Anyone have opinions on the Dish Network PVR-721 (1 Viewer)

[Ken Seeber]

I have a wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket and I've suffered through my last outrageous cable rate increase (anyone stuck with MediaCom knows what I'm talking about). I'm getting the Dish Network next week and think the PVR-721 will fill the bill.

It's a two-tuner satellite receiver with built-in 120 gigabyte hard disk recorder. Unlike Tivo, there's no monthly fee for the recorder end of things.

I did a search of this forum and found some old threads about the PVR-721, but there was only one link to a review. As always, before I spend my hard-earner cash on an electronic device, I turn to my fellow HTF members for advice.

So, anyone here own the PVR-721, and if so, how is it?

 

[Robert_J]

Unlike Tivo, there's no monthly fee for the recorder end of things.

The fee structure for DirecTivos has changed. It's now $4.95/month until you get to the Total Choice (Platinum or Premiere or something like that) and it's $0. Try DBS Talk, DBS Forums or the Dish section at AVS Forums to find more info on the 721. Don't give up on the DirecTivo either. There's a ton of info over in the DirecTV section of Tivo Community.
Here is my opinion. Dish has a very nice PVR with a large hard drive but they still can't match the functionality of Tivo with the Season Pass and Wish Lists. Get a DirecTivo and replace the 40GB drive with two 120GB drives. You get all of the functionality of Tivo and twice the storage space of the 721.
-Robert

 

[Mark_E_Smith]

Ditto what Robert said. I have 3 DTiVos all modified with larger drives, I have had NO problems with my TiVos and they get my programs so well I NEVER worry if it will record them or bother to check to see if they are scheduled record! Very cool machine, BTW its one fee for any number of TiVos on the DTV account!!

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I've not tried the 721, but I have both a DishPlayer and PVR501 units and I am very happy with them.
Please note: the posters above are talking about the DirectTivo not just a Tivo unit. The DirectTivo (and the Dish units) store the raw bits from the sat. This means there is no conversion/loss.

 

[Joe Szott]

Ken,

From what I have heard (from DISH employees nonetheless) is that the 721 is the DISH PVR to own. The 501s and such were pretty buggy, the 721 runs like a dream.

Only wrench in the works is that DISH might be introducing a 921 in the next year which is an HDTV tuner and PVR in one. If you have interest in that it might be worth the wait, otherwise the 721 is the current king for DISH.

 

[Ken Seeber]

Bob and Joe,

Thanks for the comments, they're very encouraging. Thankfully I have four days off next week, so I should be able to get things installed by next weekend!

Robert and Mark,

I appreciate your efforts, but as I wrote in my first post, I'm going with Dish Network, not DirecTV. That kind of rules out DirecTivo.

 

[John Frankel]

I've been using a 721 for a few weeks now, and while it's a very nice unit it is not as reliable as my ReplayTV unit.
There are occasional program glitches.. for example, last Thursday when 8pm rolled around it was supposed to record Friend/Scrubs and Survivor. No problem, it's got two tuners! However, for some reason the unit started recording Firefly, and while I do have it setup to record Firefly, that comes on Friday evenings! I had to stop that recording, kill the program record for survivor since it wouldn't let me tag it for recording manually because of the conflict, then manually start the recording for survivor. If I hadn't been watching a previously recorded show that ended about 8:05 I wouldn't have caught this and would have missed the show.
Later that evening it only recorded 23 minutes worth of ER... which was quite annoying as well. That might have been a signal problem, I'm not sure yet.
The program guide isn't intelligent at all. You can have it setup to record a specific show, but the unit will record whatever is in that timeslot, regardless of the name of the show. There also isn't any way to setup a theme, such as "cheers" to have it just record episodes of cheers. You'll need to tag them manually.
However, I still like the unit. The picture quality is vastly superior to ReplayTV and the ability to record two shows at once is quite nice.
I recommend it, but realize that all the bugs haven't been worked out quite yet.