# 3 tuners, but can only record/view 2 channels ?



## madbrain (Dec 10, 2004)

I got my 921 installed last monday. It's hooked to a DP34 switch and a ChannelMaster 4221 antenna for OTA .
I get about 40 digital channels OTA (don't subscribe to Dish locals).

I noticed that I can only record two shows at the same time. When I switch to a third channel, I get the dialog asking me to stop one of the recordings, because there aren't enough tuners.
It doesn't matter if the shows I'm recording are SD or HD. I can only record two, and I can only view one of the two shows I'm recording. I can either record two sat channels or one sat and one OTA .

Is this expected ? Why can't I use all 3 tuners at once ?


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## dturturro (Nov 24, 2004)

madbrain said:


> I got my 921 installed last monday. It's hooked to a DP34 switch and a ChannelMaster 4221 antenna for OTA .
> I get about 40 digital channels OTA (don't subscribe to Dish locals).
> 
> I noticed that I can only record two shows at the same time. When I switch to a third channel, I get the dialog asking me to stop one of the recordings, because there aren't enough tuners.
> ...


The hardware is such that only 2 streams can be recorded at once. However, you may watch a previously recorded program while recording 2 other streams.


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## echo*wb*tho (Jan 13, 2005)

only 2 tuners not 3 there is only 2 sat locations coming in not 3 so that is all you can do


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## dturturro (Nov 24, 2004)

echo*wb*tho said:


> only 2 tuners not 3 there is only 2 sat locations coming in not 3 so that is all you can do


Also has 1 OTA tuner for a total of 3.


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## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

The 921 has 3 tuners. 

1 OTA
2 Satellite

You can only use 2 of them for live viewing and or recording at any one time. You can be recording on 2 of the tuners and watch a pre-recorded program, either Satellite or OTA.

The next thing you'll wonder is why didn't they put 2 OTA tuners in it. Especially since in your case where you have lots of OTA to choose from.


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## madbrain (Dec 10, 2004)

dturturro,

I wish I had known that before I bought the 921 . Strange to have 3 tuners but not being able to use them all. You would think it should at least be possible to view a 3rd channel live, even if the machine/hard disk isn't fast enough to do 3 concurrent recordings, or 3 concurrent recordings + 1 playback .

Allen,

I'm aware of the 1 OTA tuner limitation of the 921 and think it's unfortunate. However, I have another OTA HD tuner, an SIR-T165, which is how I watched OTA HD before the 921, mostly live.
Even though I could record from the Samsung firewire onto my JVC 30k DVHS deck, the tapes run too short in HD (3.5 hrs at most) and changing them was a pain .
Perhaps I will keep that setup a little bit longer than anticipated in addition to the 921 ...


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## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

madbrain said:


> dturturro,
> 
> I wish I had known that before I bought the 921 . Strange to have 3 tuners but not being able to use them all. You would think it should at least be possible to view a 3rd channel live, even if the machine/hard disk isn't fast enough to do 3 concurrent recordings, or 3 concurrent recordings + 1 playback .


I belive the HD Tivo has the same limitation and it has 2 Sat and 2 OTA tuners. You can still only use 2 live streams at once.


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## dturturro (Nov 24, 2004)

Allen Noland said:


> I belive the HD Tivo has the same limitation and it has 2 Sat and 2 OTA tuners. You can still only use 2 live streams at once.


Correct!


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

madbrain said:


> dturturro,
> 
> I wish I had known that before I bought the 921 . Strange to have 3 tuners but not being able to use them all. You would think it should at least be possible to view a 3rd channel live, even if the machine/hard disk isn't fast enough to do 3 concurrent recordings, or 3 concurrent recordings + 1 playback .
> 
> ...


Not odd if you look at the Chipsets used. There are only two video paths from the tuners to the various devices.

Rumor, not confirmed by me, has the same chips used in the DirecTv receivers, so the same limitations.


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