# DBSTalk First Look: In-Home DVR-942 Review, Part 2 - Setup and "The Basics"



## Mark Lamutt

*DISH Network™ DISH Player-DVR 942 Review, page 4*
By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
All text and images ©2005 DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
No other use is allowed without prior written permission from www.DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
Permission is not granted to distribute, republish or post this review's text or images in part or in entirety at any other internet site or location, other than www.DBSTalk.Com ​
*2.3 DVR-942 Options and Features Setup*

Once you have your DVR-942 activated, it's now time to go through the rest of the setup and preference settings.

First, let's take a look at the main menu:

 

Most of the options that we'll be looking at in this section are located in menu option #6 - System Setup, menu option #8 - Preferences and menu option #5 - Locks.

*2.3.1 Menu-6 System Setup*

The System Setup menu is shown below:

 

Menu-6-1: Installation

Let's start out at the top of this menu, with option #1 - Installation. The Installation menu:

 

Menu-6-1-1: The Point Dish screen is very similar to all other Dish receivers. This is where you will check each satellite tuner's signal strength for each satellite you are seeing. The Point Dish screen is shown below:

 

If you need to check the aiming of your dish, enter your zip code where indicated, your type of dish installed and the azimuth, elevation and skew (if applicable) for your location will be displayed. A difference here between the DVR-942 Point Dish screen and the DVR-921 Point Dish screen - the Point Dish screen here does not allow you to check the signal strength of your local OTA digital channels. But, as we'll see a little later on, you won't miss it at all. This screen is also where you'll come to run a Check Switch when necessary.

Menu-6-1-2: The Caller ID option is where you enable or disable the caller ID function of the DVR-942. The setup screen is as follows:

 

Menu-6-1-3: The System Info screen is shown below:

 

You'll notice that both remotes are listed here, and that they both have different remote addresses.

Menu-6-1-4: The Phone System option is where you define any outside dialing prefix necessary to dial out on your phone line, and what type of phone you have:

 

Menu-6-1-5: The Modulator Setup is where you define on which channel to modulate the TV2 RF output. Gone are the days where you had to choose between channel 3 and 4, with mono audio coming out of your RF output! You have two options for output modulation - either using normal off-air frequencies for channels 21-69 or using cable channel frequencies for channels 73-125. If you have the other standard definition televisions in your home set up using normal off-air channel frequencies, choose Air here, and choose a channel you don't receive over the air in your area. If your other televisions are connected to a cable system, choose Cable here, and choose a channel you don't receive on your local cable.

 

Now, back to the System Setup menu options:

Menu-6-2: Shared View: When you are in Single User mode, shared view allows you to output the same programming you are watching on your primary TV1 display to the TV2 output connections. If the programming you are watching on TV1 is high definition, it will be downconverted to standard definition and then output to the other televisions to which you are connected. Shared view is enabled by default.

 

Menu-6-7: Dolby Digital: Defines the output stream type for the TV1 digital optical output. Options available are Dolby Digital and PCM, Dolby Digital only and PCM only, with Line Mode compression or RF Mode compression. Note: The Dolby Digital incompatibility problems that have been plaguing the 921, 811, and 5xx series receivers have been fixed for the DVR-942, at least on a few of the reported "problem" A/V receivers and pre-amps.

 

Menu-6-8: HDTV Setup: This is the option to use to define what type of HDTV to which you have your TV1 outputs connected. You also use this option to define what you have connected to the 8VSB input.

 

For Analog Type, you have an Off-Air option, and several Cable channel options. This setting tells the DVR-942 what frequency range to use for each analog channel number. If you have an off-air antenna connected to your 8VSB input, then choose Off-Air for this option. If you have a cable line connected, choose the correct cable option for your local cable system.

The TV Type option defines TV1's output resolution. In other words, the resolution you choose will output to your HDTV through the HDMI cable and the component cables. Your choices are 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. Note that the DVR-942 will output a 480i signal via HDMI and component video. 

