Dish 508 Features

[speedy882001]

What is the holdup in getting the local chanels software added to the PVR units so you can record off air information to the hard drive? I live in a remote area that will never be able to get local chanels off of the dish. I had a Dish 5000 HD receiver that allowed you to seamlessly add local chanels from an antena to the Dish Network menu but I upgraded to a 508 PVR. Now I have to turn the dish off to watch network chanels from the off air antena and use a VCR to record everything. When I contacted Dish Network all they said was that not many people request this and they have no plans to add this software. I have a hard time believing that knowone wants this! All of the PVR functions would be great for network television! I have a sneaky feeling that they want you to spend the money to get locals from them which is great if you are in one of the limited markets that has locals but leaves the rest of us out of luck. Has anybody wondered about this or have you heard anything?

[bolco]

It's not a software issue. It's a HARDWARE issue. The 50x units do not have the hardware to record off-air channels. So, don't hold your breath...you will NEVER be able to record off-air on your unit.

[FlyingDiver]

The hardware in question is an MPEG encoder. Programming from the satellites is already in compressed digital MPEG format, so it can be saved directly to the disk. OTA channels are uncompressed analog, and would need to be digitized and compressed before they could be saved to the disk. The MPEG compression hardware is what Tivo and Reply units have in them.

If you really need this capability, you should have stuck with the Dish 5000 unit and used a Tivo or Replay to give you the PVR capability.

joe

[Jacob S]

Can you buy an MPEG compression device that will allow the receiver to record off air/cable?

[FlyingDiver]

Sure. A Tivo or Replay box.

joe

[DarrellP]

Now I have to turn the dish off to watch network chanels from the off air antena and use a VCR to record everything.
Why? Is your TV/Video button not working either? Mine quit working when I got the 167 upgrade. You should be able to press the TV/Video button and that will toggle the output of your 508 from satellite to antenna/cable, whatever you have connected to your system.

[speedy882001]

The TV/Video button works some of the time. Haven't figured that one out yet.

[Chaos]

Just as a question, why does everyone insist that there is hardware required for MPEG encoding? This can be done completely in software. That said, I'm not convinced that the receivers have sufficient processor power or memory to accomplish this, but it IS possible.

[Geronimo]

In this case there is no MPEG encoding. The original data stream is digital and is recorded that way. No encoding is necessary.

Since a SA tivo or Replay takes an analog signal it must do the encoding. Whether it does it by hardware or software I can't say.

[boba]

Do you qualify for out of market locals? Have you had DISH apply for a waiver? If you can get "locals" delivered through DISH you can record them.

[speedy882001]

No, I do not qualify for out of market locals because I can get all 3 networks from a very tall antenna pointed to Toledo that is about an hour away by car or I can buy it from the evil cable company. Of course I cannot get the UPN or WB networks from an antenna. What stinks is if I buy it from cable I get two of each of the 3 networks plus 2 UPN and a WB. It stinks that cable can sell it to me but I can not get something comparable from satellite.