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DISH HD DVR and HD receivers, are they good?

post #1 of 18
2/18/08 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 
I found a few threads, but none are all that informative. If I missed one, feel free to link it.

I had never really considered Dish before, but if they add a couple of channels to their HD lineup, then we might consider going with their DishHD pack.

So, while I have kept up with cable, and D* boxes over the years, I have zero info about Dish. I read that the HD-DVR is well regarded. Why exactly? What is better, what is worse?

I am looking at 3 boxes, 2 HD receivers, and 1 HD DVR. DirecTV would want $300 up front for those boxes, which is a dealbreaker for me, plus a committment. Dish only charges lease fees which is a big bonus. So, what can I expect them to give me box wise, for those 3 needs? 612 and two 211s?

Also, does the DVR require two feeds like D*? Looking at the back, I assume so. I really hate that, as my projector room is FAR away from the entry point into the house with the rest of the coax.

This is not that important, but do any of these boxes have discrete power on and off? Anything else I should know?
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post #2 of 18
2/18/08 at 9:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexRob View Post

I found a few threads, but none are all that informative. If I missed one, feel free to link it.

I had never really considered Dish before, but if they add a couple of channels to their HD lineup, then we might consider going with their DishHD pack.

So, while I have kept up with cable, and D* boxes over the years, I have zero info about Dish. I read that the HD-DVR is well regarded. Why exactly? What is better, what is worse?

I am looking at 3 boxes, 2 HD receivers, and 1 HD DVR. DirecTV would want $300 up front for those boxes, which is a dealbreaker for me, plus a committment. Dish only charges lease fees which is a big bonus. So, what can I expect them to give me box wise, for those 3 needs? 612 and two 211s?

Also, does the DVR require two feeds like D*? Looking at the back, I assume so. I really hate that, as my projector room is FAR away from the entry point into the house with the rest of the coax.

This is not that important, but do any of these boxes have discrete power on and off? Anything else I should know?

first of all if you get dish their receivers are a little different because one of the boxes can control 2 different tv's. you if you have 3 tv's you would only need 2 boxes. maybe 1 hd-dvr box and 1 hd box. for the hd-dvr box you don't need 2 cable line feeds unlees its the box thats gona feed the second tv. actually the dvr only need one cable line feed and then it splits 2 lines just before it plugs into the dvr
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post #3 of 18
2/18/08 at 9:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by fresh View Post

first of all if you get dish their receivers are a little different because one of the boxes can control 2 different tv's. you if you have 3 tv's you would only need 2 boxes. maybe 1 hd-dvr box and 1 hd box. for the hd-dvr box you don't need 2 cable line feeds unlees its the box thats gona feed the second tv. actually the dvr only need one cable line feed and then it splits 2 lines just before it plugs into the dvr

Not sure if you read my whole post, or just missed this part. Since all 3 sets are HD, and more specifically, I would be getting the HD only package, I am pretty sure I am going to need 3 boxes.

Also, if I want to record two things at once, or watch 1 and record something else, I would need two satellite feeds, right?
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post #4 of 18
2/18/08 at 9:58am
I have the VIP 622 which will compare the the 612 (I think). The only difference that I know of is that the 622 will feed a second TV @ 480i only.

-has PIP (important to me since my TV doesn't)
-external Hard drive support
-will record 3 events at once; 2 from the sat and one from the OTA tuner (must have an antenna hooked up for this. If not, it's just 2 events)
-trick play works well (10sec skip back and 30sec skip forward) - all the forward functions work very well, but the back functions are sometimes kinda weird
-over-all it's very intuitive and easy to use. My non-techy wife picked it up in no time

- one drawback that many, including myself, have complained about is that there is no native resolution pass-thru. You pick one resolution 480i/p, 720p, or 1080i and everything get up/down rezzed by the receiver. Your TV may do a better a job at it than the box and it's a pain to go into the menu and change it to a different rez every time you change the channel.
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post #5 of 18
2/18/08 at 10:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexRob View Post

Not sure if you read my whole post, or just missed this part. Since all 3 sets are HD, and more specifically, I would be getting the HD only package, I am pretty sure I am going to need 3 boxes.

