# Why not two DVR 522 receivers and other Dish Network questions.



## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi,

I'm wondering if the TV2 (UHF) remote from a model # 322 can be used as a second/extra TV2 (UHF) remote for the model # 522. Of course, there will be no PVR functions/buttons, but would you be able to do channel up/down, volume, power, etc.? I read that there's codes you enter or assign in the receiver's setup, but I wasn't sure if one would work on the other.

Thanks a lot!

*Old stuff below here.*

_Originally titled: Why not two DVR 522 receivers and other Dish Network questions._

Hi,

We were planning on signing up for Dish Network DHA but I'm not sure if I understand their offers correctly and was hoping someone could please help me.

What we want to do is have service on 3 different televisions (1 upstairs and 2 downstairs). On 2 of the TVs (1 upstairs and 1 downstairs) we wanted to have the DVR model # 522 receivers. We thought we could have 1 upstairs as a stand alone unit and have the other one downstairs providing for both downstairs TVs (since the model 522 is a dual tuner). Basically, the one upstairs would just be using one of its tuners.

But looking at the third paragraph at...

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/getDish/disclaimers/dishPVRplans/index.shtml

...I think they don't want more than one model 522 per home. I know it's written pretty clearly but I'm not sure I understand it. If I'm paying the extra monthly fee for DVR on *BOTH* of the receivers, do they still only allow one? If so, I don't think it makes any sense because why would they care? They would be getting the extra monthly fee *TWICE* (and isn't that good for them?  ).

Also I have a question about fees and rates if any existing Dish Network customers can help me. On the following page...

http://www.dishnetwork.com/popUps/getdish/promotions/DHP_price.shtml?section=programming

...they list a price of $44.99 for three TVs with the America's Top 120 Package. Does this include the $5 monthly rental fee per receiver or is that extra? Would we have to pay the $44.99 *PLUS* $5 (x3) for a total of $59.99 a month?

And am I correct when I assume that as long as the boxes are always plugged into the phone line we would not be responsible for the *EXTRA* $5 a month *PER* receiver for the phone programming.

Maybe a better way to ask it is like this. If we get the America's Top 120 with local channels and two DVR 522 receivers - for a total of three televisions, what would our total monthly bill be - fees, charges, and all?

I'm sorry about all the questions but the DirecTV site explains their fees much better than the Dish Network site and I'm having difficulty understanding it all. And I didn't want to call and have to give all my personal info and get pressured into signing up before I know what's what.

Thank you very, very much to anyone who can help. Thanks!


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## boba (May 23, 2003)

cc77 said:


> Hi,
> 
> We were planning on signing up for Dish Network DHA but I'm not sure if I understand their offers correctly and was hoping someone could please help me.
> 
> ...


You can have only 1 522 on a DHA but you could have a 510 with your 522 that would give you three tuners all being DVRs. With two DVRs you would pay $9.96 a month in DVR fees. If you don't have a telephone connected to the 522 you will pay $10 in mirroring fees. Your bill would be $39.99 +10+9.96=$59.95 plus any aplicabe taxes. Or if you have the 522 connected to a phoneline you save $5.
With DISH dual tuner receivers you must have both tuners connected to the dish, Directv TiVos can work with either 1 or 2 tuners connected.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

*With DISH dual tuner receivers you must have both tuners connected to the dish, Directv TiVos can work with either 1 or 2 tuners connected. 
*

Thats no longer true of the 721 I tried it once to confirm. but you cant record 2 shows at one time


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## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi,

Thank you both very much for your answers! If I could please ask a couple of quick follow-up questions:

boba, you said, "...but you could have a 510 with your 522 *that would give you three tuners all being DVRs.*"

Does that mean that one model 522 can record or pause TV on *BOTH* of the TVs that it's feeding? I thought that the DVR unit would have record/pause features for the main (or #1) TV and then just act as a plain tuner for the second TV. If I understand your post correctly, we would only need one DVR (model # 522) unit because we are only really interested with record/pause on two of the three TVs we have?

Also, in case I don't understand you correctly or we decide to have DVR on all three TVs, would they give/rent us a model #510 unit for the promotion or would we have to actually purchase that separately?

Thanks a million for all your help!


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## boba (May 23, 2003)

The way DISH has programmed the 522 it operates just as if it was two separate receivers. Tuner 1 operates just like a 510 and Tuner 2 operates like a 510 they share 1 hard drive so you can access recorded programming from either tuner. Yes you can rent a 510 on the DHA plan.


