# Reliability of 612 vs 722k dvr's?



## IDRick (Feb 16, 2007)

My wife and I are considering the switch from cable to Dish. We're looking at using two HD dvr's. We have OTA signals available via antenna and with Dish. My wife is not interested in being able to record both OTA and Dish locals. A 612 would probably work best in her main tv watching location. The 722k is more to my liking and would be preferred for the second tv viewing location. Based on the official Dish site, there is no difference between 2-612 dvrs versus 1-612 and 1-722k as far as initial startup fees or monthly lease fees. In contrast, two 722's would increase our monthly fees by $7.

However, from my reading on line, there sure seems to be many complaints about the 612. Am I misreading things? Is it preferrable to go with 2-722's to avoid hassles? Are the problems sufficiently large to justify spending $84 per year for 2-722's? My wife watches more tv than I do so it is imperative that her dvr be reliable. She's a bit reluctant to move away from her cableco dvr which has been essentially problem free for four years.

Thanks!


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I would start from 612+722 combo, later getting experience with reliability and usability and would decide if I'd like to swap 612 to 722.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

I have a722 and a 612. Both work ok with one reservation.

With the 612 I have found that when two HD programs are recording and I'm watching one already recorded skipping commercials, I get more minor glitches in the recording programs. Others swear their 612's work fine. And the last software release for the 612 seemed to resolve a lot of problems people complained about. Also, you should know that you can't do PIP on a 612.

You'll find plenty of complaints here about problems with the 722. Mine works fine, but the first one they sent me didn't, the second one was great but I sent it to Dish Engineering because they were trying to solve a problem in our area locals, but before I sent it I tested out the third one which failed out of the box (they warned me to make sure it worked), so this one is my fourth - 2 out 4 worked.

I don't get an off-the-air signal, so if OTA is possible for you others may need to chime in. And if you do get OTA you should be getting a 722k with the optional two tuner OTA module.

And don't get me wrong, I think all of the ViP DVR's are an engineering marvel.


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## inazsully (Oct 3, 2006)

I am confused as to why your wife would not like the option of recording off air channels. This option uses a tuner dedicated to off air recording only. You could record CBS off your antenna, and TNT and say HBO all at the same time. It's a great feature.


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## IDRick (Feb 16, 2007)

inazsully said:


> I am confused as to why your wife would not like the option of recording off air channels. This option uses a tuner dedicated to off air recording only. You could record CBS off your antenna, and TNT and say HBO all at the same time. It's a great feature.


I've asked a couple times and she said not interested in OTA. She's mostly concerned with filling the dvr HDD up too quickly. I did explain that Dish allows an external drive so disk space should not be concern but... :whatdidid She's a power dvr user, I'm not sure if I want her to record with 4 tuners though! :lol:


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

IDRick said:


> I've asked a couple times and she said not interested in OTA. She's mostly concerned with filling the dvr HDD up too quickly. I did explain that Dish allows an external drive so disk space should not be concern but... :whatdidid She's a power dvr user, I'm not sure if I want her to record with 4 tuners though! :lol:


If money is tight, the 612 will work ok. But as someone has both a 722(no k) and a 612, if my wife were a power user and budget issues weren't significant I'd get the two 722k with the modules. She's going to see that the 722k has a nice big internal drive and while I have 5 EHD's they do require some management, don't use custom folders, etc.


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## IDRick (Feb 16, 2007)

Thanks Phrelin, good points! She does work with computers but likes to be assisted when doing things out of the ordinary like HDD management. While we have OTA, we really don't watch much network tv. The antenna was primarily to capture HD OTA directly to the computer. In our case, the old 722 with 1 OTA tuner would be perfect for each dvr. Are they still available or were there significant improvements with the move to 722k?

P Smith's comments are very good. Start up fees are less with a 612 and 722k. Assuming we got good ones, we'd be good to go... We recognize that we've been fortunate that our Motorola boxes have worked so well. Many didn't and there is a risk when changing out equipment and learning new GUI.

