# Thanks Mark -- Much appreciated!



## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

DonLandis said:


> including this illusion that this forum is a part of the program to fix the 921.





Mark Lamutt said:


> Wow...that actually hurts a little bit here, even through my highly thickened skin. I hope that the people that I've been able to help out over the past year would disagree...otherwise I really am just wasting my time here.
> 
> That's all for now. Shutting down


Mark - I for one deeply appreciate your efforts. Additionally, this forum is the best source I've found for worthwhile information on the 921.

I understand Don's frustration - Heck, we're all frustrated with Dish and the way they have chosen to "do things". But we stick with our choices and wait for it to get better.

I also know for a fact that the people at Dish monitor this forum - My direct communications with the 921 team (again, thanks to Mark) confirmed this for me. As to how much our postings affect the outcome of each revision, I can't really say - But I'm sure that they are at least considered.

So Mark, please keep up the good works you do for us here!

Thanks again,

John


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## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

I think your comments about Mark's work and endless hours of helping us are highly appreciated by most 921 owners on this forum. You can't let one Direct/Tivo subscriber, deter your great work. I have had Direct and Tivo for over five years and am glad I changed over to dish and 921. THANKS MARK!


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Ditto the above.

Although I'm new to this forum and new to the 921, I for one deeply appreciate Mark's enthusiasm and efforts. Good grief, he's a volunteer and everyone's time is valuable. I know he saved the day for at least one 921 owner who wanted to watch the Superbowl.

I think the naysayers should carefully choose their words.

Robert


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## bbomar (Oct 18, 2004)

Mark - You also have my thanks for the excellent job you do with
this forum. The forum provides valuable information for 921 users, independent of problems with the 921 software. On this forum
I was able to determine if my legacy switch hardware would work with 
the 921 before I purchased it. I was also able to go into the 921
world, knowing ahead of time the problems that might be encountered.
I'm sure some folks have also used the infromation available here to
decide against purchasing a 921. Mark has also helped many folks,
myself included, get in touch with 921 support when that was necessary.

The information on this forum has also been invaluable in dealing
with the 921 software bugs which shouldn't exist, but do. It is
unfortunate that the Dish software team has, so far, been unable to 
deal in a timely manner with the software bugs identified here, but
that is not Mark's problem. In my opinion it is important to have a
place where bug information is reported, even if Dish fails to follow
through in fixing them. At least I have a way of knowing if a problem
I encounter is a well known software problem, or a hardware problem
with my 921.

I have to agree with Don that the current software release is more unstable than the last one. In my case I find the 921 usable but also in need of much more frequent rebooting due to such things as being frozen in stretch mode. I'm still hopeful that most of the bugs can and will be fixed.


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## Eagles (Dec 31, 2003)

Ditto with all the thanks and appreciation to Mark. Just to be clear to Mark, any negative comments I may make concerning the 921 on this forum are directed squarly at Dish and Eldon. I don't think Mark has any control over where that ship is steering. Thanks again Mark.


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## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

"Mark - You also have my thanks for the excellent job you do with
this forum. The forum provides valuable information for 921 users, independent of problems with the 921 software. On this forum
I was able to determine if my legacy switch hardware would work with 
the 921 before I purchased it. I was also able to go into the 921
world, knowing ahead of time the problems that might be encountered.
I'm sure some folks have also used the information available here to
decide against purchasing a 921. Mark has also helped many folks,
myself included, get in touch with 921 support when that was necessary.'

I agree with this in full. Mark your time is very much appreciated. You have helped many owners. I also watched this forum and made an informed decision to buy a 921 knowing it has bugs that i hope are being fixed. I don't see why people who own tivo's or voom (or 921's and just to *****) ignore the rules of this forum and post negative dish/Eldon bashing remarks on here. I wish they would follow the golden rule: If you don't have anything nice to say DON"T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL!!!

Please, we all know the 921 has issues, bashing dish and Eldon doesn't do anyone any good. We need help not criticism. Thank you mark for all you do for us.

Jon


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## Tomos (Jan 16, 2005)

I don't think DonLandis was saying that what Mark was doing is the illusion, I believe what he may have been saying is that everything E is doing is the illusion and what they give us and Mark is bogas as to what they could and should be doing. I could be wrong but that's what I get out of it.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

Couldn't agree more with the positive comments about Mark's efforts. The 921 support is one of the reasons I happily became a gold member. DBSTalk is one of the best sites around for high quality information (a "high fiber" site if you will) and it's contributions from Mark and others that have made it so. Hell, I knew exactly what I was getting when I bought my 921 and it's functionality matches my expectations.


