Single Mode Question

[Wishbone]

Great forum you guys have here..

I am getting a Dish Network system with DVR 522 installed in June. I had many questions, and decided to read all the threads and all of them were answered except for two..

What is this "single mode" update that we might be getting in June? Does this have something to do with allowing TV1 and TV2 to receive from either tuner?

Also, can I set a program to record on either tuner from TV1? For example, If I want to watch "Enterprise" on tuner 1 while recording "American Idol"

on tuner 2, can I program it all from either TV? Or do I have to run to the other room to set the recording?

Thanks..

 

[haertig]

Also, can I set a program to record on either tuner from TV1? For example, If I want to watch "Enterprise" on tuner 1 while recording "American Idol" on tuner 2, can I program it all from either TV? Or do I have to run to the other room to set the recording?

On your "single mode" question, my understanding is the same as yours. But I'm still a newbie and hopefully someone else can speak with authority.

From experience on my 522, I've found that you can set your "default tuner" to record to. I have my default tuner set to TV2. If I am on TV1 and schedule something, it will automatically be done using TV2 unless TV2 is already scheduled to record something else. In that case TV1 will be used. This appears to happen at scheduling time, not at actual recording time. So if your had a program scheduled on TV1 (because TV2 was busy on something else), and then you removed the TV2 event, you're still stuck using TV1 for your recording.

Once you have a schedule set, I cannot find any way to change which tuner it will record on, short of deleting the scheduled event and starting over. If TV2 is your default, and TV2 is available for the time you want to schedule, I see no way to force it to TV1. I guess you could force a bogus event on TV2, then schedule something that will end up on TV1, and finish up by deleting the bogus TV2 event.

Anyway, the above has been my experience. But I'm still quite new and haven't necessarily learned all the in's and out's yet.

 

[RBBrittain]

Single mode turns off the TV2 output; in exchange, you get PIP on any TV. It was intended for watching one channel while recording another on the same TV, but Record Plus (i.e., setting the default tuner for recording) essentially does the same thing in dual mode. Single mode makes the 522 act like the 721, Dish's first dual-tuner DVR, which has only one output (the 721's second tuner is for DVR and PIP use only).

 

[Hall]

Also, can I set a program to record on either tuner from TV1? For example, If I want to watch "Enterprise" on tuner 1 while recording "American Idol" on tuner 2, can I program it all from either TV? Or do I have to run to the other room to set the recording?

With the *current* software release for the 522, it has a "Record Plus" option. It's disabled by default, so I'll explain it with that setting:

Picking a program in the guide to record gives you the choice of recording it "from" TV1 or TV2.

If you enable "Record Plus", you then pick "which TV do you want to normally record to first". So, again back in the guide and you choose a program to record, it will automatically choose the TV you selected in that menu option. If that TV is "busy", i.e. already set to record something else at that same time, it will go to TV1.

 

[Wishbone]

Thanks.. that pretty much answered my question.