Dish PVR/DVR Questions

[Briant73]

I currently am a Dish 500 customer thinking about upgrading to Dish recorder technology and have some questions about it. What would be the best model for my needs considering

Top60+ customer
32" non-hdtv
No current plans to go hdtv for the immediate future.

I am currently running a 4900 receiver.

Thanks

-Brian

 

[goose61282]

Do you want one tuner or two? If you want one you can get a 5XX. If you want two you can get a 721 or wait for the 522 to become available to current subscribers.

 

[Briant73]

Do you want one tuner or two? If you want one you can get a 5XX. If you want two you can get a 721 or wait for the 522 to become available to current subscribers.

Two-tuners gives you the ability to record one channel and watch another, or record two channels at the same time right? Are there any other benefits?

Also how is the 721 in terms of reliability and bugs compared to the 5XX series? I am running DISH 500 equipment not DishPRO, do I need to upgrade/change things for either receiver?

Thanks

 

[TuxCoder]

There's also PIP (Picture-In-Picture).

And another good feature, at least with the 522, is you can timeshift two shows at the same time. It gets complicated, but basically you can watch part of one show (timeshifted if you want) until commercial, swap to your other show (previously tuned to that channel on the other tuner) and back up to where you left off, until commercial, repeat as necessary...

Finally, with the 522, you can also put it in dual mode (its default mode actually) to drive two separate independent sets of outputs that share the same DVR space. It's sorta like siamese (sorry, "conjoined") 510's or 508's.

And welcome to SatelliteGuys.US, Briant73!

 

[Briant73]

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm thinking the 508 or 721 right now just to avoid the monthly fee, unless dish has a deal on the 522.

There's also PIP (Picture-In-Picture).

And another good feature, at least with the 522, is you can timeshift two shows at the same time. It gets complicated, but basically you can watch part of one show (timeshifted if you want) until commercial, swap to your other show (previously tuned to that channel on the other tuner) and back up to where you left off, until commercial, repeat as necessary...

Finally, with the 522, you can also put it in dual mode (its default mode actually) to drive two separate independent sets of outputs that share the same DVR space. It's sorta like siamese (sorry, "conjoined") 510's or 508's.

And welcome to SatelliteGuys.US, Briant73!

 

[goose61282]

I've had both a 508 and 721. I had no problems with either one (once I figured out how the 721 worked). I just got to the point where I wanted to watch more than one show at a time. The only problem is that you will need two feeds for it, which is going to require some additional installation. But if that's OK with you'd I'd highly recommend the 721 of the two.

 

[goose61282]

If you have a legacy twin then all you would need to do is run another wire. If not then you'd need a new LNB (which is pretty easy to install) There are about 1000 options.

 

[Pils]

I would recommend a 510 if you can get an upgrade promotion so you can get it free on lease. But if you want dual tuner, 721 is for the most part stable along with 501, 508, 510, just it will cost money. The 5xx are basically all the same except more storage 40gig, 80 gig, and 120gig. Stay away from 522, 921 unless you can deal with headaches all day long.

 

[SimpleSimon]

TuxCoder: Why go through the hassle of the double-buffering tricks?

Just record both shows and watch yesterday's - I'm almost always a day behind, never see a commercial, and am quite happy with it.

 

[bbriggs]

TuxCoder: Why go through the hassle of the double-buffering tricks?

Just record both shows and watch yesterday's - I'm almost always a day behind, never see a commercial, and am quite happy with it.

If you're a channel-surfer looking for something interesting to watch it's handy. Find a show that might be OK and select it, change tuners, find another show that might be OK and select it. Pop back to the first, rewind and watch it until you're bored then switch to the second and repeat. If one selection is good, you're in business else go surfing again. The bonus is reduced clutter in the PVR list AND sometimes I'm surprised by a very good program I'd never have selected to record. The 921 has weaned me from this practice because the silly thing won't buffer 2 channels if one is HD.

 

[TuxCoder]

The reduced clutter in the PVR list is hinting at another reason, a quite valid one on my end: out of DVR space.

Right now I'm down to about 6 hours *as estimated by the 522 remaining free time. But I notice, especially when it gets full, you have to cut that estimate in half--each new thing I record knocks twice its length off the free time counter. So anyways, that along with the ever increasing reports of 522s wiping hard drives, keeps me from doing much more actual recording on it. Also, my 921 is taking over for the moment.

All of that is and will remain until I eventually end up with DVD recordings of my DVR content, with digital audio transfer and near-perfect A/V synch. Over the period of the last month I've come to realize that this really is asking too much of today's technology. Iteration number 6 or so: come on Philips, I'm waiting on your DVDR740!

 

[Briant73]

Thanks to everyone, I am getting a Dish 508 receiver. The 721 looked nice but were a bit more money then I wanted to spend.

From what I have read the 508 should plug right into my system and no DVR fee. I am replacing a 4900, should I keep the 4900 as a backup or sell it?

-Brian

 

[Mark]

keep your 4900 running, us it when your 508 is recording. unless you get dual tuner.

 

[Briant73]

Got the 508 hooked up, running and latest software downloaded. I have two questions:

1) The autorecord feature is nice but is there anyway to save what it has already autorecorded. Say I'm watching a show and decide part of the way through I want to record it all. Is there a way to do this?

2) I want to make sure I check out everything and make sure it's a good unit so any special commands/functions that the manual doesn't mention that I should be aware of?

 

[MI_SAT]

(1) Yes, you can rewind to the beginning of the show, press record, then fast forward past everything you've already seen -- bring it back to "live" mode. You'll still be recording, and it will shut off according to how you set up the recording (manual stop, stop at end of event, etc.).

(2) Don't know of any. There may be some.

 

[SimpleSimon]

2) Just keep hitting buttons. If you learn anything, we'd sure like to know about it.

 

[BobaBird]

Got the 508 hooked up, running and latest software downloaded. I have two questions:

1) The autorecord feature is nice but is there anyway to save what it has already autorecorded. Say I'm watching a show and decide part of the way through I want to record it all. Is there a way to do this?

2) I want to make sure I check out everything and make sure it's a good unit so any special commands/functions that the manual doesn't mention that I should be aware of?

Check out the DishPVR 501 User Guide Supplement.

 

[Briant73]

I have two new questions (thanks for all the answers so far) -

First when watching a pre-recorded event when there is a new event about to start record is there anyway to get rid of the clock icon that flashes on the screen?

Second - I noticed on a few recordings sound is lost for around 5-7 seconds in the recording. Any ideas?

 

[BobaBird]

To get rid of Mr Blinky press <Cancel>. Press <Info> to see what is about to record. There's no way to prevent it from appearing other than buying a 721 or 921.

No idea on the sound problem. Do you have more details? Is it at the beginning or middle? Just once or several times? Is it random or always at the same point in the playback?

 

[Briant73]

To get rid of Mr Blinky press <Cancel>. Press <Info> to see what is about to record. There's no way to prevent it from appearing other than buying a 721 or 921.

No idea on the sound problem. Do you have more details? Is it at the beginning or middle? Just once or several times? Is it random or always at the same point in the playback?

The sound issue is during playback of recorded events, happened on two events already, during one it happened once, during the other it happened three times.
I know there is some reset codes for the box and hard drive maybe those will help, anybody know them?