Loving my ViP622!

Are you saying you are paying dish for local HD channels just to have EPG data for your local OTA HD channels? It was my understanding that the 622 doesn't provide EPG data for local OTA HD channels which is seems like a poor decision.

Actually the HD locals are free if you subscribe to locals. Once you subscribe to locals you get the guide for OTA. I also really like the satellite locals maped as subchannel zero. In my opinion Dish hit a home run with the 622.

Plus Dish just lowererd the price of the 622 to $199 with an additional rebate of $100 available. I complained to my wife that I paid $200 extra and she said "cmon Rick if you want to be first you have to expect to pay a little extra."

Rick R

Keep in mind that you can actually record three network programs at the same time while watching a fourth recorded one. Simply record two from satellite feeds and the third from the OTA tuner.

Bob

something you may not want with dish. they are notorious for releasing software that screws up their receivers.

I have been waiting for Dish to deliever a nice HD DVR. It sounds like my waiting is over.

Just spoke with a sales rep. I liked everthing he said - except - he said that this DVR will NOT record stuff coming through OTA. Does he have that right?

If this is true - that means I basically have to pay the $5 to get the locals in HD. I would prefer to avoid that.

Thanks,

Rick

By the way... the sales rep said that you get the guide even if you do not subscribe to the locals.

No he has that wrong. You can record digital OTA. The 622 has three tuners, two satellite and one OTA. You can record all three simultaneously while playing back two other programs. One playback for TV1 and one playback for TV2. Using the TV2 output the 622 can control a second SD TV in your house saving a second STB fee.

Rick R

Thanks for the correction - I thought that was the way it worked.


Just curious - how practical is this suggestion in reality? Say the second TV is on another floor. Wouldn't you need to run between floors to change chanels. Maybe I am misssing something.

Thanks

The 622 comes with two remotes:


If your TVs are on different floors/rooms, an IR repeater would take care of getting the signal from the 2nd TV to the box.

The second remote with the 622 is UHF (radio waves) so there is no need for an IR repeater. It will work between floors/rooms hopefully without any problems.

If all the above doesn't convince you to go Dish then add PIP in HD, CEO- Charlie (Ergen) Chats, to let you know whats new from Dish, and channel 9415 & 9410, two non-corporate sponsored news stations that just might let you in on what is actually going on in the world.
I get my vip622 DVR installed on the 23rd for $199 minus $10 off a 29 channel HD program package for ten months. This is a lease however, but with the new equipment arivials, this is a good thing. P. S. the 622 is mpeg 4!!!

I've had my VIP pair (622 upstairs in my little suite and 211 downstairs for my Mom and the bigger screen Sceptre) for a couple of months now and believe I have everything going properly now. I switched to the Dish HD boxes from Tivo SD as soon as they came out because the Tivo did a horrible job of playing back recorded HD programming on my Toshiba.

Other than a few service-related complaints and one minor (usually) equipment-related complaint, I'm very pleased with my purchase, even though my monthly bills have been through the roof... far more than promised or anticipated. Additionally, the advertised equipment costs and programming packages are muuuuch lower than I got. I just say make sure you get your sales rep to itemize your bill for you before you agree, so that you know exactly what your payments will be the first three months or so.

The ViP622 does a perfectly lovely job of recording HD programming. I can see no degradation of the picture quality either from my OTA yagi or the many Dish HD channels (which seems to expand weekly!) My only complaint is an audio glitch both in live and recorded programming which sets up a fast echo at times. Sometimes it's quite annoying, sometimes nonexistent. I have not tried to get Dish assistance on this problem, so I can't really complain. It may be related to the poor installation (as follows).

My installation guy was an idiot. EVERY time he came, he told me I couldn't do what I had already contracted Dish to have him do. This began with installation of my original 811 receiver (couldn't install because my HDTV hadn't arrived yet, and he supposedly couldn't install it connected only to an SD set). I was naiive about the facts and allowed him to leave, then when my TV arrived a few days later I had to requeue with him and wait a couple of weeks for him to install the equipment. Then he told me he couldn't upgrade my mom's SD receiver (though they had already shipped it to me). Next trip was to install the 622... couldn't do that because it required an additional cable through the attic (duh... I thought that was why he was here!) But I had anticipated him and had already run the cable myself... so he changed his story and told me it required a special antenna and he didn't have one (duh... I thought that was why he was here!). Finally he came back and installed an antenna, but left it pointing in entirely the wrong direction! Lucky for me, my brother has a unit for his RV and was familiar with aligning the antenna, so he managed to fix things (unless of course this is still the source of the echo, mentioned above). So finally by the time we got the bigger screen downstairs and upgraded to the 211, I just had my brother come by and make sure everything was ok, then the installation guy came by and checked it out and got my signature.

Sorry about all that, just needed to spew a few public remarks.

Bottom line is, now I'm thrilled with the 622, but the 211 has to have daily reboots just like the 811 did. All in all I guess I'm getting a lot for my money if the billing department ever gets things staight... hah!

