PVRs and bugs: which one is better?

[TopCat99]

The 721 sounds like a great machine, although it also sounds buggy. I also have both heard and read horror stories about the 501, ranging from minor (reboots) to major (customers having five and six exchanges).

I'm wondering two things:
1) With all the praise for the 721, should I trade up from a 501 to it?
2) With 721 getting all the attention now, does this mean development on the 501 is pretty much wrapped up?

Just wondering... :)

[John Corn]

Hi Topcat,

Honestly, I love my 721, It's been a good machine. I really wanted the 721 for the dual tuners, there were just to many times when I had the 501 I wanted to watch something else while recording.

[thomasmaly]

In spite of several bugs, the 721's dual tuner capacity makes it a truly remarkable piece of equipment. Most of the bugs and ways to work around them have been discussed here.

[treiher]

I have to give the 721 a thumbs up too. Two tuners are very handy. And the Picture-in-picture is pretty awesome too. One thing I really like about the PIP is when you swap between channels, it happens pretty much instantly; unlike when you do a channel recall which causes the delay while the PVR buffers the program. I just got mine about 3 weeks ago and have only seen one minor bug related to the time change. Everything else has been pretty smooth. One thing I should warn you about, the 721 does not yet have the interactive features (including instant weather) they just recently added to the 501. So if you like those, be aware that you will have to wait until Dish gets around to the appropriate upgrade. They claim it will be added, they just don't say when.

Other pluses . . .
1. Menu screens are overlayed on top of the current program, so you can still keep track of what your watching, unlike the 501 that takes you to a full screen, silent menu.
2. PVR timers put the current program in a PIP window, so again you can look at those but still see your current program.
3. Caller ID has Call history.
4. Programming guide shows 7 lines, vs. 5 lines for 501.

Other Negatives vs. 501 . . .
1. It doesn't show you unsubscribed channels when setting up your favorites, so you pretty much have to flip back to the programming guide, write down the ones you don't subscribe to before you set up your favorites.
2. You can't sort PVR timers, like you can with the 501 and they're grouped with already recorded programs.
3. My wife actually like the 501 guide better, says it's easier to read.

That's just a few. Some of the negatives I expect will be resolved with future software upgrades. My advice . . . get the 721, and hook the 501 up to another T.V. somewhere.

[dbronstein]

I've had a 721 for a few weeks now and the two tuners are awesome. However, I'm very disappointed with the software. I used ReplayTV for 2 years and the software on that was so much better. However, the two tuners makes up for the software deficiencies.

Dennis

[EvanS]

Let me toss in a few more plusses that the 721 has over the 501.
Had my 721 for 3 days now:
the guide is SUPER fast
When selecting a timer it tells you the NAME of the show to be recorded.
Pressing "select" or "record" when in the guide ALWAYS sets that show up for recording...unlike 501 wjich would kick back to live many times
Press record from program you're watching you get option of "stop at end of program", "manually stops recording" or "record for XX past end of show"

these are just some little day-to-day things that I see as huge improvements over the 501 interface.

[DarrellP]

Other Negatives vs. 501 . . .
1. It doesn't show you unsubscribed channels when setting up your favorites, so you pretty much have to flip back to the programming guide, write down the ones you don't subscribe to before you set up your favorites.
This is not true, any unsubbed channels on the 501 show up RED.

[dbronstein]

Originally posted by DarrellP
This is not true, any unsubbed channels on the 501 show up RED.

You misunderstood the original post - the 721 does not do this, thus it's a negative for it.

Dennis

[treiher]

Yes, that's what I meant. The 501 does do that, the 721 does not. Also, the 501 will auto-advance to the next channel after you check it to be included in the guide, the 721 does not so you have to advance it down manually. Small detail, but a little annoying. I bet they'll eventually get to that also.

[DarrellP]

DOH! I missed the vs. Sorry!

[cmaier]

One thing that bugs me on the 721: when you press the guide button repeatedly to cycle through favorites groups, it's not that easy to see where you are - the name of the group is in the same size text as everything else, and the screen background color doesn't change. I keep finding myself looking around to figure out where I am.

Also, vs. my other boxes (6000,4900), when you have a favorites group selected, and then you type in a channel number, it jumps to the nearest channel in that favorites group (instead of jumping to "all channels" if necessary).

Little things that take getting used to (i just activated my 721 today, so I'm still getting used to it :-)

Defintely don't like how all the already-recorded things are mixed in with the timers. Also don't like that the timer listings don't show the name of the show (you have to click oin the list to get to the other view of the list, then you can scroll to see them - seems not very friendly)

[treiher]

cmaier, the 721 also jumps to the nearest favorite channel when you select one that is not in the list, rather than jumping to All Channels. I know the 501 and 301 have this annoying little feature, but I was happy to see the 721 actually took care of that.

Agreed about the timers and recorded events being all mixed together. At the very least, we should be able to sort the events alphabetically.