# Hows your 721 working lately?



## bunkers (Dec 16, 2002)

I just want some across the board feedback on how your 721 is working lately. In particular, are you still generally satisfied with it (depsite the bugs which I know are always there). I am a previous Dish subscriber and intend to go back someday later this year ... and my wife and I have a 508 and 721 ... and found we both preferred the 721 ... so were toying around with the idea of selling the 508 and picking up a second 721 and stardardizing our home around a two 721 setup. Overall, are you happy/content with the 721 or is it time to move on?


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

I am quite content with my 721. Have not had any serious problems with it, yet.
However, I can't imagine not getting at least one HD receiver. I have a 921, shrug, an 811 and a 6000 and all are used more than the 721 which is mainly used now for music during the day and for backup of important things I want to record and especially for recording SD thus keeping my 921 free for HD recording.


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## kzosat (Aug 22, 2004)

I just sold my 721, but I wil miss it. I have a 522 and 921 now and since we didn't watch tv much where the 721 was, I figured why not use the 2nd tv output on the 522 instead of paying the extra receiver fee for the 721. 

It is/was the best receiver out of all the ones I have owned (301, 510, 522, 721, 811, 921)


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## bunkers (Dec 16, 2002)

Well I agree that for some people an HD receiver would be great ... but for my wife and I, we really don't watch any of the HD channels that dish offers and only will have one TV which is HD capable anyways. 

So my thought is that the price isn't worth it till more content becomes available and the cost of the sets go down even further. T

ill then, we'll watch std def and DVD(s) and wait for the content to catch up with the technology. 

So I'm trying to make sure the 721 would be my best bet in a dual tuner non-HD dish receiver. We loved it before and my wife thinks its way better than the ReplayTV we are using currently ... plus no DVR fee. Are the 721's with the JVC branding on them as good (or the same) as the 721's with Dish branding?


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## mattoid (Apr 15, 2003)

Mine is working well, setting in the closet collecting dust. I need to post it on ebay....sometime.......ehh, next week, month.....


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Mine was unusable and got deactivated and put on shelf.......

Nice till the last siftware change


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## rdopso (Jan 26, 2004)

Sold our 721 today -- bought a 921 two weeks ago and thought we had no use for the trusty 721 anymore. We never had any significnat issues with the 721 in the nearly three years we owned it. Now we have the 921 as our primary A/V unit, and while we are in love with the HD, there sure a lot of bugs left to work out with it. Hope E* continues to issue software updates for the 921.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

I love my 721. Only occasional problem is the failure of the guide to come up (about once every 3 months for a couple hours). I also have a 508. The 508 has been bulletproof, but I'd rather have two 721's (which you suggested as an alternative) if the price was right. You're other two tuner alternative is the 522 - you may want to consider that because it's cheaper than the 721 and has name based recording.

721's with or without the JVC brand are function the same. If you buy another 721, make sure the balance is $0 and that it can be transferred to you (call Dish with the smart card and receiver #'s to verify).


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

My 721 is working very well. I had a hard drive failure about two months ago causing a loss of all recorded events.  The 721 somehow repaired its self.  It has been very dependable. When my 921's malfunction, the 721 comes through with the back-up recorded events, at least, in SD.


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## RLMesq (Mar 9, 2003)

I've had my 721 for more than two years now. It still works like a champ, though I wish they'd come up with a software update that works with DishPro. The installer switched me to DishPro when they installed my 942 and now I can't get the channels from the 148 wing dish on the 721.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

RLMesq said:


> I've had my 721 for more than two years now. It still works like a champ, though I wish they'd come up with a software update that works with DishPro. The installer switched me to DishPro when they installed my 942 and now I can't get the channels from the 148 wing dish on the 721.


The 721 does work with Dish Pro. My equipment was converted from legacy to DP when I got it.....call Dish for help with this problem.


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## derwin0 (Jan 31, 2005)

kzosat said:


> I figured why not use the 2nd tv output on the 522 instead of paying the extra receiver fee for the 721.


The DVR fee on the 522 (but not 721) cancels out that savings.


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## bunkers (Dec 16, 2002)

Thanks for all the responses. 

