# Let's hear it for the 921!!!



## keitheva (Aug 23, 2002)

Installed my 921 in January 2004.

Lot's of GSODs. Then there was all the trouble with the OTA OSG, and the ZLRs. And the fan noise (replaced both mine). And who knows what else I have forgotten.

But now, the 921 just sits there and faithfully does what it was designed to do. I don't even have to reboot it any more just to be safe.

I look at the troubles on the 622 forum and think, I just don't want to swap out something that is now solid, for something that still has teething troubles. Not to mention the whole leasing and multi-year commitment thing.

So I'm sticking with the 921 for a while yet, until it finally croaks or the 622 is mature, and there's some compelling new HD.

So let's hear it for the 921, one of, if not the first HD DVR, and now finally delivering to it's specifications!


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## RobbinMerritt (Jan 29, 2003)

Hey, a happy and patient 921 user. And a happy report about the unit. I know there were times when none of us thought the day of stability would every arrive for this receiver. 

When I finally did trade in my 921 it was because I wanted NBR, not because of software bugs.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

The 921 is stable these days? Wow...that's awesome.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

I agree, my 921 is very stable now and has been for quite a while. It sits happily beside my VIP622 and gives me the ability to record five shows at the same time.
As long as it keeps running I will keep on using it.


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## AnubisPrime (Mar 13, 2005)

Agreed, dispite very occasional glitches it is very stable. I will use it for as long as I can.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

Installed October 2005, a few usual glitches. But running nicely all the time. No problems to report. Not interested in the new HD stuff, happy with what I have. I also have cable and a bunch more hd there so I am good. I'll keep this baby. Aside from the occasional re-boot do to something I usually did, bugger keeps going. Love my 921 actually.


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## chris03053 (Dec 5, 2005)

Yep, have had my 921 for a couple of years and i'm happy with it. 

Now that you brought it up, that's right i haven't had any problems with it for a while. Hmmm.........what's up with that??


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Agreed, in fact my 921, one of the originals to be made has been very stable for almost 20 months. The last major trouble I had was when E* admitted they tested a new method of hard drive cluster size and it was a dismal failure that cause all those stutters. It took them 2 months to fix that and since then my 921 has been very stable. That was a long time ago! Since that time I have also added additional archive hard drives and the process, while not as slick as the HD Tivo is very predictable. I have 3 hard drives now for the 921. 

But now for the downside of the 921- What you people are indeed missing are two major features by not adding the 622. You are missing some really great programming in the mp4 channels and you are missing a pretty fair working Name Based recording. It is not as slick as the TIVO NBR but it does work. Since early August, the VIP 622 and MP4 channels has corrected the issue of stuttering for those with good signals. Still some are getting infrequent issues but those are most likely due to marginal signals. Soon, the 622 owners will have another great feature which is the add on archive hard drives via USB2.0. They showed this at CEDIA and while they claim it is ready to go, technically, they are still working out the business offer details. No info was given as to how they will market this latest 622 feature. Plus, I almost forgot as I don't use this feature, the 622 supports the multiroom access of the DVR for playback of two programs independently of each other with their own remote control access. Some people like this; I don't need it. 

There does seem to be one major issue that continues to plague many 622 owners. That is the HDMI failure. It seems that since Dish has pretty much resolved all the software issues plaguing certain monitor owners, still there is the hardware failure that some have determined to be cold solder connections on the surface mount of the HDMI connector. One member has already corrected his failed HDMI in the field with his skills in soldering. I've been lucky with the HDMI and mine is working perfectly with both the Dwin TV3e and a Panasonic LCD projector. 
At this point in time I use the 622 for 95% of all my satellite and OTA viewing. The 921 is my catch all for some HBO and Showtime recordings and the HDTIVO- well, due to a lack of HD programming on DirecTV, has been reduced to about 2 hours of viewing per week! IMO, DirecTV is really in trouble with their bandwidth compression. the image quality is just poor on most of the HDTV channels in comparison to Dish Network and OTA. The TIVO is used for lots of my OTA dvr recording. 

My recommendation is to do what I did and I'm very happy with my decision- ADD the 622, do not replace the 921 and upgrade your HD package to include all those MP4 channels. You'll have a maximum level of entertainment bang for the buck. 

