E* 522 PVR

[deranged]

Just Curious,

Any one else get suckered into buying one of the ****** things. Dish's 522 PVR receiver, I did one through what was supposed to be a almost free upgrade. HA, someone needs to update thier definition of almost free.

The guy comes and installs it, confused as blazes because all the wiring is already run and everything is just sitting there waiting for him to plug it in. Installation 5 minutes, watching him program the remotes 40 minutes.

2 Hours after the "installation" the UHF remotes no longer work. Spent days troubleshooting with the supposedly "tech support staff".
But the remotes stop working after a few hours after unpluggin the unit and plugging back in the power to the unit. ( i got lazy after the first few times and started using an x10 module, It's difficult to get behind to the wall. )
The unit runs extremely *warm*, so after I give up on the technical support I decide to put a fan blowing on the side of the unit. Just a little 3 inch computer fan very quiet.

The Unit has run for more than a week now with no problems with the remotes, just now i figured out for some reason the record by name does not actually get all the time slots recorded that match the name. Evidently " It's a know bug, we are sorry about the problem and a new version firmware will correct it soon"

I am so mad I could spit, except I am afraid I will hit the unit and it will burn my house down.

I didn't to make it sound like a rant, I was just wondering if anyone had another classy idea for cooling. That little fan does not do the WAF good.

StevenE

 

[electron]

wow, that really does suck, sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. Even my cable box seems to overheat, looks like this is a common thing for newer equipment which does more than just connecting a signal. The only solution I have is to shut down my cable box at night, but since yours is a PVR, you don't really have that option.

Do you have any other equipment on top of the PVR?

 

[jrfuda]

I've had a 522 for almost a year now and it works relatively well. You are right about the name recording (and Dish pass) features, they are not very reliable, fortuneately - at least in my case - they usually end up recording too much stuff rather than missing a show... For example, if you tell the 522 to record all new shows, it sees all shows made in the current year or with no date in the description as new episodes, which is a pretty silly way of picking "new" episodes. Whay they can't just add a (RPT) and/or (NEW) to the end of the desctiption is beyond me.

The only realproblem I've had with my 522 was that the switch went bad in my first one after about 4 months. Dish sent a new one free of charge and it's worked great ever since.

It's a very powerful device, especially since you can record two shows and watch a third (actually, you could record two and watch two simulatenously) from the same box.

I have mine in a cabinet with tons of other equipment, including a PC and receiver, both which generate a lot of heat. I do, however, have 2 PC case fans blowing air INTO the cabinet (through filters, which both cools the cabinet and creates and "overpressure" enviroment inside the cabinet which cuts down on dust accumulation). I've never had any heating problems - and the only time I've ever heard the 522's built-in fan kick-in was during a reboot (hold the power button in on the unit for 5 seconds, necessary to try to get software upgrades early, or when the unit has an occassional brain fart).

 

[DavidL]

You can look into a laptop cooler. This is a thin "table" that has two fans in it and vent grills on the top. You sit the laptop on top of it and it keeps it chilled. I recently saw a special for $15 for one. Available at all good PC stores.
Why you would need one (bad design?) is beyond me.

 

[deranged]

Well,

the laptop fan might sound like a good choice. But your right it is a very bad design. I have been to a few boards discussing the 522 and the result is, it does seem to run warm and cause sparatic problems due to being warm.

The unit sits on an entertainment center shelf with 6 inches of open air on each side of it and 8 inches of open air on top. Nothing underneath ( except the shelf ) and nothing on top. It is positively a big design flaw, Nothing with a harddrive should ever be allowed to get that warm.

I am almost tempted to gently persuade that internal fan to run all the time :lol:.
Since it's a lease, that may not be a good idea.

Thanks
StevenE

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Will the 522 do HD?