Ask DBSTalk/Dish: Lost recording time on 921

[krt]

Hi,

My 921 seems to have lost some recording time. Even without any DVR events or timers set, I only get 158h 53m of SD time or 22h 41m of HD record time. I have deleted all recorded events and timers, and then done a factory defaults from the system setup menu without any luck.

I called Dish tech support, and they mentioned that once the time is lost, one cannot get it back. I believe I noticed this issue after having a zero second recording with L213. Thought the receiver is running L216 now, the time has not returned. I was wondering if this record time is really lost (It seems to be the case as the hard drive fills up faster). Is there any way to get this lost time back, or do I need to push Dish for an RMA?

Regards,

KRT

[lujan]

Hi,

My 921 seems to have lost some recording time. Even without any DVR events or timers set, I only get 158h 53m of SD time or 22h 41m of HD record time. I have deleted all recorded events and timers, and then done a factory defaults from the system setup menu without any luck.

I called Dish tech support, and they mentioned that once the time is lost, one cannot get it back. I believe I noticed this issue after having a zero second recording with L213. Thought the receiver is running L216 now, the time has not returned. I was wondering if this record time is really lost (It seems to be the case as the hard drive fills up faster). Is there any way to get this lost time back, or do I need to push Dish for an RMA?

Regards,

KRT

The 921 is just like a computer, they say the hard drive capacity on a computer might be 180 GB, but in reality you only get lets say 168 GB. It works the same way for the 921, you don't get the full amount of space that is advertised.

[krt]

While it is true that one could potentially only get 168 GB, the issue is that the amount of apparant free space has decreased with time. IMHO, this should not happen. If I am not mistaken, the same unit used to indicate 25 hours of HD record time in the DVR events list. And, now it says 22h 41m. Unless the disk developed a lot of bad sectors in the 6-7 months that I have had it, or the newer software changed the way it calculates the remaining record time, the amount of recording time displayed in the DVR events list should decrease over time. This assumes that no events are recored.

[bbomar]

My 921 seems to have lost some recording time. Even without any DVR events or timers set, I only get 158h 53m of SD time or 22h 41m of HD record time. I have deleted all recorded events and timers, and then done a factory defaults from the system setup menu without any luck.

Following L216 I had a blank recording that wiped my hard disk. Afterward
there were no recordings and my 921 showed exactly the free times you
mention. Unfortunately, I don't remember what the free time showed when
I first got the 921.

[KKlare]

Tthe disk makers play it tricky -- they quote 1000^3 bytes, the OS talks 1024^3, a 7.3% difference or some of the difference. Formatting removes a little more for directories, etc.
-Ken

[leemathre]

That is the amount of time my 921's have shown since the beginning. The first one I bought in January 2004. I wrote down the space available when I first turned it on and just checked my notes to be sure. It had 158 hrs 47 min of SD and 22 hrs 4o min of HD. Both of them still show the same when empty.

[krt]

Thanks again for the replies. I guess I was mistaken. I might be recalling the 25 HD / 180 SD hours from the 921 marketing brochure. Though my 721 does display 90h 0m in the DVR events list with a 120GB hard drive. Guess, different model reciever, different software.

[Paradox-sj]

Before the days of zsr's my 921 showed 25/180 but after.. it has never shown that again

[KKlare]

Do not expect twice the SD hours for 250GB on the 921 vs 120GB on the 721 because the pause buffers are like 2 hours of HD. Each or together? I have seen a 2 hr HD rewind but of course with HD there is no PIP, so only one buffer. What is the largest SD rewind anyone has done? (14 hr possibly?) And with PIP? (7 hr possibly?)
-Ken

[lpickup]

I don't know about rewind, but after 2 hours paused on SD, it starts playing automatically, delayed 120 minutes.

...Lance