# 921 No longer available?



## BarneyC (Jan 9, 2005)

Although I just ordered one Dish no longer lists the 921 for sale on their website. Is it going away?

Barney


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## tweaver999 (Jul 9, 2004)

Dish has written the headline to the 921 Obit. finally...
"921 Not Available"
If you notice that the activity in this forum, Mark's presence have both decreased in the last few months...
The 921 has been a dead product from release. For the causal user it has been barely acceptable, the the user who never watches realtime TV... it is the most unreliable product I have ever seen. and was sold using false advertising about its features.... E* has not heard the last of the 921 owners....
What is too bad, I believe the hardware was ok( not great but ok) it has been the software and the incompetent Eldon team that is/was the main reason for the 921 death, along with E*'s decision to not throw anymore $$$ into a lost cause, when they can try and sell us on a new improved model..942...


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

What TW said.

As I've said before, whoever is responsible for this fiasco need to go do receivers for Al Queda. They'll only fail once more.


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

tweaver999 said:


> "...sell us on a new improved model..942..."


Yes new, and possibly even improved, but just as subject to the same kind of software "Foo-Bar's & Snafu's" as all the rest of the E* receivers have been to date. :sure:

In reading over the 942 forum for the past couple of months, I've concluded that the 942 is not necessarily a _complete bed of roses_ either, at least not yet. For example, the 942's "07 Error" sounds interestingly similar to the 921's ZSR issue. 

I'm left to wonder if E* will give up on the 942 (after a year+ of declining software fix efforts) like they have the 921 -- assuming of course that the 942's "Bug-a-Boos" persist? 

--John


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## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

I'm hoping that life with the 921 will be much better by the end of the week.


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## SummitAdvantageRetailer (Feb 20, 2005)

You can still get some 921's from your local retailers if they still have some in their inventory. We currently have only one in stock.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

I'll bite on this one. I've owned mine since January 2005 and I've been very pleased. I've had an occasional problem and had to do an occasional reboot but overall it has been fantastic. Never had a ZSR or missed timer. I don't discount or deny the problems others are having it's just that I guess I've been really lucky with mine. I know another guy in town who has one and he's been pleased with his too. 

As long as my 921 keeps working like it is now I will wait for the whole mpeg 4 thing to get sorted out before I switch to a different receiver.


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## kzosat (Aug 22, 2004)

I am in the same boat as TexasDude. I have experienced no problems with my 921, no missed timers, no ZSR's. Only had to do a hard reset to get the Voom channels in the guide. I've had it since Sept 2004


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## Stingray (Dec 22, 2003)

I'll go on record as a fairly satisfied 921 owner also. I have sucessfully recorded many, many OTA HD programs as well as SD Satellite programs without a problem. A perfect machine? No certainly not. But I am happy that I purchased it last summer, and have many, many hours of use. 

Learning how to work around its quirks was the key to success. One big lession was to schedule the start of OTA recordings 1 minute before the scheduled start of any Sat programs. It never failed to record them as long as the OTA program started first.

As the previous poster said, my 921 will be just fine untill mpeg4 equipment becomes the standard.


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## igleaner (Aug 22, 2002)

921 No Longer Available? What great news!! 

Now when the 921 craps out, Dish will be forced under the 1 year warranty to issue 942s as replacements.


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## rstaples (Sep 17, 2004)

igleaner said:


> 921 No Longer Available? What great news!!
> 
> Now when the 921 craps out, Dish will be forced under the 1 year warranty to issue 942s as replacements.


Unfortunately that is not very likely, at least for some time. The reason I say this is that when my 508 died about a year after they stopped production in favor of the new 510, I received a 508 re-furbished unit and NOT a new 510.


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## Leroy (Jan 21, 2005)

see below


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## Leroy (Jan 21, 2005)

I have to say that I am not surprised that the 921 is going away. But so soon after the intro of the 942? I think one of the mistic's of the 921 was it was so unpredictable. In a strange way a little fun to tinker with to figure out way's to bypass the bug's. I like the previous poster's have not had the terrible ZSR and other concerns that would wipe out the hard drive. I feel for those who did, you made it possible for guy's like me to get mine in Dec. 2004 and get most of the fixes here. Thanks all. But all you long timers, will you miss the tinkering? :grin: :grin: :grin:

Leroy


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Leroy said:


> Thanks all. But all you long timers, will you miss the tinkering? :grin: :grin: :grin:
> 
> Leroy


Not with the 921. We will see what kind of tinkering is required after L214.


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## BarneyC (Jan 9, 2005)

You guys scared me out of buying a 921. I cancelled my order in favor of a 942. Thanks for the info!

