Lame 625 DVR newbie questions

[ruefrex@sbcglobal.net]

I hope not, but just in case!

I come from TiVo and I've got the 625. I only have one TV, and the dual tuners are confusing me because all the answers seem to be geared towards those who have two TVs. Anyway, I have a few questions that I have yet to find the answers to.

1 - the "skip back" feature. I assumed that this was like TiVo and you could move back a certain period of time. TiVo has a half hour buffer, so you can rewind half an hour. Can you not do this at all with the Dish DVR?

2 - I currently have both tuners into my TV's RCA inputs, so when I want to go from one to the other I have to use the TV remote to go to that input. Is there any way to switch tuners but only use ONE input, or is this impossible?

3 - Managing recordings is confusing me a little bit. If I'm on Tuner 2 and I ask it to record and it tells me something else is recording at that time, the program I wanted to record gets a little X over it. I want to be able to switch to Tuner 1 and set the program to record, but the DVR acts like it can't because it's Xed out on Tuner 2. Aside from programming the recording manually (kind of a pain), is there any other way to do this?

4 - The option of single or dual mode is confusing, because in the guide it only talks about it if you've got the box hooked up to different TVs. So what I'd like to know is, what's the best setup for my configuration, if it's not what I'm doing now?

So far, I mostly like the interface, although it does seem to take a few more button pushes. But it's pretty logical and intuitive. I'm just a little confused about the dual tuner thingy.

 

[n0qcu]

1. the 625 has a 2 hour buffer (for each tuner) "skip back" is 10 seconds. use the fast back button.
2. Use single mode & and use the swap button
3. make sure record plus is turned on (or use single mode)
4. single mode would be best

 

[Hall]

1) I thought it was one hour. I guess you can say two hours, one hour per tuner, but that's not typically how people look at it.

I agree with n0qcu on 2-4. Use single mode. Dual mode is more appropriate for (2) TVs whereas single mode is just that, for a single TV.

 

[n0qcu]

1) I thought it was one hour. I guess you can say two hours, one hour per tuner, but that's not typically how people look at it.

You thought wrong the 522/625 are two hours per tuner.

 

[Hall]

I see the manual does state (2) hours for pausing a show. I'm positive that it used to read "60 minutes" was how far you could rewind though.

 

[DishSubLA]

n0qcu is absolutely correct about each tuner having its own--independent--full 2 hour buffer in either single or dual mode. If you don't believe it, try it.