DishNet 522 vs Tivo Series 2

[Royce]

Hello All,

I am new so I apologize ahead of time if this topic has been covered.

I have had a Tivo 40GB ser2.0 for about a year now. Love It. Best piece of AV equipment I have ever owned, changed my life in so many ways.

Anyhow, I'm sick of getting raped by Comcast for crap analog cable ($40.99/month) & HS Internet (+$40.00/month)....I also have the need to add more HD space & the dual Tuners is a factor in the decision also.

I decided to go with Dishnetwork along with a 522 DVR.....I had been under the impression that the whole unit & programming was similar to how DirectTV does it (some kind of deal with TiVo), but that doesn't seem to be the case.

My questions are, basically, how would you compare a 522 to a TiVo2.0?

Picture quality?
Ease of use (my wife has 10+ TiVo season passes & she is no electronics guru, but loves the easy to use TiVo interface)?

If I enjoy the functions/interface of TiVo how would I feel to the 522 compares?

Overall comparasion to TiVo would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Royce

 

[Shadowtester]

Picture quality is better than a Stand Alone Tivo since the signal is only converted once from digital to analog where on the Stand Alone Tivo the signal would be converted from digital to analog comming out of the Satellite Box it would then be converted from Analog to digital by the Tivo so it could be stored on the hard drive. Then when you watch the Show it would be again converted from Digital to Analog and sent to your TV by the Tivo so it goes though 3 conversions with the Tivo vs 1 conversion with the 522 and each conversion degrades the picture a little.

The User interface on the Tivo is much better and refined than the 522. The 522 just received a update that allows for Name Based recording like the Tivo however there are still bugs to work out. Tivo has had several years to work out the bugs and improve the interface. The 522 does have a Dish Pass which is simular to the Tivo Season Pass just not as many option and you have to go though more screens to set it up than on a Tivo.

Overall the Picuture quality on the 522 would be better than the Tivo and the Dual tuner are nice however the Software interface and options on the Tivo are nicer also the Tivo has alot less bugs in the software.

 

[Royce]

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

 

[iammike]

I agree with Shadowtester. A friend of mine has had Dish for years, but just moved into a condo and had to get cable. He picked up a Tivo and the picture quality is not as good as his old Dish DVR. I think he had a dishplayer, but I suspect the recording quality of the dishplayer and the 522 would be comparable. The nice thing about the dish DVR's is that they just record the already MPEG encoded Dish signal and then play it back for you so the recorded picture looks just as good as the live one. Tivo's have to MPEG encode the incoming picture before storing it, so the picture will be degraded somewhat during playback. I'm not certain, but the Directv Tivo's may work on the same principle as the Dish DVR's and just record the incoming signal.

 

[Royce]

It is nice that the Dish DVR records in a higher quality.....but I would be willing to sacrifice that pic quality for the breath of TiVo like convienience options (Season Pass, great search functions, 1-touch recording etc) I have grown used to.


How well does the Dish Pass function work? Can you set a Pass to record a specific show & be able to rely on the DVR to catch the desired episodes, with TiVo I NEVER have to worry about missing any SeasonPass show (aside from emergency programming chances offcourse).

My FIL has a DirectTV TiVo (I assume the quality is similar to what I would achieve with a DishNet DVR) & I must admit that the better recorded Pic quality is nice, espically considering the amount of sporting events I record.

 

[Royce]

Also, who manufactures the DishNetwork DVR 522?

 

[mrschwarz]

For ease of use, go with Tivo,. FOr picture quality and the ability to record two programs at once, go with the 522.

 

[rolandv]

DON'T DO IT MAN, DON'T!

I did the same thing as you 5 months ago. I had my series 2 Tivo for over a year with Cable, no problems, LOVED it. But, I was tempted by the "free" 522 with dual tuners for recording 2 things at once.

What can I tell you except that it has been nothing but a disappointment. The software is not stable. Recordings get missed, playback is jumpy, and now they just released a new software update for this "name based recording" which is nowhere near as simple as Tivo, and again they've introduced NEW bugs into the system.

Don't say I didn't warn you, I'm leaving Dish Network next month because 2 weeks ago the 522 crapped out and deleted all my recordings. A few days later it proceeded to delete all of my Timers "season passes".

I've put up with this crap with 5 months. That's 5 months too long, I should have never left Tivo.

Pros: The picture quality IS better.
When it works, the features like dual tuner are cool.

Cons: Too unreliable.
Everything else.

 

[mahony]

get a directivo it records straight from the stream. Great picture quality

 

[ezyemail]

I want to switch from DISH to DIRECT TV's Tivo, I currently have the 522 dual tuner with DISH and I think it crashed. Does anyone know if TIVO makes a 2 tuner just like the 522?

 

[Shadowtester]

Yes Direct TV's Tivo based DVR is a dual tuner box not sure of the recording capacity but I know they have had dual tuners since the series 1 Tivos with software version 2.5 thats been over a year ago. The current Direct TV Tivos are called series 2 I do not know what the current software version is the easy way to tell the difference between a series 1 and series 2 Tivo is the series 2 Tivos have a USB port where the series 1 do not also I understand the series 2 Tivos menus are faster than the series 1. Also the Direct TV Tivos are also a unit like the 522 the Satellite receiver and Tivo are built into the same box so there is picture quality loss with the recorded shows just like the 522.

 

[maximum]

Yes Direct TV's Tivo based DVR is a dual tuner box not sure of the recording capacity but I know they have had dual tuners since the series 1 Tivos with software version 2.5 thats been over a year ago. The current Direct TV Tivos are called series 2 I do not know what the current software version is the easy way to tell the difference between a series 1 and series 2 Tivo is the series 2 Tivos have a USB port where the series 1 do not also I understand the series 2 Tivos menus are faster than the series 1. Also the Direct TV Tivos are also a unit like the 522 the Satellite receiver and Tivo are built into the same box so there is picture quality loss with the recorded shows just like the 522.

Does the Direct TV Tivo have dual outputs like the 522? One of the best features of the 522 is the ability to watch your DVR recordings on any room in the house. Too bad it has so many other problems.

 

[Shadowtester]

No it only has 1 output but does have 2 tuners so currently you can only view it on 1 TV its remote is a IR remote not a UHF the Direct TV Tivo is designed to be used only on one TV.