Pathetic Buffer

[l.i.t.e.]

Anyone know if they are going to increase the absolutely pathetic 2 hour buffer on the 721 in upcoming updates???

never should have gotten rid of my dishplayer :(

[DmitriA]

How much does Dishplayer have? I think 2 hours is a lot, frankly. 501, though, only has one hour and that's certainly not enough...

[Steve Mehs]

Be happy with what you have, the 508 is only 1 hour. 1 hour is enough for me most of the time but once or twice I could have used an extra 10-15 minutes.

[dbronstein]

I'm just curious - what do you need a longer buffer for? My old Replay buffered essentially unlimted - until the hard drive was full - and I never needed to pause a show for 4 hours or anything like that. So I'm just wondering what you would use a longer buffer for.

Dennis

[Jacob S]

I have heard that dishplayers have whatever is left over on the hard drive for pause time. That means you have up to 5 hours on the 7100, 10 hours on the 7200, depending on how much you have stored on your hard drive. If you did an upgrade of your hard drive then you will have a heck of a lot more than that.

I think that customers should have the option for more than 2 hours (721) 1 hour (501, 508) of pause time on their receivers.

[l.i.t.e.]

hello,

dbronstein,

happens all the time watching something and leave to go do something rewind and.... damn cant go all the way back.

last night, my girlfriend was watching something and she ask me to come watch something and of course she couldnt go all the way back

and yes with the dishplayer you had whatever was left on the harddrive to go back, so this was never a problem....sheesh 1 step forwar 2 steps back i guess

[BobaBird]

When you get up to do something, press Record. It will record the rest of the program or you can choose one of the other options for when to stop.

I find it somewhat troubling, though, that someone on his 2nd DVR is still watching live television. :p

[Allamand]

Well, if it was "Paused" it wasn't live :)

I too have had this happen, more so it seemed if the channel hadn't
been changed for a while. Also something like this happened when
recording a show, a "Glitch" maybe?

[mjschuyler]

I had Dishplayers but after all the problems I changed to a 501 and a 721. I liked them so much I bought another 721 and a 508. My wife missed the buffer on the DP. She had a timer for HDTV at 9:00 am and when she came home after work around 5:00 pm she could go all the way back and fast forward to a program she wanted to see. She recently retired and I joke with her the reason she retired was because she could not go back on the 501.

[dbronstein]

l.i.t.e., thanks for the reply but I still don't get it. If I'm watching something and need to leave, I just record it. This gives the added advantage that I can watch it whenever I want, and I don't have to worry about accidentally changing channels or something that clears the buffer.

Dennis

[Jacob S]

If a timer results in the channel being changed then your buffer starts all over, unless you have a good working 721 of course in which will now automatically start recording on tuner 2 (bad if you have the tuner 2 problem in which pixellates).

The consumer should be given some kind of choice to automatically record everything instead of having to do it manually just for the time you are on that channel or everything that you watched over a certain amount of time until you run out of capacity on your hard drive in which it would start to write over only your buffer period and not your selected pvr event shows in which should be protected anyways if this feature would be used. It would be kind of like recovering all your lost files on a computer even if they are not in a recycle bin.

Perhaps these PVR's should have a recycle bin to retrieve those shows that were deleted and once the drive space is used up it starts to delete the oldest show first.

[l.i.t.e.]

hello,

dbronstein,

why should i have to remember to press record just everytime i leave ? and why should my girlfriend or anyone else thats watching tv have to remember to press record just in case they want someone else to see something ? On weekends i used to leave my DP on a channel all day and come back and just see what was on...i only watch 3-4 channels out of the 200+ lol, so i reallly like being able to just leave the pvr on and rewind and see what was on, this is nothing i would want to record or watch another day, its just programs and stuff id like to check out that were on during the day. As i said before, just seems like 1 step forward 2 steps back to me.

[Jacob S]

One bad thing about having to press record is that you may forget to press stop.

