sure I got the OTA tuner, but the installer did not have it. So I need one.
(03) Simon V.VVH: Thank you for your time and patience.
(03) Simon V.VVH: I see the receiver is inbuilt OTA Module.
(03) Simon V.VVH: Please be online while I transfer the chat technical team for better assistance.
Boomer: that's what they said too, but it is not, it is optional. There is a place in it where it fits, and mine is empty.
Boomer: ok
(03) Simon V.VVH has left the session.
Please wait while we find an agent from the (04) Technical Support department to assist you.
Thank you for being a valued DISH Network customer, I will be happy to assist you today. Please give me a moment to access your account and review the information you have already provided.
(04-21rf#) Phillip M.YWR: I'm very sorry to hear that you are having an issue. I'd be happy to resolve that for you.
Boomer: thanks
Boomer: Do you see my issue, or shall I send it again?
(04-21rf#) Phillip M.YWR: unfortunately I can not assist you with this, I will have to transfer you to a special team that works with the new 922's
(04-21rf#) Phillip M.YWR: they will be with you in one moment
(04-21rf#) Phillip M.YWR has left the session.
Please wait while we find an agent from the (17) New Product department to assist you.
Thank you for contacting New Product Chat. I will be happy to assist you today. Please give me a moment to review the information you have already provided.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: My name is Danny with advanced technical support, my op id is BZM. I'll be happy to assist you today. May I please call you by your first name?
Boomer: Yes, sure, thanks.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Great. You're welcome.
Boomer: can you see my issue, or do I need to re-type it?
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: I apologize for the inconvenience in reference to the OTA module.
Boomer: you are the third chat person I've connected to.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Unfortunately, the receiver doesn't come with the OTA module.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: I apologize.
Boomer: yes, that is apparent now, but the person who setup my order told me it did. 
Boomer: and I asked 4-5 times to be sure.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: The OTA module costs $29.99 plus shipping of $15. The total with tax is $47.46.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: I am sorry for the misinformation in reference to the OTA module.
Boomer: there's no way I am going to pay that much given the situation, how I was told it was included and asked multiple times. I will need to speak to a mgr, that's ridiculous.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: I apologize for the issue, unfortunately, the VIP 922 receiver doesn't include the OTA module. That accessory needs to be purchased separately.
Boomer: are you authorized to do it at a discounted price? If not, please connect me to someone who is.
Boomer: Again, I placed my order based on bad information from Dish.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Unfortunately, that is the fee for the OTA module if you are wanting to receive off air channels. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Boomer: ok, fine, I'll email CEO, no problem. Goodbye.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: What I can do is look into having the fee waived for the module, you would just need to pay for shipping of the OTA module which is $15.
Boomer: ok, if you can do that, that's fair.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Great.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: What is the address and zip code which I can send out the OTA module to?
Boomer: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Great. Would you like to pay for shipping now, or have the fee billed to your account?
Boomer: Add it to my bill please, that's fine.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Great. One moment please.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Great. The $15 shipping will be billed to the account. The order has been placed. The reference number is xxxxxxxxx. The order is being shipped by UPS which you should receive in 5 days. The order does include a 1 year warranty.
Boomer: Ok, thanks for your help.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: For account security, we require to provide a 4 digit pin on the account. What would you like to use as a pin on the account?
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: You're very welcome.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: I appreciate your patience.
Boomer: xxxx please
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Great.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Thank you.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Since we value you as a customer, I'd like to offer you a special deal. I would like for you to be able to refer your friends and family though a special promotion we 
call Club Dish. This offer allows you to refer your friends and family with a savings for them and as an added bonus, you save money on your bill when they connect their service with us. Follow this link.http://www.dishnetwork.com/customerService/clubDish/
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: It was a pleasure assisting you and thank you for your cooperation today. Do you have 
any more questions for me or have I handled everything to your satisfaction?
Boomer: No, thanks, have a good day.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: You're welcome.
(24DrDep) Daniel V.BZM: Thank you for using Dish Network Chat. Have a great day.


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## Stewart Vernon

I would have paid for the module but not for shipping, since it was supposed to come with the install. Even if they screwed up and "lied" about it coming with instead of being $29.99, I could understand that... but I absolutely would have been pissed if they wanted to charge $15 to ship something that should have been brought with the install since you'd requested it to begin with!

