Unreal turn of events with my DVR

ezdays

ezdays

Out AZ way
Feb 3, 2003
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Arizona
bigbluetrains.com
A little over a year ago I lost my Dish Network DVR, it went south for the rest of... well, forever. Now I had lots of stuff on it that I planned to move to tape or CD. This included many episodes of "Trains" from RFDTV, and a whole bunch of "Workin' on the Railroad" from the DIY channel. So I said that would never happen again.:cry:

They sent me a different unit, and since then, I was lucky enough to record every episode of "Workin' on the Railroad" again, plus about 25 hours of "Trains" including the one on the Durango and Silverton Railroad, one episode of "Boneyard" where they took apart railroad equipment and the episode of "Modern Marvels" about freight yards....:thumb::thumb: Now I'm not exactly lazy, but I've had a few issues this year that kinda slowed me down some:mad: and I was just about ready to devote some time to taking that stuff off the DVR before it went belly-up again.:cool: Need I tell you the rest of the story? OK, I will anyway, last week the thing would stop working and I could reboot it and it would come back for a short while. But on Friday night the %$&*#@ took a long walk in the southerly direction.:eek::eek: They are bringing me an upgraded unit tomorrow, but in the meantime I fooled with it for two days. Finally, Sunday morning I got it working again.:mrgreen: It was just as it was before it quit working, except that is.... uh, everything that was in memory is now just that, a memory.:curse:.. I lost about 50 hours of recordings, so those of you that asked if I would send them a CD of that one on the freight yards, I hope it plays again, 'cause it's gone, along with all the other stuff.wall1 wall1

The moral of this story is, don't ever use your DVR to record anything you want to keep because by the time you get around to moving it it'll be gone anyway.:violin1::violin1: :violin1::violin1:See how much time and frustration this advice will save you?? I wished I'd known that before.sign1
 
And here I am with a classic antennae and a rotary-dail phone. Figure the hundred bucks a month I save on the entertainment bill can do a little bit more for the layout!

Kevin
 
So I suppose you might want that video tape of the Durango and Silverton I recorded for you after all?
 
TrainNut said:
So I suppose you might want that video tape of the Durango and Silverton I recorded for you after all?
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Well, uhhhh, that would be just dandy since Peggy hasn't had a chance to see it. Let's think about get together after the Nov. 3rd swap meet. I can bring the roadbed (I even found about six pieces of HO), and you can bring the tape...
 
I've got Dish Network and added on their external HD storage option the day it was released. I copy everything I wanna save after watching over to a Maxtor USB 500GB hard drive for safe keeping in case the DVR goes kablooey, and to keep the internal drive from filling up fast.
 
I don't know how much those things will hold but we've never maxed ours out.... yet!
Don, I'm gettin' a little worried...a quick search revealed a missing tape. I'm thinking since you originally said you did not need it, it got returned to the "record again" pile. I hope that is not the case and will keep looking in the hopes that it will turn up.
 
nolatron said:
I've got Dish Network and added on their external HD storage option the day it was released. I copy everything I wanna save after watching over to a Maxtor USB 500GB hard drive for safe keeping in case the DVR goes kablooey, and to keep the internal drive from filling up fast.
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I wasn't aware that they had a model that allowed you to add an external HD. The tech from Dish will be here shortly, I'll ask him about that. The model DVR that went out on me twice is the 722. I think what I'm getting is a 522. Both can record 100 hours of regular programming. The big difference is that I own the 722, the other one they will own. Although I have to admit, their service program is pretty good. For $19 plus $15 shipping they will UPS another unit to you plus a label to send it back on their dime. The new unit will basically cost the same, just that the will install it and wire up a second TV at no charge. I will pay an additional $5.95 a month in additional fees.

TrainNut said:
I don't know how much those things will hold but we've never maxed ours out.... yet!
Don, I'm gettin' a little worried...a quick search revealed a missing tape. I'm thinking since you originally said you did not need it, it got returned to the "record again" pile. I hope that is not the case and will keep looking in the hopes that it will turn up.
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I've never maxed ours out either, I usually have about 50 hours recorded, some of that is saved stuff, the rest is stuff I record on off hours to view when I want to.

I wouldn't worry if you can't find the tape, they usually run the same episodes every few months anyway, that includes "Modern Marvels" and "Boneyard". What I'm going to miss are the "Workin' on the Railroad" ones since that's not on the air anymore. I liked some of the techniques they used on some of those shows.
 
