# Does anything work on Dish 921 DVR



## Cooper 31 (Jan 5, 2005)

I have a Dish 921 setting in the box behind me waiting for the Dish Network people to do the installation. I am installing a complete HDTV system with a new Toshiba CRT TV. After reading all of the horror stories on this forum about the 921, I am more than a little nervous. My question is: Has anyone had good experiences with the receiver? This is my first post so please forgive me if it is in the wrong forum.


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## RobbyG (Dec 28, 2004)

I for one have been pleased with my choice of the 921. Granted, I may be on the low side of the expectation spectrum since I have always subscribed to locals and have no OTA so issues with regards to those items don't effect me right now.

I orig won a Toshiba / Tivo /DVD RW at a work raffle and could not stand the slooowness of the guide, and the fact that they use filters instead of favorite lists was extremely frustrating and cumbersome for me to use.

Also a single tuner meant my kids could be watching a show at 4pm and a timer could fire and change the channel they were watching to ....let say an R rated program. They were thinking the TV was possessed.

So....The DVR live TV functions, The two tuners, the speedy 7-9 day guide, and the UHF remote have all added up to be worthwhile for me...I'm glad I traded in that Toshiba, I'll burn DVD's from my PC anyway.......

Ahhh.. It felt good to post something positive....


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## bbomar (Oct 18, 2004)

Cooper 31 said:


> I have a Dish 921 setting in the box behind me waiting for the Dish Network people to do the installation. I am installing a complete HDTV system with a new Toshiba CRT TV. After reading all of the horror stories on this forum about the 921, I am more than a little nervous. My question is: Has anyone had good experiences with the receiver? This is my first post so please forgive me if it is in the wrong forum.


 I've had the 921 for 3 months now and really like it. There are software
bugs that you have to live with so don't expect no problems. However,
most of the time the 921 works fine, for me anyway. Occasionally the
921 will not respond to some of the remote buttons (usually HD/SD and
format '*' buttons) and I have to reboot the receiver. I've had very
little problem with 0-second recordings, in fact only two in 3 months.
The jitter problem folks describe I saw once and a reboot cured that.
A couple of times the 921 just acted "weird" with missing channels in
the program guide and other strange things and, again, a reboot cured
it. Within the last 3 weeks I've had the 921 stop working on two Nashville
OTA channels, even though it showed plenty of signal. Each time
this happened I deleted the OTA channels and rescanned for DTV channels
and then they were fine. I suspect that this is not totally a problem
of the 921 since stations are changing their Program & System Information
Protocol (PSIP) digital data formats to meet an FCC requirement for certain
changes by Feb. 1, 2005.
On the positive side the 921 picture quality (I use the DVI output and
an LCD TV) is great. The DVR function works without a problem most
of the time (for me). Of course I can understand frustration when it
fails to record something you really wanted. In such cases I sometimes
set up to record both OTA and from a satellite local at the same time,
just to have a backup.
So, while the 921 has problems which should have been solved before
it went on the market, I have generally been satisfied with it. On the
other hand, I can understand folks who feel that they should not have
to put up with the 921's bugs.
As a side note, my brother has DirecTV and my sister Dish and both
recently purchased an HD TV. I recommended that my brother go
with the HDTivo, even though it is more expensive than the 921.
Since my sister has other Dish receivers she wants to keep active
I reluctantly recommended the 921 to her, letting her know of the
bugs. If the 921 cost had been any higher than the $490 to $550
range I would have recommended switching away from Dish.


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## Harkonen (Jan 5, 2005)

I am a new 921 owner, and I love it! I was previously using an 811, and I have found that I get BETTER stability on my OTA HD channels with the 921. Signal pick-up is much better (and faster). The quality is excellent, even during slow-motion playback/rewind (better than SD TIVO units I've seen). So far everything has performed really well. I'm expecting to have some problems eventually... but my 811 set my expectations very low, so I'm pleasantly surprised by the 921. 

I do miss the OTA guides on my 811, but not enough to gripe endlessly about it. I'd be willing to bet that will get sorted out soon.

Sorry to be so positive in this forum. I hope I don't get banned .


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

The fact is that only dealing with the negative is the nature of an online support forum. Of course there are very positive experiences that users (including me) have with the 921, but they aren't talked about nearly as much as the bugs, problems, etc are because the purpose of this forum is to provide direct feedback to the programmers about what's wrong with the 921, not what's right about it.


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## tunagimp (Jul 7, 2004)

To show you how variable the E* equipment experience can be, my new 921 replaced an 811 and the OTA reception and HD PQ is worse than the 811. OTOH, the S/D output of the 921 is better, when it isn't in B/W or washed out weird colors. I have developed a "fix" for this unacknowledged by E* "bug," so I'm sort of happy.