Thankfully you get it for $15... but I'd still be irritated that I didn't have OTA while I was waiting.

These are the kinds of very simple things that companies, including Dish, seem to get wrong all too often.


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## ZBoomer

Yeah, I wasn't out to get the thing free, but it kinda peeved me that I kept insisting to the rep yesterday that it was optional, that I needed it, but she wouldn't believe me.

Of course, being a new unit, I wasn't *absolutely *sure, figured maybe they'd changed it, so I let it go. Needless to say I wasn't surprised when it showed up today without it, lol. Of course the flunky installer had no clue, he had to call his office.

Then when the guy today told me $15 shipping, plus taxes on the OTA, etc. it just sorta peeved me. $15 and taxes to ship what amounts to probably a 4oz part, ugh. If you notice I didn't even ask for it free even today, I just asked for some kind of discount, which I figured was fair, given now I have to wait 5 days for it, had to pay shipping, etc. I had to throw down some threats to get a discount, which sucked.

That said, I'm really liking the 922. I like the way you setup timers and record stuff MUCH over the 722. It defaults to single-touch record with the record button, and if you select something in the guide, the default is to record ONE show, not a series like the previous setup did. I laugh every time I go over my brother's house; he has tons of stuff on his DVR he never wanted because his little girl just wanted to record one show, but it defaults to series when she presses record.

Also it is somewhat intelligent in that if you select a new show to record a series, it defaults the series to "new only", but if you select a rerun, it defaults to "new and reruns." Pretty cool there...

Discovered some cool stuff in the guide too; it even shows very short programs, i.e. programs under 30 minutes long, which you couldn't even see in the 722's guide. You never knew they existed unless they came up in a search.

After turning the unit off two hours, all the issues I had are fixed. All menu items work, Sling works, and looks very good in HD on my LAN. Also now has cool looking "icons" in the guide for each channel. Every show you view info on has a screen shot of the channel too, very nice looking.

I do NOT like the way you have to log into Dishnetwork.com, then go through several menus and screens to get to the remote viewing site though, that needs to be fixed. Should be able to log right into that location without going through your account first.

I love the search feature too so far. One thing I do miss is DishPASS timers, where it records anything with a certain keyword in it. I hope they add that in the future.

Another cool, if small thing; when you hit "live TV" anywhere, it GOES LIVE, with NO BANNER at all, no need to press clear to get rid of the banner, etc. Soon as you hit live tv, you see the program live, only the program, instantly. That's very nice.

I'm still getting used to it, and there are pros and cons to everything, but to me it is a quantum leap GUI wise over the previous design. I'm not sure why it seems several folks on here consider it a letdown; it's by far the best DVR I've ever used or seen. Frankly, I'm very surprised it seems so polished and smooth already. Then again, I'm surely jinxing myself saying that...


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## olguy

My OTA module was free with the install. Had to show the installer that the work order included it. He didn't have one. Said he would call and have one shipped. Being the trusting soul that I am I called that afternoon and the CSR says "I see you were to get it. Sorry about that. UPS will have it there Wed". I says fine, thank you very much. Wed UPS delivered 2 of them so I guess the installer did order it :lol:

Another fine example of the consistency of Dish's inconsistency


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## ZBoomer

I've now had the 922 for about a week, and I must say, despite a few things I'd like changed, overall it's the best DVR I've ever used, by far, and the positives far outweigh the negatives.

A few examples off the top of my head, improvements over my 722.

When you pause a show, then press step fwd or step back, after a couple seconds it erases ALL graphics on the screen, including the progress bar, pause or jump button, everything. On the 722 you had to press clear twice to get this to happen.

It is WAY faster using Dishonline content. You can start viewing even an HD show within seconds, and it downloads almost at my max internet speed. My 722 was barely usable in this regard.

When you have multiple similar shows in a folder, if you press "play" while hovered over a folder, it automatically plays the newest one. You don't have to even go into the folder and select it.

It boots up much faster than my 722 did.

