I am about to sign up for DISH and they said I would get the 612 since I have a single TV. I have found random stuff about these 2 receivers, but I was hoping someone had some good hard facts about the differences and if it's worth it to push for the 722.

Both have dual satellite tuners and an OTA tuner. You can watch/record more than one channel at a time. The 722 has a seperate SD output so you can connect it by coax to a second TV and watch a different channel in SD. You can make the same connection with a 612 but you have to watch the same channel. The 722 also has a larger hard drive.

Two other points: 722 allows you to use picture-in-picture and it is more mature technology than the 612 (ie potential for fewer glitches).

I have the 722 and love it. It allows for 65 hours of HD recording and 400 hours of SD recording. I have mine running in single mode to my TV. It also has the usb plug to archive shows to an external hard drive. There is a one-time fee to activate the usb feature but it is worth it if you like to keep shows for a while and run out of storage regularly.

What Dish won't tell you is that the model 612 has a flawed OTA receiver. The 722, 622, 301, etc. all bring the Over The Air signal in fine, the 612 is between 10 and 30 lower. When the Dish receiver (612) has an inconsistant signal, it goes blank, takes time (if at all) to reestablish itself, and you lose the OTA....

They know about the problem, but getting through first line support with Dish Network is terribly difficult (unless you are lucky and get a competent tech). I find the ratio is about 1 out of 6 really know what they are doing, the others are looking up stuff in a database.

If you have a simple problem (resetting, using the remote, etc.) they are fine. If you have a bug or a problem you are better off not using Dish Network...

Just my opinion - and if doing OTA stay away from the 612! (I think it also intermittently jitters, I have 2 of them they both do it.)

I agree with you 100% about the 612 having a flawed OTA tuner. It would also cause random reboots when scanning channels and endless Acquiring Signal when changing channels which would require a manual reboot. Also the signal quality was terrible. It could not even pick up a strong religious channel I have in my area which any digital tuner had no problem picking up. Also it would keep going to a annoying error screen and the reception would go up and down and drop out frequently.

I have a 612 and it is a good receiver except for a few glitches with it sometimes skipping while watching HD content delayed or recorded. It is the only receiver Dish would make me lease. They would not give a 722 because I only wanted it for one TV and my family has three other 510's. As for OTA I just have my Terk HDTVi hooked directly to my TV.

I agree that the OTA tuner is not as good as the ones in the other Vip series receivers. Of course, none of them are as good as the module in the old 811s. If you are using a powered distrbution amp for multiple TVs, try decreasing the gain somewhat. That solved my problems with the 612.

I have a question about the 612. Can you add an external HD. I didn't see anything in the manual about that.

I think it is available or on the way. There is a one time access/enabling fee. Check the Dish forum at dbstalk.com for more info.

I agree the 612 is flawed. I have been through 3 612s in the last month and every one has had the same problems. They skip a second or a few seconds of content periodically (about every 15 minutes) and they also freeze up for up to about a minute when hitting pause or rewind (usually only once per session). It's very annoying when the skips happen at the most inopportune moments. I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I really am not interested in living with this piece of junk. Any idea?

i have 2 612s and have significant problems with recorded material getting garbled. seems to be worse if you fast forward or back up something that is still recording a program when you start watching it sometime after the recording began.

like football, I usually start recording a game 1 hour before viewing and as i forward through commercials or back up to see a play, it seems to corrupt the
recording as it being recorded. makes this just about impossible to watch

do any of these 612s work properly. not a lot of options from dish if this doesn't work as 722 use two sets which i don't need. i like the 612 cause we have 2 hd sets and it gives me 2 simulataneous programming options for each set. don't think dish has another dvr that can do that.

Mysteriously my Dish Network ViP 612 DVR has seemed to work better over the last few weeks. That same 612 (and the previous 3 I had over the last few months) was riddled with problems as described previously. Is that just a lucky coincidence or does anyone know if Dish has done something to improve reception/software or something else?

Mysteriously my Dish Network ViP 612 DVR has seemed to work better over the last few weeks. That same 612 (and the previous 3 I had over the last few months) was riddled with problems as described previously. Is that just a lucky coincidence or does anyone know if Dish has done something to improve reception/software or something else?

The ViP612 got a software update not too long ago...help a bunch on playback issues.

RayJr

I spoke too soon. I still have problems with my Dish Network ViP 612. Although not quite as frequently as before. Now average about 1 skip per hour. Was 3 skips/hour previously. Last night hit skip back 10 second button and it skipped back more like 10 minutes. :( Still too many problems with this box and very frustrating.

Get the 722k and get the extra OTA tuner, then you can record 4 things at once. It rocks.

I've got that setup to a single tv, and an additional 1TB hard drive added on.

