ViP-722 Scruples

CowboyDren

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jul 18, 2005
990
2
64133
I have had a PITA 722 for over a year and I was just told by a CSR two days ago that the 722K is available for ordering as a replacment. This is about #3 on my list of things that I hate about Dish; the right hand doesn't even know that there IS a left hand, let alone what it's doing.

I have two 722's and they are far from PITA's. What's the problem with yours? Got it well ventilated?

#2 on my list of things that I hate about Dish is the soul-crushing disappointment when my 625 (which was a gem) was replaced with an early-production 722 (which is, relatively, a turd). Things my 625 did well include nearly-frame-by-frame stepping in pause and slow-mo, the ability to search the guide and create timers while the DVR was making recordings, and just sit there quietly most of the time.

I understand that the video processor on an HD box of any type is going to make a lot of heat, and the big honkin' disk is going to make a lot of noise, but my 722 feels like beta software in comparison. Like Windows 98 RC did when I was used to a PC with NT4 every day. My 722 is inside a cabinet, but it's sitting almost 1" off the shelf on risers, has over 2" on each side, over 4" of headroom, and is open on the front and back, with no door to close. The only way to get it more ventillated is to put it on top of the TV stand, which I cant, because that's where the TV sits.

My first gripe with the 722 is that if it's using at least one tuner to make a recording, searching the guide is sluggish. Browsing is fine, but not searching. God forbid I try to make a timer for an event; it takes two whole seconds to do the second search, and if the timer I want to create conflicts with a timer that's already on the list, it could take three more seconds for it to even ASK me how I want to deal with it. If I want to shuffle the priorities around, a second or more to go to the list, sluggish response during the sort, and a few more seconds to commit the changes. Sometimes, if it's using multiple tuners to commit DVR events, and I try to search or create, the machine just locks up hard, and I have to wait 3-7 minutes for the reboot to finalize. Broken recordings, have to re-start the search and timer creation.

My second gripe is that the 625 gave me near perfect control over a program's playback in non-live speeds. I could hit the pause button on the remote, and step back and forward 1 or 2 frames at a time to see the frame I wanted. The 722 is a crapshoot. Pause, step back yields a seek of several seconds' worth of frames. Step forward may step a frame forward, may step forward to the point you hit pause, or may overshoot the pause frame. It takes tons of fiddling to get back to that one frame that clearly showed the profile of the dog that I wanted to show my wife (I love Cesar Milan on NatGeo). God forbid you hit pause on a program and go to the kitchen for something. When you hit play, it may start where you left it, or it may go ALL THE WAY BACK to the LAST point you hit pause, often 7 or 15 minutes back! Fast forwarding at high speed is equally unreliable; you may move 5 minutes forward at 60x or you may go to 300x and land only a few seconds ahead of where you hit the FF button to start with.

Third, there's the "Locked Event" issue. Half the time that a timer is created which conflicts with a previous timer, you can't even see what the conflict is. Sometimes it's a phantom conflict; an event that isn't even scheduled. Delete the locked event at your own risk, and go back with "Show Skip" to make sure you didn't just blow away something important. When the box gets "hot," lots of recordings show up in the list as being "Locked," whether it was actually locked or not. Reboot the box, and everything gets named properly again.

I've had all of these problems since Day One, and no firmware update since has fixed any of these issues. More cooling helped a little, but nothing's gone away. I think the box is running L617, but I may just have L616. This is why I pretty much hate my 722.
 
Jez

#2 on my list of things that I hate about Dish is the soul-crushing disappointment when my 625 (which was a gem) was replaced with an early-production 722 (which is, relatively, a turd). Things my 625 did well include nearly-frame-by-frame stepping in pause and slow-mo, the ability to search the guide and create timers while the DVR was making recordings, and just sit there quietly most of the time.

I understand that the video processor on an HD box of any type is going to make a lot of heat, and the big honkin' disk is going to make a lot of noise, but my 722 feels like beta software in comparison. Like Windows 98 RC did when I was used to a PC with NT4 every day. My 722 is inside a cabinet, but it's sitting almost 1" off the shelf on risers, has over 2" on each side, over 4" of headroom, and is open on the front and back, with no door to close. The only way to get it more ventillated is to put it on top of the TV stand, which I cant, because that's where the TV sits.

My first gripe with the 722 is that if it's using at least one tuner to make a recording, searching the guide is sluggish. Browsing is fine, but not searching. God forbid I try to make a timer for an event; it takes two whole seconds to do the second search, and if the timer I want to create conflicts with a timer that's already on the list, it could take three more seconds for it to even ASK me how I want to deal with it. If I want to shuffle the priorities around, a second or more to go to the list, sluggish response during the sort, and a few more seconds to commit the changes. Sometimes, if it's using multiple tuners to commit DVR events, and I try to search or create, the machine just locks up hard, and I have to wait 3-7 minutes for the reboot to finalize. Broken recordings, have to re-start the search and timer creation.

