Did I miss something?

[WalksInDarkness]

Hi All,

I have the HR20-700, and this weekend I experienced something new to me: Even though I have only one cable running to the DVR, it let me record on 2 different channels. My understanding was that I need 2 cables? For the year+ I have had this DVR it has NEVER let me record a second channel. Has something changed, did I miss something here? The only thing I can tell you is that they were both "locals", and that one channel was showing local football (new england);one channel had the Pats Vs. Steelers game, and the other had some national golf broadcast. What gives???

 

[ONUOsFan]

Local channels that you're getting from the satellite? Or OTA local channels? And you're absolutely sure they were recording at the same time? It didn't record one and only part of the other (which is what would happen if there was a conflict and the prioritizer took over)? And you watched them both to ensure that there's actually content there?

 

[WalksInDarkness]

Local channels that you're getting from the satellite? Or OTA local channels? And you're absolutely sure they were recording at the same time? It didn't record one and only part of the other (which is what would happen if there was a conflict and the prioritizer took over)? And you watched them both to ensure that there's actually content there?

Yes, I am quite sure that two programs were recording at the same time. I had programmed the DVR to record the football game; but when I turned on the STB ~30 min after start, the golf game was running. I was in a panic, when I turned on the guide it showed BOTH programs recording. So I changed channels to the NFL game, and it had spooled up the game too! I had programmed the DVR only a few hours earlier, so I am quite sure of what I had done. This is a bit of a mystery to me!!! Now if I try to record two different channels at once, I no longer get the "conflict" message; instead I get a "searching for satellite" message, weird...
BTW: I do not have any form of OTA setup, unless my HD dish has that capability???

 

[texasbrit]

Yes, I am quite sure that two programs were recording at the same time. I had programmed the DVR to record the football game; but when I turned on the STB ~30 min after start, the golf game was running. I was in a panic, when I turned on the guide it showed BOTH programs recording. So I changed channels to the NFL game, and it had spooled up the game too! I had programmed the DVR only a few hours earlier, so I am quite sure of what I had done. This is a bit of a mystery to me!!! Now if I try to record two different channels at once, I no longer get the "conflict" message; instead I get a "searching for satellite" message, weird...
BTW: I do not have any form of OTA setup, unless my HD dish has that capability???

This unusual behavior has been reported before. When the receiver requests a channel from the dish, it gets a block of channels. Sometimes, if the two channels requested for recording are in the same satellite/transponder block, both channels will record - that's because the signal for both channels are coming down from the dish over a single cable. But as far as I know no-one has been able to recreate this in testing, it just seems to happen very occasionally.