Barney


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## bluegreg (May 10, 2004)

you lucky stiff


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

The reason why the next 921 upgrade is being delayed, is because E* is too busy trying to fix their most recent bugs in the 942. They only have so much time. 

Frankly, I really don't want Eldon to monkey around with my 921 anymore. It has worked fairly well recording single events now. I'm afraid they will try to fix the OTA guide problems and break the sound or picture rendering the 921 unusable as they did in December. If the 921 is discontinued for sale now, they should quit while they are ahead.


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## pwherr (Jul 14, 2004)

Good!


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## clapple (Feb 11, 2003)

What I find increadible, is that with the same hardware and software people get such different results.

Other than suffering a few 0 time recordings, I am qiute happy with my 921.


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## SThacker (May 24, 2005)

So are the owners of the 921 like me screwed? Also, my biggest problem lately with the 921 is the fact that I now can not tune in to a certain OTA.It depends on which indoor antenna I use. It didn't used to be that way. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 
I live in cincinnati, Oh. I am about 18 miles away form tower. The channel 012-01 WKRC.


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## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

are you screwed for owning a 921? lets see- what year car do you own? I own a 1993 Lexus GS300, am i screwed because Toyota doesn't make it anymore? no they make parts for it and there are authorized service center to help with it. So why would we be screwed because a product is no longer manufactured? that just doesn't make since.

Jon


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## Jerry G (Jul 12, 2003)

DonLandis said:


> The reason why the next 921 upgrade is being delayed, is because E* is too busy trying to fix their most recent bugs in the 942. They only have so much time.
> 
> Frankly, I really don't want Eldon to monkey around with my 921 anymore. It has worked fairly well recording single events now. I'm afraid they will try to fix the OTA guide problems and break the sound or picture rendering the 921 unusable as they did in December. If the 921 is discontinued for sale now, they should quit while they are ahead.


I think it's not possible for them to quit right now. They should have quit before they added the OTA guide. That's when the real problems began. Right now, the 921 is too unstable and usable. Sure, for single recordings it may be OK. But there are too many times I want to record two shows that overlap or follow consecutively on the same channel, or different channels. This is where the 921 is completely unreliable and therefore useless to me. They need to fix the current problems without adding any new feature. Then they should STOP screwing around and screwing the 921 any further.

Actually, what they should do is reload the software before the OTA guide was implemented. That's when the 921 was fairly stable. I'll give up the OTA guide to get a machine that can record two shows at the same time.


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## Jerry G (Jul 12, 2003)

BarneyC said:


> You guys scared me out of buying a 921. I cancelled my order in favor of a 942. Thanks for the info!
> 
> Barney


Very smart move.


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## paulrus (Sep 1, 2004)

j5races said:


> are you screwed for owning a 921? lets see- what year car do you own? I own a 1993 Lexus GS300, am i screwed because Toyota doesn't make it anymore? no they make parts for it and there are authorized service center to help with it. So why would we be screwed because a product is no longer manufactured? that just doesn't make since.
> 
> Jon


I think your analogy if faulty. DISH is not like Toyota, because auto manufacturers are required to do recalls when there is a problem with one of their products. If Toyota produced a defective car, then had incompetant repairmen try to fix it over and over again, which just caused more problems, and then finally just came out with a better model and discontinued the defective model, then I think you'd have a better analogy.

Paul


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Jerry G- Hey, I agree with you but I really don't think they will do that, ie. revert the version back to L188. The solution is simple! Switch to a DVR that works. Switch to a HR10-250. Start adding additional hard drives for more capacity and start enjoying DVR the way it should be. Then only use your 921 for what it can do reliably, record one program at a time. At least mine is doing that a couple of times a week. Well, except for last night, I noticed my guide stopped updating, no data past 3 hours on some channels. I suppose I'll deal with that tonight. Last time (November?)they needed to send me a hit and I had to do another check switch to get the guide data to update. With the lower price on the HDTIVO to match the 942, it would seem a no-brainer. And, BTW, most of the stuff (myths) about D* and quality is just plain BS so let's not even go there.


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## Larry Caldwell (Apr 4, 2005)

clapple said:


> What I find increadible, is that with the same hardware and software people get such different results.
> 
> Other than suffering a few 0 time recordings, I am qiute happy with my 921.


Likewise. However, most of the complaints seem to be about OTA HD recording. I don't get OTA television of any kind at my house, so that is not an issue for me. As a HD satellite DVR, the 921 works pretty good. I had some initial problems, but as long as I leave the receiver in standby during a reboot, it seems to stay pretty stable. I haven't had to reboot for a couple weeks now.