Just as I was hoping, it appears that the 721 isn't dead yet.
I know dish breaks things, but eventually they also fix them ...
it would be nice if they would just stop putting in fixes which 
cause more new bugs than the bugs they solve.

The vast majority of the 721 posts you come across would lead you to believe that the 721 doesn't work AT ALL anymore ... but this survey is showing that most folks are still fairly content/happy. 

I know all about the dish software bugs and the unreliable software releases, but the 721 was generally more reliable in my 2+ years of use than our 501 or 508 was and the dual tuner makes it a lot more flexible. 

After navagating slow direcTIVO and sluggish replayTV units, my wife is anxious to return to the relatively responsive 721. 

If anyone knows of a good place to buy a 721 new or wants to sell their reliable 721 to me, please PM me.


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## Gavinboy (Sep 16, 2002)

I'm on my third 721. Pretty buggy platform. I really like it for the most part but everytime dish "upgrades" the programing there is just more problems.  I'm considering switching to a direct tivo system.


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## bunkers (Dec 16, 2002)

Now I have gotten slammed for saying this in the past, but my mother in law had a DirecTIVO and the unit works good overall -- but the response of the online program guide was abismal. At least after becoming used to the Dish EPG performance, I felt like I was on my 286 again by comparison. Just note, TIVO is great, but the EPG (at least one of them) was really sluggish ... especially when scrolling through the EPG screens ... that scared me off. Maybe they fixed it by now, very well could have. At least TIVO writes solid (and tested) code.


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## Link (Feb 2, 2004)

I like the dual recording features and how fast you can movie through the guide but for some reason at times it gets really slow in pulling up the recorded shows list and the guide. I don't know why this happens. 

My other 721 in the bedroom has a signal problem on Tuner 1 and always has picture problems even there is nothing wrong with the signal cables or the dish signal level. I'm ready to throw it out the window. The 508 we used to have had a much brighter and rich clor in the picture quality than the 721 does.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

721s tend to bog down at top of hour, its a memory issue as it downloads the trickle guide.

Sometimes rebooting helps


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

Bob Haller said:


> 721s tend to bog down at top of hour, its a memory issue as it downloads the trickle guide.
> 
> Sometimes rebooting helps


I've NEVER had this problem. Picture quality on 508 and 721 are identical.


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## MikeW (May 16, 2002)

bunkers said:


> Thanks for all the responses.
> 
> If anyone knows of a good place to buy a 721 new or wants to sell their reliable 721 to me, please PM me.


Dish Depot has one in their bargain bin for $169 shipped w/30 day warranty.
www.dishdepot.com


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## bunkers (Dec 16, 2002)

Thx ... but I only saw an 811 in the bargain bin.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Bob Haller said:


> 721s tend to bog down at top of hour, its a memory issue as it downloads the trickle guide.
> 
> Sometimes rebooting helps


In all the time that I have owned my 721 (going on three years) I have never seen that problem. And, apparently, you don't have ANY understanding at all about how the trickle guide works.


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## formerxtian (Jul 9, 2002)

We have been using our 721 heavily for two years. No bugs, other than what you can expect from any complex technical device. It takes a LONG time to reboot, but ours only needs rebooted a few times a year (I wish our 522 were as stable-- it needs a weekly reboot).
The interface is beautiful, IMO... a pleasing blue-green. Ours just works great. The two tuners seem to work well together.
In fact, I would like to replace it with a 942 soon, but I suspect I will miss the user interface on the 721.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Bill R said:


> In all the time that I have owned my 721 (going on three years) I have never seen that problem. And, apparently, you don't have ANY understanding at all about how the trickle guide works.


Well the slowdown has been noted by others so its NOT just my box.

I asked a really nice advanced tech about the slowdowns. If anyone cares to check its much more common at the TOP of the hour.

Advanced tech said its the box getting busy, downloading the trickle guide which updates at the top of the hour, and does look like a computer thats overworked.

I have NO IDEA but wonder if the amount of memory varies between boxes? Since SOME boxes exhibit the problem and others dont.

