# 922 1TB is actually 500G to use



## garygaryj

Just became a Dish customer yesterday with a new VIP 922, and although they advertise a 1 TB hard drive and all about largest DVR hard drive in the industry, what they do is reserve a little more than half of the 1024 GIG's (1TB) for Dish to download 1080p PPV and 3D programs, and you only get 500 gigs to record your own programs.

I'm disappointed by this. What are the reactions of others? Any success on calling Dish about this?


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## 356B

It is what it is, It's more than the 622 had, it's more than the 722K has. Most here and elsewhere if needed by a EHD, I personally use a WD 1 tig, but bigger ones are available. If the 922 dies I have my stuff. Call it insurance, lack of confidence in the receiver, whatever.


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## P Smith

The fact is mentioned a few times long time ago ...


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## RasputinAXP

"yeah, so"?

That's about my reaction to it. I love my 922.


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## Stewart Vernon

We have known this from the beginning... in part since Dish themselves pointed it out before releasing the 922.

Many of us have wished we had the option to disable or reduce that space-reservation and have more for our use...

BUT... now that Dish has made external hard drive add-ons a free feature... it really has become a non-issue since you can buy a cheap external hard drive or two and use to your heart's content.


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## garygaryj

Interesting reactions. Well, as I said - I'm new to Dish, new to the Dish Forums, and new to the 922.

I didn't uncover this fact that we actually got to only use 1/2 of the 1 TB hard drive anywhere on the Dish site, nor did I really find it anywhere in the 922 support forum until now. Perhaps old news, but new to me.

Thanks, though.


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## pdxtom

I switched over from DirecTV about 6 months ago and went from their HD DVR to the ViP922;
I have never come close to filling up the drive.
At any given time I may have a couple dozen TV shows and 2 or 3 movies on the drive (all in HD) and the usage typically hovers around 25% of capacity.

I'm very happy with the unit.

Just thought I'd share.


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## garygaryj

Thanks Tom, and thanks everyone.

I'm sure I will like the 922 as well. I have already found several things to appreciate. Is there a single place I can go where someone has gathered the various "shortcuts" that one can take? For instance, looking for a shortcut way to turn on/off the CC.

I was just questioning the difference in the advertised 1TB with the actual amount of room one can use. I think my concern is with Dish's website info, rather than the equipment itself.


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## brucegrr

I love the 922. I have a EHD hooked to it. 

That said, I do think Dish should make it very clear that the 922 hard drive capacity for user recorded programming is less than what is advertised. Yes, the "truth" can be found out on this forum but most Dish customers do not frequent these forums and customers should not have to go hunting for information that should be easily available on Dish's site or advertising materials.


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## l8er

IIRC, Dish reserves half the hard drive space on all their DVRs - no matter the drive size. So the older DVRs with a 500 GB hard drive only had 250 GB usable by the subscriber.

What I don't get - there's an option in the menus under Record Plus that looks like you can record to external hard drives. But as far as I know, that's not possible - you can transfer recorded shows to and from an external drive, but not record directly to the EHD.


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## n0qcu

l8er said:


> What I don't get - there's an option in the menus under Record Plus that looks like you can record to external hard drives.


That is for recording to an external *recorder* like the pocket dish. When the timer fires it sends the record command and program info to the device over the composite (and possibly the s-video cable).


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## Stewart Vernon

Yes... other Dish receivers had the ability to record to an external device if you had one... all it really ends up being, though, is the equivalent of setting an auto-tune timer (instead of a DVR recording timer) and then your external DVD-recorder or Pocket-Dish device would handle the recording functions.

The 922 interface is a little different... and sort-of implies that there was some thought of actually supporting the ability to record directly to an external archive drive... but I've seen/heard no hints of this actually being an explored feature.


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## SeaBeagle

"garygaryj" said:


> Just became a Dish customer yesterday with a new VIP 922, and although they advertise a 1 TB hard drive and all about largest DVR hard drive in the industry, what they do is reserve a little more than half of the 1024 GIG's (1TB) for Dish to download 1080p PPV and 3D programs, and you only get 500 gigs to record your own programs.
> 
> I'm disappointed by this. What are the reactions of others? Any success on calling Dish about this?


