How to switch b/t off air tuner and satellite tuners on 722

[bretc]

I love my 722 and use it in single mode because we hardly ever watch both TVs at the same time. I like to switch between the 2 satellite tuners if I happen to be watching live TV by pushing the swap button -- ie while I watch a show I can switch over to CNN during commercials and not risk missing anything if I don't time the commercials right -- yes I can be a catch potato, but can't we all. Anyway, I couldn't take knowing that Heroes was being broadcast in HD while I was stuck with SD b/c Dish has no HD locals in my area (Cincinnati). So I took the plunge and hooked up an off air antena and on Monday Heroes was as good as I've ever seen it.

Now if you're still with me, here's my problem. It would be perfect if the swap button cycled through sat 1, sat 2, and off air. But that is not how it happens. I could live with it if I could predict what would happen when I push swap, like if it always cycled between sat 1 and sat 2. But I never know what I'm going to get. Sometimes it takes me to the other sat tuner and sometimes it takes me to the off air reciever. So I have 2 questions -- (1) is there some order to where the swap button will take me that I am just not getting and (2) is there any other way to access a different reciever if nothing is recording on it -- for example, if nothing is recording and I'm watching something off air on NBC and I go to CNN on sat 1 is there any way I can get back to NBC and rewind what I've missed?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any help. I've been spending way too much time looking around on this forum at work for the last few weeks - and I've enjoyed it.

 

[SouthRider]

Unfortunately the swap button will not do what you are attempting. It basically works like the swap button on every other TV remote. It simply switches you back to the previous channel - no matter what input you were watching.

When you push the swap button it will ALWAYS just go back to the previous channel.

Try thinking of your 722 as one receiver instead of 3 - it simply switches to the channel that you want to look at - regardless of whether it is HD OTA, HD Satellite, or SD satellite.

The 722 will NOT let you rewind after changing channels. Changing channels always purges the current memory. The only way to do what you are attempting is to:

1) record the show
2) hit the dvr button twice
3) resume the show

If you are trying to channel flip between 2 shows during commercials you would need to record both shows & repeat the above procedure every time you want to flip.


The MUCH EASIER thing to do is:

1) Record all of your favorite shows
2) Don't start watching them until they have been on 15 minutes (approx. 15 min. of commercials per hour of network TV).
3) Use the 30 second forward/10 second back button.


This is a whole new paradigm than channel flipping - watch entire shows commercial free at your convenience.

Once you get it going you will find that you have an entire library of shows that you like just waiting to be watched this way.

Plus your wife will be a LOT happier without all that channel flipping.

 

[Jeffro34tx]

Unfortunately the swap button will not do what you are attempting. It basically works like the swap button on every other TV remote. It simply switches you back to the previous channel - no matter what input you were watching.

When you push the swap button it will ALWAYS just go back to the previous channel.

Try thinking of your 722 as one receiver instead of 3 - it simply switches to the channel that you want to look at - regardless of whether it is HD OTA, HD Satellite, or SD satellite.

The 722 will NOT let you rewind after changing channels. Changing channels always purges the current memory. The only way to do what you are attempting is to:

1) record the show
2) hit the dvr button twice
3) resume the show

If you are trying to channel flip between 2 shows during commercials you would need to record both shows & repeat the above procedure every time you want to flip.


The MUCH EASIER thing to do is:

1) Record all of your favorite shows
2) Don't start watching them until they have been on 15 minutes (approx. 15 min. of commercials per hour of network TV).
3) Use the 30 second forward/10 second back button.


This is a whole new paradigm than channel flipping - watch entire shows commercial free at your convenience.

Once you get it going you will find that you have an entire library of shows that you like just waiting to be watched this way.

Plus your wife will be a LOT happier without all that channel flipping.

I don't follow this reply.... and there are parts that I disagree with. I can use the "Swap" button to get to a dfferent tuner and I CAN rewind to go back. When you use the "swap" button, it is not changing channels, it is merely changing the tuner.