The Aspect Ratio option defines the aspect ratio of your HDTV. If you have a 16x9 screen television, Select the 16x9 option. If you have a 4x3 HDTV that vertically compresses a high definition signal, Select the 4x3#1 option. If you have a 4x3 HDTV that does not vertically compress an HD signal, Select the 4x3#2 option. Note: in Single User mode, this aspect ratio also controls the aspect ratio of the standard definition outputs of TV2, so if you are watching a 16x9 HD program, the TV2 standard definition output will be horizontally squished (tall skinny people syndrome).

Because there is no longer a SD/HD button on the remote, this screen is the only way to change output resolution and aspect ratio. I have already requested a discrete remote input key sequence to change between the output resolutions and aspect ratios. I have also already requested a direct resolution passthrough mode, where the DVR-942 would output 1080i for 1080i broadcast channels and 720p for 720p broadcast channels. However, neither one of these features is currently available.

Menu-6-9: Local Channels is the option to use to define your local digital and analog channels if you have an antenna or cable line attached to your 8VSB input. When you first Select this option, you will be presented with the following screen, with the box on the left side of the screen empty:

 

Please note that if you connect a cable line from your local cable system to your 8VSB input, you will not be able to add any local digital channels from your area, even if your cable system has them available. The DVR-942 does not have a cable-compatible QAM tuner so it cannot receive digital cable or high definition cable channels. It can only receive analog cable channels. To watch local digital channels, you must connect an off-air antenna to your 8VSB input port.

To add your local channels to the list in the box, you have two options - have the DVR-942 scan them in or manually add them in yourself. At the time of the DVR-942 release, support for OTA analog channels has not yet been added. OTA analog channels are a planned feature that will be added in a future software release. Let's take a look at the Scan option first. When you Select the Scan locals option from this screen, you will be taken to a screen giving you the option to scan digital channels, analog channels or both. You will see the following screen while the scan is taking place. For this scan, I selected to scan for only digital channels. The scan took place from channel 2 to channel 69.

 

After the scan completes, the screen will tell you how many channels were found, and give you an OK option to Select. You will then be taken back to the Local Channels screen, and any channels found will be listed in the box on the left side of the screen.

Now, let's take a look at the Add Locals option.

 

On this screen, use the Arrow Up/Down buttons on your remote to scroll through the channels, or directly enter the channel number with your remote keypad. Please note that you must enter the actual broadcast channel number here, NOT the PSIP remapped channel number of your local station. The channel in the screenshot is my Denver local ABC station. They broadcast on channel 17, but show up as channel 7-1 in the channel list. Channel 7-1 is their PSIP remapped channel. If I had entered channel 7 in the Transmit Number box, I would have seen 0 signal strength because I have no digital channels in my area that broadcast on channel 7. Once you enter a valid channel number, the signal strength of that channel will display. If the bar is green, with the "Locked" message, the channel has been found, and you have sufficient signal strength to lock onto the signal. If the bar is red, that means that you don't have sufficient signal strength to get a lock on that channel. This may be due to your antenna not receiving a powerful enough signal, it may be due to multipath issues, or it may be due to a problem at the local station. Once you see the green bar and the "Locked" message, press the Done button, and that channel will be saved to your channel list.

Now, take a look at the Local Channels screen again. You'll recall earlier in this review when we were looking at the Point Dish screen, I said that you could not test signal strength for your off-air tuner as you can on the DVR-921 from this screen, but that you wouldn't miss it. On the Local Channels screen, you can highlight a channel in your channel list, and you will see the signal strength for that channel.

One more option to take a look at on this screen - the Sat Locals option. This is where you can define if you want your satellite locals package mapped down to your broadcast channel numbers, or if you want them left in the 8000 channel range.

 

For example, in Denver, my ABC station is channel 8200 on DISH Network™, but broadcasts over the air on channel 7. With this option enabled, my ABC station will show up in the guide and be tunable as channel 7. With this option disabled, my ABC station will show up in the guide and be tunable as channel 8200.

