DVR without the dish?

[Phils]

I have both a 622 and a 501.

We are taking a 10 day camping trip. I have a dish for our RV but where we are going there are too many trees to see any satellites. I can take either receiver.

Is there ANY way we could watch things recorded on the DVR of either unit without having it hooked to a dish? We've got plenty of stuff recorded on both (and not enough time to watch it all while we are at home).

I suspect the answer is "no" but IF there's any way at all, members here would be the ones to know.

Phil

(on edit - verified that my older DVR is the 501)

 

[Hall]

Why not unplug it from the sat feed right now at home as a test ??

 

[garys]

The 501 will work without sats hooked up. When the Aquireing Satellite screen comes up - hit the dvr button.

 

[Phils]

Wow! Thanks Garys!

Also a good idea on testing it now (and why didn't I think of that?). Of course it'd probably taken some trial and error but I'm good at that.

I was expecting either a "no" (as I said) or something more elaborate like:

'connect the dish, aim it at a 1959 DeSoto hubcap, place an AM radio tuned to 720 behind the hubcap, put on your tinfoil hat and yer good to go"....

Phil

 

[gdarwin]

622 will work with out the dish connected.

 

[ronfelder]

622 will work with out the dish connected.

what about the 522?

 

[Phils]

Thanks gdarwin. After reading garys suggestion I tried it on the 622 and it worked fine.

Dunno what'll happen when the 622 doesn't "phone home" for that 10 days but I'll deal with that problem if it arises.

It was easy enough to test: power down, unplug unit, disconnect input coax, plug in and power up, and hit the DVR button when it tries to acquire. Worked great.

And I didn't even have to get my tin foil hat out.

Phil

 

[Phils]

THAT WORKED GREAT!!

Just took the 622, left the dish at home. There's been so many times I could have taken our 501 and didn't because MOST of the places we camp are so heavily treed that there's no chance of aquiring a bird. Kinda the "DUHH FACTOR" when I think about it.... could've been doing this for years!

Had more movies and shows recorded on the 622 than we had time or inclination to watch.

And since part of "camping" is NOT seeing the nightly news, I expect I'll be leaving the dish home permanently and watch recorded stuff from now on during our trips.

This was like having a box (albeit a BIG box) of assorted DVDs. Watch one, then delete it if we didn't want to watch it again.

Thanks all. I likely wouldn't have even tried this were it not for this forum. Dunno why not, just that "DUHH" factor I guess.

Phil