Do I need to return an old DVR after cancellation

[Natural2195]

I am thinking about canceling my DISH account but I have an external hard drive connected to an old 722k dvr with tons of movies recorded. Will I be able to keep my old dvr and therefore be able to watch my old recordings?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nope they will be unviewable once you cancel service.

 

[primestar31]

Once the dvr loses authorization, you won't be able to watch your recorded movies anymore.

You could take some time to off-load record them on another device BEFORE you cancel your account. However, it has to be done in REAL TIME, (while playing back normally) and through the video connections off the back of the receiver.

 

[Natural2195]

Nope they will be unviewable once you cancel service.

I read a post somewhere that said if you disconnect your dvr before cancelling the account that you can still view everything that has been recorded on the dvr and I was assuming therefore the external also. But that would only be possible if I was able to keep the dvr. (which I am hoping is the case since it is very old)
So one of my main concerns is whether or not they would let me keep the dvr.

 

[primestar31]

I read a post somewhere that said if you disconnect your dvr before cancelling the account that you can still view everything that has been recorded on the dvr and I was assuming therefore the external also. But that would only be possible if I was able to keep the dvr. (which I am hoping is the case since it is very old)
So one of my main concerns is whether or not they would let me keep the dvr.

That used to be true, but isn't any longer. Authorization hits have a kill date attached to them now. So, eventually the authorization it has will die, whether it's offline when you cancel or not. Once that happens, you lose access to everything recorded.

 

[Natural2195]

That used to be true, but isn't any longer. Authorization hits have a kill date attached to them now. So, eventually the authorization it has will die, whether it's offline when you cancel or not. Once that happens, you lose access to everything recorded.

Maybe I'm missing something here but if the dvr is not connected to the satellite how would the recordings know if they are authorized or not? Especially a recording that may be 10 years old and on an external HD. (I'll sure hate to lose over a TB of recordings)

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

If the dvr does not receive and authorization signal for a certain amount of days it stops working.

The videos on your external drive are locked with an account key. If your receiver is not active and tied to the same account you will not be able to play anything off of the external hard drive.

 

[primestar31]

Maybe I'm missing something here but if the dvr is not connected to the satellite how would the recordings know if they are authorized or not? Especially a recording that may be 10 years old and on an external HD. (I'll sure hate to lose over a TB of recordings)

You can wish and hope all you'd like, and you are still going to lose all your recordings when you cancel your account, sorry, but you asked, and now we've told you.

 

[TheKrell]

The videos on your external drive are locked with an account key. If your receiver is not active and tied to the same account you will not be able to play anything off of the external hard drive.

What about the internal drive should he be allowed to keep the old beast? I ask because I have an owned 722 that hasn't been on the dish since my H3 arrived.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Encrypted as well.

 

[TheKrell]

Encrypted as well.

Well nuts! I thought most programs were not encrypted.

 

[ethanlerma]

Well nuts! I thought most programs were not encrypted.

If that were the case piracy would become a bigger issue than it already is.

 

[Tvland1]

What about the internal drive should he be allowed to keep the old beast? I ask because I have an owned 722 that hasn't been on the dish since my H3 arrived.

My situation might be different because I have a RV account..I purchased a used hopper with sling last summer that still had recordings from 2014.. I activated the receiver for a month and turned it back off and after 3 months of being off and unhooked from the stream my internal recordings are still there.I just now went ahead and hooked it back up to the stream and did the receiver upgrade (had old software) and so far still have recordings.. I'll leave it hooked up for a week or two.. I'm thinking that because I'm on the RV account they won't send the kill command to the dvr since the receiver is still on the account..Once you remove it completely then it will get the hit..

 

[chainblu]

Since it seems your question has been answered and you will most likely be allowed to keep the 722, give your plan a try (when you're ready to leave Dish) and revisit this thread when you reach the point where you are unable to access your recordings. Inquiring minds want to know...

 

[Jim5506]

There is a program out there called PVRExplorerPro that can rip programming from a 722.

I have a verson dated 1/28/2007 that I used to directly copy programs out of my 722 internal HDD to my PC as transport streams.

BTY, internal drives are NOT encrypted, even on the Hopper. All you need is a program that extracts the pertinent information from Dishes stream and makes it readable.

There was a Yahoo group that supported DVR ripping, I don't know ifit is still active or even still exists.

When Dish brought out the Hopper some of the coding of the programming changed and I was told you had to load some kind of code in some programming language before executing PVRExplorer so it would see the programs on a Hopper's internal drive, but I never tried it, but the 722 ripping is easy and very fast.

It produces a .TS file (program stream that is editable and can be converted into an mp4 or whatever by VideoReDo.

Here is an old blog from VideoReDo that might be helpful:

PVR Explorer Pro

For those of you with Dish PVR satellite receivers, there is a new tool for getting the mpeg off your drive. I currently use the PVR Explorer ver 1068 which does a good job, but now in beta test there is.... (note: support for new PVR models ! ) PvrExplorerPro is an application that is...

videoredo.net

PVRExplorerPro may also be on Sourceforge.

Here's a bit more info:

dead 722k...HHD questions.

was wondering if it'd be possible to pull out the HHD and grab the recorded content? maybe rig something up via USB, IDE or sata? not sure how its wired to the motherboard. i know theres GOTTA be a way though. dish says no but they just want to keep us from copying their content (which i...

www.satelliteguys.us

I just did a search of SatelliteGuys for "PVRExplorer" and there is quite a bit of info already here that might be of help.

 

[arlo]

My two cents. Pulling out old DVR drives to use or grab the content from is one way to salvage usable parts from an abandoned DVR. I've been given quite a few.
The big surprise is when you attach them to your pc is that they aren't identified or won't spin up (no gyroscope effect).
A bootable program called HDAT2 will allow you to do many things to them besides change the PUIS (power up in standby) flag. Then you can use the DVR drive for additional storage in a PC or external case.
Probably a few reasons they do that besides the obvious. Power draw, wearing out a spinning drive, to confuse the heck out of you when you slap 'em in a different device.
I've been using 2 identical Seagate Video drives in a RAID0 config for over 5 years now. I guess it was before Seagate HDD's started sucking.

 

[Jim5506]

I boot the DVR hard drive in the DVR then after a minute or so (when it has spun up), I disconnect the SATA cable and connect my PC SATA cable, boot the PC, start PVRExplorer and it sees the drive in PVRExplorer.

Do not attempt to read the drive in Windows Explorer, that will corrupt the drive.