[bills976]

One bad thing about having to press record is that you may forget to press stop.

Just curious as I don't remember. When one presses the record button on the 501/508 does it record only the show you're watching, or does it record until you press stop? With the Tivo I know a dialog box pops up and asks you if you want to record the program from the start and it will only record that program. That feature is actually nice since you can record a multi-part show on a single PVR event.

[Unthinkable]

Just curious as I don't remember. When one presses the record button on the 501/508 does it record only the show you're watching, or does it record until you press stop? With the Tivo I know a dialog box pops up and asks you if you want to record the program from the start and it will only record that program. That feature is actually nice since you can record a multi-part show on a single PVR event.

You are prompted with the following menu when you press record on the 501/508:

Select an option to start recording.
Event: __________
End time: 11:25pm

_ Manual user stop
_ Stop at end of event
_ Extend time after end of event
_ Create timer

Done Cancel Help

[dbronstein]

l.i.t.e., maybe it's because I don't watch TV that way that I just don't see this as that big of an issue. It would never occur to me to rewind 3 hours to show my wife something - if it's that important to show it to her, I'd show it to her at the time. And if I really don't get rewinding a channel to see what was on - I'll look ahead in the guide and record shows instead. But to each their own.

I agree a bigger buffer would be nice, but I'd be thrilled if they just get the 721 to the point where this is the biggest issue.

Denins

[Jacob S]

Yes, you are prompted with a screen that asks you if you want to manual stop, record to end of event, etc. The thing is when you press manual stop, even though you may get unlimited buffer, you may forget to press stop and fill up your hard drive or record over previous pvr events you have recorded. The only solution I can find is to set it to record for like 5 hours for example, an amount of time you want it to buffer. I think this could be changed with a software update.

[greylar]

If you don't like the 721 go buy a tivo. Oh yea their buffer is only 30 mins but they might have changed it on the new ones. Two hours doesn't sound so pathetic to me.

Greylar

[Jacob S]

Buying a Tivo is not going to solve all the problems and neither is buying a Dish PVR. Just because one wants to see a few improvements done to a receiver (in which can be done with a software download) does not mean the person should buy a Tivo.

[Unthinkable]

Yes, you are prompted with a screen that asks you if you want to manual stop, record to end of event, etc. The thing is when you press manual stop, even though you may get unlimited buffer, you may forget to press stop and fill up your hard drive or record over previous pvr events you have recorded. The only solution I can find is to set it to record for like 5 hours for example, an amount of time you want it to buffer. I think this could be changed with a software update.

Just an addendum here. The 501 won't record over shows that are protected if someone forgets to hit stop after doing a manual record from what I understand. I'm with dbronstein on this one with regards to never having a need to rewind 3 hours backwards in a buffer. Set your timers up properly in advance and its completely unnecessary for all but the Tommy TV's of the world who can't afford to miss a single second of whats going on every hour of the day.

[Jacob S]

I would not use the extra buffer time to rewind 3 hours backwards, but to keep it paused to have it 3 hours delayed. I suppose if someone leaves enough free space on their hard drive that they can do a manual record to pause the show and have it record into the future to view a show delayed until one gets back.

[l.i.t.e.]

regardless of whether 'YOU' would use the feature or not, its so basic that is is ridiculous not to have it, the DP which is YEARS old did this with no problem what so ever and if everyone watched tv the same way then no one would even be here right !!!

[Jacob S]

I agree l.i.t.e. I think that if the Dishplayer had a longer buffer that the 501, 508, and 721 should have it as well.

[djlong]

I use the 'unlimited' buffer mostly for marathons of shows (like all-day M*A*S*H, etc) and sports events. I set the channel, hit pause, then go run errands, do shopping, radwork, whatever - then I have lots of live pause built up to skip over the commercials.

[Jacob S]

Thats what I think the live pause is good for, if you have to go to town and run errands or shop then come back, that way you dont have to set up a timer that you think will not be long enough to last until you get back.