DISH Network™ trademarks are property of EchoStar Satellite L.L.C., and are used with permission.​


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## Mark Lamutt

*DISH Network™ DISH Player-DVR 942 Review, page 5*
By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
All text and images ©2005 DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
No other use is allowed without prior written permission from www.DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
Permission is not granted to distribute, republish or post this review's text or images in part or in entirety at any other internet site or location, other than www.DBSTalk.Com ​
*2.3.2 Menu-8 Preferences*

The Preferences menu is shown below:

 

Menu-8-2: The Guide display is where you will define how your guide looks on screen. DISH Network™ has finally come through by giving us 2 new options for the display of the guide data. Below is the list of guide display options:

 

The following two pictures show how the standard DVR-942 guide appears with and without the video preview window. This option is very similar to the guide appearance on most other DISH Network™ receivers. It's your standard 5 and 7 channel list available on screen, showing 1 hour 30 minutes of guide data.

 

 

The following two pictures show the first of the new guide display options offered by the DVR-942. Both with and without the video preview window, the enhanced guide display offers larger text fonts for all of the on-screen text. The larger text, however, limits the on-screen channel list to 4 and 6 channels respectively, with 1 hour of guide data visible.

 

 

The following two pictures show the second new guide display option that the DVR-942 offers. Both with and without the video preview window, the extended guide display offers a true widescreen view of the guide data. The smaller text size allows for a channel list of 7 and 9 channels respectively, displaying 3 full hours of guide data on the screen.

 

 

Menu-8-3: The Favorites option works similarly to other DISH Network™ receivers.

 

If you were paying attention looking at the guide display graphics, you saw my custom favorites list called HD, and you noticed the local digital channels being shown in the custom list. Adding local digital channels to favorites lists works out of the box with the DVR-942. Four custom lists are available, but there is currently no way to delete a list once you customize it without restoring factory defaults. If you remove all selected channels from a favorites list, it won't be accessible from the guide, but there still needs to be a way to delete a list once it's been modified.

Menu-8-5: The Updates option defines what time of day or night the DVR-942 downloads new guide data. The download must be enabled in this screen for guide data to be downloaded. As a side note, this setting also enables new software downloads to take place, so if at any point in the future you wish to set your DVR-942 to not take a new software download, you can disable the Updates option to prevent it. Of course, your guide data will go out of date, but it is an option with this receiver.

 

Menu-8-6: Record Plus: When enabled in Dual User mode, the record plus option allows you to force new and existing timers to record on the preferred tuner - either TV1 or TV2, if there is no timer conflict. In Single User mode, record plus is always enabled, with TV2 set as the tuner preference by default.

 

Menu-8-8: The Closed Caption option is where you turn closed captioning on, and where you can define the look and feel of the closed captioning text as it is displayed on screen. Below is a screen shot listing the available options:

 

To turn closed captioning on, Select the first item in this list. The text in the item box will change to "Turn Captions Off". This indicates that closed captioning has been activated. Each of the other options have a default value of "Provider." You have a good amount of control in making the captioning look like you want it to look.

The following picture shows the closed captioning on screen, with all of the options left at the "Provider" options:

 

For you DVR-921 owners, I'd like to point out that this screen shot was taken while tuned to ESPN-HD. Closed captioning works on channels of any resolution, including 720p channels.

*2.3.3 Menu-5 Locks*

The Locks setup menu is as follows:

 

Menu-5-1: The Ratings Locks are defined to lock out certain programs based on their ratings or rated content.

 

Selecting a lesser rating automatically selects all ratings below it. For example, if you Select the PG-13 rating, R, NC-17 and NR/AO are also selected. Use the expanded ratings to lock out non-theatrical programming that doesn't have a theatrical rating.

Menu-5-2: Channel Locks are defined to lock out certain channels completely, so that they cannot be tuned without entering the password.

 

Menu-5-3: The Lock System option toggles between the locks being on and off. When the locks are on, the toggle will read Unlock System. The first time you lock the system, you will be prompted to define your 4 digit system password.