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## Hall (Mar 4, 2004)

cc77 said:


> Does that mean that one model 522 can record or pause TV on *BOTH* of the TVs that it's feeding? I thought that the DVR unit would have record/pause features for the main (or #1) TV and then just act as a plain tuner for the second TV.


 You can record on TV1 and TV2 at the same time with a 522; you can record on TV1 and play back something pre-recorded on TV1 *or* TV2 at the same time.

I was going to suggest you ordering a 4-room system (a 1-2 costs the same while a 3-4 costs the same) and specifying DVR for all rooms. From what boba said though, they may simply not allow it. If you ordered (4) rooms, you'd likely get a 522 (dual-tuner and DVR) and a 322 (dual-tuner). They're trying to use as few units as possible.


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## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

Thank you both very, very, very much! I understand everything now...I think!:lol: I'm going to go ahead and order today or tomorrow and I'm sure I'll be back soon to bother you guys once I run into problems operating the system.  Thanks again!


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## Peluso (Sep 11, 2002)

cc77 said:


> ...I think they don't want more than one model 522 per home. I know it's written pretty clearly but I'm not sure I understand it. If I'm paying the extra monthly fee for DVR on *BOTH* of the receivers, do they still only allow one? If so, I don't think it makes any sense because why would they care? They would be getting the extra monthly fee *TWICE* (and isn't that good for them?  ).


You have to look at the total cost of subscriber acquisition. 522 costs much more than a 322 for dish, and they want to keep the costs of starting you up as low as possible. They also want to get DVR's into as many hands as possible as dish knows that DVR's and HD receivers are significant factors in acquiring a low churn customer. If you get a second 522 that's one person who won't get a DVR. Dish recognizes that their is a need for a separate DVR in multiple rooms, hence the 544 product that is in development. But you have a long while to go before that is available so they are keeping the new customers limited to a single DVR per household.

I don't mind this philosophy, except that Dish won't allow the 522 receivers to be used on anything except DHA (The Dish equipment rental program) They won't sell a customer the equipment so even if you wanted to pay extra for the second 522 you still can't use it.

It's my guess that as soon as their is no issue with 522 availability, you'll see a migration of the product to the Free Dish offer. I also think that will signal an end to the 510 as their are simply too many receivers right now so we'll see an internal Dish imitative to shrink the different products in the product line.


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## Mainstreet (Jun 29, 2002)

cc77 said:


> Thank you both very, very, very much! I understand everything now...I think!:lol: I'm going to go ahead and order today or tomorrow and I'm sure I'll be back soon to bother you guys once I run into problems operating the system.  Thanks again!


How many people are in your house watching TV at the same time? Have you considered splitting the signal on two of the TV's so that they watch the same thing? If you did that, you could actually get away with having only one receiver (522). You would only have to pay for your package plus the $4.98 VOD fee. The TV2 and TV1 signal can even be combined on the signal going to the two other rooms to where that you could choose to watch either tuner in the secondary rooms. Since TV1 now also works with the UHF PRO remote, you could change the channel on either tuner from any room in the house. You would just need to buy another remote for the third TV, and swap out the TV1 remote for a UHF PRO TV2/TV1 remote.

Where do you plan on ordering? Make sure that you order it from somewhere that will send a knowledgeable installer, as the X22 series can be a bit more complex to hook up. A corporate 800 number may not be your best bet. You may want local service down the road, and won't want to have to wait for someone to be sent out by someone in a call center 1000 miles away. 

Good luck!


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## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi Peluso,

Thank you for your post. I see what you're saying - they're just trying to save money...I am too, he he :lol: 

Hi Mainstreet,

Thank you for your post and trying to figure a way to save me some cash/trouble. I'm actually gonna hold off on ordering and think about some of the configurations you mentioned. The upstairs and one of the downstairs TVs are ALWAYS watching two different things at the same time. The third TV (in the kitchen) is on quite a bit - we just need to think if it's on enough (and watching something different) to merit it having its own box. A few (more) quick questions if you don't mind, please: 

About the ordering/install, we were just going to order directly from Dish and let them send whoever. We're in Chicago, can you recommend someone else who's good and honest in our area?

Do you know how much the extra remotes that you mentioned might cost?

And finally, does anyone know if they still rent DVR models for the DHA plan that do not cost the extra $5 a month fee. I've seen messages where people said the model # 508 (and maybe some others too) do not have the extra monthly V-O-D fee. If we do decide on getting the second box for the kitchen maybe we could order one of these. boba mentioned above that they would rent a model # 510, but that one does have the extra $5 fee (I believe). Not to sound cheap, but we've already been getting raped on cable TV and cable internet for years, so it would be really nice to finally save some money.

