501 Down to 25 hours recording time any suggestions

[voyagerbob]

I Purchased by 501 back in May last year. It has had 34 hours recording time since then and suddenly went down to 25 hours (adding availabe plus recorded programs). Anyone else have this problem. Or any suggestions as to how I may correct this? I've deleted most of my recordings and done some "Power button" resets but that is about it. I'm going to copy some stuff to the VCR this weekend and get it completely emptied out.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Voyagerbob

[boba]

The time left on all PVRs varies with the density of the information recorded. Live sporting events use the most space when recording, something like "Cartoon Network" will use considerably less. When you erase everything you should be back to 35 hrs.

[DarrellP]

This is not a problem, it is a good thing. Personally I would like to see my 501 go down to 10 hrs of capacity, that would mean Dish is sending a decent bandwidth for their channels. Typically, I am getting about 30 hours. If you record more of the better looking channels, you will get less.

[Bob Haller]

My 721 did something similiar. It finally went back to normal after repeated reboots including card pulls. Hasnt been a problem since.

Perhaps your HD is going bad and like a computers its shriniking, before it flakes out completely?

I would buy the $2 a month system warranty. Anyone with a PVR needs this just in case.

[Jacob S]

I will back Bob Haller up on that, the $2 a month extended warranty is a MUST HAVE for Dish PVR owners.

[voyagerbob]

Originally posted by Jacob S
I will back Bob Haller up on that, the $2 a month extended warranty is a MUST HAVE for Dish PVR owners.

I got the $2 a month warranty when I got the PVR last year. I agree 100%.

I watched black hawk down the other day and when I deleted it my available time went up over 7 hours instead of the 2 something it said. That was 5 of my missing hours. That was good to know. I have Vanilla sky also so maybe that is some more of it. Never happened that I've noticed before.

Thanks for comments from all.

Voyagerbob

[Bob Haller]

You can always try a card pull, that has fixed this a couple of times.