When the system is locked and you tune to a locked channel or event, you will see the following screen asking you to input your password:

 

If you try to tune to a locked channel or set a timer for a locked event from the guide, you will see the following screen asking you to input your password:

 

Menu-5-4: The Front Panel Lock option is used to lock out all of the front panel functions. Once the front panel is locked, if one of the panel buttons is pressed, the following message will flash on the screen:

 

Menu-5-5: Use the Change Password option to change your system password. You will be prompted to enter your old password first before being allowed to change it to something new.

 

Menu-5-6: The Lock PPV toggle option will lock out all Pay-Per-View channels so that PPV cannot be ordered without first entering the password. When this is turned on, the menu option will read "Unlock PPV".

Menu-5-7: The Hide Adult toggle option will hide the adult channels from the guide, Browse, and make them not tunable. When this option is turned on, the menu option will read "Show Adult".

Menu-5-8: The Hide Locked toggle option will hide all locked channels from the guide display, browse banner, all search results, and make them untunable. When this option is turned on, the menu option will read "Show Locked".

DISH Network™ trademarks are property of EchoStar Satellite L.L.C., and are used with permission.​


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## Mark Lamutt

*DISH Network™ DISH Player-DVR 942 Review, page 6*
By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
All text and images ©2005 DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
No other use is allowed without prior written permission from www.DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
Permission is not granted to distribute, republish or post this review's text or images in part or in entirety at any other internet site or location, other than www.DBSTalk.Com ​
*3.0 DVR-942 Operation*

So, if you're still with me here, you know just about everything that there is to know about installing and setting up a DVR-942. That's all fine and good, but how does it work? Read on&#8230;answers for your questions, and all the pictures and screen shots that you could ever want await!

*3.1 The Basics*

A lot of the time, if you're like me, you just want to hit the couch, press a remote button to turn on the system and just watch some television. This operation is what I call "The Basics" - it's just enough to get you to the channel or to the program that you want to watch. Fortunately, the DVR-942 is a simple enough device that the "Basics" involve just a few presses of the remote, and you're off and running.

*3.1.1 Channel, Guide, Browse Operation*

In addition to the two most obvious methods of tuning channels (the Arrow Up/Down remote buttons and directly entering the channel number with the remote), you can also tune channels with the Guide and with Browse.

Let's take a look at the channel information banner that will appear on screen every time you change satellite channels:

 

The left side of the banner shows you which tuner you are using (the green TV1 icon or the blue TV2 icon), the current date and time, the current operating mode (Single Mode or Dual mode) and the current aspect ratio format. The center of the banner shows you the current program name, the timeslot for the current program, and the channel number to which you are currently tuned. The right side of the banner shows you the rating of the current program, the time left in the current program and what Favorites list you currently have active.

If you are tuned to an OTA digital channel, the digital signal strength is also displayed at the bottom of the banner, as shown below:

 

Here's a picture of the Guide screen, once again for reference:

 

The DVR-942 offers up to nine days worth of guide data. The DVR-942 must "see" the 110 satellite location to download the nine day guide. If you don't have a view of the 110 satellite in your location, then you will only get the standard 3 days worth of guide data. Use the Arrow keys to move up, down, left and right in the guide. Use the Page Up/Down buttons to scroll through your channels a page at a time. To jump 17 hours into the future, enter 1-7 on the remote, followed by the Arrow Right button. To jump 24 hours into the future, press the Skip Forward button. If you are looking at future data, you can also jump back by entering the number of hours you want to jump followed by the Arrow Left key. And, you can use the Skip Back button to jump back 24 hours. Program information for the current highlighted event is presented at the top of the screen. If you leave the guide displayed on your receiver for a couple of minutes without any remote presses, the guide will time out, taking you back to your currently tuned channel.

If you don't have your guide data updates enabled, or for some other reason you don't get your guide data updated on a daily basis, you can force the guide data to update by running a Check Switch.

