721 Vs. 508 Rewind feature

[pk-rr]

I have notice, on 721 you can rewind a live show to the maximum of 2 minutes.

My friend told me, on 508 you can rewind a lot longer ( 1 hour or more). Is that correct?

Or maybe its some other recorder (Tivo etc.)?



Thanks.......

[Steve Mehs]

With the 50X there is a one hour buffer. So as long as you stay on the same channel without flipping around you can rewind upto an hour. I thought the same held true for the 721.

[Chaos]

The 721 does up to 2 hours if you haven't changed the channel.

[pk-rr]

I will test it tonight.....Thanks

[Bill R]

Also, you should know that the second tuner only buffers when it is in PIP mode (or active or recording).

I was told that it doesn't buffer until you select it because it is "doing other things". I think that Echostar seriously needs to consider changing that. I think that both tuners should buffer as long as the 721 is on. Let it do its "other things" when I'm not watching.

Don't the TiVos buffer both tuners?

[DmitriA]

The "other things" probably constitute such things as keeping an updated 9-day guide and receiving new upgrades without having to turn off the receiver

[Bill R]

Dmitri,

Yes, that is exactly what is going on. While switching between tuners and waiting a few seconds isn't a BIG deal, I'm just saying that it would be nice if BOTH tuners could buffer without having to be active. Two buffered tuners are especailly useful for sports.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Two buffered tuners would cause all kinds of drive wear and tear when most people rarely switch between tuners.

I like the way it is now and rather have long drive life then a buffer for something I probably wont use.

[pk-rr]

Scott,

Congratulation on your new baby......Now more than ever you will be needing the PVR, because now you watch shows when your baby lets you watch shows, not when they are aired.

PK

[Jacob S]

Are you going to show the baby on the next news update you are going to have Scott?

I think it should at least be an option to buffer on the second hard drive, or buffer to it to where if you turn back to a channel it can go to the second tuner automatically so that it catches all the show from when you first tuned to it the first time but that can be a complex feature.

[TomCat]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Two buffered tuners would cause all kinds of drive wear and tear...

Doubtful. I agree that buffering 2 streams would cause the read-write head to jump around a bit more (something it's designed to do as part of normal operation), but I disagree that this would cause significant "wear and tear". The OS overhead would be probably more of a problem.

My 7200 RPM Deskstar can simultaneously buffer up to 100 individual simultaneous 44.1 / 24 bit audio channels without approaching its throughput level, and even the slow 4200 RPM drives in a PVR should be able to buffer two DBS channels without even breathing hard. After all, it seems to have little trouble recording one program while playing back another, something every PVR does. Buffering 2 streams for live viewing would certainly not cause it to be any busier than it is when recording two programs while playing back a third, which is what it is designed to do on a regular basis.

Claiming this to be a task that the equipment shouldn't be asked to do is a smokescreen and an engineer's cop out. The equipment (and good software) can handle it...it just needs the right engineer to implement it. The problem is not buffering 2 streams, we've already proven that it can handle this in PIP mode. The difficulty comes when you try to integrate it into the user interface. When you're in PIP mode it makes perfect sense. When you're not, it's buffering a program stream that isn't even visible to the user, which makes accessing it difficult or at the least confusing. I guess if you changed just between the same 2 channels it could hold two buffers and then dump when you choose a third, but then this raises the bigger question of why dump the buffer at all (which has similar user-interface complications as its answer).

But as we know, users who can handle complicated user interface issues are the ones who suffer when a manufacturer tries to make their product "one size fits all". Regardless of the user-interface issues, this should be a feature that can be turned on when wanted that defaults to "off" once the power is cycled, which would give us all the best of both worlds.

[Jacob S]

Yes, I agree that it should at least be an option.