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## josem3 (Jan 6, 2005)

Larry Caldwell said:


> Likewise. However, most of the complaints seem to be about OTA HD recording. I don't get OTA television of any kind at my house, so that is not an issue for me. As a HD satellite DVR, the 921 works pretty good. I had some initial problems, but as long as I leave the receiver in standby during a reboot, it seems to stay pretty stable. I haven't had to reboot for a couple weeks now.


So far, a pretty good receiver(921) like Larrt Caldweel said.


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## Jerry G (Jul 12, 2003)

DonLandis said:


> The solution is simple! Switch to a DVR that works. Switch to a HR10-250.


At this time, I don't want two providers, and I wouldn't consider switching to DirecTV until I know what they plan on adding with regard to national HD channels. Also I can't see spending money on any new equipment until MPEG4 capable receivers are available. So, I have to hope Dish can make the 921 usable again for anything other than single isolated recordings, and stick with Dish and the 921 until later this year. Hopefully, DirecTV will have a good MPEG4 HD DVR and new national HD channels. Then it will be a no brainer to switch to DirecTV.


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## tweaver999 (Jul 9, 2004)

I guess I am a bit surprised... Do the audio drop outs NOT bother anyone else???? I ignore them, but it is a indication of major problems. Does the lack of the advertised NBR NOT bother anyone. Especially now that the schedules are changing... so it records by time... no matter what show it is or was...... or the final shows are 2 hours long and if you don't remember you only get 1 hour because the original timer can not handle any show time changes like other DVR's........
And I won't even mention the OTA problems,ZSR, hard disk wipes,etc.
I must be the only one that expected this DVR to work like Tivo,a 10 year old Replay,etc......Amazing...


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## Bradtothebone (Aug 11, 2003)

My audio dropout problems have dropped to almost zero (for some reason). As for NBR, you have to have guide info for that to work. Since 90% of my recording is OTA, and I don't sub to LIL's, that feature is almost worthless for me. If I had local guide info, I suppose I'd want NBR, too.

Brad


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## Larry Caldwell (Apr 4, 2005)

tweaver999 said:


> I guess I am a bit surprised... Do the audio drop outs NOT bother anyone else???? I ignore them, but it is a indication of major problems. Does the lack of the advertised NBR NOT bother anyone. Especially now that the schedules are changing... so it records by time... no matter what show it is or was...... or the final shows are 2 hours long and if you don't remember you only get 1 hour because the original timer can not handle any show time changes like other DVR's........
> And I won't even mention the OTA problems,ZSR, hard disk wipes,etc.
> I must be the only one that expected this DVR to work like Tivo,a 10 year old Replay,etc......Amazing...


I haven't had an audio drop out or seen pixellation for a week now. I always thought that was an uplink problem. Since it went away without a software update, it seems the 921 was not to blame.

I never saw an NBR ad for the 921. If you think you saw such an ad, you probably should consider that you were mistaken. Scuttlebutt on the internet is not the same as an advertised feature.

I did miss half of one season finale, but it will be around in reruns or the beginning of next season. I delete 1/3 of what I record because I don't have time to watch it, and FF through half of the rest, so missing 40 minutes of TV is pretty much a non-event.

There are apparently some OTA issues that I don't see. There are some cranky parts to the software. I hung the system three times the first day I had it, before I realized the stop button was for stopping a recording, not for stopping a playback. The only time I have had a ZSR was operator error. I pre-empted the tuner that was supposed to record the event. With no ZSR events, I obviously have never had a disk wipe. I have no idea what the sequential timer problem is. All my sequential timers work just fine. When they are having a marathon, I sometimes record several consecutive hours on one channel.

If your 921 was a PC, I would suggest you format the HD and reinstall the OS. I think you can do that on the 921.


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## StevenD (Nov 6, 2004)

Larry Caldwell said:


> I never saw an NBR ad for the 921. If you think you saw such an ad, you probably should consider that you were mistaken. Scuttlebutt on the internet is not the same as an advertised feature.


NBR was listed on the original 921 spec sheet. Charlie also said, on a Charlie Chat in 2004, "The 921 will have NBR by the end of the year."


