First Night With Dish Network

[digiblur]

No need to turn it off. It stays on while in standby. I remember someone saying power consumption hardly changed when off. The only thing I can see that it would not do while in standby is buffer the current channel.

 

[satjay]

To be clear - they meant the power button on the remote/front panel, and NOT disrupting the AC power from the outlet (ie. don't unplug it, don't turn off a power strip, etc.).

Oh yes, thanks for the info though

 

[satjay]

Another observation after about 24 hours of so of Dish. The 722K is a big reciever and the 722K remote does have a 1980's look to it

 

[DodgerKing]

Is the package you currently have comparable to the package you had with Direct? If so, what is the difference in price between the two? What do you get with one that you did not get with the other?

 

[digiblur]

Not sure what receiver my buddy has but I found his HD receiver to be incredibly slow. I thought something was wrong with his remote but he said no its just like that.

Have the newer HD receivers fixed this?

 

[Lkr]

now that dish has viacoms, i am considering staying. just for reference, how much are you paying per month?

 

[satjay]

Well I have the promo price right now of about 54 dollars a month for six months. Two DVR's, Three TV's, Two of them being HD. Dont have the bill in front of me, but I think when the promo is over it will be in the 80 dollar range.

As far as preimums HBO/Starz for three months, cinemax for 1 cent for the year.

 

[nsafreak]

Not sure what receiver my buddy has but I found his HD receiver to be incredibly slow. I thought something was wrong with his remote but he said no its just like that.

Have the newer HD receivers fixed this?

A better definition of slow would probably be needed to know this for sure. Are you talking about slow in changing channels or something else? If you're talking about changing channels I think it's normal although I can understand it being annoying for a channel surfer. For me it takes approximately 5-6 seconds to change channels. While with cable for the most part it was almost instantaneous although there were occasions of 2-3 second delays. However since I typically do not channel surf this is not an issue for me.

 

[Lkr]

Well I have the promo price right now of about 54 dollars a month for six months. Two DVR's, Three TV's, Two of them being HD. Dont have the bill in front of me, but I think when the promo is over it will be in the 80 dollar range.

As far as preimums HBO/Starz for three months, cinemax for 1 cent for the year.

Ok, I will save $40 with that over what I have now with Dish through another company. How can I get:
3 HD(2 HD receivers, 1 HD DVR)
Hook up to 3 SDTVs

is that a possibility?

 

[gfearz]

Great Tip!

You can change the pip without using the swap. You press the browse button (and it does not matter if pip window is open or not), change the browse to the channel you want, then press the pip button. TV2 is changed.

Great tip! Not being able to see what is on other programs and hear what you are currently watching always bothered me. Shows you there is always something to learn. Thanks.

 

[rglore]

When you turn the receivers off they aren't being completely powered down, kindof put into a standby mode where they consume less power. Not quite sure how much but I'm sure somebody has a Kill-a-watt (really should get one myself) and can tell you the load differences. But yes its a good idea to turn them off when you aren't watching them and the timers will fire even when the unit is "off".

I checked mine with the Kill-a-watt and standby uses one watt less than the ON mode.

 

[DodgerKing]

I checked mine with the Kill-a-watt and standby uses one watt less than the ON mode.

How many watts does it use when it is on?

 

[kstuart]

Something I am not used to, the Tech mentioned to turn the recivevers off when you are not watching TV. Mentioned that helps the life span of the recievers. I asked if the DVR would still work if I had some shows to record. He said they would. Is turning them off, kind of like a sleep mode?

The tech is entirely wrong - that is an urban legend.

I have spoken to a hard disk drive technician, who told me that the heating and cooling of turning on and off was worse than continuous usage.

You want to turn off TVs and Computer Monitors when not in use, because they use a lot of power, but beyond that, it is better for the equipment to let DVRs and PCs run all day.

Some of my PCs run continuously 50 weeks a year.

 

[Dirtydan]

How many watts does it use when it is on?

Mine was reading 52 on and 50 in standby
Dan

 

[satjay]

Somewhat of a pleasnt surprise, I am having some issues with one of the remotes I have, changed the battery still did not work. I called dish and spoke to someone who I spoke to appeared to be talking from the USA. When I was researching Dish, many posts discussed the trouble they had communicating with CSR's whose english appeared to be their second language.

Not sure if I got the luck of the draw with the CSR/Tech Support today. But instead of preparing to speak real slow and clear, had a great conversation and a new remote should be here by tueday or wednesday. Score a point for Dish

 

[bebop]

Mine was reading 52 on and 50 in standby
Dan

My ViP722 is running at 53-54 watts 'on' and runs 51-52 watts 'standby'. Basically the exact same as your results.

Even with all three tuners recording and playing back another recording in fast forward mode - it never went above 55 watts. So it's safe to say that it always runs from 50-55 watts.

That's 455 KWh/year (if you use it 8 hours/day). And it would cost about $32/year here in Idaho.

 

[digiblur]

Who only plugs in their DVR 8 hours a day?

 

[bebop]

Who only plugs in their DVR 8 hours a day?

I don't know. But if you read my post again, you can see that I didn't mention that. My household probably uses less than what I posted there: <8 hours/day of usage (on time) and >16 hours/day standby. Since there is not much difference from 'on' to 'standby', 8 hours/day is a good estimate.

Are you 'using' it when it is in standby, or are you using it when you turn it on? I didn't show the math - but it includes 8 hours/day 'on' and 16 hours/day 'standby'. I've yet to see anyone do that calculation of actual usage given the two similar wattages.

For those of you who pay other than 7 cents/KWh - just plug in your rate to on this formula to find out your annual usage (assuming you leave it plugged in all year):
$32 * Your Rate / (7 cents/KWh)

For instance if you live in Louisiana and pay the average rate there (8.92 cents/KWh) it would be:
$32 * 8.92 cents/KWh / (7 cents/KWh) = ~$41 / year.

 

[ryotgz]

No need to turn it off. It stays on while in standby. I remember someone saying power consumption hardly changed when off. The only thing I can see that it would not do while in standby is buffer the current channel.

I have the 612 in my bedroom and do NOT put it into stand-by mode before I go to bed. If I do, every night at mid-night it does a reboot and I hear the fan whirling away and get woken up. I have the receiver to update at 3PM so I know its not updating. But if I don't turn it off, everything is fine. Strange little device.

 

[satjay]

One nice feature the wife and I have enjoyed while watching something on the DVR, the 30 second skip. Its a pretty cool feature.