Confused now. Should I get 522?

mallu2u

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Aug 5, 2004
156
2
I currently have a 301 and 510. Wanted to get 522 so that I could share recordings in my room as well. Should I get it or not? With the current issues that I see on board, what do recommend for me:
 
IMO this poll is severely flawed.

It would've made much more sense to ask us whether or not you should get a 522.

And of course the answer would be yes. The 522 will definitely be an upgrade over your current 301 and 510.

But your poll switches around and asks us if we would ditch the 522 if dish were to offer something even better, and of course the answer to that question is an obvious yes as well
 
LOL. I was hoping to get everyone's opinion so that I could decide what to do. I shall change it for me...

Edit: Can seem to change the poll Qs. Is there a way to do that?
 
All we had for about 4 years was a 301, so swapping that for a 522 about four months ago was like going from a sailing ship to a nuke powered ship in one step. Having two independent tuners in one box plus the DVR has made a huge improvement in our televiewing pleasure.

I bought the 522 used, not new, and at least so far, it's been working as advertised. Reading thru this forum, one would think the 522 hardware and software is loaded with bugs. Mine, fortunately, has been a solid performer :up. I guess it must have been built on a Wednesday instead of a Monday morning or Friday afternoon :hatsoff: .
 
I've had a 522 for a year. I started my Dish service with it. I've had to replace it once recently. The biggest problems I've had are:
- the hard drive clicking
- show timers were missed or did not record even though they fired.
- on some recorded shows, there were problems with audio drops (silent few seconds)
- I had mine freeze many times when watching recorded shows to the point where I had to reboot. I suspect this was related to the hard drive malfunctioning.
- An annoying problem with the System Info screen and it locking up the timers
- the UHF Pro remote range on upper floors

The first few months, everything was golden (except for the TV2 Uhf which was always a pain for me but it is dependent on the physical surroundings). Then, it started misbehaving, either because of software changes or the hardware malfunctioning. As a device, when it works correctly, I really like it. But it has not been the most reliable DVR. As far as watching live satellite, never really had a problem related to the 522--all my problems have been related to the DVR capability.

I have no vested interest in anything, just telling you what happened to me. I still have Dish. I still like the 522, but I always have my fingers crossed that it won't crap out again.
 
I honestly think that the 522 is a pretty good box both hardware and software wise. Does that mean it has no problems No! I think most of the problems with the 522 is hardware related I do not think it has enough memory and or processing power to prevent the minor audio drop outs which usally occur when you have both timers recording. Also it has a nasty habit of dropping audio during playback when both timers also fire in the background to fix that you usally have to use the skip back funtion to get the audio back. As for hard drive failures that is going to be a issue for any DVR as hard drives do fail with lots of use and DVR are very hard on hard drives however I think they could improve on the problem by increasing the cooling to the box which would reduce the heat build up and should increase the life of the hard drive. As for software problems its not really any worse than Windows all complex computers running complex software aplications will have a few bugs but over the last year Dish Network has made great improvements in the software so its pretty stable currently.
 
All I can say is I have two 510's which I have been using now for about two years with no problems. How many users of the other DVR's can honestly say that.
 
thanks for the feedback folks..guess I shall have to give it a shot then and see if I am lucky to get a good box with 'less' issue. some are very normal..even have issues with 510 nowadays.
 
Shadowtester said:
over the last year Dish Network has made great improvements in the software so its pretty stable currently.

That has not been my experience.
The latest version 2.53 has returned all the problems that were fixed in previous s/w versions.
Im ready to dump dish at this point.
 
jtravel That could be due to the way you use your 522 vs the way I use my 522 I use mine it single mode only trying to feed 1 TV in the past people using dual mode were having more problems than people using single mode. Also the more time used on the hard drive the more playback glitches which seem to occure I usally try to keep less than 20 hours of recorded material on my system. For me 2.53 really did not seem to bring back any old problems however I have not tried to cause problem I have just been using and enjoying my 522.
 
I agree with your analysis Shadowtester but feel why should one not use the receiver to its full capability. We are buying this receiver to use its dual-recording features and to make use of 100 hours of programming. Dish should test the products for both...since its THOSE features that makes it a good buy. Otherwise 510 is good enough as well.
 
Well the dual tuners and the Name based recording are the reasons for the 522 over the 510 and honestly I am more than willing to live with the little anoyances and quirks on the 522 for those features. I do alot of prime time recording on both tuners during the week honestly I never watch anything live I currently have between 60 and 70 Dish Passes setup for recording so I always have thing to watch on the hard drive. I let it record both new and rerun shows that way if I have time and liked the re-run I can watch it other wise if there is lots of other shows on the hard drive I can just delete it and go to the next show. I can usally tell if I have seen the show within the first 2-3 min on average so it does not take long to go though several re-runs.
 
Shadowtester said:
jtravel That could be due to the way you use your 522 vs the way I use my 522.

My harddrive has only 20 or so hours on it so thats not the problem.
I use my 522 in dual mode to feed two Tv's in seperate rooms.
When I signed-up for dish this was the DVR hardware solution they recommended for feeding two rooms.
I signed-up in January and was told Dish was working on a S/W fix for the problems. I waited patiently for 6 months and several s/w updates latter was happy when the last version seemed to fix all my problems.
Then they turn around and release 2.53 that brings all the old problems back.
The 522 would be Great if it actually worked as advertised with out all the problems and issues.
Based on my experience with Dish I could never recommend them to others.
 
is there a way to revert back to a previous firmware update and not keep living with 2.53?
 
Let me start off by saying that I am not trying sway anyone on any type of dvr. However with that said, I have played around with four different 522's in different stores who had them activated and they all had issues. A lot of the same issues that have been discussed in this forum. I agree that one might consider these problems as being minor but for my money I don't need the hassle. I have a wonderful wife that wouldn't understand paying over one hundred bucks a month and have timers to fail, audio dropouts etc. etc. and I have to agree. If my 510's had the same issues I would go with 311's and hook up my Sony dvd recorder which has a hard drive to the main viewing room and vcr's in the other rooms. I have been told that a lot of the problems associated with the 522's have been resolved. I hope so. I also hope that the majority of people who have 522's are happy with them. I may at some point buy a 522 off of Ebay just for the fun of it and see what the thing will do but I would never rely on one 522 as my only receiver and nothing to back it up with.
 
mallu2u said:
is there a way to revert back to a previous firmware update and not keep living with 2.53?

NO,
we are stuck with whatever version Dish decides to Push to us.
 
Frank Jr. said:
I have been told that a lot of the problems associated with the 522's have been resolved. I hope so.

The problems were fixed untill Dish decided to force feed my 522 the latest S/W version 5.23
My 522 has more problems now than it ever had befor.
There not huge problems in and of themselfs but its a huge annoyance factor putting up with these bugs and problems over the last 6 months.

The 522 was the first DVR i have ever had and having a Dual tuner DVR was the greatest thing at first. Now I expect a hardware solution that actually works without all the annoying bugs.
Im ready to jump ship and look for something better than the 522
Maybe the 625 works better?
 

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