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## Hound (Mar 20, 2005)

I bought my 921 from Dish over the telephone in February 2005. The Dish rep never told me about the 942. I did not know the 942 existed, until I came across this website. However, I would not switch to the 942, I would wait until the MPEG4 machines are out and hope that the MPEG4 942 has component output to two televisions. My decision to purchase the 921 was made because the Dish rep sold me on the OTA channel guide and recording OTA channels, if I also purchased locals from Dish. So I signed up for Dish locals as well. 75 percent of my viewing time is OTA locals mostly in high definition. I get CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, FOX, WB and UPN from Philadelphia in high definition. I could also get New York OTA locals if I rotate my antenna, but I do not want to be bothered with that. I was considering purchasing a JVC HM-DT100 to record my OTA locals prior to getting the 921. I am still considering it and will decide after the new software update (214). The JVC HM-DT100 comes with an EPG that gets guide information from the OTA signal. Dish apparently saw another revenue stream, by making the OTA guide information mirror the Dish locals, and not use the OTA signal. I had no reason to sign up for Dish locals because I have Philadelphia OTA and I still have Patriot Media cable which gives me New York and Philadelphia locals and New York high definition for CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox. The OTA guide information and recording OTA is a very important issue with the 921. I was misled by the Dish rep. My system is set up with 6.1 sound. The digital OTA high definition picture and surround sound is superior to Dish's HD feed and Patriot Media's cable feed. Once you get OTA, that is all you want to watch. The satellite or cable company competes with OTA by providing content that is not available on OTA.


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## yaesumofo (Apr 22, 2005)

We have 921 and a 811 in our setup.
The 921 replaced a 508 (anybody need a 508?).
The 921 receives all OTA broadcasts very nicely. (We are near LAX). My wife loves it and says she is 95% satisfied by it -5% due to the aspect ratio issue. She likes the menu system vs. 508 . So far we have had no recording problems.
My family loves the 921 for it's ability to record their favorite shows. My 5 year old loves having so many Madeline and Kim Possible programs on tap for her instant gratification.
the only "BUG" we suffer from that has any impact is the stuck aspect ratio problem. I just simply remove power from the whole system and a couple minutes later all is well again. No big deal. I do wish the guide worked better for the local HD channels,
I would have loved to be able to burn those Madeline or KP shows to a DVD Looks like there was room in the 921 for a burner but that has been left out.

The 921 is a recent purchase at costco $389.00 I feel like we are receiving a good value for the purchase. I am especially pleased that VOOM (well 10 channels of voom) is up on dish .
This has really made having HD (the 921 feeds a pioneer 43inch plasma) worthwhile. The programming on VOOM generally is exelent. A large quantity of it is shot in HD. Not up converted crap like discovery HD.
I hope some of you 921 owners can find some satisfaction in your gear. We are early adapters, there are risks that are associated with being first on the block people.
When I look at what is available from comcast and direct TV and don't believe I would be any happier with anything they can come up with. 

My audio is feed into a samsung ht-610 all in one progressive scan 6 disk Dolby surround system all in one thing. This works very well with the 921. The digital that comes out of the optical output of the 921 interfaces perfectly with the Samsung. The tonight show sounds great!!

Sorry about the rant here. It seems to me as though there so many people who are unhappy with the results they are getting from the 921. I have a reminder for you. Nobody is holding a gun to your head to use it or keep it. If you are so unhappy with it move on. It is easy to do and it seems that in many cases will extend your lives due to lowering your stress and aggravation levels. 

Yaesumofo


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## Bogney (Jul 11, 2003)

yaesumofo said:


> A large quantity of it is shot in HD. Not up converted crap like discovery HD.


I would be curious to know what shows on Discovery HD Theater are "up converted crap"?


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## paulrus (Sep 1, 2004)

StevenD said:


> NBR was listed on the original 921 spec sheet. Charlie also said, on a Charlie Chat in 2004, "The 921 will have NBR by the end of the year."


I was also told by the E* executive office that NBR was coming "soon" (this was a few weeks ago...)


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## SpenceJT (Dec 27, 2002)

paulrus said:


> I was also told by the E* executive office that NBR was coming "soon" (this was a few weeks ago...)


They lied to you my friend. It was mentioned in the last Charlie Chat (or was it the Technical Chat) that NBR was not coming for the 921.

The 921 NBR issue has been known (and discussed) by most. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. None would like NBR for the 921 more than I (I purchased mine with DishWire and NBR in mind for $1,000 and have been bent over like Paris Hilton).


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## Larry Caldwell (Apr 4, 2005)

That's what I get for saying the 921 was pretty stable. Last night I noticed that I only had 5 hours of recording time left. This baffled me, since I had not recorded that much. Investigation eventually showed that two timers had fired and never turned off, so they had been recording continually for several hours. I had to do a hard reboot to cancel the recording. None of the usual tricks worked. 

Sigh.


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## KKlare (Sep 24, 2004)

A trick I use to stop a run-away recording is to ask for two other timers that overlap it. The conflict screen allows me to delete those and set the bad program for skip a week for a weekly timer.

I also use this to eliminate a show I will not want to record for one week or one day of the week like Jon Stewart not being on Friday.
-Ken


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