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I just received a DVR512 as a replacement for an ailing DVR508. I noticed right away that events seemed to start recording well into a show already a minute or two underway. Even setting the global parameter "Start Early: 2 minutes" didn't help. Today I decided to set a few timers and watch exactly what happened. I set a timer for 1:30pm which showed up in the upcoming events list with a start time = 1:28pm (owing to the Start Early value of 2 minutes). At 1:28pm nothing happened, nothing at 1:29pm and still nothing at 1:30pm. The event actually started recording at 1:31pm - a full 3 minutes later than expected! What the???? BTW, I used a satellite clock to check the times. I tried this again and while I was waiting, past the time for the event to start recording, I turned on the 512 and saw a bizarre Pay-Per-View 029 message for channel 9845 with the phone number to call to order it. I have channel 9845 blocked and have the 512 set to hide blocked channels so it makes even less sense. The 512 was on 214 when I turned it off and nobody else was in the house to mess with the remote. Curiouser and curiouser.

NOTE: none of these timers are manual timers. They are all either one-time or weekly events created by selecting something from the program guide. The DVR is always off when the event recording time comes up and almost always had been set to a different channel when it was turned off - I mention the last items since someone elsewhere thought his DVR512 late start problem (on 2 different 512's) only happened when the DVR was off or set to a different channel.

Also, in the interest of complete disclosure and to befuddle the issue even further: last Tuesday night a weekly timer for an event starting at 9:00pm which should have started recording at 08:58pm, actually started at about 08:56pm and ended at 08:58pm even though the "End Late: 2 minutes" global parameter is also set. Argh! I've done several complete resets by unplugging the device but the problem still persists. I suspect Dish's only response will be to send another 512 but I doubt that will fix what is probably a software problem. The software version on the DVR512 is L581.