Bill is your whole life trouble free? You appear to live a charmed life, at least insofar as E DVRs are concerned.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Bob Haller said:


> Bill is your whole life trouble free? You appear to live a charmed life, at least insofar as E DVRs are concerned.


No, I don't have a "trouble free" life; no one does. The difference between you and me is how I handle my problems. It is clear that I handle them a lot differently than you do; you seem to make a BIG deal out of every little problem, especially when it come to satellite problems.

And, by the way, the tech you spoke to gave you some misinformation. The trickle guide is going on all the time; it does not just take place at the top of the hour.

And as for my DISH DVRs, yes, they are very reliable (if they weren't I would not stay with DISH). When I do encounder a bug I don't get all worked up about it like you do. It seems like you spend most of your life complaining which, _as I see it,_ is likely just a reflection of the rest of your life (you appear to be one very unhappy dude).


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## ericha (Jan 21, 2003)

I really like my 721, but I wouldn't say that it was "unconditional". I really don't like it when software updates cause signficant new bugs, like the latest update causing problems with skipping back. So I don't fit into any of the above categories--I'm somewhere between the top 2.


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

Bob Haller said:


> and does look like a computer thats overworked. I have NO IDEA but wonder if the amount of memory varies between boxes? Since SOME boxes exhibit the problem and others dont.


AFAIK, ALL 721s have only 32MB RAM. The older D*TiVo's have 32MB, and the new R10 has 64MB. The 721 is based on the National Semiconductor(Now AMD) Geode porcessor. It's equivalent to a Pentium 300Mhz. Since it has a hardware MPEG2 decoder, it does well considering. That's why they chose GNU/Linux as the platfrom.


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## bmciver (Feb 20, 2003)

I have a 721 going up for sale soon on Ebay. Switched to cable for HD content and DVR, plus the standard channels are not compressed all to hell. Email me if you're interested at [email protected].


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## kzosat (Aug 22, 2004)

derwin0 said:


> The DVR fee on the 522 (but not 721) cancels out that savings.


First, I never said I replaced it with a 522, we already had a 522, 721, 921, we decided to eliminate the 721 as it was in a room we didn't watch much and didn't have NBR. So yes, we did eliminate the fee.

Plus we have AEP, so no DVR fees, but if you didn't have AEP, you are still eliminating an additional receiver fee. So by my math:

non-aep
921 (primary receiver) subject to DVR fee
522 additional receiver and DVR fee
721 additional receiver

aep:
921 still primary no dvr fee
522 additional receiver fee
721 additional receiver fee

So I am still eliminating 4.99 in monthy receiver fees.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

My 721 has worked great from day one. Very rarely encounter a problem. It's now my backup/kids show receiver. Gets lots of use for cartoons and stuff for the kids and backup recordings of regular shows along with my 942.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

What's a "trickle guide"?


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## bunkers (Dec 16, 2002)

I didn't really think thru the survey answers so well, but I was mainly trying to determine who was a supporter of the unit versus who was borderline (or hanging on barely). It appears that there is almost 90% support for this unit, but a sizable segment (21%) is just barely hanging around. They might be becuase of the stabilty issues and/or the fact that the new HD receivers are increasingly attractive options to be considered.

I would be surprised if any Dish receiver out there would get more than 90% support, based on the track record of bugs and testing new releases on customers (i.e. lack of in house testing, thus most software testing on us customers).

I am interested in the 942, but $700 is a lot of money for something I don't really need.


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## finniganps (Jan 23, 2004)

bunkers said:


> I would be surprised if any Dish receiver out there would get more than 90% support, based on the track record of bugs and testing new releases on customers (i.e. lack of in house testing, thus most software testing on us customers).


I would guess that the NON DVR boxes would get >90% support. I also wouldn't be surprised if the 501 or 508 (PVR's) got >90% support. These receivers have been completely problem free for a while (it appears) and I haven't had any problems with my 508.


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

For the most part, I was pretty happy with my 721, which I sold a few months ago when I switched to Comcast at home. Of course, it took them quite a while to get it to work properly, as is their standard operating procedure. Once they got it working well, they discontinued it, and now add bugs with new SW releases. It's sad and funny at the same time.


