# New vip722 user. A few questions.



## Nitro (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, I was on Directv at my old house for 4 years and really liked the service. Due to directv no longer offering an OTA tuner in their DVR, I have gotten dish at my new house along with a vip722. I browsed the FAQ but couldn't find specific answers to these questions.

1. I absolutely hate the way the 722 stretches 4:3 content onto my tv. The best I have found in terms of body stretching is "partial zoom" but it doesn't look nearly as good as what my tv does. Is there a way to pass 480i for all SD and 720p ONLY for HD content? I want my tv to do the scaling and stretching as it looks much better. Or if it just passed native resolution through that would be nice.

2. On my directv dvr I could tell it how many shows to keep. For example, if I set it to keep 5 episodes of the simpsons, as soon as a 6th episode recorded it would delete the oldest one and only keep 5 on the hard drive at a time. This is very helpful for daily shows that I don't want flooding my hard drive. I don't want the DVR to keep 100 episodes of the daily show when all I need it to keep is 1 or 2. How do I tell the box to only keep X number of episodes?

3. Does the box ever turn off? When I press the off button on the remote it still shows a picture on my tv. I would prefer that it actually turn off when I turn it off.

4. This is probably a long shot, but is there a way to stream media from my computer (linux uPnP server) to the box? Right now i use my xbox360 to do it, but it would be nice if the 722 did it.

Thanks for any help. It is MUCH appreciated.


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## Ken Green (Oct 6, 2005)

Nitro said:


> Hi, I was on Directv at my old house for 4 years and really liked the service. Due to directv no longer offering an OTA tuner in their DVR, I have gotten dish at my new house along with a vip722. I browsed the FAQ but couldn't find specific answers to these questions.
> 
> 1. I absolutely hate the way the 722 stretches 4:3 content onto my tv. The best I have found in terms of body stretching is "partial zoom" but it doesn't look nearly as good as what my tv does. Is there a way to pass 480i for all SD and 720p ONLY for HD content? I want my tv to do the scaling and stretching as it looks much better. Or if it just passed native resolution through that would be nice.
> 
> ...


Hi Nitro :welcome_s to DBSTalk
As for your questions:
1) The 722 decides the aspect ratio, and overrides your TV settings. You can change the aspect ratio using the * key on the remote. Once you set an aspect ratio for a channel, the 722 remembers it for that channel. If you have a 16:9 HD display, your 722 settings (Menu >6 >8) for HDTV Setup should be Off-air, 1080i, 16:9.

2) That feature is not available on the 722.

3) The 722 remains in Stand-by 24/7, and it must be. Every night, a nightly update is sent to your receiver. The default time for this update is 3AM, which you can change, if you prefer to, in Menu >8 >5. The only way to fully power down the receiver is by removing the A/C power, which should only be done for restarting. The 722 is designed to remain in Stand-By when not in use, and although you may prefer to power it off, you should not.

4) That feature is not available on the 722.


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## Nitro (Jun 17, 2008)

Ken Green said:


> Hi Nitro :welcome_s to DBSTalk
> As for your questions:
> 1) The 722 decides the aspect ratio, and overrides your TV settings. You can change the aspect ratio using the * key on the remote. Once you set an aspect ratio for a channel, the 722 remembers it for that channel. If you have a 16:9 HD display, your 722 settings (Menu >6 >8) for HDTV Setup should be Off-air, 1080i, 16:9.


So there is absolutely no way for my tv to do the 4:3 stretching? Is it just me or does "partial zoom" look absolutely terrible? My tv does a fisheye type of stretch where the middle of the screen gets stretched just a little and the edges get stretched a little more. It also barely chops off the top and bottom. The 722 chops off a significant portion of the top and bottom under partial zoom.


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## n0qcu (Mar 23, 2002)

2. When creating the timer select "options" and then on that screen you can select how many episodes you want to record.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Nitro said:


> So there is absolutely no way for my tv to do the 4:3 stretching? Is it just me or does "partial zoom" look absolutely terrible? My tv does a fisheye type of stretch where the middle of the screen gets stretched just a little and the edges get stretched a little more. It also barely chops off the top and bottom. The 722 chops off a significant portion of the top and bottom under partial zoom.


Stretch-O-Vision always looks like crap. The only programs you can successfully stretch are the ones that have bars on the top and on the sides. Then, the Zoom setting will fill the screen and you can pretend you're watching HD.  
Why bother distorting your picture, anyway?