Now, for the rest of the story... The installation guy showed up yesterday at around 3. Plenty of time to plug in the unit and add a wire to my den as a satellite receiver, then go on to his next install job. It's a neat feature, I can watch or record one show on one set and watch or record a different show on the second set or I can flip a switch and record two shows on one set, all from the same DVR. Oh, there are two remotes to control them separately... But I digress. This guy was a contract installer, not working directly with Dish Network, which is not a problem. What was a problem is that he took a simple one-hour (no more than 1 1/2 hours) install and stretched it into a four-hour and twenty minute debacle. I won't go into the gory details, but he wound up working in the dark trying to find a wiring error and had to call his boss in before he was able to determine he didn't know much about why it is necessary to terminate an antenna properly.

He wasn't the one to ask whether I could use an external hard drive with this model, which, incidentally, wasn't the one that they said they were sending. I should be able to find it in the manual though. I'm not about to lose any more stuff like I wanted to keep, but with the second set in my den, I should be able to burn a DVD a lot easier this time.
 
EZDAYS,
I believe the hard-drive in the DVR might work in a PC. My DVR is COX and is 60g.
I talked to a COX tech about why they do not offer a larger drive in their unit. He said people return their units after having replaced the drive with a smaller one.
They 'steal' the 60g for their own PC.
I have run out of storage on several occasions when I record several long HD movies, etc. The HD format takes a lot more space!

The COX model does not permit an external drive even thoughthere is a connector on the back of the unit that leads one to think so.
 
I have the 622 receiver, which is being replaced by the new 722. it's got all the same features, but a larger drive than the 622 I think.

I also have the same setup. Big screen TV in the front with the 622, then it's also wired to my existing coax network so I can watch satellite in master bedroom or guest room when we have some. Pretty nifty.

Here's a page about the External HD. Basically, go buy yourself a USB Maxtor drive, plug it into the USB port and a info window will pop-up saying to call some number to activate the feature. It's a one time $40 charge.

DISH Network -- Dish HD

BTW, I keep saying maxtor because some brands have seem to bit quit picky about working correctly. I'll post up what brand I have at home. It's been one of the largely recommended drives to use for best compatibility.

I find it handy for archiving shows I wanna keep, while keeping my list of shows on the DVR small. Basically only showing stuff I haven't watched yet.

I haven't really looked into the possibility of getting these archived shows directly to dvd yet though.
 
nolatron said:
I have the 622 receiver, which is being replaced by the new 722. it's got all the same features, but a larger drive than the 622 I think.

I also have the same setup. Big screen TV in the front with the 622, then it's also wired to my existing coax network so I can watch satellite in master bedroom or guest room when we have some. Pretty nifty.

Here's a page about the External HD. Basically, go buy yourself a USB Maxtor drive, plug it into the USB port and a info window will pop-up saying to call some number to activate the feature. It's a one time $40 charge.

DISH Network -- Dish HD

BTW, I keep saying maxtor because some brands have seem to bit quit picky about working correctly. I'll post up what brand I have at home. It's been one of the largely recommended drives to use for best compatibility.

I find it handy for archiving shows I wanna keep, while keeping my list of shows on the DVR small. Basically only showing stuff I haven't watched yet.

I haven't really looked into the possibility of getting these archived shows directly to dvd yet though.
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Thanks, I had the 721 (not 722 like I said):oops: but they brought me a 625 rather than a 522, which the installer said are the same. Unfortunately I am having less and less confidence in this installer's knowledge base. Especially after having problems using the RF remote and checking the antenna finding that he put an output attenuator on the input antenna line. I haven't a clue as to what prompted that action since who in their right mind would want to attenuate an input signal.:eek: Removing it took care of my problem.:thumb:

Anyway, the 625 has a USB (1.1) port and a menu selection to enable an external recording device. I'm assuming that means an external hard drive, although the manual makes no mention of it even though they show it in a picture of the back panel. It would be real cool to be able to record on an external HD, then move it to my PC and burn a DVD that way. I'll call and verify what I can and cannot do with this port.

BTW, I just scanned the program guide and see that the DIY channel is now re-running the "Workin' on the Railroad" series.
 
I'm still waiting for my DVR that I was suppose to get when I signed up for Direct TV.........

Two years with DirectTV and still haven't gotten it.
Did get the football package though....and didn't even order it!
 
eightyeightfan1 said:
I'm still waiting for my DVR that I was suppose to get when I signed up for Direct TV.........

Two years with DirectTV and still haven't gotten it.
Did get the football package though....and didn't even order it!
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I honestly don't think that was a good trade-off. I get tired of the NFL just watching it on the local stations. The DVR though, now that's a thing of beauty that no one should be without.:thumb: :thumb: I'd be on them like a rash if it were me they did that to.:curse:
 
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