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## KingLoop (Mar 3, 2005)

My front room IRD crashed last night at 10pm exactly. It wouldn't take a hard reset, I had to unplug it from the wall and then it was all good. I was a little irked because I was recording 2 shows while I was watching a DVR recording at the time.  While I was a bit irritated by the whole 15 minute process of making my receiver usable, stuff happens right?


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

Just to mention it, I had to call Dish recently due to a problem with my locals. Since I had them on the phone (after a 15+ minute hold time), I thought that I'd report the "skip back" problem with my 721 since the release of V175. In any case they took down my info, but did the normal thing and said that this was NOT a known issue.

I just want to remind people to report such things. It takes quite a few before Dish seems to actually consider it a widespread problem...

- John...


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

(Note that I know lots of people have probably reported it -- I didn't mean that no one else had. Dish commonly tells me that it is not a known issue when I know lots of people have reported it already. I just want to make sure we all keep reporting such things.)


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

My 721 was working great until this past week. Twice I have had to do a power button reset to cure a total hang where it would not do anything. Very annoying.


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## sbturner (Jul 24, 2002)

I loved mine just replaced it with a 924 for HD, I will sell for $180 shipped in US. Never had any problems with it. IMO the best reciever DISH ever put out.


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## Rob944 (Jan 5, 2005)

My fifth (the other 4 croaked for various reasons) 721 was working well til tonight. It lost signal then said the smart card was bad. After an hour on the phone with dish they gave up and are sending me another one. After I hung up I pulled the plug for 1/2 hour. It came back up and told me to do a check switch. It is now working again. I love the technology, when it works. It is also sad that I have recieved better advice here than from customer service. My dad just bought a 942 with HD. So far so good with that one.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

My 721 quit getting the locals in this past week off of 105 (seems to be after they changed my channels from transponder 22 to transponder 9). It gets this error on the screen yet in the signal strength screen it says that the signal comes in as it should and that the check switch received everything in fine. I am seeing this issue with some of the 301/311 receivers lately as well. A reboot did NOT fix this problem.


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## JohnMI (Apr 2, 2002)

jgoggan said:


> Just to mention it, I had to call Dish recently due to a problem with my locals.


Just to note it, my locals problem ended up being a bad LNB.

- John...


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## 34Ford (Jul 3, 2004)

Had no problems with mine, but I recommend a UPS just to eliminate those power blinks and rebooting in the middle of a show.


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## rlegan (Dec 31, 2004)

I was one of the hanging on voters, but perhaps later this week, I'll be able to upgrade my vote because a new refurb unit is on the way. 

My 721 started out needing weekly resets, where all the recording would disappear and all recording and timers functions would not work. Last Thursday, this became a permanent state for the machine. Adv Tech support says it's a drive problem. 
I love the 721, except for this glitch. I wonder if they are changing the drive manufacture after having all of these failures.


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## ERSanders (Apr 24, 2002)

My two 721's are working just fine EXCEPT that I bought them after Charlie stated that they would get NBR "later this year" (2004). Well that date has not yet arrived and it looks like it will not arrive.

I have a decision to reach soon as to whether to abandon a seven year relationship with Dish AEP (or whatever the max package was at the time) or plead for an upgrade to get what I WAS PROMISED


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## larrystotler (Jun 6, 2004)

ERSanders said:


> My two 721's are working just fine EXCEPT that I bought them after Charlie stated that they would get NBR "later this year" (2004). Well that date has not yet arrived and it looks like it will not arrive.


Actually, he said that the 721 and 921 would NOT get the NBR upgrade a few months back......It really isn't all that. I prefer my 721 over a 522.


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## ERSanders (Apr 24, 2002)

Larry, yes he did say that AFTER he said that it would be in. If you do a search in the oldies you will find reference to a C Chat about March of 2004 where he said NBR would be in the 721. That is one of the factors which lead me to buy them.

I feel deceived because NBR is important to me though I do like the 721 in general. 

I have waited about one year from my purchase to see what "new & improved" offerings might arrive. So far nothing but the 522 (and the warmed-over version, the 625 I think). 

I will pick the time, place and product to have my discussion with the executive offices.


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