It is extremely easy to use the ViP 922 and our biggest compliment, perhaps, is the fact that you really don't even think about using it - so excellent is the interface. You accomplish your goals - finding and watching television and movies - without unnecessary complication and interference from the DVR. While other systems  force you to navigate through pages and pages of content and press button combinations to sort, the ViP 922 offers you a simple "Search" button front and center on the remote. Hit this, and you can quickly find just about anything you need. About the only thing we can imagine that would make this better would be the inclusion of a QWERTY keyboard remote. When you do check out the program menu (because sometimes we drift into old habits of aimless channel-surfing) it makes sense. 

One thing we immediately noticed with respect to the Program Guide was that it didn't feature a filter for HD channels only. The ViP 722 included a filter for HD-only and Standard definition as well as some others, and so you could simply eliminate all non-HD channels, something that an HD-snob like myself is want to do frequently. What we did find, however - and this made up for it - was that the ViP 922 actually worked better. For starters, you can set the preference for showing HD or SD channels in the Settings > Guide Display menu. Additionally, we could set custom channel lists of any configuration we wanted. You simply set up a new filter and select the channels that you want included. I set to work creating an HD channel configuration, and then shortly thereafter set one up strictly for movie channels like HBO and other similar premium stations. Since it only took a few minutes to get myself configured, we really preferred this new system.

SlingLoaded Features

This is one part of the ViP 922 DVR that I was dying to check out - Sling functionality. It's no small secret that Sling has changed the way we view remote access to our media content. For most users Sling represents a way to take your TV with you when you're out of town. As we had recently left town for the 2010 CEDIA Expo, this as the perfect opportunity to test it using the hotel's wireless service. How it works is relatively simple - owed to the ergonomic design created by the people who work on the apps for DISH. If you are on a laptop you can stream media there, but we focused mostly on the iPhone app. In terms of this app, you can buy the SlingPlayer app and pay a one-time fee of $29.99, but the ViP 922 is special in that you can download the free DISH Remote Access app and get the same functionality.

Reviewer's Note: For those using the ViP 922, the DISH Remote Access app includes all of the features of the Sling app. This means that it will allow you to set and record your DVR, so there is no reason to use both.

When you launch the Sling app you are greeted to their welcome screen and the app boots up, connecting to the DVR and then starting the system. It typically takes just a few seconds, but when the network is congested it can take perhaps a minute or so to come up.

Dish Remote Access starting up

On the main screen you have a row of buttons across the bottom that are labeled: Now, Later, MyDVR, Grid, and More - which is a gateway to the preferences and setup features such as filters, search and your remote.

If you click on Now, you will likely get a message telling you that there are too many items to list and that you need to engage a filter. This ins't a big deal, just select a filter or make a new one so that you can drill down into what you are really interested in (movies, TV shows, sports, etc).

Now Playing and Later on Sling

Clicking on any of these items will give you the ability to set your DVR to record the show or jump immediately into watching it live via Sling. On the buttons at the bottom, the second one, Later, brings up an identical list of shows, but doesn't constrain the list to just what's on now. As you can imagine, you can bypass both of these and do a search. From the search results you can add additional filters to further refine your discovered programming.

Want to watch something from your DVR? Hit the DVR button and you can immediately see all of your recorded programs and view them on your iPhone (or computer if you are using DISH.com).

Reviewer's Note: Safari needs to be set to 32-bit mode to use Watch on DISH.com on a Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Sling provides instructions online on how to do this, but basically you just access the Get Info pane for Safari and tell it to boot in 32-bit mode.

Your DVR contents presented as an interactive iPhone app

Note that once you are in the actual Slingbox you are viewing your actual DVR. That means that you can now use the iPhone (or your laptop) as a remote control and activate the features of the box in the way you are used to. In this method, the DVR recorded material shows up in a different way:

Your ViP 922 DVR contents streamed

What's cool is that both are very obviously sufficient for web-app display, but the Sling-mode is a compressed image streamed directly from the DVR, while the (preferred, in my opinion) iPhone app is using local graphics to display merely the data available on your DVR. The iPhone app is going to come across as a clearer, more detailed solution in that it doesn't stream from the ViP 922 until you actually initiate the watching of a recorded or live show.

You can also view your DVR's Program Guide with the "Grid" button. This is pretty self-explanatory, except to add that the Preferences allow you to hide channels and content, thus making it more friendly if you want to pare down the amount of material available for remote streaming:

Grid or Program Guide display

When you stream all functions from the ViP 922 it's just like you are using the DVR locally, except for the fact that the remote is controlled by the iPhone or laptop. To aid in control, DISH has given you special overlay remote control capabilities that facilitate the more common commands you are likely to give, such as DVR and Program Guide navigation and playback control.

We used the Dish ViP 922 for several weeks, putting it through its paces and trying out just about every feature we could get our hands on. The result was a sense that this is a step into the future of television. What we mean by that is the ViP 922 shares a lot of characteristics with the upcoming GoogleTV in terms of how it allows you to search what you are looking for. Unfortunately, the ViP 922 is not compatible with GoogleTV, though the 622, 722 and 722k set top boxes are. Hopefully the ViP 922 won't be too far behind and we wouldn't be surprised if GoogleTV wasn't able to be integrated with a very minimal amount of work and adaptation. But even without Google, this box stands on its own as an impressively useful way to search and view television, both at home and while you are on the road. Bottom line: if you are a DISH subscriber, you're going to want this box. If you're not a DISH subscriber, you're going to want to become one.

DISH ViP 922 SlingLoaded DVR
$649 ($200 lease)

About DISH Network
DISH Network L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH), provides more than 14.3 million satellite TV customers, as of June 30, 2010, with the highest quality programming and technology at the best value, including HD Free for Life. Subscribers enjoy the most national HD channels, the most HD local coverage in the U.S., the most international channels, and award-winning HD and DVR technology including the ViP 922, the world's only DVR with built-in Sling functionality and PC Magazine's "Editor's Choice." DISH Network is first in Customer Satisfaction among all cable and satellite providers according to the 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index survey results for the U.S. largest cable and satellite TV providers. DISH Network Corporation is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and is a Fortune 200 company. Visit www.dish.com.