Also, if I want to record two things at once, or watch 1 and record something else, I would need two satellite feeds, right?

well im not too sure but my sister has dish hd an she has 3 tv's 2 hd and i sdtv. she has the vip 622 hd-dvr connected to to the main tv in living room then a cable line goes to the 2nd hdtv. and the sdtv has its own sd receiver. on the second tv its getting hd. and on the back of the 622 it has 2 sattelite inputs. http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dishkk8.png
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post #6 of 18
2/18/08 at 11:28am
At this time, none of the boxes will feed more than one HDTV one channel at a time. You could split the HDMI feed or hook up one TV with HDMI and another with component (all outputs are live all the time), but both TV's will see the same channel.

fresh. You can watch the HD channel on the second TV, but it's down-converted to 480i.

TexRob, you will need 3 boxes to feed 3 HDTVs different programming at the same time.

My 622 has one coax coming from the dish and then a splitter right at the back of the 622 to feed each of the inputs. So, you will only have one long run of coax even for the dual tuner boxes.
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post #7 of 18
2/18/08 at 2:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by girdnerg View Post

I have the VIP 622 which will compare the the 612 (I think). The only difference that I know of is that the 622 will feed a second TV @ 480i only.

-has PIP (important to me since my TV doesn't)
-external Hard drive support
-will record 3 events at once; 2 from the sat and one from the OTA tuner (must have an antenna hooked up for this. If not, it's just 2 events)
-trick play works well (10sec skip back and 30sec skip forward) - all the forward functions work very well, but the back functions are sometimes kinda weird
-over-all it's very intuitive and easy to use. My non-techy wife picked it up in no time

- one drawback that many, including myself, have complained about is that there is no native resolution pass-thru. You pick one resolution 480i/p, 720p, or 1080i and everything get up/down rezzed by the receiver. Your TV may do a better a job at it than the box and it's a pain to go into the menu and change it to a different rez every time you change the channel.

This is actually a selling point to me. My projector takes so long to sync, that I like it to stay at 720p the whole time, but good to know.

Quote:
Originally Posted by girdnerg View Post

At this time, none of the boxes will feed more than one HDTV one channel at a time. You could split the HDMI feed or hook up one TV with HDMI and another with component (all outputs are live all the time), but both TV's will see the same channel.

fresh. You can watch the HD channel on the second TV, but it's down-converted to 480i.

TexRob, you will need 3 boxes to feed 3 HDTVs different programming at the same time.

My 622 has one coax coming from the dish and then a splitter right at the back of the 622 to feed each of the inputs. So, you will only have one long run of coax even for the dual tuner boxes.

That is what I suspected, except the last part. You really have one piece of coax split, feeding one HD DVR, and it is still able to record 2 HD DISH feeds, and 1 OTA feed? That is amazing if so. It is my understanding D* is testing something like this, to allow one piece of coax, but they are going to charge for it.
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post #8 of 18
2/18/08 at 3:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexRob View Post

That is what I suspected, except the last part. You really have one piece of coax split, feeding one HD DVR, and it is still able to record 2 HD DISH feeds, and 1 OTA feed? That is amazing if so. It is my understanding D* is testing something like this, to allow one piece of coax, but they are going to charge for it.

It looks like a splitter, but it's not a splitter. Dish's current generation of LNBFs output on two frequency bands simultaneously, and the "splitter" converts one band to the other and outputs it to the second tuner in the DVR. I don't know if Dish provides the hardware to add an OTA feed to the cable, but if not I'm sure there are third-party solutions.

Yes, you can have all three tuners (2 satellite, 1 OTA) active simultaneously if you have a dual-tuner DVR. You can only watch a maximum of two tuners and/or recorded programs simultaneously, and one of them will only be output in SD, but it will downsample an HD program for the SD output without affecting your HD output. In fact, in one mode it will provide an anamorphic widescreen output in case you have an EDTV or an SDTV with a vertical compression option.
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post #9 of 18
2/18/08 at 5:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Shaffer View Post

It looks like a splitter, but it's not a splitter. Dish's current generation of LNBFs output on two frequency bands simultaneously, and the "splitter" converts one band to the other and outputs it to the second tuner in the DVR. I don't know if Dish provides the hardware to add an OTA feed to the cable, but if not I'm sure there are third-party solutions.

