Switched from DirecTV for a Dish 522... Questions and problems.

[scottm01]

I had a 522 installed yesterday as Dish offers my (small market) locals and Directv has no plans to. I had held off until seeing the recent software update discussed here that appeared to improve the PVR functions of the 522.

I have a few questions/problems that I hope are just my unfamiliarity with the unit:

1) How can I limit the number of episodes kept? For instance, I like to have a "Seinfeld" title-based pass/timer... I haven't found a way to only keep the most recent 5 episodes, so it appears that within about 2 days my PVR will be completely filled with Seinfeld, which is not my intent (:

2) Local guide data -- Even after leaving the unit "off" all night, I only have data for locals (including the distant NY Fox) about an hour ahead. This makes it impossible to set up a dish pass/timer for any show on network television and appears to defeat the purpose of a PVR as far as I'm concerned.

3) Choosing which tuner is used -- I'm used to the DirecTivo unit which "just works", resolving any conflicts based on priority, and using both tuners automatically when needed. Do I really need to resolve conflicts myself when creating timers (Ie, know that shows X and Y will always conflict so set X to tuner 1 and Y to tuner 2?)

4) Timers seem to always insist on padding the recording (1 minute early, 3 late). I can change this manually, but can I make it default to no padding?



Thanks for any help! In general I'm pretty happy with the 522 so far; my monthly bill has dropped, I love the 2 room functionality, etc... These issues though seem like huge shortcomings that should be pretty easy fixes, so I'm hoping I missed something obvious when skimming through the manual.

[Mark Lamutt]

Welcome to DBSTalk, scottm01. :hi:

I don't have a 522, but think that I can answer some of your questions here.

1. Nope - the 522 doesn't have that option to keep X number of episodes unfortunately.

2. It can take a couple of days to get the guide data fully populated. Make sure you have updates enabled, and make sure you have good signal strength on the 110 satellite - that's where the extended guide data comes from.

3. Press DVR to bring up the daily schedule. I think that you can set the priority of each timer for conflict management if necessary. And, if you're running in Single user mode, you shouldn't ever need to worry about which tuner is set to record what. By default, timer priority is set based on when timers are set - ie Timer 1 set = priority 1, Timer 2 = priority 2 and so on.

4. No way that I know of to make the pad options 0 and 0 by default.

[chaddux]

3. Press DVR to bring up the daily schedule. I think that you can set the priority of each timer for conflict management if necessary. And, if you're running in Single user mode, you shouldn't ever need to worry about which tuner is set to record what. By default, timer priority is set based on when timers are set - ie Timer 1 set = priority 1, Timer 2 = priority 2 and so on.

4. No way that I know of to make the pad options 0 and 0 by default.

:welcome_s

Minor correction. Press DVR *TWICE* to bring up the daily schedule (or Menu > 7). Pressing DVR just once brings up the DVR Events screen showing previously recorded programs.

And, no, there is (currently) no way to change the 1/3 default.

[scottm01]

Thanks for the input Chad & Mark!

By yesterday evening I finally had guide data for locals, so my biggest complaint is taken care of. I do wish I could limit the # of recordings kept (I rarely want to watch yesterdays local news, I don't want 100 hours of Seinfeld reruns, etc) but I can work around most of those.

I should say for anyone else considering switching from a DirecTivo unit that while some of the features just aren't there in the 522, it is a much faster unit (adding new passes, changing priorities, etc takes seconds, not minutes). I also appreciate that the 522 keeps a picture & audio on the screen at almost all times. Overall I'm pretty happy, I just feel like a couple small (and obvious) new features would really make the 522 a clearly superior unit.

[the_bear]

3) Choosing which tuner is used -- I'm used to the DirecTivo unit which "just works", resolving any conflicts based on priority, and using both tuners automatically when needed. Do I really need to resolve conflicts myself when creating timers (Ie, know that shows X and Y will always conflict so set X to tuner 1 and Y to tuner 2?)



There are some bugs in the 522 with conflict resolution. Here are some of the workaround I have used when the 522 says there is a conflict which I know can be solved automatically.

1. Set the timer from TV2 (blue remote) instead of TV1 (green remote).
2. Use a time based instead of name based timer.

[reddice]

Hope next month I will have a 522. I have the crappy DTV Tivo. It is slow. Has a major bug. Keeps pausing. Did I mention slow guide and slow to begin with and a pathetic 30 minute buffer.

Although you answered some of my questions on the 522. I will be using it in single mode, how do you switch tuners with the remote.

[jtravel]

The 522 remote has a SWAP button that you use in Single Mode to change between tuner 1 & 2
There is also a PIP button that you can use to display both Tuner 1 & 2 on the same screen.

You change the 522 from dual mode to Single mode by the push of the front panel button
so Its easy to use it in different modes at different times.