My second gripe is that the 625 gave me near perfect control over a program's playback in non-live speeds. I could hit the pause button on the remote, and step back and forward 1 or 2 frames at a time to see the frame I wanted. The 722 is a crapshoot. Pause, step back yields a seek of several seconds' worth of frames. Step forward may step a frame forward, may step forward to the point you hit pause, or may overshoot the pause frame. It takes tons of fiddling to get back to that one frame that clearly showed the profile of the dog that I wanted to show my wife (I love Cesar Milan on NatGeo). God forbid you hit pause on a program and go to the kitchen for something. When you hit play, it may start where you left it, or it may go ALL THE WAY BACK to the LAST point you hit pause, often 7 or 15 minutes back! Fast forwarding at high speed is equally unreliable; you may move 5 minutes forward at 60x or you may go to 300x and land only a few seconds ahead of where you hit the FF button to start with.

Third, there's the "Locked Event" issue. Half the time that a timer is created which conflicts with a previous timer, you can't even see what the conflict is. Sometimes it's a phantom conflict; an event that isn't even scheduled. Delete the locked event at your own risk, and go back with "Show Skip" to make sure you didn't just blow away something important. When the box gets "hot," lots of recordings show up in the list as being "Locked," whether it was actually locked or not. Reboot the box, and everything gets named properly again.

I've had all of these problems since Day One, and no firmware update since has fixed any of these issues. More cooling helped a little, but nothing's gone away. I think the box is running L617, but I may just have L616. This is why I pretty much hate my 722.

Why the L didn't you get that thing changed out. It was not working anything close to right. I'm on a 2nd 622 because I got a dog revision unit to start with. But E* contacted me and exchanged it. I have had no problems with it for years. I'm upgrading to a 722k because the HDMI plug broke on the unit. I'll be a bit of a guinea pig since it's new to market and I'm getting 1 of the early ones. I was an early transfer from Voom w/ a 942 and had a direct # to advance tech then to work out the bugs. So i understand having bugs but not a POS like you had.
 
i have a 722 as well, but i haven't had any of the problems you have stated. searching and creating timers does not seem to be as slow as yours. i would defiantly ask to get your box changed out if it does seem to be having problems. mine is sitting atop of my stereo receiver and is not in a case or anything so not much heat buildup near it. just remember that there is a vent on the side(can't remember if it is on the left or right), make sure that has plenty of space so it can breathe. as far as the sound, it is going to be somewhat noisy, shouldn't be that bad though. it does have a hard drive in it that is constantly at work. hope you get your problem solved though.
 
I have quite a few 722's (and know family with quite a few, as well) and have none of your problems. However, the problems you have griped about are not the behavior of a correctly functioning 722. You need to have it RMA'd. Dish should be willing to switch it out based upon your experiences. So, yeah, as one other poster asked, why haven't you RMA'd it? I would have had that thing replaced AGES ago.
 
I've heard that it's the same PCB/processor platform as the 722, but the K model uses a removable OTA module that has two tuners instead of one. I'd put money on the K model's OTA tuner being more sensitive; better signal from the same antenna. 722K also comes with the 21.0 learning remote, which is way better than the 5.3/6.3 remotes. Plus all K models are certified for Eastern Arc, which is not true for all 722s.
 
Plus all K models are certified for Eastern Arc, which is not true for all 722s.

HUH? Where did you get that idea? The box doesn't care where the dish is pointed, and they all have all current satellites programmed into them.
 
Once the card swap is completed any vip receiver will work on the eastern arc. Some would not authorize programming when Eastern Arc first launched because the receivers didn't have the new purple cards.
 
HUH? Where did you get that idea? The box doesn't care where the dish is pointed, and they all have all current satellites programmed into them.

If the purple card is all I need, then that's true. But my 722 that doesn't have a circle-A sticker, so it can't do EA out of the box; it has to look at 110/119 first. I do have a purple card, though.
 
If you have the purple card you can use EA.

EA was set up with Nagra-3 encryption at the outset. If you did not have a ViP receiver with either a purple card or the Nagra-3 encryption built-in it would not work on EA.

When all current boxes receive their purple cards Dish will switch all satellites to Nagra-3 and hopefully reduce pirating for a while.
 
My second gripe is that the 625 gave me near perfect control over a program's playback in non-live speeds. I could hit the pause button on the remote, and step back and forward 1 or 2 frames at a time to see the frame I wanted. The 722 is a crapshoot. Pause, step back yields a seek of several seconds' worth of frames. Step forward may step a frame forward, may step forward to the point you hit pause, or may overshoot the pause frame. It takes tons of fiddling to get back to that one frame that clearly showed the profile of the dog that I wanted to show my wife (I love Cesar Milan on NatGeo). God forbid you hit pause on a program and go to the kitchen for something. When you hit play, it may start where you left it, or it may go ALL THE WAY BACK to the LAST point you hit pause, often 7 or 15 minutes back! Fast forwarding at high speed is equally unreliable; you may move 5 minutes forward at 60x or you may go to 300x and land only a few seconds ahead of where you hit the FF button to start with.

i agree 100% with this part of your gripe. i'm on my second 722. both have/had this issue.
the frame by frame skip is terrible. hit pause then the back or forward skip... it will take you several frames on the first skip then it will work properly.
 
I will put $10.00 on it they wont replace it with the k model
Especially true if you don't ask for a K model. Somehow, I "accidentally" got ahold of Dish Executive Support in Texas, and the guy I talked to was in such a hurry to swap out my 722 that I didn't get a chance to ask about the upgrade! I would have liked a 722K, but considering his willingness just to get me a new box, I let him steamroll me...I'm not complaining.
 

hd receiver with sd setup?

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