[ronnald]

For years, I've been using an Xbox360 connected to Media Center 2005 as my DVR (actually two Xbox's, one in the living room one in the bedroom). Overall I liked it to a degree, but it was very unrealiable. Rently my dual tuner card quit on me so I'm thining of scrapping the Media Center setup. Right now I just have analog cable, but have been seriously thinking of getting Dish Network. I believe I can get the single 722 DVR and have it work in two different locations? Is this correct? How good is that setup? Does DirectTV have something similar?

Also how good is the 722 DVR? Also say compared to Media Center? Can I had an external drive? With my Media Center I had a terrabyte of drive space. Can I select what quality to record in? How is the programming guide? Last but not least, is it user friendly?

 

[phrelin]

:welcome_s
Well Cnet editors think it's the best DVR available right now (see here) and I agree.

With that said, it's a dedicated DVR that can only be used with Dish Network. You can add an External Hard Drive but it is formatted by Dish's system and you can only move recordings to it and from it to any ViP DVR on your account. To record anything on any other device requires real time recording of the TV audio/video signal coming from the box.

You can record in HD or SD as it is fed by Dish to the ViP722.

A 722 has two satellite signal tuners and an off-the-air digital signal tuner. If you are fortunate enough to get off-the-air you can record three shows at the same time whileh watching other recordings. It also has one group of HD outputs and one group of SD outputs, usually referred to as TV1 and TV2. You can feed two HD TV's from the HD outputs, but only by using HDMI for one and component/optical for the other, and both will be the same show. If you want to watch two different things, one is going to be from TV1 in HD the other from TV2 in SD.

There are a myriad of combinations possible, so it depends on what you want to do. Even though it does hook up to your network, it does so only to get to the internet so that you can access content available through Dish. You cannot access the content on the DVR from your network.

But no DVR from any satellite or cable company is a "Media Center." Even the well-advertised TiVo has its limits and problems.

Browse around here from awhile. Remember, generally what you see here are alot of problems which doesn't reflect the satisfied customers.

Generally, satellite is a better source than cable for TV and I think that applies to Comcast's Sacramento area systems. Dish has the best DVR and that is particularly true if you can get off-the-air digital signals. DirecTV generally is said to have better sports packages but I don't know about that. There is so much hype and spin you have to spend time figuring out what will really be best for you.

Hope that gives you a start.

 

[DishSatUser]

:welcome_s
Well Cnet editors think it's the best DVR available right now (see here) and I agree.

+1!

And that's from a previous DirecTV customer when I provide my opinion. Huge difference in stability and performance.

 

[ronnald]

Thanks phrelin! Generally the wife and I watch almost everything from the DVR, rarely do we watch live tv, so a good dvr is essential. Plus like I stated, I'm use to using Media Center were I have access to all the programs and can copy them to another computer and watch shows at my friends house. But with Vista and cable cards, Mircrosoft is clamping down on that with more DRM. So I can't see any reason using Vista Media Center over a dedicated DVR.

Watching TV1 in HD and TV2 in SD will be fine. Most of the stuff the wife and I watch are sitcom reruns, and when recorded in Media Center, I usually just used the lowest bitrate setting. PQ isn't a huge priority for us.

We can either get Comcast or Surewest, but I'm almost certain the DishTV DVR is better then either of them, that's why I'm leaning towards Dish, although i also want to get high speed internet. I'm on dialup right now. I don't think I can get that from Dish, or if so, it's probably more expensive then DSL.

 

[ronnald]

Forgot to ask an important question. Does it have the 30 second skip? Not a FF but a real skip?

 

[jclewter79]

Forgot to ask an important question. Does it have the 30 second skip? Not a FF but a real skip?

Yes, it does have a dedicated skip foward and skip back button.

 

[jkane]

If DRM is an issue, you won't like any DVR that Dish or any other provider makes. They all implement it in a very draconian way. You can have all the recordings you want as long as it never leaves that box to go somewhere else. You can not copy them to another device, and no direct DVD recordings. You can obviously play a video to a DVD recorder, but not copy the digital form and then burn from binary code.

That said, the 722 is very easy to use, and my family has been generally happy with it.

 

[bobukcat]

If DRM is an issue, you won't like any DVR that Dish or any other provider makes. They all implement it in a very draconian way. You can have all the recordings you want as long as it never leaves that box to go somewhere else. You can not copy them to another device, and no direct DVD recordings. You can obviously play a video to a DVD recorder, but not copy the digital form and then burn from binary code.

That said, the 722 is very easy to use, and my family has been generally happy with it.

You can move the external hard drives between all ViP series DVRs on your account as Phrelin stated (there is still a limit of 4 times I think but supposedly that will be eliminated in the future).

 

[ronnald]

If I have an external drive on the "main" DVR, will the "extender" DVR also see the arhived programs, if I get the two TV setup?

 

[CorpITGuy]

If I could export to my iPhone or iPod, it would be PERFECT. But yes, it's the best there is.

 

[Bradtothebone]

If I have an external drive on the "main" DVR, will the "extender" DVR also see the arhived programs, if I get the two TV setup?

Not sure what you're asking here - there is only one DVR for a "two TV setup." The second TV only has a UHF remote that controls the "TV2" output on the 722. But, yes, you can watch anything you have recorded (on either the internal or external hard drives) on TV2. And :welcome_s

Brad

 

[jkane]

I have access to all the programs and can copy them to another computer and watch shows at my friends house.

Sorry for the confusion. I was trying to make sure he understood that he can't do the quote above with a 722.

 

[phrelin]

I hope it is clear. The ViP722 is not going to be another computer on your network. But you can move programs between ViP DVRs using an external hard drive. And just so it's clearer, the file is moved, it's not a backup with the original remaining on the DVR it was recorded on. And its my understanding that with the hex code user account encoding system for EHD's, the drives can be moved as many times as you want.

 

[Paul Secic]

For years, I've been using an Xbox360 connected to Media Center 2005 as my DVR (actually two Xbox's, one in the living room one in the bedroom). Overall I liked it to a degree, but it was very unrealiable. Rently my dual tuner card quit on me so I'm thining of scrapping the Media Center setup. Right now I just have analog cable, but have been seriously thinking of getting Dish Network. I believe I can get the single 722 DVR and have it work in two different locations? Is this correct? How good is that setup? Does DirectTV have something similar?

Also how good is the 722 DVR? Also say compared to Media Center? Can I had an external drive? With my Media Center I had a terrabyte of drive space. Can I select what quality to record in? How is the programming guide? Last but not least, is it user friendly?

I've got a 622 which has a smaller hard drive, but they're the same receiver. It's rock solid. I love it!