721 Feature

[cdru]

Can someone please verify if the 721 will or won't record content from the front AV jacks? I was under the impression that no Dish DVRs had video encoders in them and would not record any type of content except from the satellite feed with the exception of the 921 recording OTA digital signals.

[pcirone]

Verifying that it won't. The 721 has no encoder at all.

[cdru]

Verifying that it won't. The 721 has no encoder at all.So the front AV jacks are solely there for the purpose of AV switching, much like a AV receiver would do? You would just tune into channel 0 to pass the signal from the front inputs to the rear outputs or coax?

[TomCat]

Yes. Just a pass-through. Nice enough, but fairly useless in most applications.

[Mike D-CO5]

I have my vcr with my Tivo hooked up through the aux inputs . This enables me to watch my ota channels and have them go through the s-video out through the 721 and have all my ota analog channels up converted to digital signal on my rca audio through the pcm sound. This is worth it to me . I don't have to switch back and forth between analog and digital on my sound receiver.

[Pepper]

This little device from svideo.com does the same trick for $14.95:

http://www.svideo.com/rcasvideomf1.html

I've got one of these for upconverting my VCR's composite video to S-video and it works great!

It would be nice if those front-panel inputs went to an encoder of some sort to allow recording to the hard drive but they don't. I suspect the primary purpose for including them was the same as on the Dishplayer 7100/7200: video and audio input for the (in the 721's case nonexistent) e-mail feature.

[Jacob S]

It would be nice if someone could make a device that would push a signal through the satellite input on the recevier to record that way. I can see some problems with this though, the encryption system would probably block it and so forth. Probably a bit too complicated to do.

[P Smith]

Shouldn't be any problem here. Interesting thought, just remember ch 101, 580 and a few others are really FTA; any FTA receiver could show it.
But create proper stream ( actually one transponder mux: PMT, SDT, TS, etc ) will be hard task.

[dbronstein]

Yes. Just a pass-through. Nice enough, but fairly useless in most applications.

I run my DVD player through it. It greatly simplifies the setup because the alternative is to use the other input on my TV but then to watch it you actually have to go into the menu system on the TV to change the inputs, there's no tv/video button the remote. So it's much easier to just change to channel 0.

Dennis

[Jacob S]

It is just like having inputs and outputs with RCA cabling on the VCR's except you cannot record the content when it is run through the 721.

[Bill D]

The tivo doesn't have this feature does it (directivo that is). I am getting two directivo's and would like an easy way to view them both on my main TV without doing too much. I can't use the TV, I only have one s-video in the back, the composite is the receiver out, which would work but then my family would have to turn on receiver change input, etc.
They must make a external S-video/stereo audio switcher, be nice if I can switch that using the remote, any thoughts??
Bill