Upgrading to HD

[Dodge Ram Nut]

Hi there! I've searched the forum for answers to my specific question(s) but I can't seem to get a good solid answer, so I'm reaching out for help.

I have been a long time DISH sub for about 12 years (give or take) and I am still using 501's. Call me cheap if you would. I have a 2 part question that I'd like to know. I'll explain to the best of my ability.

Part 1 question:

I currently live in a rental duplex and have already gone through the landlord permission crap to have dish installed, which is currently installed with Dish 500. Wife wants to upgrade to HD programming. This duplex only has 2 cable jacks throughout the whole house. (one jack in the living room, and the other jack in the bedroom) I ain't gonna let no body drill any holes and run additional cables. Work with what I have.
Anyways....I have a 501 in the living room connected to Sony 40 HDtv which also has antennae hooked up, and I have a 501 in the bedroom connected to a Samsung 26 HDTV which also has an antennae hooked up as well. Now here's my question: Would a 722vip DVR receiver to watch 2 sat feeds on the living room tv (desirable) be good? Would I be wasting my dollars on a 722 when another model would suffice? I know with a 722 with OTA, I can record 3 shows at the same time or watch 1 show and record 2 at the same time. Is there any possibility I could have the 722 2nd sat feed routed to the bedroom tv without drilling/running new cables through out the walls/floors etc? If not, then I'd be perfectly fine with having HD DVR with 2 sat feeds in the living room. I know 1 feed would be HD and the 2nd would be standard feed.

2nd part question:

I currently have the Dish Family pack with locals. Again..I'm cheap here. If I were to subscribe to HD Bronze along with HD locals, would I get the same programming channels as I do with Dish Family? I watch a lot of Dish Family channels such as DIY, BIO..LIfetime..etc etc. What I would like is to keep pretty much all the channels from Dish Family and just have HD bronze added. Any one help explain to me if this is possible? Also I think I would use the DVR advantage if it were to help me save a dollar. Hope you don't think I've just been rambling on and on. Just trying to explain stuff so you guys can get a clear picture.

 

[CowboyDren]

The 722 is excellent for your situation. You'd need to back-feed the TV2 output back into the cable system to avoid drilling holes, but that should be fine. Bronze is close to Family, but not quite. Family Pack has a weird mix of channels. They have channel cards at the Dish website to help you compare.

 

[Dodge Ram Nut]

The 722 is excellent for your situation. You'd need to back-feed the TV2 output back into the cable system to avoid drilling holes, but that should be fine. Bronze is close to Family, but not quite. Family Pack has a weird mix of channels. They have channel cards at the Dish website to help you compare.

The wife and I talked...we discussed programming of using Classic Bronze and Turbo Bronze. Too much money for our taste. We decided we will probably just end up doing the Dish DVR advantage with only Turbo Silver along with the locals. I'd be giving up DIY and the wife would be giving up Hallmark but gets to keep Lifetime channel.

I've heard and seen on this site about backfeeding. Can you describe again to me how backfeeding works in simple laymen terms without getting so far technical on me? Since I'm not a new customer, I'll be looking at $49.99 a month right off the bat plus no phone line fee of 5 dollars plus tax? So roughly $55 or so? I currently pay $30 some odd dollars now with family pack with locals.

Any body else have any suggestions on receivers and/or backfeedings? Just would like to go into this well-informed before I call Dish

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Just remember the 722 only does 1 room HD and 1 room SD. Not 2 rooms HD.
Plus if you record a show in your living room ,that show your recording will be playing in your bedroom while in dual mode. So who ever is watching from the bedroom,has to wait untill your recording is done, or you have to watch what your recording in the livingroom,so the person in the bedroom can watch what ever they want.
Yes you can record 3 things at once, But you have to watch atlease one of them at the same time.
If your recording Off Satellite you can only record 2 shows at once, and you in the livingroom or who ever is in the bedroom has to watch atleast 1 of those shows recording at the same time..
Only way around this is a 612 in the living room and a 612 in the bedroom. They you both can record and watch a different show at the same time.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

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I've heard and seen on this site about backfeeding. Can you describe again to me how backfeeding works in simple laymen terms without getting so far technical on me?

Your receiver has a COAX tv2 output. Your Cable wire Runs from that TV2 output to the 2nd tv you want to hook up. Thats it. and You get a Radio controled remote to use for that 2nd TV. So depending on where your putting your Receiver, They have to run a Wire from there to your bedroom if they can't use exsiting wiring somehow.

 

[Dodge Ram Nut]

OK...obviously we can't back feed the 722 to the bedroom TV then because I don't want any cables drilled or ran to the bedroom TV. So...that means If I get the 722 with silver turbohd...and I have the 722 in single mode, I can record 2 TV shows at once, and watch something off the antennae right? If that's the case, then that will be fine.
I can either hook the antennae up directly to my TV or to the 722's antennae input. Currently, my antennae is hooked up directly to the TV which allows me to have 501 record a show, and I switch inputs on my TV to watch antennae channels. Works out GREAT for me.

Will my 501 be able to use the non-hd channels in the turbohd silver package? Or will I almost get no channels on the 501 since its a SD receiver and I sub to the HD package only? I usually watch recorded locals shows for my "bedtime stories" before falling asleep.

 

[CowboyDren]

IF you have a cable outlet in the living room AND a cable outlet in the bedroom AND the satellite dish feeds both cable outlets, backfeeding is the way to go.

The 722 requires a separator for the SAT signal between the wall outlet and the two SAT tuner inputs. The 722 also has an OTA antenna jack and a TV2 output, which are both coaxial. Your physical antenna goes into the 722's OTA input. The SAT signal comes from the wall, goes through a separator, then into the 2 SAT tuner inputs (why Echostar didn't put the separator inside the receiver box is beyond me). Place a diplexer between the separator and the wall, and feed the TV2 output from the 722 into the diplexer. Then, in the bedroom, put another diplexer on the wall; the SAT output from the diplexer is unused, but the ANT output goes to your bedroom TV.

Violla! TV2 has full access to one SAT tuner, maybe the OTA tuner, and all of the DVR recordings that TV1 has. One box, two TVs, a few bucks in diplexers, and you're done.

Of course, if you never use both TVs at once, you can put the 722 in Single mode, and the TV2 coaxial output displays the same thing that the HDMI/Component video feed does. You'd have access to all three tuners and PIP functionality from either TV, you'd just carry the UHF remote from room to room.