questions on the 522

[david in texas]

Hello all,

I've been a long time (4 years) subscriber of Dish and been the proud owner of a 50x since they were first released.

I was in Little Rock over Thanksgiving and got to play with my in-law's new 522 for a couple of days and on the surface was impressed with it. I really like the new graphics and the ability to keep the TV on when using most of the menus.

However being older my in-laws didn't know anything about the unit other than it was "to watch TV".

I understand from Dish that they should be available as an upgrade by the end of January.

With that said do I understand correctly that the 522 can in fact record one channel and watch another "live" channel?

I was under the impression it was but playing with the in-laws I could not figure it out.

Thanks,
David

 

[KyDave]

With that said do I understand correctly that the 522 can in fact record one channel and watch another "live" channel?

That is correct!

It also can record 2 shows and, when hooked up to two different tvs, watch 2 different recorded shows.

 

[Shadowtester]

One thing the unit has 2 modes Single mode and Dual mode In single mode you can watch one live channel while recording a different chanel you can also record 2 different channels while watching a previously recorded event. And the unit has a Picture in Picture mode. While in Dual mode the Picture in Picture function does not work also there are more Problems with recording one show while trying to watch another show live. If you are on TV 1 and have record Plus set to TV 2 you can watch 1 show live on TV 1 while you record a different show on TV2 Tuner. If you are watching TV 2 you can either watch Live TV on that tuner or watch a recorded event both TV have access to the recorded events however if you set up to record something I do not know if you can specify Tuner 1 as the source when you are viewing and setting it up from the TV 2 location. I don't know all the little ins and outs of the 522 in dual mode since I use single mode all the time. Maybe some one that uses dual mode all the time could help elaborate more as to what you can and can not do in dual mode with the 522 from each TV location.

 

[david in texas]

Thanks for the replies guys!

If I remember correctly there's was in DUAL MODE.

My current setup is I have a 501 in the living room and a 508 in the MBR. In my office I have an old 3??. In the guest room I have an even older unit. I'm not even sure what it's called.

I'm getting cable for my office and the guest room as my local cable company (a local outfit, not Charter, Comcast, etc) and they offer a package with phone service, high speed internet, and cable and I can save some money by disabling two Dish boxes.

When adding the 522, will I still then have a need for the 508 in the MBR???

My Dish bill has crept up to over $110.00 and I'm working on trying to get it down.

I've just cancelled HBO (until the Sorprano's and SFU come back) next year, and I already disabled the unit in the guest room as the in-laws left town after New Year's.

Thanks,
David

 

[Shadowtester]

Dave that is a hard question to answer the 522 can record 2 events at the same time while you watch another and also store 100 hours of content aprox and feed TV's in 2 different locations. The 522 has new Name based software however it currently has more bug that the 508 so I guess it depends on your needs and wants.

 

[david in texas]

10-4. I understand. I'll probably just keep the extra 508 for a while.

Regards,
David

 

[Shadowtester]

Dave you may be able to replace the 501 and 508 both with one 522 in dual mode and as I said before you will gain Name based recording which when they get it perfected will be much better than time based like the 501 and 508 has. The total recording capacity between the 522 and 501/508 combo is a little less if I remember correctly and the 501/508 has less bugs in there software. Also the 522 has a PVR fee where if I remember correctly the 501 and 508 do not however its just one receiver so you would save the additional receiver fee. That should give you something to think about My best advice would be to make a pro's and con's list for each setup and then choose which option would be best for you I am sure there is no perfect setup there never is.

 

[andrews777]

I replaced both of my 501s with 522s about a month ago and I am very happy, except for the syncronisation problems. After starting with dual mode, I have switched to single mode, making it just like my 501s in effect, though I have 100 hours of storage and can watch live TV while 1 thing is being recorded.

I bought the units on EBay, being careful to verify that they were "safe" for use (calling Dish) and got someone there to activate them for me (the contact has been listed elsewhere). I managed to sell my 501s for just about the same price as I paid for the 522s, and I am only out a bit of money, including some for extra remotes, but now I have 2 sets of UHF remotes, and I still planning on selling an extra beat-up 501 remote and the IR remote one of the units came from. If I had been willing to go even slower, I probably could have gotten both units at even better prices.

I have found it is worth the extra $5 a month each ($10 total) VOD fee to get more time and options. We regularly keep them 80% full.

My only annoyance is that the sound seems to come out of sync all the time. I really do hope that is fixed soon.

Brad

 

[johnarose]

Dave that is a hard question to answer the 522 can record 2 events at the same time while you watch another and also store 100 hours of content aprox and feed TV's in 2 different locations. The 522 has new Name based software however it currently has more bug that the 508 so I guess it depends on your needs and wants.

You're not saying that you can record different 2 events at the same time while watching a third show, right?

With only 2 tuners, you can only have two different shows tuned in from my understanding.

 

[Shadowtester]

Yes you can record 2 different programs while you are watching a previously recorded program off the hard drive.

 

[satvad]

One thing the unit has 2 modes Single mode and Dual mode In single mode you can watch one live channel while recording a different chanel you can also record 2 different channels while watching a previously recorded event. And the unit has a Picture in Picture mode. While in Dual mode the Picture in Picture function does not work also there are more Problems with recording one show while trying to watch another show live. If you are on TV 1 and have record Plus set to TV 2 you can watch 1 show live on TV 1 while you record a different show on TV2 Tuner. If you are watching TV 2 you can either watch Live TV on that tuner or watch a recorded event both TV have access to the recorded events however if you set up to record something I do not know if you can specify Tuner 1 as the source when you are viewing and setting it up from the TV 2 location. I don't know all the little ins and outs of the 522 in dual mode since I use single mode all the time. Maybe some one that uses dual mode all the time could help elaborate more as to what you can and can not do in dual mode with the 522 from each TV location.

From reading the manual I understand that all the recorded events can be viewed from DVR events. However yesterday I was in single mode and viewing a program in TV1. I noticed that my schedule timer went on to record the program from tv2 tuner. However I could not able to see that recorded event in the dvr events. Is DVR events listed separately for the two tuners? If so how to look for other tuner recordings? Thanks for any info.

 

[chaddux]

From reading the manual I understand that all the recorded events can be viewed from DVR events. However yesterday I was in single mode and viewing a program in TV1. I noticed that my schedule timer went on to record the program from tv2 tuner. However I could not able to see that recorded event in the dvr events. Is DVR events listed separately for the two tuners? If so how to look for other tuner recordings? Thanks for any info.

The DVR Events Menu is a common screen. All events, regardless of recording origin, will show up. The only difference is when one of the tuners has locks enabled and there is a recorded event from one of those channels. In that event, the recording on the locks-enabled tuner will be displayed as "Locked Event." Entering the code will still bring up the event.