Dish 721 Tuning time

[zimm0who0net]

I've had my Dish 721 for about 3 weeks now.  There are some bugs here and there, but generally I'm happy.  However, what really drives me crazy is how long it takes to tune to a new channel.  I timed it and came up with anywhere between 3 and 7 seconds!  7 seconds may not sound like a long time, but when you're used to sub-second tuning on analog TV, it's an absolute eternity!! 

Is this normal?

:confused:

[boomerang]

My new 721 seems to be slightly slower than the 4722 it replaced. Not a big difference though. When I got on board with DBS, I learned to channel surf using the Guide. Way too slow channel by channel.

It's normal.

[Scott Greczkowski]

ANY PVR will be slower than a non PVR receiver, this is due to the fact the the video must be written to and then read off of the units hard drive.

This is the reason you can pause live TV, because your actually watching it delayed by a second or two.

[Jacob S]

Dont the 501 change channels quicker than a 721?

[MarkA]

Gosh, while I haven't used a 721, you can't possibly complain about channel changing speeds unless you've had digital cable on one of the old DCT-1000 cable boxes!!!!! AHHH!!!!! That took FOREVER to change channels (3 seconds or so on analog, an eternity on digital). I was so glad when TCI swapped it out with a DCT-2000! My DP is slow, but gosh, it's not bad after having spent a large part of my life with a DCT-1000