Fast-forward and rewind are MUCH faster than more snappy than the 722. Even at 60x the 722 really ran like 10x. The 922 just BLAZES through a program, even HD.

The channel guide seems to default to a mode I really like; if an HD channel exists, that's all it shows. It does not show the SD counterpart beside it in the guide. If a channel exists only in SD, then it shows that. Nice setup.

It changes channels MUCH faster, whether going up/down (which I rarely do), or selecting a new channel in the guide. My 722 and 622 both took several seconds sometimes to change channels, this thing does it like 4x as fast.

I've said this before, but trick play works way better than my 722 did, regardless of what you are doing. FF, slow, frame by frame, whatever... very smooth and good.

The guide and interface looks so much nicer it's almost laughable now looking back to the 722. It's a huge improvement.

PIP is better in some ways, lacking others. You cannot go straight to split-screen as far as I can tell, you have to call up PIP, then tell it to go split screen. On the plus side, if you are using PIP, it now puts the small window right at the edge of the big image, instead of several inches out. Makes the main image much more viewable.

Also, it's a button click or two less to get rid of PIP. Before if you had PIP on, you had to press PIP again to get big PIP, again to get split, then again to get rid of it. Now you press PIP once to get the PIP control on-screen, then press select one more time to kill PIP. It doesn't have to cycle through all the options to get rid of it.

So it's easier in some ways, not as easy to go split and out instantly with a single press.

Love the search feature, FAR faster than easier to use than before IMO.

As for recording, the method for resolving timer conflicts is FAR nicer now. If you have a conflict, it will show all the shows on the screen for that time slot. You can tell it to not record the new show you just tried to record (nix the timer), or you can tell it which of the other shows you want to skip in lieu of the new one. Super slick, works awesome.

Some negatives I hope they improve on: Like someone mentioned, there are no numerical shortcuts when in the menu, which slows you down if you were used to the numbers before. Before I could turn on cc quickly, even though it did suck. It sucks more now, requiring a bunch of button presses to get cc on or off. I'm hoping I can figure out a faster way, or they fix this.

On the plus side of this, there are four new colored buttons on the remote that jump straight to certain sections in the menu; one goes to "setup", one straight to Broadband screen, and a couple others I forget now exactly where they take you.

I just installed my OTA tuner unit yesterday, and it seems to work nicely. I haven't had a time yet where I need both OTA tuners, but I will when new-show season fires up again.

So anyway, there are a few things that need work, but I have to say this thing is a major leap, and IMO puts Dish far in the lead DVR wise. I haven't even mentioned the Sling feature that lets me watch in my office on my PC easily.

I highly recommend this thing, if you are presently using your 722 or 622 for a single TV only, or if you can get a separate receiver for the 2nd TV.


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## phrelin

Nice review of the 922 as a DVR. It appears yours is working OK. That's good to hear. As i monitor these threads, it may be that the unit is stable earlier than I expected. That's good because based on several recent reboot events I think the time will come shortly when my 722 will have to be replaced.


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## ZBoomer

I was not expecting much either, based on mostly downer reports here. I'm not sure why so many folks choose to emphasize the negatives, of which there are some obviously.

EVERYTHING is not improved, there are some things I preferred the old way, but since the improvements outnumber them like 10:1, I am choosing not to ***** and moan about a few things that don't work as well now, like getting to cc, different way the pip works, etc. I am stunned it works so well right out of the gate for me. I hope I'm not jinxing myself saying that, but it does.

With firmware 105, my unit hasn't rebooted, shut down, missed a recording, anything strange at all. In fact, it's more stable than my 722 was, if you can believe it.

Basically many things I see lots of complaints about are that it does many things DIFFERENT, and when you've used a 722 for a few years, it fits like a warm glove, and it takes some getting used to when you get a new pair.

The interface is completely different. If you've used a 722 before, you see many of the underlying things are the same, but it's way different.

Plus I guess your opinion depends on how dependent you were on some things that changed. For example, I rarely use Dish Passes, so the fact they are not there yet doesn't bug me at all, whereas someone else it might be a deal breaker.

So far the biggest irritant I have is turning cc on/off. I will say when it's on, the on-screen text looks WAY nicer, lol.


