PVR501 question.... (1 Viewer)

[flenn]

I'm switching from DirecTV with Tivo to the PVR501. I'm trying to figure out what features I might be giving up. I understand that the PVR only has a 48 hour channel lineup but I think that may be about it. I can't confirm whether the PVR has a slow motion feature, can anyone tell me. Also, any other "negatives" to making this switch? TIA.

 

[Jay H]

I believe the 2 day guide is being fixed in an upcoming software update, however I have not heard of any plans of when this is to occur because there was a rumor of a software update on Aug 1st but it has come and gone and I guess it was just that-a rumor.
As far as a slow motion featur, nope, at least as far as I can tell, there is no frame advance, just your pause, FF, Rewind, and play. There are different FF, Rew speeds, goes something like X4, X8,X16 or something like that, but I don't believe there is a frame advance or a slow motion feature.
I've never had a Tivo, but another thing that the PVR501 doen't have is a searchable guide although that might also come in a future software update.
Jay
------------------
HUGBEES! Link Removed
Rider in the 2001 Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride
Wanna Link Removed
[Edited last by Jay H on August 10, 2001 at 06:38 AM]

 

[flenn]

Thanks for the reply. I had heard that the guide may be extended to 7 day, that would be great, but not a huge deal for me. Same with the searchable guide. The slow motion though is something I'll really miss. It's great for sports and pretty much any action scene.
I'm assuming you can just set the PVR to record a certain show whenever it comes on. For example, with the Tivo you can "Get a Season Pass" to watch, say, Frasier. Set it up once, and it'll record Frasier whenever it comes on that channel. Is this the same with the PVR?

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I'm just getting used to the 501 unit, but here are some good things:
- It has a 30 second forward skip for commercials, and a 10 second backwards skip. Both of these are used daily in my home.
- If you watch a show for a while, then decide you would like to save it for later/spouse, just rewind to the begining of the show and hit RECORD. It saves everything up to that point.
- You can create several "themes". The default is to show you every possible channel on the program guide. One theme is already set to only show you your subscribed channels. You need to make a custom theme to turn-off the channels you dont want to bother seeing.
- No search feature yet. This was a cool thing on the DishPlayer. Just type in a keyword, or a name and it finds every occurance over the next week. Hopefully it will come with the longer program guide.
- The 501 has a Toslink optical output so you can connect digitally to your HT receiver.
- No generational losses when you record. You get bit-for-bit replay exactly what came off the sat.

 

[Jay H]

There is an "event timer" on the 501 that you can set as a one-time event, a weekly event, daily event, etc... so yes, if you wanted to record Frasier every week, you can set it to do that as a weekly event. I'm not sure how smart it is though, like if say Baseball delayed Frasier and it was reflected in the episode guide, that the 501 would also change the timer.. I haven't messes with weekly timers yet.
The buffer on the 501 is reported to be ~60 minutes but like the ~35 hours of recording the unit provides, I think the actual amount is flexible based on the compression, etc.
I too, like the commercial skip thing, real handy!
Jay

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Can you record HD broadcasts with it?
------------------
Every man is my superior, in that I may learn from him.

 

[Robert_J]

Lou,
Currently, there are no HD PVR boxes. Dish says they will have one next year. There are rumors of a Zenith model for DirecTV also. If you need that capability now, there are HD decoder cards for your PC that will let you record to the hard drive. HD signals use about 18GB of drive space per hour of recording.
-Robert

 

[AndrewG]

I just saw the new Dish promotion for existing customers and I was interested in the PVR 501 but I have a question. Can it record OTA broadcasts? because I receive my locals with an attic attenna. Otherwise, does it just pass the signal through like current receivers. I would really like to get rid of my VCR, since I use it only for timeshifting.
Thanks
Andy
------------------

 

[Ken Stuart]

No, it will not record anything that does not come from the satellite. There are some local channels on the satellite that you can subscribe to - the legal conditions for this are complicated, and you have to check the website or call to find out if you qualify.
The 501 does pass thru an RF signal, such as OTA or cable, just as other Dish Network receivers do (except for Dish Player).