Yes, you can have all three tuners (2 satellite, 1 OTA) active simultaneously if you have a dual-tuner DVR. You can only watch a maximum of two tuners and/or recorded programs simultaneously, and one of them will only be output in SD, but it will downsample an HD program for the SD output without affecting your HD output. In fact, in one mode it will provide an anamorphic widescreen output in case you have an EDTV or an SDTV with a vertical compression option.

Wow, that is impressive on all counts. I know what you mean about the vertical compression, my old Sony WEGA did that for 16:9 DVDs. That tells me they are engineering their boxes to have some uncommon features, a good sign to me.

Thanks for clarifying about the splitter. I am familiar with what you are talking about, I assumed it was more than just a splitter, and you confirmed it. Wow, unless TWC announces 4-10 more HD channels in the next month, I will be going with DISH I think.
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post #10 of 18
2/18/08 at 6:11pm
I'm not familiar with TWC's channel lineup. Right now DirecTV has more HD channels than Dish, but Dish is promising a lot more this year. The thing that's bothering Dish subscribers right now is that they're not saying exactly what or when. I'm still sticking with Dish though because I like their DVR and I like some of the HD channels that they have now that DirecTV doesn't.
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post #11 of 18
2/18/08 at 6:38pm
Just got two Dish 722 HD DVR boxes last week. I had a Dish 6000, from 2001 (??), two Dishplayers ('98 or '99?) and a basic box, driving three SD and a BG 808s.
So four devices/4 boxes. Now have 2 boxes for 2 HD and two SD devices, plus DVR in HD. Didn't have to run any new lines inside the house. The installer covered the dish but was in over his head otherwise. Took a bit to wrangle the remotes, dual outputs, etc, but nothing that would stop most folks on these forums.
With the 6000 my HD was ESPN, Discovery and HD Net. MANY more HD channels now, really enjoy the KungFu, Monsters, WorldFilm channels and you can watch them (downconverted) on the SD devices, so you have many more options.
I have 55hrs of HD record time; as far as I know, that's the most on the market, plus you can add an outboard drive too.
Not bad.
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post #12 of 18
4/7/08 at 12:27pm
i agree with the positive comments on dish. go for it. but our 612 can get noisy. always a low hum but sometimes pretty loud. already replaced one box. is there a thread on this issue someone can point me to?
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post #13 of 18
4/9/08 at 6:24pm
I hadn't heard anything about being able to add external drives to the 722 before this thread. How's that work? Is it seamless? Can you add any USB drive you want? Or is it firewire?
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post #14 of 18
4/10/08 at 8:28am
Yes, you can add almost any type of external USB drive. You have to pay a one-time fee of $39.99, and that covers all receivers that are on your account. The external drive is used for archiving. You can send programs that you have recorded on the 722 to the archive, and you can retrieve them back to the 722. You can also watch the programs directly off the external drive.

I am using a Maxtor 500GB drive and it has been working fine with no problems. Some external hard drives need to have the sleep feature disabled in order to work properly (certain Seagate models and possibly some others).
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post #15 of 18
4/10/08 at 8:31am
Well, that's a cool feature. But $40 to "enable" it? That's BS.

Oh well, hopefully I don't ever fill up my 722 that much.
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post #16 of 18
4/10/08 at 8:50am
I agree, the $40 enabling fee is BS, but Echostar is in business to make money and they charge the fee "because they can". For me, it was worth it to pay the one-time fee to be able to use an external drive on all my current, and any future receiver that I get.

Some people use the drive to transport programs from one receiver to another one in a different room in the house (or to a vacation house).
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post #17 of 18
4/11/08 at 11:41am
Hi,
I am a Dish Subscriber, and presently have regular digital programming, I am getting a new additional Satellite installed for HD and the new VIP 722.

Can some one tell me how many LNB's will be on the new dish

What are the degrees the New dish looks at for the satellites ( like now it is 110 and 119 for reqular channels)

what size is the new dish, how come I have to have a second dish installed, can't I just have one dish

thanks jim
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post #18 of 18
4/11/08 at 11:55am
If any of you are looking at DISH and are sports fans, take care. I have had DISH since they launched the satellites and they have slowly worsened their sports coverage to the point where I have to look elsewhere. Their sports package looks great initially, but when you investigate the black out issues, the package is feeble. If sports are not your thing, I recommend DISH.
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