Dish 722 w Sling - There must be a way to switch to TV1

[Moose_007]

Hey everyone.

I am new to the forum.

I have searched high and far for answers to this issue but none can be found. Perhaps one of you wiz's can figure something out.

My sling is in my theatre room. The TV2 is primarily used by my grandmother. DVR is enabled to always record on TV1

However - when I am watching live TV I want to watch it on TV1 - not TV2.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

 

[TheKrell]

I believe the hardware is capable of doing that, based on my mucking about with an old version of the standalone SlingPlayer which showed 3 inputs. But so far as anybody knows, switching the Sling stream from TV2 to TV1 has never been enabled.

 

[Moose_007]

How depressing!!!!

 

[3HaloODST]

One of the benefits of the Hopper is that it no longer occupies TV2 when you use the Sling Adapter.

As far as the 722, highly doubt they will ever make it to where it doesn't interrupt TV2.

 

[dwarren2]

Once you start a recording on TV1 or 2, you can watch it thru the sling as a dvr recording.

 

[garys]

Except tv2 is not available for viewing when sling is being used.

 

[Moose_007]

I think it has become clear, as seen in the frustration of other board members, that Dish network wants its customers to pursue the "Hopper technology." Of course there is limited use for hopper if the TV is non-HD.

 

[3HaloODST]

Probably, but the 722 had this limitation way before Hopper was ever conceived. The reason why it is this way is that when you use the Sling Adapter it is essentially using the video decoders for TV2 (or in the 722's case in Single Mode it would disable picture-in-picture.) On Hopper, using the Sling Adapter occupies the PiP decoder as well, thus disabling PiP on the Hopper, however since the Joeys are their own separate receivers with their very own dedicated decoders, they are not interrupted by the use of the Sling Adapter.

So it's not really Dish intentionally limiting things just to promote the Hopper, it's just a simple hardware limitation that can't be worked around on the dual tuner receivers.

 

[TheKrell]

You may be right about this being a hardware limitation, but I'm pretty sure the Sling Adapter and receiver do everything in the digital domain. No video decoders are involved.

 

[3HaloODST]

The receiver's PiP/TV2 decoder decodes the MPEG feed from the satellite signal (same as if the TV were on) and the adapter itself is what is responsible for re encoding the feed to a bit rate suitable for the Internet connection in use.

 

[TheKrell]

The receiver itself has no analog capture, digitization, nor mpeg encoding hardware. So how can that be?

 

[3HaloODST]

The MPEG feed is already encoded at DISH. The sat receiver decodes the feed, but instead of sending it through HDMI, composite, coax, etc. the Sling Adapter grabs the decoded feed and re encodes the feed dynamically to be suitable for most people's generally anemic upload/download speeds over the Internet. That's why you can tune into an HD channel that is typically 6+Mbps via Sling Adapter with only 3Mbps upload. It's re compressed.

 

[harshness]

I think it has become clear, as seen in the frustration of other board members, that Dish network wants its customers to pursue the "Hopper technology." Of course there is limited use for hopper if the TV is non-HD.

I'm not sure how you made that connection. The Sling Adapter was obviously intended for those who weren't otherwise using TV2.

 

[garys]

I think it has become clear, as seen in the frustration of other board members, that Dish network wants its customers to pursue the "Hopper technology." Of course there is limited use for hopper if the TV is non-HD.

I believe you are confusing tuners with outputs (a common mistake). Other receivers have composite and coax while Hopper only has composite. These are sd outputs, so don't understand the sd statement. Since tv manufacturers are moving away from making sd tv's, why should Dish or anyone else keep making receivers with connections will not be used much longer? Also, if you only have one tv, sling makes use of only one tuner, you are still able to use the other tuners for features like PIP, something you cannot use with 722 and 922 when using the sling.

 

[TheKrell]

The MPEG feed is already encoded at DISH. The sat receiver decodes the feed, but instead of sending it through HDMI, composite, coax, etc. the Sling Adapter grabs the decoded feed and re encodes the feed dynamically to be suitable for most people's generally anemic upload/download speeds...

Perhaps we are having a disagreement over terminology. It almost sounds as though you are talking about demultiplexing the transponder into different channels.