I just hooked up my 500gb hard drive after formatting I had like 498 GB left for recording. This is a Western Digital 500GB My Book.


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## P Smith

l8er said:


> IIRC, *Dish reserves half the hard drive space on all their DVRs* - no matter the drive size. So the older DVRs with a 500 GB hard drive only had 250 GB usable by the subscriber.
> ..


Not true - I did post correct numbers for 250/320 and 500 GB drives last years.
Worst is 922 with 50%, other DVRs cuts less then 50 % for internal (VOD) use.


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## Michael P

There is more than just the VOD's on the "reserved" portion of the DVR's hard drive. The 9-day EPG, and the operating system are also located in the reserved partition.

BTW: I had the opportunity to compare SD MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 recordings of the same length. A 1-hour program from the MPEG-2 WA took a little over 1200 MB while the same program on the MPEG-4 EA took only ~700MB. Even the HD version (also MPEG-4) took only around 1600 MB. So hard disk size is not necessarily an indication of recording time.


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## P Smith

Michael P said:


> There is more than just the VOD's on the "reserved" portion of the DVR's hard drive. The 9-day EPG, and the operating system are also located in the reserved partition.
> 
> BTW: I had the opportunity to compare SD MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 recordings of the same length. A 1-hour program from the MPEG-2 WA took a little over 1200 MB while the same program on the MPEG-4 EA took only ~700MB. Even the HD version (also MPEG-4) took only around 1600 MB. So hard disk size is not necessarily an indication of recording time.


If you'll look into my old posts with precise info about the partitions, you would know much more.

What is that: "the operating system are also located in the reserved partition" ? Your guess?

How big the EPG file ? 
If you don't know here is a spoiler for you 


Spoiler



25-30 MB


.


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## mcss1985

I agree with most of the posts in this thread that are along the lines of its disappointing that one cannot choose how much of the 1tb internal drive to use for VOD and whatnot, but that it's not a huge deal because of the ability to use an external HD (which I'm sure most of us do), especially since that option is free now (can I have my $30 back please , jk).

What I find to be the biggest problem with this issue however, is that Dish charges us $10 a month for the "DVR fee" and they claim the extra $3 (it is $7 for a non 922 dvr right?, I've had the 922 so long I forget) is for the 1TB hard drive. I have a hard time paying extra for not much (if any) extra recording space.


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## garygaryj

Thanks for all the messages. I did follow group advice and picked up a 1TB External Hard drive to attach to the 922. Got a Western Digital that goes into "sleep mode" when not used for awhile but wakes up when needed. It does play back nicely over the 922 and also over the mirrored SD sets in the house. 

What should be the expected time to transfer a standard HD 2-hour movie to the EHD over the USB cable? Just want to check my experience against those who have done this quite awhile.

Oh, by the way - I think Dish is now saying that the extra $3. (yes non-922 is $7/month DVR fee) is for the slinging, at least that is what I was told when I ordered.


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## mcss1985

garygaryj said:


> Thanks for all the messages. I did follow group advice and picked up a 1TB External Hard drive to attach to the 922. Got a Western Digital that goes into "sleep mode" when not used for awhile but wakes up when needed. It does play back nicely over the 922 and also over the mirrored SD sets in the house.
> 
> What should be the expected time to transfer a standard HD 2-hour movie to the EHD over the USB cable? Just want to check my experience against those who have done this quite awhile.
> 
> Oh, by the way - I think Dish is now saying that the extra $3. (yes non-922 is $7/month DVR fee) is for the slinging, at least that is what I was told when I ordered.


Mine takes about 15-20 min for a 2 hour movie. I too have a 1TB WD 7200.

I have also been told by multiple Dish employees that the extra $3 was for Slinging, but when I questioned them further about it and brought up the fact that Slinging is listed as free (at least it was) all over Dish's website and literature, then they changed their tune and stated that the extra $3 was for the larger hard drive.
Oh well, it really doesn't bother me anymore. I was a little surprised when I first got the 922, but I soon got over it. I just brought it up here because the thread reminded me about it and no one had said anything about it.


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