Will Adding an external hard drive free up tv2?

[whatwhat212]

My question is will adding an external hard drive to a 622 DVR receiver(TV1) allow both TV1 and TV2 to surf channels while TV1 records? My parents like to record their foreign soaps while their busy and it wasnt a issue cause I didnt watch tv too much but that all changed when i got a new TV so it'd be nice to get to actually use it.

Thanks

 

[Mr Tony]

welcome

no an external hard drive wont solve that. You still would only be able to record two shows at once (or watch one record one). The external hard drive works good for archiving shows which frees up the main hard drive

 

[MattG@DISH]

Welcome!

Ice is right. Unfortunately this does not free up a tuner because there is no way to record directly to the EHD

 

[egressionx]

no, 622 only has two tuners (tv1 and tv2), so can only pick up two channels at a time. The record function will take up at least one tuner.

 

[whatwhat212]

Thanks for the quick replies

but what a shame...

whats the best way to go about this? i wanna be able to watch on my tv but want my parents to do what they please. that includes recording and watching at the same time. I guess adding another receiver is the only option? we already have two receivers(VIP 622 and 622 DVR) but the VIP 622 is fully occupied. Receiver is in family room and the TV2 is setup for my brothers room.

What receiver would I be looking at? Looking for HD capable but DVR not needed.

Actually is there a receiver that has 3 tuners?

 

[rocket69]

if they are recording local programing you can hook up OTA and then the recording will use the ant and not that sat.

An extra box will cost some $$ extra box is $7 more a month but might cost an upgrade to add it plus a new 2 year contract. Another option would be to buy a used 211 ( call dish prior to buying to make sure you can activate it with out paying what the other customer owes.) Then all you will need to do is get to the dish and run one cable to the new box.

 

[olfenite]

How about switch it to record on TV1 instead? If it is recording while they are busy, then it is unlikely that they'd notice any types of interruptions.

 

[KyDave]

We went thru this similar issue early on with our new 622 (maybe 3 years ago?). It just came down to 'relearning', so to speak, how we watch TV. Just show/explain to them that while something is RECORDING on the TV2 tuner - then this is the ideal time to be watching stuff that has already been recorded. Which is actually quite nice, as they will not have to worry about watching commercials. Remember, that while the TV1 and TV2 tuner are both recording, two completely different shows can also be WATCHED from the recordings menu on TV1/TV2.

(And as someone else mentioned, if you have an indoor/outdoor antenna hooked up, 3 recordings can be going on while you are also watching 2 already recorded events on TV1/TV2. )

 

[dwarren2]

I'd get a 211 for your tv and activate an ehd for a 1 time fee of $40. Gives the 211 dvr like functionality of pause/rewind/skip forward plus recording. There would be a $7/mo fee.

 

[Lord_Vader]

I don't know if it would help with your issue or not, but keeping more on the HD might help. My kids like to watch all of the cartoons, ( spongebob, dora, etc) so I saw that it was basically using one tuner to record cartoons all day. ( record all, keep 5 ). I increased the "keep" to 25 and it actually stopped recording a bunch of them since they now exist on the hard drive. Just a thought.

Also, I'm not sure which foreign soaps you mean, but you might be able to stream them. Roku has a bunch of international content available now. Roku Channel Store | Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, Hulu Plus & More on Roku Streaming Player

 

[rockymtnhigh]

(And as someone else mentioned, if you have an indoor/outdoor antenna hooked up, 3 recordings can be going on while you are also watching 2 already recorded events on TV1/TV2. )

And to this day, the fact that these receivers can do this -- record tv1, tv2, OTA, AND watch a pre-recorded program, really points to the technical sophistication of both the hardware/software, and the capabilities of the hard drive.

For what its worth, I rarely try to triple record and watch off the dvr at the same time -- quite simply, I fear if anything is going to shorten the life of the device, that is it.

 

[Jimmerinwi]

I assume the shows being recorded are during prime time? Try checking the schedule for these shows. If its like most, they are usually re-aired later in the evening at least once. If they are, just set to record the later airings, freeing up tv2 for prime time viewing. I do this quite often with programs so recordings don't tie up my tv1 tuner while I'm watching it.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[dwarren2]

If the OP is using a reoccurring timer it is very easy to force a Skip of the east coast feed and have the west coast feed record. Press the DVR button 3 times to bring up the daily list of timers. Arrow over to the timers and move to the timer you want to skip so the later will record. Press Info and arrow up to the Skip/Restore button and press Select. That will cause the early feed to be skipped and the later feed will switch to Record.

I do this on a regular basis to check what will be recorded and then skip what I don't want or restore a program that is scheduled to be skipped.

 

[KKlare]

Also be sure the priority of the desired shows is higher, even if it is just once or recently added. This will force the duplicated show to record later when it will less likely interfere with your viewing. Check your Menu+7 list for a few days.
-Ken

 

[dwarren2]

Also be sure the priority of the desired shows is higher, even if it is just once or recently added. This will force the duplicated show to record later when it will less likely interfere with your viewing. Check your Menu+7 list for a few days.
-Ken

Actually, if it's a recurring timer all you have to do is follow my directions, you don't have to worry about priority. If you manually change the east coast feed to Skip, the later west coast feed will change from Skip to active automajically.