Four 510's or two 522's ?

AJF

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 5, 2003
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I currently have 3- 4900's and 1-6000. The 6000 is dedicated to my home theater and the 4900's are centrally located and distributed to the rest of the TV's in the house.

I'd like to move up to a 921 ( IF it ever exists ) plus 4 PVR's . Does it make more sense to go with four 510's or two 522's ?

Part of the problem with using 522's is the INCREDIBLY STUPID fact that one of it's receivers can only be controlled by IR rather than having IR or RF remote control as I have now . How they can OMIT this ability is beyond me as they monitor these forums and are aware that many of us would want to use a receiver such as this in a central location feeding other TV's as I do .

Can the RF receiver in the 522 also be controlled by IR or only RF ?
Right now I have 2 dishes, SW64 and 4 wires from the dished to the rec's ( plus one more for OTA ). What else would I need for these new receivers ?
 
Well, for one thing if you go the two 522s route do you have the ability to run cabling to the 2nd TV? If it's in another room that means probably RF-only; will that be good enough quality?

With four 510s you could feed composite or S-video to each TV, resulting in best quality.

The flexibility of watching a recording on either "TV A" or "TV B" might be a very nice feature that only the 522 could offer.

Two 522s also means $10/month less in programming fees compared to four 510s. Depending on your programming package (AT150 or below) you might also end up paying four VOD fees (510s) instead of two (522s).

Whether you go with 510s or 522s they are DishPro receivers thus you're going to have to get a new antenna.
 
I have 2 runs of RG6 to each of 8 TV's throughout the house . I'm now controlling the 4900's using their UHF remotes . Because the idiots who designed the 522 thought it was a good idea to omit the UHF remote for TV2, I would now have to install an IR repeater system to control the TV2 receiver . And I'm not even sure if TV2 can be controlled using IR rather than RF .
 
Part of the problem with using 522's is the INCREDIBLY STUPID fact that one of it's receivers can only be controlled by IR rather than having IR or RF remote control as I have now . How they can OMIT this ability is beyond me as they monitor these forums and are aware that many of us would want to use a receiver such as this in a central location feeding other TV's as I do .

Can the RF receiver in the 522 also be controlled by IR or only RF ?
Many Dish receivers will work with IR and RF both - that's the case with my model 5000. I'm guessing that they are PACKAGING the 522 with one IR and one RF remote (it's cheaper than 2 RF remotes), but I doubt that's what its limitations are. Out-of-the-box addresses on the two remotes are probably "1" for the IR Green 1 remote and "2" for the UHF Pro Blue 2 remote.

I suspect the 522 will actually differentiate the remotes simply by address... (the numbers/colors are just to help you know which one is which) and if that's so then maybe another 522 UHF remote, or even a RF remote for a 510 would work as an additional 522 RF remote.

If *I* were writing the 322/522 software I'd simply use standard Echostar remote codes and have a setup screen that permitted the user to setup (for example) TV1=RemoteAddress 3, TV2=RemoteAddress 4. They'd better have some kind of address-based scheme because it's certainly possible for multiple 522s to be in the same house.

The "which remote can do what" question will probably have to wait until someone can actually get a 522 and play with it.

Hey Scott- have one of your 'inside contacts' try using a UHF remote from another DVR (i.e 510) to work the 522 and see what happens. The 522 remote looks just like the 510 remote except that it has a few more buttons (like PIP and a couple of others). Even a glimpse of a 522 user manual would help... I check the Dish web site nearly every day :) but they haven't posted one yet.
 
AJF said:
I have 2 runs of RG6 to each of 8 TV's throughout the house . I'm now controlling the 4900's using their UHF remotes . Because the idiots who designed the 522 thought it was a good idea to omit the UHF remote for TV2, I would now have to install an IR repeater system to control the TV2 receiver . And I'm not even sure if TV2 can be controlled using IR rather than RF .


I'm almost sure you can control the 2nd tv with a UHF remote also. The receiver just comes packaged with 1 of them to save costs. Buy an additional remote on ebay.
 
I guess I'll have to wait until someone actually has one and can give some definite answers . I just keep waiting and waiting and waiting.....

In the meantime, the remotes for my 4900's are slowly dying off which is a real pain as I don't want to buy new ones since I'll be getting new receiers soon , I hope !

I am also intrigued by the fact that the output on TV2 can be modulated to any channel rather than just 3 or 4 . What's the reason for that ?
 
AJF,

You may want to look into this device that converts any IR remote that uses AA batteries into a RF remote: http://www.bluedo.com/bluedocgi/product.cgi?model=RR-X200

Scott,

I think this might be a good device for the SatelliteGuy.US store to carry since a lot of people might want to do what AJF is doing.
 
A Dish rep at a meeting told me that the first tuner on the 322/522 would only accept IR while the second tuner accepted IR or UHF.
 
AJF said:
I am also intrigued by the fact that the output on TV2 can be modulated to any channel rather than just 3 or 4 . What's the reason for that ?

If you're sending the output into your home video cableplant instead of just straight to another TV you might have to compete with local or cable channels 3 and/or 4 as well as other devices such as video games and VCRs. Using this kind of modulator makes it far more versatile.

From the spec sheet: TV2 output – agile modulated output (channels 21-69; 73-125); stereo audio

Stargazer I just re-read the spec sheet... sad to say you might be right. I guess I don't know how the UHF remote receiver in the boxes work, but it sure seems like you could receive two different UHF controls, each set for a different address.
 
Thanks for the suggestion Bill R , I've seen that device and there is also the Poweremid from Rat Shack that will do the same thing .

Here's my point. They've designed a 2 receiver dvr which makes great sense to me . Now , if that had thought a little further ahead they could have designed it so that :

Both rec's could be controlled by UHF remote .
Both rec's could be modulated to any channel .

With these changes , you could distribute the signal to all the TV's in your house and if TV1 is in use on the 522 you can switch to TV2 and visa versa. I would combine 2 522's and have access to 4 receivers ( there are 4 people in my household ) .

It's so close to being a wholehouse server that I just don't understand why they didn't go all the way .

I've heard rumor of a unit called the 544 which will do just this but considering how long it's taken for these new unit's to come out, I'll probably be in a nursing home by then .




:shock:
 
Also if you have four 510's then you would have four DVR service charges of $5 each in addition to the $5 additional outlet fees associated with the 510's. Having two 522's you would save $10 in additional outlet fees (if your phoneline is hooked up to both 522's), plus $10 in DVR charges for a total of $20 a month, $240 a year (unless you have AEP in which you do not have to pay for the DVR fees).
 
That's why I'll probably go with 2 522's, I just hope I'll be able to distribute and control them throughout the house .
 
So, let me get this straight, tuner 1 can only be controlled with remote A and tuner 2 can only be controlled with remote B? So if I'm recording something on tuner 1, can I watch something on tuner 2 on the TV hooked to tuner 1? Or did I misunderstand ?

Also, do we have any idea of a price point for the 522 yet?

Jeff
 
caseyatbt said:
So if I'm recording something on tuner 1, can I watch something on tuner 2 on the TV hooked to tuner 1? Or did I misunderstand ?

It's all a guess at this point, but it would seem that if you are running in "single mode" then for sure you should be able to watch one tuner or the other (the DirecTivos do this). In "dual mode" (both remotes work) it's uncertain if TV1 can watch what is going out to TV2 (i.e. "the other tuner"). I think it's a feature that should certainly be there.
 
wrong....

[Whether you go with 510s or 522s they are DishPro receivers thus you're going to have to get a new antenna.[/QUOTE]

This statement is incorrect. All DishPro receivers are backward compatible with legacy equipment. Legacy equipment is not forward compatible. If he keeps any of his old legacy receivers in use, he will not be able to upgrade to a DP switch or LNB unless he invests in a DP adaptor for each legacy receiver. Dish Network makes even the simple tasks as complicated as humanly possible.

RLT
 
Welcome aboard RLT!

Way to go - resurrect a 13 month old thread.

A DP Adapter is not required when using DPPlus gear.

If you knew what the difference between DP & Legacy is, you'd know why it had to be done.
 
SimpleSimon said:
Welcome aboard RLT!

Way to go - resurrect a 13 month old thread.

A DP Adapter is not required when using DPPlus gear.

If you knew what the difference between DP & Legacy is, you'd know why it had to be done.

Problem is, the DPPlus LNB's, DPP 44 sw, DPP seperators are not widely available as of yet.

I have worked for DN for several years. I DO know what I am talking about.

Now, let's put this to rest.

RLT
 
Some of the DPP stuff is not going to be compatible with the DP stuff. For example, you cannot use a DP-34 switch with the DPP lnbf setup.
 
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