As for the original poster.... I think alot of us have been dealing with this for a while and there doesn't seem to be any work arounds for wht you want. In addition, another thing that irritates me is when watching a DVR recording, and using the PIP, it doesn't always use the tuner I prefer to see for the second window. If you go out of the DVR recording event, and watch the tuner you want to see for the second window, and then go start the DVR event, and bring up the PIP window, it will use the opposite tuner that you were last viewing. I wish there was a way to "cycle" through the tuners in this scenario as well as the one you pointed out too.

 

[jlong27]

It's the same on my 622. It would be nice to cycle instead of swap. It seems like the buffer is too eager to dump its memory, in many different situations.

 

[jwolf]

As it was stated in the previous post, that's why it's so nice to DVR everything. I never have to worry about the channel buffer because I am DVR'ing it.

Just my two cents....

 

[jlong27]

As it was stated in the previous post, that's why it's so nice to DVR everything. I never have to worry about the channel buffer because I am DVR'ing it.

Just my two cents....

Here is a scenario. You are watching a dvred event a few min behind live tv. At the end of the show a new one comes on and you are interested in it. You get to the end of the recorded time and bam. You are put into live mode and you can't rewind and have just lost 5 or 10 min of the show. Eventhough no other show started recording using that tuner.

 

[bretc]

Thanks everyone

I'll have to do some testing but I think that SouthRider might be right about swap acting like a recall button. However, I think it takes you to your last tuner rather than your last channel. That makes sense to me. Also, you can rewind after changing tuners (as opposed to changing channels on the same tuner). I think the answer to my problem might be -- start a show on off air then switch to CNN. Since my last tuner was off air, when I hit swap it should go back to the off air tuner without dumping the recording. Its all theory at this point but I'll try it tonight.

On the other hand, its not a very robust solution--as others, I would love a more straightforward cycling option. Does Dish Network have any suggestion line that they are responsive at all too. Over the last few years I've been pleasantly surprized at how features that I've wanted have been implimented in software updates (ex - more robust swapping/PIP--it was even worse a year or two ago, group by show in the my recordings menu)--maybe this issue will be fixed sooner rather than latter.

 

[SouthRider]

My bad!

When you said swap button I pictured you using the recall button. I actually have never used swap or PIP. My comments were referring to the recall button.

I still agree that it's just easier to DVR everything & just watch without the commercials. It has changed the way that we watch TV in our home.

 

[bretc]

Also, I totally see the record everything you want point and just watch it late. Two problems with that that -- 1, my DVR is at max capacity, I'm going to have to get an external drive, pay my $30 (is that right?) and transfer some movies over, 2 -- I watch a lot of TV that is just a one-time thing that I don't want to go through the hastle of recording -- ex. tons of shows on HGTV and all programing on CNN -- the record everything won't work for CNN watching at all. True, I could just watch commercials, you are right that would make my wife happier. Better yet, I could get off my ass and spend some time with my kids. Maybe tomorrow.

And jlong27 -- that is another agrivation that I have. I would love it if both tuners kept recording while a dvred event is being played -- currently one sat reciever does keep recording but the other one doesn't (except for scheduled recordings). -- so I guess that would be my suggestion #2 -- as if anybody cares.

 

[bretc]

You should try it out SouthRider -- only works in single mode. A long time ago I had a DirecTV dvr and the switching tuner feature was more central to the whole UI (mainly because the dvr was only hooked to 1 TV) and I was very happy when I found swap on DishNetwork. You are totally right about how DVR changes how you watch TV. The reality is that 90% of the time I do exactly what you do -- tonight I probably won't watch any TV until after the kids go to bed and then we'll just watch DVRed shows. But on weekends and when I don't have any DVR stuff that I want to watch at that moment I revert to a channel surfer.

 

[8bitbytes]

Yeah, the PIP swap is just between two tuners, which ever two you have tuned in since there is only one PIP. At least it's a sticky buffer and you can pause and swap back to the other tuner, watch for awhile and then pause and flip back to the other still paused tuner. Very nice.

I agree it would be great if all three tuners buffered simultaneously and Dish gave us a PIP1 and a PIP2. Then I could watch three CFB games on saturdays instead of two!