How do I use both a 522 and 622 at one location?

[beselfdo]

Wondering whether someone here could help him, and with a slight trepidation that he is asking for something not possible, or that he cannot explain clearly, he types the following, which looks more like an essay than a simple question…

I have a 622 on order to "upgrade" my 522. How do I use both a 522 and 622 at one location? With only space for 30 hours of HD recording, I would like to use the 522 for SD recordings. I have searched the forum and only found one reference (without detail) that recommends this approach. How do I do this? I assume that I can just take the outputs from each box to different inputs on my A/V receiver. And I will need to make sure the remotes are using different channels. What I don't understand is how I would do the inputs. My understanding is that the signal is degraded with every splitter. Yet right now there seems to be two splitters that split the single coax into three inputs on my 522. I could just trust the installer who brings the 622 to know what to do, but then again that seems a little too foolhardy.

The reason I am looking to do this is so that I can continue to record programs from HGTV, LTC, History Channel, etc. that I would watch if I have time. I currently have 50-90 hours of recording at any one time. With the 622, some of these will be HD, so I might end up with around the same free disk space.

With my 522 it is easy to figure how much free space I have. 1 hour = 1%. If I have 15 hours free I know I can record two playoff games and only use about 8 of the 15 free hours. I calculate the 622 uses ½% of the available space per hour of SD and 3 1/3% per HD hour (100%/30hrs). If I had 20hrs of HD and 60hrs of SD, that would be 97.7% full. With 8hrs of HD content taking 27%, I no longer have room. Even if I had only 15hrs of HD (50%) and 50hrs of SD (25%), I still wouldn't have room. Therefore the idea of using the 522 for all SD content appeals to me. (Please tell me if my logic is screwy.)

Current setup:
Family Room: 522 setup in "single" mode. Composite video and optical audio output goes to the H/K A/V receiver, then to the TV where I do 99% of watching.
Living Room: TV with RF from tuner 2 on 522 as input. I use 1%, family uses 5%
Den (TV/Computer room upstairs): 501 DVR composite output to TV. I use 1%, wife uses 10%, kids use 90%.

Desired setup:
Family Room: both 622 and 522 in "single" mode with component video into A/V receiver, then into the new Panasonic 50" Plasma screen.
Living Room & Den: I would like access to the DVRs in the Family room. I'm guessing if this is possible, it would only be the RF signal from the coax cable. This is the part that seems like magic, since I don't understand how the output from the family room gets there in the first place.

Even though I don't understand some of this, I am good at following directions.

Thank you in advance if you can help me with this.

…with that he reads over what he wrote, hoping he used the right buzzwords to make it appear that he wasn't a complete idiot. Pressing "send" he gets back to real work, with anticipation of a reply to his quandary almost with as much relish as the anticipation for the delivery of the 622 and the new TV.

 

[SmityWhity]

You could trust the installer; but I think it would be best for you to show the tech what you have, and then discuss what you desire, and ask what your options are. If someone was there to see the actual wiring/hook-up scheme used, and what was available, it would be easier to give you advice. However, here's something to think about while waiting for the tech.

1. You are going to upgrade. It actually sounds like you are going to keep what you have, a 522 DVR and 501 DVR, and add a ViP 622 DVR.

2. You have a 522 in Single Mode in the family room, but TV2 is feeding the living room. In single mode, the family room and living room would always be watching the same thing. Maybe it is in Dual Mode.

3. You could have 2 sat receivers next to each other for a single TV. In which case and as you said, each receiver would feed a different Input on the TV, and you would change the address on the remotes and receivers so that each setup has its own unique address. -- In fact, even in a different room, any Tuner using UHF/UHF PRO would also require a different address.

4. Yes, the more splitters you have, the more signal loss that will occur, but just because you have a splitter or two, or three, doesn't mean your signal is shot to hell. It depends on several factors, and if there is excessive loss, it can usually be corrected with an ampilier.

5. You say your 522 has a single coax and splits into 3. I suspect you have a single cable from either the LNBF (satellite antenna) or a Switch, that feeds the two tunners on the 522. The single cable goes into a DP Separator which separates 2 satellite signals and sends them to TV1 and TV2 tuners.

Since you said there is a 2nd splitter, I suspect you have a Diplexer which separates a satellite signal from an RF signal, such as a cable TV signal or TV signal from an outside TV antenna.

However, instead of bringing in a signal from the outside (TV Ant or Cable), it could be used to take the Radio Frequency (RF) output from the 522, and send it through the coax cables running throughout your house. This may be the majic that is being used to get the signal from the Family room to the other rooms.

These two gadgets (DP Separator & Diplexer) are NOT called splitters.

6. We'll talk about DishPro (DP), DishPro Plus (DPP), LNBF, and Switches. You didn't mention what type of dish, LNBF, and/or switch you have.

I suspect you may have a DishPro Plus Twin, which can feed 2 receivers, either single tuner or dual tuner receivers. So, if you are adding another receiver, it looks like they will be adding a switch so that it can feed 3 receivers.

The DP34 can receive 3 satellite locations and feed 4 tuners; so it can only feed 2 dual tuner receivers, since each tuner needs its own satellite feed cable.

The DPP44 can receiver 4 satellite locations and feed 4 receivers, or upto 8 tuners when you use a DP Separator which will allow you to use only 1 satellite feed cable for each dual tuner receiver. It requires a power supply also.

7. Recording space. On the 622, you record until you use up all the available space, and then it will start deleting older and unprotected recordings as needed. I don't remember the exact amount of total time, but instead of percentages, it tells you how much time is currently available to record.
- - - - Example: HD: 25hr 9 min - - - SD: 167hr 34min Avail
But I think it starts at about HD: 30 hours -- SD: 280 hours, and it doesn't matter if you are recording HD or SD, both timers will slowly tick away as you record.

Upgrades: Being discussed today at the CES in Las Vegas, it appears the ViP 622 will have external HD storage, that is, you buy an USB External HDD from CompUSA or your favorite store, call Dish to activate it, and plug it in to get more storage.

8. I think I would put 1 receiver in each room:

- ViP 622 in Family Room in Dual Mode - with future External HDD.
- 522 DVR in Den in Dual Mode
- 501 DVR in Living Room - You can control this with your ViP 622 Remote using AUX (UHF).

Maybe others can help here.

I don't know the capabilities of the 522 and 501, particularly the "Modulated Output(s)" and/or the RF output. But hopefully, you can have all 5 outputs (622=2, 522=2, 501=1) sent over a Home Distribution system so that programming/recording from any TV1 Output, TV2 Output, and/or DVR can be watched from any TV.

Then you need to decide on:

- You may not want to even keep the 501 online.
- Single Mode/Dual Mode -- You need to figure out if you need the Picture-in-Picture capabilities of the Receivers, or use the TV's PIP capabilities.
- Will you be using cable TV?
- Will you be using an Over-the-Air Antenna (OTA) to receive your Local Digital TV Stations (DTV - also known as/called HD Locals).
- I think the only High Definition Output is from the ViP 622 TV1; therefore, I see no reason to put 2 receivers togethers, if the 522 was HD, then I could see locating them side by side so that you could feed 2 HD programs into your HDTV.