I do recommend the ViP sets, but I also recommend you go through a local sales and installation service if possible, rather than messing with the idiot contractors Dish seems to employ. It would probably mean you had someone locally to ask when things didn't work quite right.

Wishing you good viewing

Ed

We just had the ViP622 installed and paired it with our Sony Bravia 40" and it is really fantastic! I am having one problem though, and that is that the 622 is outputting everything with a 16:9, 720P signal (as set through my HD setup on the receiver), but not all the programming is being displayed in this fashion, ie SD broadcasts are still only displaying 4:3 with black vertical bars. I can use some of the display options on the TV to fill the screen, but then the guide is unusable when I bring it up as it is stretched as well. I'm a little bugged, because the TV actually has auto-sensing options for different signals it receives, and if the receiver were outputting the true formats it would properly scale the images to fill the screen and I wouldn't have to do a thing. Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Since you have set the output mode to 720p, everything that the 622 receives is converted to 720p. For example if a SD 4x3 picture is received it adds black bars on the sides and outputs the picture upconverted to 720p. This is how it works. Most if not all STB work this way.

Dish said that they were considering a pass through mode where what ever the 622 received (1080i, 720p, 480i, 480p) would be output to your TV. This just means that the TV converts the program to the TVs native mode instead of the 622.

As you noted, I think, if you get a SD picture with letterboxed 16x9 and black bars on all sides you can hit the "*" button on the remote to zoom this to fill the screen. You have to hit the "*" again to return it to normal before you watch something else or use the guide.

Rick R

Thanks for the reply Rick. I guess that's what I'd like them to implement then, as I would much rather have the TV do the converting as far as the aspect ratio, as it has the (in my mind) better capability to fill the screen depending on whether the source is a 4:3 or 16:9 format. Are you aware of the best place for me to voice my opinion to DishNetwork? Thanks again.

the bigger issue is the cable between the 622 and the other room... apparently, Dish does not mention this and installers are quite hesitant to fish cable thru the walls... granted you can get by with one coax cable, but i consider this TV2 output to be utterly useless unless TV2 is in the same room.
ironically, when you specify you want Dish in two rooms, they will primarily "suggest" their dual output receivers...

Since the TV in the other room presumably already has a cable going to it from the satellite switch, all you need is another cable from the 622 to the satellite switch area. Connect this new cable to the 622's TV2 output on one end and the connect the other end to the cable going to the TV in the other room. Then connect the other end of this cable to the TV antenna input of the TV in the other room.

This saves $5 a month, gets HD channels to the other TV, and enables DVR capability to the other TV.

Rick R

I assume you mean this gets downrezzed HD channels to the other room?

yes, the 622 does not output HD but to one tv.

I have a 625 and am awaiting my new HD 622. Right now there is one cable going from my dish to the reciver and split before it goes into the box giving the box two (2) different points of reception. I assume they are going to use this same cable setup for the 622 HD box. If so, am I loosing any PQ. I do have another cable coming into that room that I could use, but I would like to reserve it for OTA antenna if I decide to get one for the outside.

I live in Wentzville MO on MO N near MO Z (in case you are familiar with St. Louis area), anyone know if I will need an outside antenna. I know about the websites, but they are wrong. I had OTA HD with an indoor antenna a year ago, but it sometimes flickered on some channels.

Any ideas about either question.

My 622 has the same two cables one from the satellite switch that is split into two just before the 622. A second cable for OTA from the antenna.

Rick R

a computer to burn to a DVD?

The zoom will not fill the screen for 4x3's.

Any word on implementing native mode passthrough?

I'm thinking of switching from Time Warner to Dish...they are offering the 622 for $200, then taking off $20 a month for 10 months to cover the cost. So it's essentially free after 10 months.

The only thing holding me back is locals...not sure what my OTA reception is like, and my GF loves all the CW shows. Also the TiVo lawsuit gives me pause.

I'm not sure but I think it's $10 off for 10 months.
During the last Charlie Chats, Charlie said not to worry about the Tivo lawsuit. He said Dish has pattens that outdate those of Tivo.
You can try this site to find out what chanells you can receive ota.
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

It is $10 off regular package and $10 off HD so a total of $20 off for 10 months.

No Charlie did not say that. He lost the patent suit with Tivo. He said they were working on new software to keep the DVR functions without the need to use Tivo's patented tricks.

If I understand correctly, Tivo's patents in question allow earlier DVRs more recording/playback functions using the less powerful processors. Hopefully with the newer DVRs such as the 622, the processing power is much improved that E* does not have to borrow the Tivo's patented DVR tricks.

E* is also showing off a working external HDD for extra 622 storage capacity at CEDIA. I hope this one becomes available soon.

This DVR is excellent almost as good as my HD Tivo . . . . . . . . . .

But unfortunately I can't add more hard drive in it for more HD recording hours. 30 hours of HD recording time is not enough.

HD Tivo is easily upgradeable and limited only to the size of hard drive(s) you can afford. Thats why my HD Tivo still gets all of my season passes.