[larrydj]

I'm considering jumping to the 721 from my DP. I have a Pronto that I use for my home theater control. The question I have is, does the 721 have "discrete" Power ON and Power OFF. That is, a command or sequence that will guarantee that power is ON (or OFF if you choose). A second question is this: If you are recording something, will send a IR Power OFF command kill the recording, or does it finish the recording?

 

[Big D]

First as a FYI, the 721 uses both IR and RF from the remote to the receiver. The power command is not discrete, it is the same signal for on as for off, it is just a toggle unfortunately. If the receiver is turned off via the remote, recording will continue as if the receiver was still on, it does not interrupt an on-going recording or disable a scheduled recording.

The 721 is going to be a great PVR, right now it has a few quirks, but I enjoy mind and understand it will take awhile to work out some of the bugs. Hope this helps.

 

[larrydj]

Thanks. Does anyone know of a "trick" to turn Power ON, regardless of the current state of the 721? For instance, on my 4000, I send the INFO command, and it will bring the INFO screen up, regardless if power was ON or OFF, so I could now build a macro for power control. So, Power ON= INFO + Power + Power, and Power OFF = INFO + Power. Is there a similar command for the 721, (Info, System, whatever), that always ends with the unit on?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The 721 is a weird bird, when its of, its not really off.

The other night I hit the power button on my remove to shut my TV off, I must have hit the power button for the 721 instead. A few hours later on the screen was a seeking satellite signal screen. This was showing even though the power to the 721 was off.

When the 721 is off you can press the Sys Info button and that screen will come up even with the power off.

 

[larrydj]

Thanks, Scott, I THINK you answered my question. So, by hitting Sys Info, does it actually power-on, or does it stay "off" while showing the screen? If it actually powers up, I can fake a Power ON or OFF command using Sys Info. So, Sys Info + Power, should turn the unit off, and Sys Info + Power + Power should always turn it on. I assume that if it gets these commands during a recording that it will not actually turn the power off, which is even better.

The whole reason I care about this, is that I want a simple ON or OFF for my entire entertainment system, through my Pronto. I don't have power discrete control for my DP, so I just keep it on, while turning everything off. But this keeps the disk drive spinning as it buffers whatever channel it was last on, shortening its life. In fact, I'm starting to run into some apparant disk drive problems now on my DP. The 721 is starting to sound much more attractive now.

 

[DmitriA]

Originally posted by larrydj
But this keeps the disk drive spinning as it buffers whatever channel it was last on, shortening its life.

This is very debatable and has long been the cause of long flame wars on forums/newsgroups and whatnot - what is better keep the HD on and spinning all the time or frequently turn it on/off. I don't think there is still much real empirical data to backup either claim

 

[Guest]

I have used the Sys Info + Power commands to fake a discrete power off command and the Sys Info + Power + Power commands to fake a discrete power on command (I also inserted 0.3 second delays between the commands) for use with my Marantz RC9200 remote for controlling both my PVR721 and my HD6000 satellite receivers. These fake commands work perfectly with the HD6000 receiver, however, I've only had limited success with the PVR721 (i.e. sometimes they work and sometimes they don't). It seems as though the problem lies with the delay time between commands which apparently need to be longer or shorter on different occasions. BTW, the Sys Info button doesn't even exist on the PVR721 remote. I was able to get it from my HD6000 remote. I would appreciate any feedback if you have had better success getting this trick to work with the PVR721.

I've contacted Dish Technical support and asked that discrete power commands be added to the software and was told that others have also requested them. I was also told that my request would be passed along for consideration (no promises).

 

[SParker]

I don't even see a sysinfo button on my 721 remote.

 

[larrydj]

bobl, if you are using the Sys Info command from the HD6000 to controll the power of the 721, how do you determine whether the IR command is for the 721 or HD6000, or are they in different rooms?

 

[Guest]

larrydj-my HD6000 and PVR721 are each set for a different remote address (15 different ones are possible). I simply set the HD6000's remote address to agree with that of the PVR721 and taught the Sys Info command to my Marantz RC9200 remote. I then changed it back so it's remote address is different from the PVR721's. This ensures that the commands sent to each of the receivers don't interfere with each other.

 

[larrydj]

bobl, Perfect! Makes sense to me. If I get a 721 I may end up asking you for your CCF to get the Sys Info command.