I’m not being charged for it.
I’ve had DishNetwork for about 4 months. I love it, and I adore my DVR. My DVR will allow me to choose whether I want to record a show one time, regularly, or just new eps. It allows me to put in the name of an actor and it automatically looks for shows with that actor to record. The only thing I wish it could it could do is somehow download to my computer so I could record the programs to DVD-R. 100 hours sounds like a lot, but you run out pretty quickly when you like movies.
The dish has only cut out for a total of about 15 minutes in the two really bad storms I’ve had since I had it installed. This was a time when I probably shouldn’t be watching TV anyway. Hopefully it’ll do as well when the trees are fully leafed out.
StG
Whoa! Don’t you have analog or digital outputs on the DVR?
I have the model 508. It has two sets of analog outputs (RCA phono jacks), an S-Video out, and a digital output.
You ought to be able to get to the DVD-R from that. ATI makes some equipment to get cable or RCA jack analog to the PC.
Any decent TV tuner card should at least have RCA jacks and usually an S-video jack.
Did anyone get the DVR after they had a Dish account?
I got mine about 4 years after I got the original service.
Not getting a new account, did it cost an arm and a leg or only your first born son? 
DirectTV has by far the coolest DVR boxes. It’s sort of “open source” – the boxes are made by multiple companies and sold everywhere. Even better, there’s 3d parties that will upgrade them to an insane amount of storage, as much as 300+ hours, depending on the model.
Dish, on the other hand, has a limited number of somewhat buggy set-top boxes, sold only by them. The features for the PVRs lag far behind what DirecTV has.
A warning on the Dish PVRs: they’re buggy when the disk fills up (at least for my 501 model). You need to continually delete things so there’s some empty space, or bad things start happening. Major PITA.
That having been said, I’m on Dish, and am relatively happy. I’ve got the basic PVR with 35 hours, and have bouts of lust for something more, but hesitate to monkey with my setup which is working usually well. At some point I’ll get pissed and move to DirecTV but this hasn’t happened yet.
I bought it outright and I believe I paid about $250. It has a 62 hour capacity.
Anyone know about Direct TV? I’m strongly considering getting it for the NFL season. Would I be able to record every game of a team and watch them even in the off season?
WAG: if the DVR is like the Dish version, you should be to leave all your recrdings on the drive until it fills up. So if you figure 16 games at 3± hours, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Sure can, however don’t forget you have to purchase the NFL Sunday ticket package to get those games and it’s a few hundred bucks if I remember.
Alright - I went out and bought a DVD-R today so I could download my DVR programs. However, the DVR doesn’t have any sort of input jacks. How do I get the file from my DVR to my computer?
StG
Help? Please?
StG
There should be some jacls labeled “LINE IN”.
What is the make and model?
The only line-in capabilities the Dish PVR has is for the satellite signal and a throughput for your regular cable (if you have it).
To get from the PVR to your computer, you’ll need a video card with RCA and/or S-video jacks.
I use a standalone DVD recorder and transfer files on DVD-RAM disks. Other standalone recorders use DVD-RWs.
Mr. Blue Sky - Poop. I asked my nephew if I should get a stanf-alone recorder or a external DVR. He said no one uses DVD recorders and to get a computer one. I just figured it would have jacks in it. Are the video cards expensive? Thanks for the response.
StG
Unfortunately, I’m not an up-to-date on video cards, but I’m sure you can get a decent one for less than $100.