Thanks guys!


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

You're likely going to be charged the same for a 722 as a 722k except for the module. The EHD management is no big deal for someone who uses computers regularly. I was just observing possible issues. I don't like to give away money and my 612 is fine. Assuming you get one that's working properly and she doesn't do PIP, the 722k and 612 sounds like a good plan to me.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

The 612 is junk. Don't get it, you'll be disappointed. I had one and had nothing but trouble. My son just put one in to try to avoid the higher fees, and he has had the same problems I had with it. 

If your wife is a power DVR user, I guarantee she won't be happy. It may be OK if you don't expect it to do multiple operations, i.e. record two shows and watch another, but if you push it to the limit, you will have problems. My 722 installed in the same place with the same cables has been flawless.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Rotryrkt said:


> The 612 is junk. Don't get it, you'll be disappointed. I had one and had nothing but trouble. My son just put one in to try to avoid the higher fees, and he has had the same problems I had with it.
> 
> If your wife is a power DVR user, I guarantee she won't be happy. It may be OK if you don't expect it to do multiple operations, i.e. record two shows and watch another, but if you push it to the limit, you will have problems. My 722 installed in the same place with the same cables has been flawless.


Oh yeah, I forgot about that warning I gave earlier.


phrelin said:


> I have a722 and a 612. Both work ok with one reservation.
> 
> With the 612 I have found that when two HD programs are recording and I'm watching one already recorded skipping commercials, I get more minor glitches in the recording programs. Others swear their 612's work fine. And the last software release for the 612 seemed to resolve a lot of problems people complained about


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

The 612 is fine as long as you don't use the OTA tuner. If you do you won't get half the channels and you will get a endless loop of acquiring signal when you chance channels between OTA and the satellite channels forcing you to do a reboot. I have my OTA antenna hooked up directly to my TV.


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

Also don't let the 30 hours of HD content scare you on the 612. You can fit way more than 30 hours of HD content. I recorded over 15 hours of HD content and I only use 8 hours of space.


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## peano (Feb 1, 2004)

Rotryrkt said:


> The 612 is junk. Don't get it, you'll be disappointed. I had one and had nothing but trouble. My son just put one in to try to avoid the higher fees, and he has had the same problems I had with it.


Please explain why it is junk.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

peano said:


> Please explain why it is junk.


3 to 5 freeze-ups per day, lousy OTA tuner, spontaneous reboots, black screen of death, pink screen of death, green screen of death, slow response to commands, audio dropouts, video dropouts, skipped timers, timed recordings in 4 or 5 pieces due to freezes during recordings. Let's see now, yeah, I think that's enough stuff wrong to classify it as JUNK!!!!!


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## papayazz (Mar 26, 2007)

my 622 has been freezing on me. some days it does it 2 or 3 times,then runs fine for a few days and then does it again. I'm trying to watch all our taped show before trading it in. My question is how do I get an upgrade to the 722 without the extra cost. It will cost me $15.00 to ship the 622. I have the everything pack plus all the HD channels and have been a customer for over 10 years and am generally happy with their service. Any thoughts????


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

The OTA tuner is known to be a problem for some 612 users with certain signal situations. But there are a lot of us out here using the 612 without serious problems. And most swear they have no problems.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Rotryrkt said:


> 3 to 5 freeze-ups per day, lousy OTA tuner, spontaneous reboots, black screen of death, pink screen of death, green screen of death, slow response to commands, audio dropouts, video dropouts, skipped timers, timed recordings in 4 or 5 pieces due to freezes during recordings. Let's see now, yeah, I think that's enough stuff wrong to classify it as JUNK!!!!!


Then please explain how I have a pair of 612's that perform *almost* flawlessly. I switched to HD about 14 months ago. In that time, I did have to replace a 612 that failed - and Dish was extremely good about it. I had my replacement unit within 48 hours of my phone call.