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

Nitro said:


> So there is absolutely no way for my tv to do the 4:3 stretching? Is it just me or does "partial zoom" look absolutely terrible?...


I have my 622 set to "Normal" which sends SD as a 4:3 Image with black bars. I have my Pioneer TV set to detect the black bars and the TV does the Zoom.

EDIT: Sorry! As subsequently pointed out to me, *most* TVs do not have this option.


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## Nitro (Jun 17, 2008)

TulsaOK said:


> Stretch-O-Vision always looks like crap. The only programs you can successfully stretch are the ones that have bars on the top and on the sides. Then, the Zoom setting will fill the screen and you can pretend you're watching HD.
> Why bother distorting your picture, anyway?


Grey or black bars on the sides really annoy me for some reason. I can handle black bars on the top and bottom but not on the sides. Something about buying 52" of screen real estate and not being able to use it all bothers me. I am used to the way my tv stretches video. It stretches it without making it pixely and weird like the 722 does.

I hope they add the feature to just pass the native resolution of the show through like directv does. I'd like my tv to do all the scaling.



SaltiDawg said:


> I have my 622 set to "Normal" which sends SD as a 4:3 Image with black bars. I have my Pioneer TV set to detect the black bars and the TV does the Zoom.


my tv doesn't have this "detect black bars" option.


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

Nitro said:


> ...
> my tv doesn't have this "detect black bars" option.


Sorry. I just realized that most sets do not.


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## JeffL (Dec 28, 2007)

I'm also as a new vip722 user and I REALLY want my TV's stretch mode back (it called it "just" and would leave the center alone and just stretch the sides a bit). I would love to have that feature back when watching non-HD 4:3 shows. I guess one option would be to run s-video as well as component (or dvi). Then select the TV's s-video input when watching standard stuff. But the proper solution is for the 722 to simply pass 480i when the original material is non-HD.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Except for commercials during HD shows, stretch-o-vision issues can be avoided by recording or watching the SD feed of the channel and using your TV's controls if you prefer the so-called "justification" setting. My daughter loves that setting, I prefer side bars. But it's a personal choice.


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## kevin d (Sep 21, 2005)

Nitro said:


> Hi, I was on Directv at my old house for 4 years and really liked the service. Due to directv no longer offering an OTA tuner in their DVR, I have gotten dish at my new house along with a vip722.


FYI, Directv does offer an add-on OTA tuner for their DVRs now.

Kevin D.


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## Ken Green (Oct 6, 2005)

The side pillars used to annoy and drive me crazy also, but the SD stretch was worse. I finally set it to normal, allowed the side pillars, and after about a week, no longer noticed them. That was 2 years ago. Try forcing yourself to watch with the pillars for about 10 days, and I'm fairly certain you'll get used to it, and like it better. 

All STB's are different, and have different features, especially a HD DVR. DirecTV's HD DVR does have a few nice features the 722 does not. The 722 does not have every feature, for every user, but overall, it is light-years ahead of any HD DVR out there.


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## dbrakob (Apr 26, 2006)

Nitro said:


> 2. On my directv dvr I could tell it how many shows to keep. For example, if I set it to keep 5 episodes of the simpsons, as soon as a 6th episode recorded it would delete the oldest one and only keep 5 on the hard drive at a time. This is very helpful for daily shows that I don't want flooding my hard drive. I don't want the DVR to keep 100 episodes of the daily show when all I need it to keep is 1 or 2. How do I tell the box to only keep X number of episodes?


I know this was already answered correctly once but thought I would reemphasize so you didn't miss it as I feel your pain if this was not an option. I quickly learned it after my son's timer for Pokemon reached 30 recordings.

Under the timer select Options and at the bottom you can choose how many episodes to keep. An "oh by the way" is you can not do this if you have a show "protected".


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## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

I am considering the jump to HD, and have a couple of questions regarding the 722, but would really like to wait for the Eastern Arc to become available. 

1. From what I understand, both tuner 1 & tuner 2 can be sent via the home distrbution. Is that correct?
2. Is the audio sent via home distribution (coax) is mts stereo?


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## n0qcu (Mar 23, 2002)

bnewt said:


> I am considering the jump to HD, and have a couple of questions regarding the 722, but would really like to wait for the Eastern Arc to become available.
> 
> 1. From what I understand, both tuner 1 & tuner 2 can be sent via the home distrbution. Is that correct?
> 2. Is the audio sent via home distribution (coax) is mts stereo?