What we got here is an "Apple v. PC" deal here (More like Windows 98 v. MAC OS X). I don't watch OTA, and my needs were simply to record the slim HD pickens, so for me the 921 is fine, and I watch it more often than I did the 811.

If you wanted a "set it and forget it" machine to record OTA, I think you bought the wrong box.

But to each his own, and the 921 (like its 721 brother) seems to get better if you leave it alone, so enjoy HD and the UHF remote and if you have a problem, look here first, BEFORE calling E*'s "Advanced Tech Support."

These folks know more.


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## cpufixer1 (Jun 10, 2003)

I have to agree with all of the positive posts. You can not beat a single piece of equipment that can do OTA, PVR and HD. 

Just don't ask too much from it at one time. That's when it freaks out. Like record HD one one channel and SD on another, while watching a pre-recorded program and expect the caller-id to come up.


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## Cyclone (Jul 1, 2002)

I've really enjoyed my 921 so far. It receives all of my local OTA channels better than my 6000 did. The DVR is great. My PQ is excellent. The 6000 defaults too bright on the HD connections, so I had to compensate with the 921 by increasing the brightness on my TV.


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## dishbacker (Jun 15, 2004)

The 6 or so months I've had my 921 have been great. After having DVRs for a few years, trying to watch OTA-HD the first half of 2004 on OTA boxes from Circuit city, etc. without trick-play was a beating. I've only had a couple of timer problems, and all of my OTA issues have been resolved in DFW. Overall, I'm very pleased...

Now, about that Feature Request for 'Native' Pass Through resolution..... Please... :engel07: :angel: :engel10:


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## Avillant (May 21, 2004)

I got my 921 when they dropped the price and have been relatively happy with it. I find that it works much better than you would expect from reading many of the posts on this site. I wish the program guide worked correctly and I think DISH is being really unfair expecting people to take locals so they can get the program guide. I live between West Palm Beach and Miami and receive all of the OTA digital stations well. I am sure that DISH will correct the remaining bugs in the 921 in time. However, I do think it is a disgrace that they put out a product that took a whole year to get working properly.

I think that Name Based Recording is a grossly over rated feature and really don't miss not having it. However, since DISH promised it, they should keep their promise.

I have always found that the DISH user interface is grossly superior to Directv. However, a friend has their SD TIVO and it has a much improved user interface. I wish there was someone who could provide the best features of both DVRs. Although the TIVO search is grossly better, there are many features on DISH that I like better than TIVO.

My main concern with DISH is that they do not seem very interested in providing more HD programming. There are many HD movie channels they do not provide. Also, they will for some reason not provide the Oxygen channel. I am really upset that after paying DISH about $110 a month, I have to go over to a friends house to watch a program like "Talk Sex With Sue Johannson". If Directv starts to put out more HD programming and DISH does not follow, I certainly will drop DISH and go to Directv.

Tony


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## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

Great unit. Extremely happy with all phases. Had 6000 and Tivo 200 hr before. This unit is much better, especially at the now low price. I paid 1000.


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## ckendall (Dec 10, 2004)

Yep the 921 has its bugs and I'd like both timers and name based recording. I'm used to DVR after having used both Tivo and the old Dishplayers for over 5 years. I almost bolted from Dish with all the bugs in the old Dishplayers but could not do without a DVR and the Tivo's were more expensive and slower. But the 921 is much faster than Tivo and it does work the vast majority of the time for me, especially when you learn what to avoid to get the bugs. The HD picture is great and now I watch even less TV because I can't stand SD anymore and there is so little HD programming that isn't redundant and repeated. I got my 921 when the price dropped and the 921 is an experiment for me in HD. I won't invest anymore in Dish unless they get more HD programming though. I wish there were more HD programming options and HD DVR options.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Welcome aboard, Coop!!

I've had a 921 since May and it does a very nice job of keeping my 61" DLP, as well as our household, happy. Mark's comment about the nature of feedback from forums like this is right on from my perspective. You'll definitely hear about all of the warts here, and typically from pretty high end, demanding users. I've had very very few problems with my 921 and it does a nice job of handling OTA HD reception under a pretty demanding environment.

Is it perfect?? Heck no. Would I buy one again?? Youbetcha.


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## Cooper 31 (Jan 5, 2005)

I thank all of you that took the time to reply to my post. I feel much better about my choice. Because I have some experience with message boards, I thought that I was probably seeing the expression of frustration by some who had bad experiences with the DVR and that those experiences might be the exception rather than the rule. I am very much looking forward to the HDTV experience. Thank you all.


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## HailScroob (Aug 3, 2004)

I totally loved my 921... until the L211 software update.


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