I FELT BAD ABOUT NOT DOING THE WORK FOR YOU, SO BELOW IS A COPY OF WHAT I POSTED AT DBSTALK REGARDING TIMERS (522/625/PERHAPS 622) I HOPE IT IS OF SOME HELP TO YOU:
I have been a long time reader, but have never been motivated until today to register and reply because I do feel for you and your timer woes, and I must share what I have learned, the hard way, about 625 timers.
Yes, the total number of events is limited to 288. I do not know about the number of timers. Anyway, you must understand that even skipped events in your timers are all still counted towards your limit of 288. For example, MTV may air The Real World 40 times in one week. A few timers like those will really eat up your allowance of 288 events. In a situation like that, the solution is to use the “Weekly” timer setting. Of course as the air times pass, they are purged from the list of events and that allows more events to be entered in their place. So a one day marathon of MTV's Road Rules could suck up nearly 100 events, leaving you dumbfounded as to why you can't set a timer, but then, the next day, you can set tons of timers.
And beware of History Channel's Modern Marvels if you use “All or “New Episodes” timers with that show airing something like 45 times a week. Whoa, add that to The Real World and Road Rules timers and you may have used up all your 288 timer tokens on just 3 lousy timers! Do you get the picture?
To really see the true number of total events in memory, you MUST select “Show Skipped Events” from the Daily Schedule menu. If you are viewing the “Hide Skipped Events”, that number reflects only the timers that will fire and will not tell you how close you are to the magic 288 events. Remember skipped events are still counted in the memory. In most cases, the more common 5-10 events per timer will not present a problem. However, please check all your timers to see which have the most number of events in them. You can make room by using any other timer modes. Instead of “All”, see if “New Episodes” will cut the number down. If you still want more memory, then work the remaining modes of “Weekly”, etc. that may be the only options for you.
I know it stinks to have to resort to “Weekly” when the “New Episodes” provides advantages (such as automatically recording the later air time of the exact same show and episode should you choose to record something else in place of the first air time, and the 625 knowing when the episode is new), but it is the only solution I know of. Dish should have provided for more events than 288.
I've gone on long enough. I hope this was of help to you and all.
FURTHER INFO IN RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS:
To answer your question of should an EPG download occur if you have 288 events: There is no more memory for any events. Your expected timers for your beloved shows won't fire, in the short run. However, as time passes and timers and events pass and are purged, that makes room for more events. Let's hope the DVR scans soon after so it can place your timers in the Daily Schedual events--but only as many up to 288 total events. My advice is NEVER play it close to the magic 288. Please see my ealier post for hints on how to avoid cutting it close.
Why is there a limit of only 288 events? Only Mark Jackson and his good friend Dave Cummer (did I spell that right?) know. I not sure they really saw this coming--for example MTV's coming marathon of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County is sucking up 45 events!. Who would've thought? Perhaps the memory is all shared with other important memory regarding channel tables and all sorts of other stuff Dish loves to download and change and enhance the set-top-boxes. Someone should investigate if we can get more than 288 events. That is insufficient.
To answer the last question: You can only have 288 events in memory until the time for those events have passed and are purged from the memory. In other words, as each episode of MTV's Laguna Beach ends, that events is no longer needed in memory. Now you have memory for one event to replace it. Get it? So, by the end of the day Saturday, I'll have my memory back for 45 events.
Keep in mind that when your memory is freed, the DVR will replace it with events from existing timers (I've observed not always immediately--I think it scans the guide every few hours or so), so, you could get all filled up to 288 again and not be able to make new timers, unless you use some stragegy to creating timers.
I will share my strategy in a later post. I hope I did not confuse anyone, and I do hope this lengthy reply was of help.
A STRATEGY
What follows is my strategy for not getting too close to our magic limit of 288 events: First, get to know your shows and the quirks of the networks on which they air.
Major Broadcast Network (ABC,CBS, etc. locals) shows usually air once or a few times a week, so it is very safe to use the New or even All episodes timer because a small number of events (2 or 3), including the skipped events, will take up memory.
"Cable" channels such as USA, MTV, History Channel, etc. are not always so easy. For example, I know that MTV and History Channel LOVE to air many episodes of some shows throughout the week. History Channel airs Modern Marvels something like 45 time a week. Avoid using New or All timers in such a situation, and use weekly or once instead. However, other shows on History Channel are limited in repeats, such as Declassified, and may only air 3 times in a week, so a New timer would work well.
Other channels like BBC America seem to NEVER play the heavy rotation games of History Channel or MTV, and so I always feel safe using a New timer on that channel.
Finally, it shouldn't be this way, but it is. If you think your gonna have a 288 issue, then you need to do timer maintenance--meaning, it is in your best interest to check your Daily Schedule listings and check how many events you have after you press "Show Skip". Also, go into the suspect timers (via the 'Timer" button and verify the number of events in those particular timers because one week there are only 3 events, but the next week that network decides to air that show 15 times, and that can unexpectedly suck away your memory. If you don't do some maintenance, you will become frustrated and clueless and feel out of control and not get your beloved shows recorded, and you won't know why.
Of course, all this is only for advanced TV watchers who LOVE to watch as much as they can. I have relatives who record a fair amount, but NEVER even come close to the 288 limit.
I Need to clarify what I wrote in an earlier post. What I wrote was: "Your expected timers for your beloved shows won't fire, in the short run."
What I meant to say was this: All the timers in current memory displayed on the Daily Schedual will fire, but previously set timers that the DVR wants to enter into the Daily Schedual can't be entered because the events memory (Daily Schedual) is full (288 events).
Think of it as a que of wannabes who want to get past the velvet rope and into the nightclub. No one is getting in until someone leaves the club (if the club owners follow the fire code). Except there is a delay in letting new people into the club because the DVR waits for the next schedualed scan of the EPG. However, if room has become available, you can immediatly get into the club by creating a new timer because that will immediatly go into memory (Daily Schedual).
I hope that clarification was clear. A good night to all
) several of my stored searches would be added as DishPasses. Despite my support of the call to add NBR, I'm not sure if the way Dish implements it would make my life any easier.
