301 vcr timer queston

[juan ellitinez]

Why does the 301 timer send a signal to my VCR telling to start/stop recording..but will not send a signal to yurn the VCR on or off?

[dishrich]

Because E*, in their infinite wisdom, choose it to BE that way.
I think it's stupid, because if you have a power failure, & since most VCR's will NOT turn back on AFTER a power failure, the VCR blaster is totally useless.
I tell my customers to just prog the timer on both the VCR & DBS receiver & explain the reasoning why. Also, since we do NOT have locals on DBS, the blaster will NOT work if you want to record something, say from DBS, then make it switch to a local off-air channel as an additional event.

[chessmaster1010]

Well to be clear, Dish can not send a remote signal to turn the VCR ON, and it can not send a signal to turn the VCR OFF, because most VCRs do not have discrete codes for ON and OFF; they only have a code that toggles it (if was OFF then ON, but if was ON then OFF).

So if Dish sent the toggle code then all users would have to be sure to leave their VCR off before a timer event. That is how Direct TV handles it and it does have some advantages, as Dishrich noted.

But personally I never bother turning my VCR off and probably wouldn't remember to if even if there was a reason to, so I prefer Dish's approach. It's also less error prone since only one code has to be sent to the VCR, not two.

In summary: neither way (requiring VCR to be off, or requiring it be on) is right or wrong. Dish picked one way, DirectTV picked the other. Some customers like it the way they have it and others wish their company did it the other way.