921 Chip Problem?

[Ray S]

On the November 12 Dealer Chat there was a mention about possible problems with the chips of the 921. Has anyone heard anything further?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I believe that it is another case of Charlie talkin out his ass.

For some reason it seems lately if he does not know an answer he just makes one up.

From those I have spoken to, the 921 is ready to go they are just finishing up some testing of the software before making it official.

 

[Fat Tony]

for anyone who knows anything about board design, chipset is a phase 2 development stage phase 3 finalized. you can't even get something to work at all without proper chipset. he probably remembered a memo he saw 6-8 mos ago.

 

[HookedOnTV]

The chipset they chose 2 or 3 years ago when they started the 921 has probably been discontinued

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Actually part of the delay on the 921 was because of the technical requirement requested on our forums.

The main board has been totally redone and is not the same main board that would have been released if no one spoke up.

 

[Jerry G]

Actually part of the delay on the 921 was because of the technical requirement requested on our forums.

The main board has been totally redone and is not the same main board that would have been released if no one spoke up.

Can you specify which technical requirement you're referring to? Thanks.

 

[GregN]

You would think they would use off the shelf PC motherboards like Tivo?
Keeps the prodution costs to a min

Like most PC's you get the motherboard of the week from the pacific Rim..... Very dynamic .... for the software coders.

It also looks like the 921 has a off the shelf AT PC box with a custom plastic front cover.

Like the tivo Heat will be a issue for HD life.

 

[TheForce]

There was an HDCP issue/flaw that was not discovered in those chips until many projectors were released requiring a chip swap in June 2003 in the field for those projectors that had socketed chip DVI boards and for those projectors with non- socketed chips it was a factory recall. This happened last June. This affected all HDCP compliant devices.
Because of this fact, and the fact that the 921 is to be HDCP compliant, it is possible that Charlie may, in fact be accurate if they were using HDCP Chips from before May, 2003.

Scott- can you supply details as to what it was you were referring to? Charlie Ergan, I blame him for being evasive and a tease but that's his style. I try to avoid reading too much into his Charlie Chat comments. Kind of like holding a politician to his word, or trusting an attorney to do what's ethical.

 

[GregN]

That would make sense since the 921 will be the first production HD recorder (We hope).

I also believe that 90% of the hold up of the 921 have been legal issues to keep hollywood happy.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Is this HDCP chip flaw problem an issue with TVs as well? I bought my Sony KP57WV600 in November 2002 and don't know if this chip problem will affect me when I try to plug the 921 into it.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

The legal issues are not issues according to my insider. But I have not talked to him about the 921 in a few wweeks, so who knows what the most recent hold-up is.

 

[TheForce]

Bob- Dwin was the company who found the problems as they were one of the first to actually implement the HDCP and test it with their monitors. Their discovery led to the re-make of the HDCP code so I suspect that if your TV was made prior to JUne, you may have the buggy HDCP. I can't tell you specifically what the problem was but I can tell you that the HDCP signal was not displayed with the old chip. Dwin fixed all our projectors free last summer.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Scott- can you supply details as to what it was you were referring to?

Don I don't know all the details but was told that they listened to a bunch of suggestions from the board and redegisned things based on the feedback. I do know that the firewire stuff is VERY important to them as well.