M Law said:
Overall I'm happy with the 522. I use the second tuner to do most of the recording, and watch something live on the other tuner. I have had a few audio dropouts on recorded material, but % is very small. No reboots or lock ups to speak off. If the person you are recommending it to wants perfection, this isn't it. Not saying a Tivo is any better, but this particular unit does have a few problems from reading the posts. From my experience though, the 2-tuner setup is hard to beat, and overall satisfaction is high.
I've had the 522 since last week and am overall very happy with it. I was aware of potential bugs before I requested it, but I really wanted to avoid the multiple receiver fee and thought the 522 would be the ideal solution. I have one tuner to my main TV in the living room, and then the 2nd tuner is hooked up to my PC via the ATI All-In-Wonder (Coax input). This works out very well!
I've been using the 522 rigorously since getting it installed last Wednesday. And though I have not had any lockups or reboots, I have had a couple of "bugs". One is the well-known audio dropout issue... once in a while during playback of recorded material, the audio will drop out for about a second and sometimes the video will glitch as well. This is with both the optical digital output and the regular Coax on the 2nd tuner. I think, however, that this usually occurs when I am recording something on one tuner and watching and/or recording something from the Hard Drive on the other tuner as well.
I haven't gotten the phone line not connected message at all (yet). And I am using the 162 software. I like the addition of the "tuner preference" setting, but I still don't understand why they don't give you the option to record from tuner 1 or tuner 2 when setting a recording from the guide or the DVR timer menu. However, if you just press record during Live Tv, it *does* give you the option to choose which tuner... I guess they assume if you are setting a timer, you'll use the remote and TV that you want to record on, whereas if you press record right away, you may not have the luxury to switch to the other tuner/TV so it lets you choose. ???
I have a workflow set up with the DVR and my PC. Sometimes I'll use the DVR to record shows that I don't want to archive or burn to DVD. For shows that I may want to keep, however, I'll either set the receiver to "Auto tune" to the right channel and then record it on my PC or I'll record it first to the DVR and then play it back and record on the PC. Both methods have worked flawlessly.
As for the Dish service itself, I'm overall happy with the service. I came from basic cable, so I really like the addition of the guide and the DVR is something I'd never want to be without again. But I am disappointed in the picture quality of E*. The local channels, in particular, are VERY compressed and you can see jagged/pixellated areas all of the time (blotchy areas of skin, for example). I wrote an e-mail to them and they said they are working on solution (we'll see). I can see this compression on the other channels as well, but to a much lesser degree.
Travis