I'm calling the mpeg compression/decompression algorithm "encoding" and "decoding". Certainly the video is somehow turned into mpeg at Dish. If they only have an analog feed from the channel provider, then they would be sampling the analog, digitizing it, compressing it with an mpeg encoder, and finally encrypting it. If it comes to them digitally, then they probably use the same techniques as those used by the Sling Adapter, which is to decrypt, transcode, and re-encrypt.

The receiver itself can definitely decrypt and decode the mpeg data stream for display on TVs. But it has no hardware to do the much harder job of encryption (or sampling and digitization of an analog signal). The heavy lifting is all done by the Sling Adapter which transcodes in the digital domain.

So that is where we part company. If I understood what you are saying above, you think that the receiver is using it's TV2 mpeg decoder in order to send the (uncompressed?) data stream to the Sling Adapter. Whereas I claim the TV2 mpeg decoder is not being used during Sling Adapter operation at all, and the already compresssed and encrypted data stream is what is going out the USB to the Sling Adapter.

This is not to say that you aren't right in claiming the 722 has a hardware limitation preventing the Sling Adapter from operating along with TV2, or (getting back on topic) switching inputs for the Sling Adapter from TV2 to TV1. I thought I remember Scott saying (before release) that the video on the Sling Adapter was mirrored on the TV2 outputs. (Or maybe it was the 922 he was talking about.) Anyhow, when I cranked up a standalone SlingPlayer and got it connected to my 722 w/Sling Adapter, there were 3 potential inputs listed. I'll bet they corresponded to TV1, TV2, and recorded programs. But I have no way of proving that since I never got it to switch inputs at all.

 

[3HaloODST]

Yeah now that I think about it, I don't guess that the USB interface would even have the bandwidth necessary for uncompressed video/audio so you're right it is probably transcoding.

Regardless, there is still a limitation in the receivers, even in the Hopper, in which PiP is disabled, and on the dual tuners TV2 is disabled, because of some limitation somewhere in the receiver. Since the Joeys are totally separate receivers, they do not have this limitation. TV2 is indeed mirrored with the adapter on the dual tuners (I have seen it glitch before and not tell me that Sling is in use.) Maybe there's some limitation that any Sling utilization still requires the TV2/PiP decoder to be active, regardless of whether or not the adapter actually needs it.

Either way, it is what it is. No Sling on TV1 on the dual tuners, no PiP with Sling on Hopper or the dual tuners, no TV2 + Sling on the dual tuners.

 

[dare2be]

The receiver itself can definitely decrypt and decode the mpeg data stream for display on TVs. But it has no hardware to do the much harder job of encryption (or sampling and digitization of an analog signal). The heavy lifting is all done by the Sling Adapter which transcodes in the digital domain.

Correct. The decryption and decoding is done with one of the SAT tuners (TV1 or TV2).

So that is where we part company. If I understood what you are saying above, you think that the receiver is using it's TV2 mpeg decoder in order to send the (uncompressed?) data stream to the Sling Adapter. Whereas I claim the TV2 mpeg decoder is not being used during Sling Adapter operation at all, and the already compresssed and encrypted data stream is what is going out the USB to the Sling Adapter.

So you think the Sling adapter is decrypting the Dish SAT stream? The TV2 tuner may not need to decode the mpeg stream, but I'm quite sure it is needed to "tune" to the correct transponder/channel and decrypt the signal.

 

[3HaloODST]

So you think the Sling adapter is decrypting the Dish SAT stream? The TV2 tuner may not need to decode the mpeg stream, but I'm quite sure it is needed to "tune" to the correct transponder/channel and decrypt the signal.

Perhaps this is the reason why, but that doesn't explain why even recordings block TV2/PiP. However the recordings are just direct streams of the sat signal, so they still need to be decrypted, maybe that's what the receiver is doing internally.

 

[dare2be]

Perhaps this is the reason why, but that doesn't explain why even recordings block TV2/PiP. However the recordings are just direct streams of the sat signal, so they still need to be decrypted, maybe that's what the receiver is doing internally.

That is how I understand it. Perhaps the Sling support in the receiver for decrypting and sending to the USB port is hard-coded to use TV2.

 

[Dishlover]

Don't watch anything live. Start recording it and then watch it. This goes for you and your Grandmother. I assume you have the HD set and that is why you don't put her on TV1. Get her an HD set and put her on TV1! If you are only watching streaming from the Sling, you'll be getting HD also.