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## TowJumper (Sep 19, 2003)

Mark:

Your efforts are much appreciated - in fact, the 921 is tolerable BECAUSE of your efforts IMO.

Thanks again.

PS. DonL's Midol must have not kicked in yet.


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## FaxMan (Oct 14, 2003)

Mark,

Although some of DonL's comments might be on the right track as to how E* 'should' have done things, what you've been able to do with what they've given you to work with has been nothing short of miraculous! You have made it tolearable for many of us.

If/when they get this all working to significant satisfaction, they should give you your own channel! You've retained hundreds of customers for them.

Hang in there Mark!

John


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## cschlik (Jan 27, 2003)

I have to say I definitely appreciate Mark's efforts and have seen progress first hand.

After 2 weeks awaiting a callback from the advance support team. I shot Mark an email on 2/24/05 (Friday morning), as he had offered to help me out. A short while later I received a phone call from someone on the 921 team. It was decided that my unit needed to be swapped out and a new receiver was on my doorstep at 9:00am on Saturday. I was also given contact information for future problems. 

This restored some of my faith in dish, the tech was responsive and provided me with information regarding how to avoid my problem until the fix arrives. 

I am eternally grateful for not having to endure countless phone calls and time on hold while my situation gets escalated. 

Thank you Mark!


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## Redster (Jan 14, 2004)

My grateful thanks also Mark. If I remember right,, you were the first to answer my questions about the 922 and whether it was worth it. You were also very instrumental in helping me get my OTA antenna up and running. Thank you for your help and I also want to include everyone who has helped familiarize us newbies with HDTV. My wife and I very much enjoy our 921 and the bigscreen. What a difference it makes during football season. I dont always feel like thanking Dish Network but the 921 was new when I bought it and I expected it to have bugs. With everyone reporting their problems it has gotten much better and I am sure it will get even better. Thank you Mark for your tireless efforts,, they are very much appreciated.


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## cclement (Mar 22, 2004)

Redster said:


> My grateful thanks also Mark. Thank you Mark for your tireless efforts, they are very much appreciated.


I couldn't agree more!! Tip of the hat to Mark and all his excellent work for more than a year. My 921 works so much better than it did a year ago, and I know for a fact it has A LOT to do with Mark and everyone here that helped him!

Thanks Mark!


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Mark, It is an uphill battle and you must have a pretty good headache over the endless problems that the 921 provide. I'm pretty pleased that we have these forums to try and get things accomplished, even it there is venting, frustrations, and other factors that must get pretty old for you. Anyway thanks for your continued service and please keep the faith. God only knows what we will have instore for the next software realease. I do have sledge hammers and have often thought about using them but this forum has provided a more economical way, thus keeping the hammers in the shed.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Thanks everyone. All of this is nice to hear, once in a while.  I beat my head against the wall more often than you all know over some of this stuff. For instance, I took last Friday afternoon off from work and spent the afternoon down at Dish with Mark S. (our new favorite Eldon engineer from the tech forum who now lives here in Denver working on the 921) going through a lot of this stuff. Progress is being made, but it's a lot slower than I want to see it. 

I know Don wasn't attacking me or what we're doing here. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Don, and to see him finally get to the breaking point is a very sad thing for me. 

There are a lot of days that I wonder why I keep doing this. And then I'm able to get one of you in touch with the right people to get your box swapped out in the nick of time before your superbowl party, or something, and that gives me a great deal of satisfaction. Which is a damn good thing, as that's just about all that I get out of it. Those of you that think that beta testing is an easy, fun thing to do are sorely mistaken. That's even more work than trying to keep a handle on things around here.

Bottom line...I'm not going anywhere, even though there are days that I really, really want to.


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## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

Yeah!


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

_"I know Don wasn't attacking me or what we're doing here. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Don, and to see him finally get to the breaking point is a very sad thing for me. "_

Glad you and a few others see the correct picture here. The way I see this nothing has changed in the way E* has handled this forum in months. We see no feedback ever and not even an announcement as to when the new software release is going to happen. You do post an official bug fix usually within 24hours of us discovering it anyway and then from what I discovered last summer that list is not complete, especially with software changes that directly affect the performance of the 921. Mark, I only hope that my departure from 100% blind support for E*'s current 921 fix program and being vocal about it will bring about change for you and how you are supported by them and also how we as members of this forum are supported by E*. I really do think a year is enough to wait for Eldon to use the information we supplied them and fix the 921 once and for all. If they need another couple of years, then they should step aside and let someone else handle it. Remember the definition of insanity...
I know you give way beyond the call of duty to this effort and understand what you feel are your only rewards. I feel bad you have such a poor view on beta testing because I can assure you not all are run this way. Some make you feel you are a close member of the success team!


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