[littlelibo]

I am getting ready to switch to Dish Network and I am definitely going with a 622. I also think we may want a second DVR in case we are using all the tuners, but want to watch or record in a third room (i know... we watch a great deal of tv).

Currently, I am with Time Warner (awful) and I have a dual tuner HD DVR and a replaytv running from a media closet and being distributed to my HDTV via HDMI and the whole rest of the house though rf modulators. This setup gives me the ability to record three things at once and I still run into the occasional conflict. More importantly, I also run standard cable to each room giving the viewer the ability to either watch one of the dvr's or simply watch basic cable when the dvr's are busy.

I am concerned if I only have the 622, I will get most of my recordings, but my ability to channel surf in other rooms will be limited when these recordings are occurring. I do not want to have to get a separate box for each room as that could get expensive (I have 5 tv's). My thought is that if I got the 622 and another DVR with multi-room viewing totaling 5 tuners and 4 tv outputs, my problems would be mostly solved. My questions are:

1. Will this work?
2. Which DVR is best for a second unit?
3. If I keep both units together in my media closet using IR repeaters, will the remote controls conflict? Both IR and UHF? For instance Tivo lets you specify a certain remote number for each unit.
4. What will my charges be for the second unit? Will I have to pay both an additional unit fee and another DVR fee?

Hope this makes sense....

 

[Rob Glasser]

Welcome to DBSTalk, hopefully this will help you.

1. Will this work?

I believe this will work for you. I do a similar thing with my 622 and 721. I take the RF Outs from each receiver and combine them and distribute them to the rest of the house, 622 TV1, 622 TV2, and the 721 all output on different channels (i.e. 3 different shows via RF at any given time. IF you were to buy an additional 622 this could be 4 shows at once via RF. I don't think you can watch TV1 and TV2 at the same time on different channels via RF on a 522 or 625, but I may be mistaken. I think that is a feature of the new agile RF modulator in the 622.

2. Which DVR is best for a second unit?

Depends on how many tuners you want and if you want HD on it or not.

3. If I keep both units together in my media closet using IR repeaters, will the remote controls conflict? Both IR and UHF? For instance Tivo lets you specify a certain remote number for each unit.

As long as you set each to a unique remote address they will not conflict. If you aren't using a universal remote you don't even need IR repeaters since they come with UHF remotes.

4. What will my charges be for the second unit? Will I have to pay both an additional unit fee and another DVR fee?

Depending on the receiver your looking at either $5 or $6 a month for a lease fee or additional receiver fee (if purchased). On top of that if you don't have the Everything Pak or the PlatinumHD pack you'll probably have to pay a $5 DVR fee, if you end up getting an old 721 or 501/508 you won't have this fee, however you'd have to find one used as I don't believe you can get them from Dish anymore.

 

[littlelibo]

Thank you for the reply... It sounds like a second 622 would be ideal, but I fear that it would be quite expensive. I also heard that dish network is not willing to sell/lease 2 622's. Is this true?

 

[CABill]

The media closet will need a phone connection to avoid a $5 fee on the 622. I'm not clear on your RF modulators, but I assume you are taking RCA composite from the TW box plus the cable company coax to insert TW onto the coax to the remote rooms. You could do the same with the 622. It does have TV1 and TV2 with a builtin agile modulator, but if you configure it to generate Cable instead of OTA, you need there to not be a cable signal present to use a regular combiner/splitter to merge with cable company coax. RF modulators often have bandstop - bandpass where they "notch out" channel XX from cable to insert that channel from the RCA jack signal. To use the agile modulator on the 622 directly, you'd need something that blocked all cable channels above XX to insert the home distribution coax on the same cable that goes to the remote rooms.

Any DISH DVR could be used as an extra tuner(s) to pick what replay had been doing (it doesn't get used in the new setup - right?). The older DVRs that don't have the $5.98 DVR fee don't have agile modulators (just Ch 3/4 and are mono only), but if you continue to use the existing modulator, that wouldn't matter.

A used 508 is limited to 60 hours and you'd pay a $5/month additional receiver fee, but 6.2 or 6.3 UHF Pro remotes can control the 622's TV2 when you push the Sat button and the 508 when you push the Aux button. You might need more of those remotes unless you want to carry it from room to room.

A 625 has more recording time, two outputs, a $5.98 DVR fee, an agile modulator for TV2 output (TV1 is 3/4 coax), and controlled via UHF Pro remote. That last will mean that the remote room needs two remotes to control the 622 and 625, or when you want to switch from one to the other, you change the Sat mode to be address 2 or address 5 (just examples) for which receiver you want to control. Controlling TV1 of the 622 remotely would be a similar tradeoff, but is a little more complicated than just changing Sat mode from one address to another if you share the remote. You mentioned IR repeaters for the remotes. Those would work to control the 622's TV1, but its TV2 is UHF only. I think the 625's TV2 is UHF only as well. Their TV1's are normally IR, but can do both IR and UHF Pro at the same time.

You can purchase a 622 for the 2nd one. Some people have managed to lease a 2nd 622 - but not part of the initial order. AFTER the 1st gets installed and some time has elapesed, you MIGHT be able to lease the 2nd as an existing customer. Grey area where many have NOT been able to get a 2nd.