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## Stewart Vernon

One thing to keep in mind on forums like this... is that we all tend to be more highly critical, as that's usually how we find a place like this... to discuss what we find wrong with something.

I think the 922 is good at a lot of things... the main "problem" is that it didn't live up to its nearly 2 year hype before release.


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## ZBoomer

I hear ya, makes sense. Well, they might have promised a 7-carat diamond, but they gave a 5-carat one, so it's still pretty nice.  I'm not thrilled it cost $200 to lease the thing, that's the worst part IMO.

Question for anyone familiar with SLING; when I stream locally to my PC, it uses higher bandwidth when doing SD streaming than HD.

Any idea why? That seems bass ackwards. When streaming SD it goes above 8mbps, HD usually is around 3.5 to 6. If I stream HD into the tiny window, it will sometimes get above 6mbps, but if streaming to full-screen HD, it locks in around 3-3.5. Again, seems backwards.

I was thinking maybe my CPU can only process the HD video information that fast, so that's all the bandwidth it can accept? Running it on a Core2 Duo 2.4Ghz.

When playing an HD stream, it burns about 45-55% CPU. Running anything else that tries to use a significant amount of CPU will degrade the video.

Also ridiculous they don't have a stand-alone player, you have to log into Dishnetwork, go through several screens and web sites, then watch it on the web, even on your LAN. The web player has no options either, it's almost like it was designed for MAC users, lol. Lastly, when you first start up it defaults to SD, and you have to switch to HD, which then forces it to pause, re-authenticate to your box, etc. Lame "feature."

Re-enabling their stand-alone player to work over the LAN would be MUCH better IMO.


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## GrumpyBear

How are you enjoying the sling to PC portion? I don't like idea of having to jump through to many websites, to stream HD video over my own LAN. I thought the client piece would be cleaner by now. 
Reason I am asking is, my wife and kids are really looking forward to Streaming to thier Laptops.


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## ZBoomer

It works pretty well, but to be honest, being a technical person, I don't like the way you have to log into the web site to view remotely, even when you are on the LAN.

To a laymen, my wife for example, it would probably be great, because it's all automatic, and works. No setup needed on the Slingbox, etc. I have a stand-alone Slingbox, and it's 10x more complicated to setup and view.

I would be happy if they'd release a stand-alone player for LAN viewing, that's really all I ask. I can do without all the guide info, and other cool stuff you get when viewing online.


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## ZBoomer

Does anyone know if there's a way to disable or block the 922's internal "Homelink" NIC?

I use Homelink powerline adapters for my printer (one on router, one on other side of the house for my printer), but even though I have my 922 hooked up direct via ethernet to my router, it will often try to use the Homelink connection, which results in a very slow, weak, connection which goes down often.

The thing is too stupid to use the ethernet connection first, or even switch to it if the Homelink one sucks.

Very frustrating, I'm having to unplug my powerline adapters when I'm not using the printer to keep the DVR from using it.


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## olguy

Based on my experience with my 622s I would guess no. The Homelink is the default. I'm not too concerned with my 922 yet. When Dish-On-Line is working maybe. A couple of things you can do. Use a power strip that doesn't allow Homelink to work. That forces the ethernet port. The other option is to block the MAC address for the Homelink on your router because the ethernet port and Homelink each have their own MAC address. At least on the 622.


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## ZBoomer

Thanks for the tips; I also had this issue with my 722, but didn't notice as much because I wasn't using the network connection near as much on that one, since it didn't have the Sling.

I tried the power strip thing already, but apparently all the strips I have pass enough of the signal for it to still at least try to work.

I ended up unplugging my other homelink adapters when not using them. Pain, but since I don't use them that often, not too bad.

I love the 922 so far; the improvements over the 722 are so numerous and great, they far outweigh the drawbacks IMO.


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## reybie

Very informative thread. I still have the 622 and debating on shelling out $200. I have dual mode on my 622 so I'm not sure how that will turn out when I get a 922, get a new receiver for my other room?


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## olguy

reybie said:


> Very informative thread. I still have the 622 and debating on shelling out $200. I have dual mode on my 622 so I'm not sure how that will turn out when I get a 922, get a new receiver for my other room?


Or move the 622. That's what I did.


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