Here's a picture of the Browse function:

 

The Browse function displays the Browse banner across the bottom of your screen showing you guide data for the currently tuned channel. You can use the Arrow Up/Down buttons to scroll up and down through your available channels, and the Arrow Left/Right buttons to scroll through the guide data for the current channel. To make the Browse banner disappear from the screen, press Cancel on the remote.

*3.1.2 Trick Play Operation*

The DVR-942 always buffers the current channel to the hard drive, which allows you to use the trick play functions. You have one hour of buffered recording for each tuner. The trick play functions available are Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, Skip Forward, Skip Back, Forward Slow, Reverse Slow, Frame Forward, and Frame Back.

Here's what the screen looks like when you Pause:

 

The Pause banner shows you which tuner you are currently watching, how long the image has been paused, and a graphic bar showing you how much of the buffer has been filled. The bar is filled from right to left. The Pause display never times out, so if you have a display device that is susceptible to screen burn-in, don't Pause your program, and leave it on-screen for a large amount of time.

Both the Fast Forward and Rewind functions allow you to move through the recorded buffer at 4x speed, 15x speed, 60x speed and 300x speed. Here are screen shots showing you what the on-screen graphics look like at each speed:

4x speed:

 

 

15x speed:

 

 

60x speed:

 

 

300x speed:

 

 

The tick marks shown in the bar graphic are just graphics. You cannot jump directly to those points in the buffer or in the recorded program like you can with a Tivo.

The Skip Forward function skips 30 seconds forward in the pause buffer. With the DVR-942, it doesn't matter what resolution the source material is that you're watching (480i, 1080i, 720p) - the Skip Forward is always 30 seconds. Here's what you'll see on-screen:

 

The Skip Back function skips 10 seconds back in the pause buffer. With the DVR-942, it doesn't matter what resolution the source material is that you're watching (480i, 1080i, 720p) - the Skip Back is always 10 seconds. Here's what you'll see on-screen:

 

The Forward Slow function is activated by first pausing the video and then pressing the Fast Forward remote button. You can move forward in the buffer at 1/15th speed forward and at 1/4th speed forward.

1/15th Speed Forward:

 

1/4th Speed Forward:

 

The Reverse Slow function is activated by first pausing the video and then pressing the Rewind remote button. You can move backwards in the buffer at 1/4th speed back and at 1x speed back.

1/4th Speed Back:

 
1x Speed Back:

 

The Frame Forward and Frame Back functions are activated by first pausing the video and then pressing the Skip Forward or Skip Back buttons respectively. The Frame Forward function moves the video forward one frame at a time in the buffer. The Frame Back function moves the video back a few frames at a time in the buffer. Moving backwards in the MPEG stream has always been problematic for DISH Network™ receivers, and the DVR-942 is no different in this regard.

Frame Forward:

 

Frame Back:

 

DISH Network™ trademarks are property of EchoStar Satellite L.L.C., and are used with permission.​


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## Mark Lamutt

*DISH Network™ DISH Player-DVR 942 Review, page 7*
By Mark Lamutt, DBSTalk Administrator
All text and images ©2005 DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
No other use is allowed without prior written permission from www.DBSTalk.Com and Mark Lamutt
Permission is not granted to distribute, republish or post this review's text or images in part or in entirety at any other internet site or location, other than www.DBSTalk.Com ​
*3.1.3 Screen Format*

In addition to the standard 16x9 Normal, Stretch, Zoom and Gray Bars screen format options, the DVR-942 reintroduces the Partial Zoom format, like in the old days with the DISH 6000. The formats are toggled by the * remote key in the order of Normal, Stretch, Partial Zoom, Zoom, Gray Bars. The 4x3 screen options also add a Letterbox option into the mix as well. Below are screen shots of each of the formats:

Normal Mode:

 

Stretch Mode:

 

Partial Zoom Mode:

 

Zoom Mode:

 

Gray Bars Mode:

 

I do need to add a couple of notes at this point about the screen formats. Currently, the formats are operational only on SD channels - the * remote button has no effect when watching an HD satellite or OTA digital channel. Also, the width of the Gray Bars is not wide enough, just as with the DVR-921, so there is a thin black strip between the edge of the video image and the edge of the gray bar. And, Stretch and Zoom both stretch the image slightly too much for CRT display device users who have some amount of overscan with their display devices. All of these issues have been reported, and will hopefully be fixed in future software releases.

