Waiting for my 522... Quick Question

[newport]

Hi Guys,
just joined up tonight. Great site with a TON of info!

I was a DirecTV customer with a Tivo/DTV Reciever. I loved it alot. I switched over to my local cable company and got their DVR.. This thing is worse than a basic vcr. It has NO confict resolution what so ever! When it ran into a situation that 3 things would be recorded at the same time, it didn't tell you in any way, it just didn't record ANYTHING!

It had no "session passes" just "record show at this time slot" and "record all ocurrences of this show on this channel".. WELL that made for some interesting stuff! We would get home and flip on the TV to notice that we had 40 recordings of the same episode of one show! To top it off, you need to set the recording options every week or nothing would get recorded.

The unit is an SA80, I complained and sent feature request after feature request to my cable company. After 4 soild months and not a single bug fix or feature update, I gave up and called Dish Network.

They told me that the 522 has all the same features of a Tivo. I am not sure if it does.

Does it have a "session pass" or something like it?
Do you need to constantly setup the same recordings for the same shows every week?
Does it have conflict resolution?
Does it have a time line when your watching live tv or a recording?

Anyway thanks for your help in advance! I am looking forward to getting this unit.
~Newport

 

[Bizzach]

No, it does not have a 'season pass' feature. It uses time-based recording, which records a certian channel at a certian time, no matter if the network changed the schedule. Name-based recording is due out 'soon,' which will work almost like the season pass feature.
No, you don't have to set up the same recordings every week. When you set a timer, you can choose once, daily, weekly, or Monday-Friday.
Yes, it has conflict resolution. It'll make you delete one of the timers - and it DOES work, very well.
It does have a 'time line' when you are watching buffered TV or a recorded show - that shows you how far behind 'live' TV you are, or the time elapsed and position in the show you are (i.e., 14 mins 4 secs out of a 33 min show, along with a status bar showing the relevant position).

Hope that helps... it really is a great receiver. Just chalk the bugs up to technology, and you'll be fine. Just freakin' ENJOY watching TV with the 522!

 

[newport]

Cool sounds better than the crap I had... Last question and I think I know the answer and would rather not

Will it record the same episode 450,000 times?

Say I have it record Fear Factor and it happens to come on 12 times during the day or week and it is the same EP: "Snot Eaters". Does this mean that the unit does not read off the guide and make the decision that Fear Factor EP:"Snot Eaters" has been recorded before therefor it will record it again? *cring*

Time based to me means equal to a vcr with limited inteligence meaning you cant just search for a show, any channel any time and setup to record it.

I don't understand way the unit can recieve an "interactive programming guide" that you can look at (prob some sort of database, and if not maybe the 522 should read the info into one) but yet the recording options can't read off this data.

The thing that blows my mind the most is the general architechure of the unit and the idea that it should work like a vcr and be time based. I mean, what century are we in?? Did the
people designing this thing never see a Tivo before? Is DN in need of some tallented developers that can see through the blinders and outside of the box?? Why make it a VCR when technology has exceeded that long ago? To make it "name based" and "description based" should be simple. ALL THE DATA NEEDED IS IN THE INTERACTIVE PROGRAMMING GUIDE! JUST READ FROM THERE!!!!

~Newport

 

[Bizzach]

Whoa, dude! Chill! It'll be OKAY!

So what.... you do a search for "Fear factor" and you can pick all the eps that are NOT 'Snot Eaters' if you've already seen it. It's really not THAT big of a deal!

But if that's what you absolutely want, they make this thing called TiVo. Pick one up.

 

[newport]

hehehehe ok fine fine fine fine! Maybe the rum and cokes are adding up but I don't think I am
asking for to much.

When you started off in the DVR world with the best (Tivo) and you see all the other crap out
there.... well you start getting annoyed.

I don't get all these DVRs that model themselfs after a vcr rather than something new, something that poeple love to the point of owning bumper stickers, key chains and 20" inch plus dolls

As I told Adelphia, send me an NDA and the code, I will gladly make some software updates that would break this thing away from being a vcr with vcr+ that records to hard drive instead of vhs tapes and turn it into something that could at least be respected.


Anyway.. Just a rant from something that is pissed and has internet access.... Nothing more
~Newport

 

[newport]

PS: after bitching to my wife, I am gonna take your advice. I will call DN tomorrow and cancel the install. I don't need such a low-tech POS. I am switching back to DTV with my TIVO combo unit Hughes HDVR2.

Thanks for the help!
Maybe in 2015 DN and Adelphia will get a clue and step up to BETA recorder.. oh wait by 2015 it should be VHS.

Hope they find some better developers because "Tropical Hippy Keith Rodrigue" sux!

~Newport

 

[Bizzach]

Thank you! The last thing we need around here is another Dish basher!

Now, do us both a favor and sleep it off.... you'll feel better in the morning!

 

[newport]

ya sure, thats no problem, ill just sit here and wait for my 522 to work correctlzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz