HD in 2 rooms

[Geekboy]

I finally upgraded to HDTV (I think I'm the last guy on earth to do this ) and I need to upgrade my receiver. I currently have a 522 that connects to 2 tv's.

What I want to keep this setup, but have the ability to display HD in both rooms. I think that I will be upgrading my upstairs set to HD in the near future. I don't want to lose the DVR feature for both rooms. I also need it to be able to watch 2 different channels.

Is there any receiver that can do this?

 

[Dah-Henny]

None of the new receivers have independent HD viewing on 2 separate TVs. You would have to use 2 separate DVRs to do what you want.

 

[Lord_Vader]

I think the 622/722 will do 480 on TV2 over RCA. I'm not sure about the coax. I have the coax hooked up ( with the splitters - backfeed ) and it doesn't look too bad.

 

[RandallA]

You could get HD on one TV and the HD channels will be upconverted to SD on TV2. It doesn't look that bad but it's not HD. You will still have the DVR function on both TVs with a 622 or 722.

 

[havok019]

If you don't want to pay for a second tuner, you could hook-up one tv via HDMI from TV1 tuner and your second tv through component cables on TV1. This will give you HD in both rooms, however, you are stuck on the TV1 tuner for both, meaning it's the same program.

You could run a set of composite cables to your second tv as well from TV2 (if you have enough inputs) so you can watch something different on that TV, but it won't be in HD.

But this gives you HD in two rooms on one tuner box, with the exception that if you need to have two different programs running at the same time, your secondary TV could do it in SD.

Dish doesn't have a box that has two separate HD tuners yet (and hasn't announced one either although it probably is coming within a year or two), so you will need to have two decoder boxes if you want to watch different programs in HD in two rooms.

Either the 622 or 722 will do this for DVR, but you may need to fiddle (or buy another) with your TV2 remote to get it to control your TV1 tuner from the other room. This I'm not sure about.

 

[eddieras]

ok, this may be a newbie question, but i don't get the advantage of the two tv set up with dish. doesn't this greatly impact the recording capabilities with two tv's feeding off the same unit? i would think you'd blow thru the recording capacity fairly quickly. we have 2 hd tv's - one the kids primarily watch (tho my wife has some of her shows there) and the other is the family tv. or am i missing something??

 

[harshness]

doesn't this greatly impact the recording capabilities with two tv's feeding off the same unit?

If you're recording all HD content, then yes, it can go pretty fast.

we have 2 hd tv's - one the kids primarily watch (tho my wife has some of her shows there) and the other is the family tv. or am i missing something??

The ViP622 series is designed to support one HDTV and an SDTV (or more if you have an RF distribution network). If you have two HDTVs, then you need to look at two HD receivers. I'm not sure I've seen a residential setup that has more HDTVs than SDTVs (I have one more SDTV than HDTV).

These receivers take advantage of the fact that you have two tuners, why not watch them both? It also allows you to record a program once and watch it in both rooms. There is a decided limitation in having only three tuners available at any one time, but the fact that all three can record simultaneously makes up for this in some sense.

 

[eddieras]

thanks for the quick response - and help. we only have the 2 hd tvs - that's it. the fact about watching a show in either room is attractive. guess i'm still in an "old fashioned" mode of one tv=one tuner! i'd like to get the 722 and 622 but so far they won't budge.