Hardware Models/DishPlayer

The EchoStar DishPlayer 7100 (also branded by JVC on some models) is a combination Dish satellite TV receiver and WebTV Plus Receiver, introduced in 1999. Similar to WebTV Old Plus units, it contains an IDE hard drive, however instead of the standard over-the-air TV tuner, it includes satellite inputs to connect to Dish's satellite television services. It also contains a much larger hard drive (8.6GB instead of the typical 1.1GB of Old Plus units) specifically for recording shows onto.

Technical Specifications

RM5230 CPU clocked at 167 MHz
V.90 softmodem
16 MB RAM
4 MB ROM
8.6 GB HDD
Two smart card slots (one on back for Dish functionality, one on front for WebTV functionality)

Differences

The DishPlayer 7100 is the only Old Plus unit to contain 16MB of RAM, as typical Old Plus units only contained 8MB, and only later New Plus units had 16MB. It also had a bigger capacity hard drive for digital TV recordings, as well as trick play features such as "TV Pause," which allowed pausing a live show for up to 30 minutes.

The unit also has two AV outputs, with the intention of one going to your TV and one going to a VCR. Despite the unit including a much larger hard drive for digital recordings, it still has the ability to control a VCR via an IR blaster, including recording shows to it. The AV in and mic jack were moved to the front, and unlike typical Plus units, there is no way to preview the AV inputs or control a VCR manually.

It also has two smart card slots, one on the front which is connected to the WebTV, and one on the back which is tied to the Dish TV functionality. They also won't function without the Dish smart card inserted, asking the user to turn it off and insert one into the back if one isn't detected.

Games

The DishPlayer units were the only WebTV devices that officially got the ports of Doom and You Don't Know Jack, being offered on the TV Home screen via a Games button. From what we know, the games and updates for them would be checked weekly. Unlike the testing versions of these games for regular Old Plus units, updates for You Don't Know Jack were either planned or tested, with the DishPlayer version being based on You Don't Know Jack: The NetShow. It also included a version of Klondike solitaire, which interestingly is included inside of Doom's files, and is simply run by launching Doom with a special -solitaire argument.