PVR501 and 622

[Shadowfayre]

A family member still has the older PVR501 Dish 500 setup. She just purchased a HDTV and looking for content. I could not get the 501 to pull up the HD channels from the OTA, so I suggested that she upgrade to the 622. My first question in line with the title, can should put the 622 on the HDTV and still use the PVR501 in the bedroom?(purchased equipment). Other than HD will she have any reasons why she would miss the 501 (any features that she would loss) or will a great improvement? I understand that you can get a secondary 211 for a bedroom, but by doing so, you loss the option to record two HD feeds at the same time, if that is true, if she had the PVR501 in the bedroom, would that still be a problem?

Thanks!

 

[Jim5506]

First, if her HDTV has a built in HDTV tuner, try attaching an antenna to that. Look up the exact street address on www.antennaweb.org. It will recommend a color coded antenna type for channels you need to receive.

If the HDTV has no HDTV tuner (it's a monitor not an HDTV) then you'll have to either add an OTA tuner or go with something like the 622 DVR or 211 HD SAT/OTA tuner.

The 622 has 2 sat tuners and 1 OTA tuner and can record 3 HD digital streams simultaneously. It also has outputs for HDTV and SD TV in several formats. The 622 can service the HDTV plus the SD TV in the bedroom through the agile modulator RF output.

 

[patmurphey]

She can use the 501 in the bedroom and keep the 622 in single mode and still have all of the recording options (i.e. multiple recordings). If she wants to view recordings, and if the bedroom TV has menu selectable inputs (i.e. coax and s-video), she could operate the 622 in dual mode and connect the coax TV2 output of the 622 to the bedroom TV coax and connect the 501 to the bedroom TV s-video input. (or maybe even use channel 3 for the 501 input and channel 73 for the 622 input)

The upgrade to the 622 would give her the correct dish(s) for the programming options that she chooses. It would be a shame not enjoy the HD programming from Dish other than locals. With the 622 she could bring locals in over the air or thru Dish depending on where she lives.

Pat

 

[Shadowfayre]

Thanks again for the replies. She currently has the OTA into the TV directly to receive the HD feeds. Connecting it to the 501, I could not find them in the program guide, but that could easily have been OE.

Good to know that she can still use the 501 in the bedroom to program shows there. I still think she would be better with the 211 in the bedroom; although, if I understand it correctly, she would lose the option to record 2 HD feeds if she did that.

 

[SmityWhity]

I still think she would be better with the 211 in the bedroom; although, if I understand it correctly, she would lose the option to record 2 HD feeds if she did that.

She would not lose the option to record 2 HD feeds.

If she sells the PVR501, and ONLY hooks up a ViP 622 with an OTA antenna, she can record 3 High Def programs at the same time. Without the OTA antenna, she can record 2 High Def programs at the same time.

With the ViP 622 TV1 Output locally connected to the HDTV, the HDTV can watch all HD programs in HD, as well as all SD programs in SD. And if you run the TV2 output to the other TV's in the house, all other TV's can watch the same programming as the TV1/HDTV setup, except for the HD programs will be sent as SD. Also, all recordings (HD & SD) are available on the TV2 Output.

So a 2nd receiver in the bedroom is not required, unless she has a HDTV in the bedroom and she would like to see HD Programs in HD instead of SD.