Hope this brings most of you up to date who don't keep up with the latest tech stuff on the 622. You shouldn't automatically discount that receiver because of it's problems on startup months. When I ordered the 622 end of May, I had my worries too, but all of those worries never happened to me!


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

Not discounting it at all here. Just not interested. Happy with what I have.


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## mwgiii (Jul 19, 2002)

I finally replaced my 921 with a 622 two weeks ago.

The 622 is everything the 921 should/could have been. I am so impressed that I may even add another to replace my trusty 501 in the bedroom.


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## chris03053 (Dec 5, 2005)

The 622 is that much better? The picture will be much better with mp4 on my HDTV too?

I'm always trying to keep up with the new technology, so i guess i got to read more about it.

Thanks for the write up Don.


DonLandis said:


> Agreed, in fact my 921, one of the originals to be made has been very stable for almost 20 months. The last major trouble I had was when E* admitted they tested a new method of hard drive cluster size and it was a dismal failure that cause all those stutters. It took them 2 months to fix that and since then my 921 has been very stable. That was a long time ago! Since that time I have also added additional archive hard drives and the process, while not as slick as the HD Tivo is very predictable. I have 3 hard drives now for the 921.
> 
> But now for the downside of the 921- What you people are indeed missing are two major features by not adding the 622. You are missing some really great programming in the mp4 channels and you are missing a pretty fair working Name Based recording. It is not as slick as the TIVO NBR but it does work. Since early August, the VIP 622 and MP4 channels has corrected the issue of stuttering for those with good signals. Still some are getting infrequent issues but those are most likely due to marginal signals. Soon, the 622 owners will have another great feature which is the add on archive hard drives via USB2.0. They showed this at CEDIA and while they claim it is ready to go, technically, they are still working out the business offer details. No info was given as to how they will market this latest 622 feature. Plus, I almost forgot as I don't use this feature, the 622 supports the multiroom access of the DVR for playback of two programs independently of each other with their own remote control access. Some people like this; I don't need it.
> 
> ...


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

chris- the point of MP4 is that it does not give you more quality than the MP2 but the difference between MP2 and MP4 is now transparent. Earlier in the summer when MP4 first hit they had many encoding problems that had stuttering in both audio and video. It was very annoying and just awful. I was actually disappointed because my two favorite channels were the NG HD and Starz channels. Today, they have fixed these issues and with the higher bandwidth afforded to Dish, now that they can move these channels to MP4, the image is noticeably better than the DirecTV HD channels but not the other MP2 Dish channels. In effect all the Dish HD channels are cleaner and less dirty than the same channel on DirecTV. But, again MP2 and MP4 channels on Dish are about the same. You really can't see a difference between MP4 and MP2.

I think Dish has done an excellent job with their implementation of MP4. Not a perfect start but they have made it work as far as I'm concerned.


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## UTFAN (Nov 12, 2005)

keitheva said:


> Installed my 921 in January 2004.
> 
> Lot's of GSODs. Then there was all the trouble with the OTA OSG, and the ZLRs. And the fan noise (replaced both mine). And who knows what else I have forgotten.
> 
> ...


I'm a former 921 owner, traded up for the 622 this past May. DISH did get the 921 to "settle down" but there is no comparison between it and the 622.

And we've had a couple of minor glitches with the 622.

It's worth the switch.


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## jadebox (Dec 14, 2004)

Well ... when it doesn't decide to take ten minutes to respond to the remote ... and when it doesn't pop up a window while I'm watching a recorded show to tell me that there are two recordings going on at the same time (which isn't really a problem) ... and when it doesn't lock up totally requiring a hard reboot ... then I'm happy with my 921.  

Fortunately, these problems occur less often now than the other problems used to happen.

-- Roger


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

I think it might be time for me to make the switch. I have been having a lot of problems recently with lossing contact to transponders (not weather related). Switch check and/or reboot usually fixes it.


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## IowaStateFan (Jan 11, 2006)

Not to be a party pooper, but I've had to reboot my 921 more in the last 6 weeks than I did in the first 16 months I had it. I've been getting the stuck aspect ratio a lot lately. The HD channels get squished into a 4x3 mode until I reboot.