Thanks again, very much, to all you nice people for your help. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't find this place. I guess I'd just be at their mercy. :crying_sa


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## Mainstreet (Jun 29, 2002)

cc77 said:


> About the ordering/install, we were just going to order directly from Dish and let them send whoever. We're in Chicago, can you recommend someone else who's good and honest in our area?


I have contacted a couple of good retailers that are not too far from there. I will let you know if they can help you.



> Do you know how much the extra remotes that you mentioned might cost?


MSRP is $40, but you will need to find out what your retailer sells them for.



> And finally, does anyone know if they still rent DVR models for the DHA plan that do not cost the extra $5 a month fee. I've seen messages where people said the model # 508 (and maybe some others too) do not have the extra monthly V-O-D fee. If we do decide on getting the second box for the kitchen maybe we could order one of these. boba mentioned above that they would rent a model # 510, but that one does have the extra $5 fee (I believe).


The only DVR models that are available for lease on the DHA plan are the 522 and 510. Both have the VOD fee. That is the reason for the reduced cost of the hardware. Your only option for not paying the VOD fee would be to either subscribe to the America's Everything Pak, or to purchase a remanufactured 501 or 508 for $150. But, if you think about it, it would take you almost 3 years to come out ahead by buying the receiver.


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## amit5roy5 (Mar 4, 2004)

Everything is included.


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## Mainstreet (Jun 29, 2002)

amit5roy5 said:


> Everything is included.


Please elaborate on what you are referring to.

With a 522, only two remotes are included. The first one is IR only. That one would have to be swapped out, and the third TV would require a remote, which is not included with a one receiver X22 install. The customer would have to pay for that.

Again, what exactly did you mean?


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## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi Mainstreet,

Thank you again for all the great info!

Please let me know if you get a response from anyone in Chicago that does good work and is trustworthy.

Does anyone know how long it usually takes to go from order to install? I'm sure it varies, but a ballpark idea would be great.

amit5roy5,

Was your post in response to one of my questions or did you post in the wrong thread accidentally?


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## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi,

I'm wondering if the TV2 (UHF) remote from a model # 322 can be used as a second/extra TV2 (UHF) remote for the model # 522. Of course, there will be no PVR functions/buttons, but would you be able to do channel up/down, volume, power, etc.? I read that there's codes you enter or assign in the receiver's setup, but I wasn't sure if one would work on the other.

Thanks a lot!


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## Mainstreet (Jun 29, 2002)

cc77 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm wondering if the TV2 (UHF) remote from a model # 322 can be used as a second/extra TV2 (UHF) remote for the model # 522. Of course, there will be no PVR functions/buttons, but would you be able to do channel up/down, volume, power, etc.? I read that there's codes you enter or assign in the receiver's setup, but I wasn't sure if one would work on the other.
> 
> Thanks a lot!


Absolutely! They are exactly the same price to purchase, too. The 322 remote uses UHF-PRO frequencies, so it works like a charm. The only reason I could see doing this would be if you wanted a simpler remote where someone would not want to use the added functionality of the DVR.

And actually, you should be able to program the code '222' into the VCR mode of the 322 TV2 remote, and be able to use the DVR functions on the 522 in VCR mode.

The only other thing you have to program is the remote address. For example, if you program the receiver to listen for remote address '5', then you would program that address into the remote in SAT mode.


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## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi Mainstreet,

Once again, you've got the answer to every possible stupid question I can think up! :lol: 

I got the system installed over the weekend and so far everything seems to be working great. Thank you so much for all your help!


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## kwajr (Apr 7, 2004)

cc77 said:


> Hi Mainstreet,
> 
> Thank you again for all the great info!
> 
> ...


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## Mainstreet (Jun 29, 2002)

cc77 said:


> Hi Mainstreet,
> 
> Once again, you've got the answer to every possible stupid question I can think up! :lol:
> 
> I got the system installed over the weekend and so far everything seems to be working great. Thank you so much for all your help!


Do you mind telling us how your system is actually configured now, and who installed it? Any problems with the install?


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## cc77 (Apr 6, 2004)

kwajr,

Thank you for the info. My order took just a little longer. About 5 days from order to install.

Mainstreet,

I just posted a detailed reply to another user, chronicling my adventure of getting Dish installed. It's kind of long and a little ranting so instead of retyping, I'll just post the link here.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?postid=227226#post227226


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