*3.1.4 Picture-in-Picture*

Picture-in-Picture (PIP) is available in Single User Mode only. All PIP functions are disabled in Dual User mode. The DVR-942 is the first satellite receiver on the market to offer high-definition PIP. Two SD channels, one SD and one HD, or 2 HD channels can be viewed at once. You activate PIP by pressing the PIP remote button. Take a look at the following two screen shots showing PIP active for a program on Discovery HDTheater and ESPN-HD:

 

 

Pressing the Swap button on the remote swaps between the two PIP windows. Pressing the Position remote button moves the PIP window to nine locations on the screen. And pressing the PIP button a second time will double the size of the original PIP window. To deactivate PIP, press the PIP button a third time.

One or both of the PIP windows may be Paused. All trick play functions work in the main window when PIP is active.

When PIP is not activated, you can use the Swap remote button to switch between tuners. For example, if I have one tuner on ESPN-HD and the other tuner on HBO, I can press the Swap remote button to switch between the two channels.

*3.1.5 Themes and Search*

I'm including Themes and Search together in the same section because Themes are just specialized searches by category. The first thing that I want to say about the Search function of the DVR-942 is that it is blazingly fast. Results are returned in "daily" blocks, so you see immediate results appear on your screen. For DVR-921 users, you'll be happy that there's no more sitting and waiting for several minutes to get search results.

To activate the Themes search, press the Themes remote button (the Arrow Left). The following screen will appear:

 

You can do a search for programming that falls into one of the listed categories. I chose to search for Movies. The following screen shows the results of that search:

 

To start a search, press the # key on the remote. The following screen will appear:

 

There are four ways to enter the search criteria text:

Use the on-screen keyboard
Use the number keys on the remote to enter the text, just as you would on your cellular phone
Use a previously searched for entry from the Search History
Highlight the entry for which you want to search in the Guide, and then press the # key to start the search
You can enter a maximum of 15 characters in the Search Criteria box. The two methods that I use more often are the direct keypad entry and the Guide. Once you have entered your search criteria text, choose whether you want to search through program titles for a match or through program information. Then, Select the on-screen Search button. Results will start to appear almost immediately. Here are the results for my "Sportscenter" search:

 

You can use the remote Arrow Up/Down buttons, the remote Page Up/Down buttons, the on-screen Page Up and Page Down buttons and the on-screen Next Day and Previous Day buttons to navigate through the search results.

The following is a screenshot of my Search History:

 

On this screen, once you Select an entry, you can search for that entry, you can edit the text of that entry, and you can delete that single entry (and yes, with the DVR-942, it stays deleted). Or, you can delete all entries by selecting them all and then using the Delete All option.

*3.1.5 The Rest of the Basics*

Just a few more things to discuss in the "Basics" section of the review.

The Recall remote button will switch you to the previous channel to which you were tuned on the same tuner. While the Swap button will take you to the previously tuned channel on the other tuner, the Recall option keeps you on the tuner you are currently using.

The View TV remote button will take you back to Live TV from just about anywhere you are.

And, in conclusion of this section of the review, the Info button on the remote. You can get program information from any place you can highlight a program entry, or when you are tuned to a channel. For example, the Info button will give you program information from a guide data entry, from the search results screen, from the Browse Banner, etc. Any place a program name is listed, you can highlight it and retrieve the program information with the Info button.

Pressing the Info button once will give you a translucent display listing the information over the top of what you are currently viewing. The following screen shot illustrates this:

 

Pressing the Info button a second time will give you an opaque display listing the information over the top of what you are currently viewing. Here's what this looks like:

 

Pressing the Info button a third time removes the information box from the display.

*Link to Part 3*​
DISH Network™ trademarks are property of EchoStar Satellite L.L.C., and are used with permission.​


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