I can say that I've had two freeze-ups in the last 6 months. (The last one being this past Thursday)

If you have 5 per day, you should get Dish to replace the unit. You *clearly* have a malfunctioning unit.


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

My 612 is fine too as long as I don't use the OTA tuner.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

I have a leased 622, a leased 612 along with a 522 that dish gave me to replace a Dishplayer and 721 that had to be replaced in the card swap.

Knock wood. They all lost signal for a while due to snow build up on the dish last week here in NJ. They all came back with no fiddling needed.

The only complaint on the 612 is a need to go slower on the 30 second skip. Along with a very brief stutter in the audio after some skips. The main problem with it is a user problem where I have to go fix a timer that got set to all instead of one time or new.

I grabbed the 612 since it was cheaper at the time.


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

Mine skips sometimes when watching HD content delayed or recorded. Not so much now because it is cold outside and warm in my room. When it is hot and humid in the summer with just a fan in the window it does it more.


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## Rduce (May 16, 2008)

I replaced a 211 in my bedroom with a 612 and was very frustrated with it compared to my 722. Too many hiccups for my liking and usually had tech support on the line at least once a week about some problem or another.

They finally just offered me a free upgrade to another 722 after 4 months and I am a happy camper, I would not recommend a 612. The tech that brought out the 722 admitted he replaces nearly every 612 with a 722 and used the word junk to describe the unit.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Dish Network's version of the Celeron or Semperon processor.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

reddice said:


> My 612 is fine too as long as I don't use the OTA tuner.


OTA tuner is a requirement as I live in a DMA not served by locals. I reactivated the 612 last weekend to give it one more chance since I hadn't tried it since the L606 update. It is somewhat improved but still locks up and spontaneously reboots 1 to 3 times per day. I plan to insist on a replacement, and if that one still has problems, try to get them to give me the 622 for $10 per month since I don't use or need the TV2 outlet on that box. If I don't need a "duo" receiver, I don't feel I should have to pay an extra $7/month just because their "solo" box is unusable.


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## peano (Feb 1, 2004)

Your 612 is defective.

I have read many threads about the 612s and there are less than a dozen posters with problems. Mine works perfectly with or without OTA connected.


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

Yesterday my 612 froze completely when I tried to watch something recorded. Had to do a reboot. It never did that before and I hope that it is not a problem in the future. The only change is that I am now on the Eastern Arc.


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## reddice (Feb 18, 2003)

Maybe they should release a new receiver called the 712k with the space and reliability of the 722k but it is used with one tv.


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## Rotryrkt (Dec 11, 2004)

reddice said:


> Maybe they should release a new receiver called the 712k with the space and reliability of the 722k but it is used with one tv.


Amen!

I got them to give me a $7/month credit for 6 months for the 622. I'll see what happens after that. The 922 would be great if it will do HD to multiple TV's.

I've always wondered why they couldn't just put an ATSC modulator in an HD box and do a multi-room distribution system that way. Seems to me to be a simple HD multi-room solution. Someone with more technical expertise than me please chime in on this. Is this not a practical and easy HD multi-room solution? It would distribute an HD signal throughout the house over regular coax just as I do now with an NTSC analog signal would it not?


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Have you priced ATSC modulators?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

License fee for those ATSC modulators set prohibitive price bar for us, regular customers.


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## am7crew (Jun 6, 2009)

I have 2 612's, a 622, and a 722k and all have been rock solid reliable. Hope that helps.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

am7crew said:


> I have 2 612's, a 622, and a 722k and all have been rock solid reliable. *Hope that helps.*


How ?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

P Smith said:


> am7crew said:
> 
> 
> > I have 2 612's, a 622, and a 722k and all have been rock solid reliable. Hope that helps.
> ...


It helps address the original post and subject of the thread.

As for the off subject topic of ATSC modulators, IMHO you won't see those on the American general market at an affordable price until someone figures out how to protect the content from unauthorized recording.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

So what is root case of such unaffordable price ?


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