Changes your life
Written: Aug 31 '00
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Pros: High quality recording and time shifting, Digital output, WebTV
Cons: Buggy software, expensive PTV, dish pointing
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| bytre's Full Review: EchoStar DishPlayer 7100 Satellite System |
I had been reading about these hard drive recording systems for a while (Tivo, ReplayTV), but was put off by the high prices. When Dish Network added the PTV (advanced recording options beyond the basic pause that the original Dishplayer had), it became the obvious choice. As a Directv customer, Dish would subsidize the equipment, and I was able to get a Dishplayer 7200 for $49!
The 7200 is almost identical to the 7100, but there are two differences:
1: The 7200 comes with a new remote with additional buttons for PTV (advanced recording)
2: The 7200 does not come with the keyboard remote that the 7100 had
3: The 7200 has a 17 gig hard drive instead of an 8 gig. This allows it to record twice as much as the 7100.
Installation of the new Dish 500 system, which came with my 7200 kit, was a bit of a pain. I had installed a DirecTV dish a couple of years ago, and actually mounting the dish and pointing it was not that difficult. The difficulty I had is that, unlike the old Directv dish, the Dish 500 focuses on two satellites - one at 119 and one at 110 degrees. Due to a mistake I had made in my wiring, when I picked up the 119 I could never get the 110.
Dish technical support was of little help here, suggesting I do this or that, but never figuring out the problem. Someone on the old DBS Dish forums came up with the answer for me, and I was able to double my channel capacity.
The Dish picture quality is slightly softer and fuzzier than my old Directv setup, but the lossless recording capability makes up for that, giving a much superior recording than I got with Directv and a SVHS deck. Dish has comperable programming packages, and is a bit cheaper than DirecTV.
I keep talking about the recording, because that is the most valuable feature of this piece of equipment. The Personal TV (or PTV) costs an extra $10 per month, but is well worth the cost. Basically, it allows you to select any program on an on-screen guide (which covers 7 days of programming on hundreds of channels) and tell the box to record it. You can also tell it to record the program every time it is in its time slot (ie: "always record the Sopranos on Sunday night at 10pm"), or record the program every time it is on, on any channel ("always record Larry Sanders, whenever it is on").
As new parents with a young baby, we are no longer able to schedule time to watch a TV program. With our Dishplayer at work, we spend a few minutes every couple weeks browsing around the schedule to find some interesting stuff to watch, program it, then have hours and hours of programming waiting for us when we have the time to watch it.
Because the programming we watch is all recorded, we can easily pause, rewind, fast forward through commercials, or stop it to view later. You can use these same functions, although more limited, when watching live TV (you can pause and rewind, and after you've paused or rewound a bit, you can skip forward). With the new baby, this convenience makes it possible for us to watch TV.
You can watch a previously recorded program while it records something else on another channel, but cannot watch live TV while recording another live channel.
The recording quality is superior to the standalone Tivo and ReplayTV units because it records the bitstream directly from the satellite - and adds no additional compression. Because of this, it won't record as many hours as the other units can (but if you're comfortable with computer equipment, you can self upgrade the hard drive to a 30 or 40 or 50 gig unit to increase your recording time), but the superior quality is worth it. New Tivo units integrated with Directv receivers will gain equivilent quality.
The guide is well done, easy to read, and pleasing to look at. It provides a reduced picture-in-picture view of the current channel while you look through the guide. It provides a 2 or 3 sentence description of every program, including actor names and sometimes directors (all this is searchable). Sometimes there are ratings (3 stars or whatnot), but I rarely use those.
I mention the digital audio as a pro, so I should talk about it a bit. The audio is simultaneously output via both analog right/left ouputs (2 sets) as well as a digital optical toslink connection. When fed into my digital capable receiver (Sony 555ES), the sound is much improved over the analog outputs. I truly get CD quality sound from the audio stations, and can also get Dolby Digital audio on a handful of the pay per view channels (Starz East on Dish just began broadcasting Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 yesterday).
Other outputs on the back of the unit include 2 composite video, 1 s-video, and one coax cable. There is also a phone connector input (needed for WebTV and ordering Pay per View), a satellite feed input, and an antenna input (for watching over the air channels).
The unit also has three front panel inputs (1 composite video and 2 channel audio) which are used for the WebTV capability - these allow you to capture a frame from a video camera or audio to attach to email. The WebTV communicates via the phone jack with an internal 56k modem, and carries an additional monthly charge. I do not use the webtv capabilities at all, so I can't say much more about it.
Another ability of the box is to play a few games ("You Don't Know Jack", "Doom", and Solitaire). We've played Jack a couple times with friends over, but otherwise have little interest in the games, but they are a nice touch.
One of the cons I mentioned is the buggy software. A couple of times I have had the machine fail to record something (leaving me with a "1 minute" recording of nothing), and it got confused when Dish moved some channels around. Occasionally it will jump to a "downloading satellite information" when browsing your channels which takes for a few minutes, and a host of other quirks. Dish network provides new software downloads from time to time, but there are still the occasional bugs. For some users, the bugs have really made the dishplayer a pain to use and ruin the experience. I understand them and put up with them.
The Dishplayer is a remarkable unit for its price, even if you don't get it for the $49 that I paid. I would recommend it highly.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 49
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Epinions.com ID:
bytre
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Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 4 members
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