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## tm22721 (Nov 8, 2002)

It will take a little longer to amortize the $1000 I gave Dish in January 2004 for my 921.

Meanwhile I'll keep subscribing to the HD package in hope for an automatic 622 swapout by Dish when they are tired of wasting expensive bandwidth on redundant MPEG2 HD channels.


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## IamtheEggman (Sep 21, 2004)

My 921 has been great lately . The 921 has a DVI port and not a HDMI port, correct?? I believe my DLP only has a DVI port on it. If I switched to a 622 how do I handle that and does it work??

Edit: what about the OTA tuner in the 622. Some of my locals are analog only and I have a hard time with the NBC affiliate in digital. Is the tuner better or worse in the 622 compared to the 921


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

The 622 has an HDMI output but you can buy an HDMI to DVI adapter cable cheap. This is what I'm now using. Order it online and save. Or, if you are lucky, your installer will have one and it will be part of your install price.

You'll have several OTA options. Analog channels via Dish LIL, Off air channels, and your digital channels off air. I can't say whether the tuner in the 622 is better than the one on the 921 but I do know that it is newer technology build if that means anything. I always have maintained that the greatest impact on signal reliability is your antenna and where your antenna is located, second is the preamp on the antenna and finally the tuner sensitivity last.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

I just switched to the 622 from the 921 and am now having a few reservations. My RCA dlp never looked good on the 921 DVI output as the picture via DVI never filled the screen. 2" gap all around. With the 622 HDMI, I had to use a HDMI>DVI conversion cable and I get no picture at all. The 622 is fine with component as it was with the 921, but totally dead with the HDMI output. I have no other HDMI sources to hook up to the TV, so I can't verify that it is the TV itself just not talking the same language as the 622 or a dead HDMI port on the 622. 

I then took the same DVI>HDMI cable and hooked the old 921 to my new Vizio TV in the bedroom and it works perfectly from the DVI output on the 921 to the Vizio HDMI input, so it is not the cable. In fact, the 921 looked better than it ever has in this configuration. Thus the reservations. 

I would say though that the OTA tuner is definately better on the 622 and the additional HD content available with the new receiver was well worth it. Now I have ordered more cables and adapters to try every possible combination of hookups with the 622 on both TV's before I rule one or the other dead. I haven't posted any of this yet on the 622 forum until I exhaust all the possibilities. Waiting another week for mail order cables. Standby for follow ups.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Rotrykt- Hopefully, you know the drill on the 622 HDMI- You need to contact Dish and get a 622 tech on line and request a replacement. Yopu have one of the 622's with a bad HDMI connection. It's a hardware flaw in the solder joints.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

DonLandis said:


> Rotrykt- Hopefully, you know the drill on the 622 HDMI- You need to contact Dish and get a 622 tech on line and request a replacement. Yopu have one of the 622's with a bad HDMI connection. It's a hardware flaw in the solder joints.


Yes, I know the procedure. Since I bought it from a local retailer, I am tempted to try a solder repair myself and if that doesn't work, take it back to them for a replacement. I need to be totally sure before I try such a drastic step. I used to build Heathkits back in the '70s, so I have done a few circuit boards in my time, but none of the new surface mount stuff. The HDMI on mine is a very poor connector. It was loose when I first plugged a cable into it and it moves around very easily. There must be a better quality socket on the market since the one on my Vizio TV is rock solid and grips the connector firmly. I think Dish just spec'd a cheap piece of hardware.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Me too on the home building back in the 60's / 70's. but today's SM soldering is a differenent ball game. To start with you'll need special soldering pencil with temperature control. Use magnifying head gear and have to have a very steady hand. You may want to PM David Lavin who has had success with an HDMI repair on his 622. David is good about giving you details on procedure.


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## bytre (Sep 10, 2003)

I'm on my third 921 in about 2.5 years. Its more stable now than in the past, but certainly not as solid as my 7100 is (which took a couple years to get to that point).

I returned my last one after repeated "smart card is not authorized" messages, which would go away after about 2 minutes, but would kill any recordings taking place.

My 921 now periodically irks me when it stops responding and won't power off (power lights go off, but still continues to show a picture) and requires a cold boot.


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## AnubisPrime (Mar 13, 2005)

So CLUSTER size experiements are why I had all that stuttering. Now it's all gone!


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