Dishplayer 942 Near Miss
May 12, 2005
I was all set for some prime HDTV PVR action last night — I was serious when I said that the latest DirecTivo software update was the last straw, and I went ahead and signed up for Dish.
It’s really a no-brainer, at least once I decided that the DirecTivo was an orphan stepchild and was never likely to get the full current Tivo suite of functionality.
I also wanted HDTV PVR support (for more than my locals), so that left me with Cable (not gonna happen), The HDTivo (too much $$ for too many bugs) and Dishnetwork’s Dishplayer 942 (still too many bugs, possibly, but far less $$ for a new subscriber).
Dish’s recent acquisition of another 10 HD channels from Voom’s demise made it even sweeter.
I also needed another basic satellite receiver to take my MCE 2005 box to dual tuners, which I could also acquire in a new subscriber deal, vs. another $100 to DirecTV.
All netted out, for a bit of upfront cash ($250 to lease a Dish 942, plus activation fees (rebated on the bill), I could go from single definition two-tuner DirecTivo on my HDTV, and a single tuner on my MCE box to an dual-tuner (plus an OTA HD tuner) HD PVR on the HDTV, and dual tuners on the MCE box for within a couple dollars of the same monthly fee. Content pretty much the same, except 14 channels of satellite HD, plus my local HD stations.
Yep, a no-brainer, except that I’d forgot how Dish does business…
As I said, I was all set — my install was due yesterday, and I figured a few hours later, I’d finally be enjoying some HD in my living room.
The installer showed — an hour early, even, and was a great guy, and very sharp. Everything went well until he got ready to install the 942, and asked me where it was…
“Um… I don’t think you’ve brought it in yet…”
“We don’t bring 942s — they should have shipped it to you. Our work order says it’s on-site.”
Well, I hadn’t received a thing. What’s more, apparently on an initial install, if they can’t install all of the receivers, they’re not allowed to install any — so the other recievers (which were on the truck) coudn’t be installed either.
So they rescheduled me for the next available appointment (exactly a week later) and went away. Sure enough, 3 hours later (allowing time for a cranky phonecall to Dish HQ, where they ’splained that they scheduled the install 6 days after I ordered, but waited 4 days to ship the receiver), UPS deposited the new Dish 942 on my doorstep.
It looks nice sitting on the equipment shelf, anyway. I’ll have to report back on how it actually works.
Welcome to Dishnetwork…
well i know what ya mean about the delivery thing with 942…but i tell you what the 942 is way more advanced than you think…give dish a couple of months to blow your mind with the full capability of the 942…im talking data transfer,mp3 and jpg capability…portable media players w/built in hard drives…yes i said protable!…man it is insane the way dish is progressing in then industry…sorry for misspelling im tyipng very fast..kinda in a hurry….any way…yeah a few bugs..a few errors…heck even a few rude customer service agents…but in all fairness i think for what they have to offer now and what will have to offer in the future..they really care about the customer… the entertainment industry… and good quality products and service….but hey thats just what i think….thank you
Thanks, David!
I’m looking forward to seeing what the 942 can do — with any luck, it’ll be up and running tomorrow evening…
I recently bought a 942 and I live it a great off air location and was dissappointed that it does not receive analog channels yet. I like it but it does have bugs and I have a 811 and it receives off air much better. I work in broadcast and one thing the 811 did was it picked up 3 markets very good. The 942 at first picked up a l;ocal fox channel that broadcast at 1 million watts but my 942 does not receive it at all. I hooked my 811 up and bang it looked great in HD. Now I called dish and e-mailed them not to get a good answer or even one that made sense. Does anyone have a clue. I have a freind with a 921 and he has the bugs out of it and is very pleased. Also I bought one of Dishs wireless phone hookups and it worked fine for a couple days and now I cannot get it to find a dialtone and I have tried everything I know and it still isn’t working. My e-mail is kptprice19@yahoo.com. Anyone that has and idea please mail me and thanks to all who support HD technology.
I went through a local dealer and got the 942 right away when they were at the house the first time.