Yes to both.


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## Nitro (Jun 17, 2008)

I have 1 more question regarding my 722.

On my directv dvr, it would grey out recorded content that I had watched. Is there a way to tell the 722 to mark content as watched? 

I recorded a bunch of soccer games but I can never remember which ones I watched until I go through them all and read the description. I would just like to know which one I left off on (without deleting ones I have watched).


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Nitro said:


> I have 1 more question regarding my 722.
> 
> On my directv dvr, it would grey out recorded content that I had watched. Is there a way to tell the 722 to mark content as watched?
> 
> I recorded a bunch of soccer games but I can never remember which ones I watched until I go through them all and read the description. I would just like to know which one I left off on (without deleting ones I have watched).


Not passively. You could mark the ones you've watched as "protected". It displays little graphic of a lock next to the recording.


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## CABill (Mar 20, 2005)

For some things, we need a flag for watched by each spouse. When we select an item and the choice is Start, neither has seen it as a recorded event (could have watched as it recorded). Start over means one of us went to the end, and Resume means didn't finish (only minutes remaining is ~ Start Over). Not visible without selecting it, but better than reading the description.


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## Nitro (Jun 17, 2008)

Ok, I want to know what cnet was smoking when they said this thing was better than tivo and the HR20. Its not bad but I guess I fell for the commercial that said it was the best dvr on the market. I haven't used the new tivo, but my HR20 was leaps and bounds better for what I used it for.

I mean C'mon, it doesn't natively pass video through? My receiver and tv both have better scaling chips than the 722. Do they honestly think videophiles (is that even a word?) won't care about picture quality.


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## oldsmoboat (Jun 20, 2008)

Nitro said:


> Ok, I want to know what cnet was smoking when they said this thing was better than tivo and the HR20. Its not bad but I guess I fell for the commercial that said it was the best dvr on the market. I haven't used the new tivo, but my HR20 was leaps and bounds better for what I used it for.
> 
> I mean C'mon, it doesn't natively pass video through? My receiver and tv both have better scaling chips than the 722. Do they honestly think videophiles (is that even a word?) won't care about picture quality.


Doesn't Dish also compress HD signals?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Nitro said:


> Ok, I want to know what cnet was smoking when they said this thing was better than tivo and the HR20. Its not bad but I guess I fell for the commercial that said it was the best dvr on the market. I haven't used the new tivo, but my HR20 was leaps and bounds better for what I used it for.
> 
> I mean C'mon, it doesn't natively pass video through? My receiver and tv both have better scaling chips than the 722. Do they honestly think videophiles (is that even a word?) won't care about picture quality.


On the native pass-through, I agree and would definitely like to see it implemented. There was some talk in a charlie chat about a year ago about it currently being implemented, but it has not appeared in the wild so it is hard to say what has happened to the plan. My guess is other priorities have taken the engineering cycles and hopefully someday we will see this feature on a receiver.

As for already watched content, this is another feature that has been asked for in this forum. Personally I would like be happy to give up the Spouse manual indication for an automatic method that just gave "Partially viewed", "Fully Viewed', and not Viewed status. There has been no mention of this feature making it into the Vip line of receivers that I am aware of.

An finally on the best receiver... Well we all have our preferences and we all what we consider are the significant DVR features. For me it is 3 recorded streams at once, EHD support etc. I definitely want to see Native Pass through support but I would say that this feature is becoming less important to me as my SD viewing becomes less and less.

I have not had experience with any D* DVRs, but to me the 722 is an excellent box. Does it have some warts.. Yep.. But ever box does... Do I want to see further enhancements.. Yep... There is no perfect box out there but for me the 722 does what I needs it to do and from what I have read in this forum and also in the D* forums the 722 definitely is a contender for the best HD DVR on the market today.


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## Tulsa1 (Oct 15, 2003)

FWIW
I have been a subscriber of E* and D* for a long time.
Call me a satellite junky:grin: More so an HD junky 
I currently have the following:
HR20-100
HR20-700
ViP622
ViP722

I've had all for awhile and find the ViP722 to be the best without a doubt:biggthump


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## Tulsa1 (Oct 15, 2003)

Tulsa1 said:


> FWIW
> I have been a subscriber of E* and D* for a long time.
> Call me a satellite junky:grin: More so an HD junky
> I currently have the following:
> ...


So much for my bragging, I should have kept silent.
I received 5.11 on both receivers and now the trick play features is a total mess


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