So far my biggest gripe is there's no way to organize the files on the HD.

never had a playback issue with my vip 612. Had it for 3 month with a external drive as well.

no doubt the 612s are defective big time.

recorded the snf game last sunday on ota channel and watched the baseball playoff game being broadcast on tbs. after the baseball game ended, went to watch the
snf game and my wonderful 612 had garbled the recording from the 3rd quarter to the end of the game. completely unwatchable. signal cutouts, breakups, pixelations, you name it, they all were there. i actually saved the messed up recording so i can show it to the dish reps if they give me any s...

so then i ran a couple of tests where i recorded things on both ota and cable channels
to see if the 612 problems were limited strictly to ota.

well results were not encouraging. while the 612 ota channels did manifest their signal loss and breakup in the test, both showed what i believe is another defect in the dvr. that is if you pause, rewind, slow motion, advance fast forward a program either on ota or dvr channels while the dvr is still recording the broadcast, the dvr recording will be corrupted at the time/place in the recording when you conduct these operations while watching the dvr recording that was already recorded. i.e.
if you record a game and back up and slow mo a close play in the first quarter, or skip forward through commercials in the first quarter -- while the game is being recorded in the third quarter -- when you watch the recording of that time in the third quarter, the recording will be corrupted. this happened on my tests for both ota and cable channels.

i don't know if this is unique to both of my 612s, but run the tests yourselves and let me know of your results.

piss on these p.o.s. dvr
dish will be hearing from me!

I have an owned 722 (not k) and 2 leased 612's, and as God is my witness, they are all buggy. Those who think their 722 is rock solid have simply been lucky and/or haven't noticed it's problems. But it has spontaneously deleted far more recordings than my 612's ever have.

As for your reported 612 problems, I have not observed that particular problem on my bedroom 612, nor has my daughter reported such a thing on her 612.

612 here with NO bugs

so i've called dish trying to get them to come out and replace my defective 612s and so far they have refused to do so. they claim there is no problems with them and i must be doing something to cause the problems i am reporting.

well, i will try one more time with them, but if their attitude doesn't change, i will stop paying them and switch to direct and see dish in small claim court over my 2 year committment. i didn't commit to 2 years with defective dvrs.

Do you pay monthly for Dish Protect? No, then signup ,and tell them it is dead and you want another one. :)

Do you pay monthly for Dish Protect? No, then signup ,and tell them it is dead and you want another one. :)

no i don't. i lease the damn things from e*.

how much extra is dish protect per month?

I do to, and for $5.99 a month they would had shipped you a exchange for NO charge. N

You can also turn the protect on, get your replacement and then turn it back off. No need to continue to pay $5.99 monthly. Use it when you need it and then dump it.

or just complain about it:eek:

well it took 45 minutes on the phone over the weekend wherein they insisted i run all these tests on my 612s, but i finally got them to agree to send replacements. interestingly, once they saw that my values on a dvr screen they had me pull up were all at zero, then they agreed to replace them. wonder what the values refer to?

just hope these work better than the old ones. now i've got to get through all the movies i recorded but haven't watched before i have to send the defective ones back.

Does anyone know if you must purchase monthly service from dish network to be able to record an OTA signal?

Does anyone know if you must purchase monthly service from dish network to be able to record an OTA signal?

Absolutely......

Does anyone know if you must purchase monthly service from dish network to be able to record an OTA signal?

it will record ota signals, but it doesn't do it very well at all.

jyst replaced my 612 dvr due to corruption of the recordings and the new one is exhibiting the exact same problem. if you pause, rewind, or fast forward a show when it is still recording, that part of the recording becomes corrupted and unwatchable. kind of ruins it for football if you want to back up and see a close play again, then the signal gets lost and you have nothing but a garbled digital image for the time you rewound your dvr.

avoid the 612s at all costs. they are defective

i know no one ever follows these threads but i'll post anyway.

my replacement 612 dvr has persistent audio dropouts on playback of recordings. it is that digital sound like "bbrrrrrp"

it also lose ota signal regularly and if you use your remote to back up or fast forward during recording, it corrupts the video recording.

i had no idea these dvrs were so bad. dish is doing a huge disservice to their
customers.

i will try to swap out one more time and if they don't cooperate, i will sue to get out of my contract or they will have to give me 2 722 dvrs which i know do
not have these issues.

i know no one ever follows these threads but i'll post anyway.

my replacement 612 dvr has persistent audio dropouts on playback of recordings. it is that digital sound like "bbrrrrrp"

it also lose ota signal regularly and if you use your remote to back up or fast forward during recording, it corrupts the video recording.

i had no idea these dvrs were so bad. dish is doing a huge disservice to their
customers.

i will try to swap out one more time and if they don't cooperate, i will sue to get out of my contract or they will have to give me 2 722 dvrs which i know do
not have these issues.

Yeah, the cost cutting in this device really makes it horrible. I would ask for 722s. Good luck

Ted

After at least 5 hours of complaining to Dish and at least 6 phone calls to customer support and a couple of support visits, I FINALLY got them to agree to give me a 722 last month. And to agree not to charge me any extra monthly fee for the 722 vs. the 612. (I live alone so have no need for a second TV charge.)

Part of my problem was I had outright purchased my 612 DVR so they were trying to argue that it wasn't their responsibility. I argued it was their responsibility to support the warranty and that the product was defective that they manufactured.

I went through 4 612 DVRs that all had the same problems (with slight variations in severity). So, I had to start threatening small claims court since they couldn't support the 612 under warranty. Finally got to someone in management that would agree. Also, make sure you have them read back the notes they write on your account and write them down so you can document the call! (Had problems with that too.)

722 works much better. Only a few glitches in the last month. (Verses a few glitches per hour with the 612.)

Agree on the 612 OTA signal strength,its just super weak.When I plug my antenna straight to the tv and not to the 612 many channels return that I lost going through the 612.