Dish Network 625 DVR Dual Tuner Satellite Receiver Video Recorder Dish Player
- Independently watch and record programming on two TVs
- Convenient On-Screen Caller ID with history
- Record up to 100 hours of standard definition
- On-screen Electronic Program Guide (EPG) with easy access to program listings and information for up to 9 days
- Single Mode: Picture-In-Picture (PIP) available on any TV.Dual Mode: View separate programming on 2 televisions
Product Description
We are a Dish Network dealer. This item is brand new in the box with all parts. This receiver must be added to your account before we can ship. If you don’t have an account we can get one set-up for you…. More >>
Dish Network 625 DVR Dual Tuner Satellite Receiver Video Recorder Dish Player
I Own 160 H replaytv model (for about 4 years). And recently I got another DVR that comes with DISH (the 625 DVR Dual Tuner model). I see a review from Daniel in Dec.. Daneil, maybe the replaytv model is the perfect one you are looking for (although there are a few problems with it too). My experience comparing these two DVR below.
I gace the DISH unit one star, amybe because of how unhappy I am with in comparrison to the replaytv unit. I would still recommend either of these DVR’s over a VCR anyday. I am however planning on dumping the DISH unit when I can, and get a second replytv (I need extra tuners).
BTW: (adding to below): the replaytv unit did have one annoying problem: It went thru a time when the audio would cut out on several of my favorite shows,, lasted a few months.. I believe the automatic updates eventually fixed it..
The replaytv unit is vastly superior in every way (well, except I wish the replay unit had more than one tuner). The only other problem I have (which affects both units) is the electronic listings are wrong enough to be annoying.
Once you get a DVR, you will never go back to a VCR. I suggest you get at least 160 hours (more if more than one person will be using it).. Reasons will become clear with use (IE: you tend to save the last 3 or 4 shows of everything, so if you go on vacation (etc) they will be there waITING FOR YOU.
THE DISH DVR: (BOO):
There are too many crappy issues with the DISH unit to even remember them all (here are a few I can think of ):
When you hit pause (and go away).. It will start playing again by itself, so you miss your show (which is the point of the DVR in the first place).. And, it will not let you rewind when it starts playing automatically. It probably fills up the hard drive.. but there is no way to “not” fill up the hard drive because of the way the thing records shows for you (FIFO style). When you pause to see something the pause bar that pops up (to let you know you pauded presumably?) covers about a third of the screen (enough to cause you to miss 100 percent of whatever it was you wanted to see). NOTE that you can hit the arrow to go into slomo (from pause), but it skips away from what you want to see (so you are still screwed here). Trust me on this, Im not even sure a kid would have the patience to find something to see in slomo with this thing. When you record your shows, replayTV lets you organize stuff in whatever manner that suits you (very convenient after setup).. The DISH unit puts the most recent recordings in a list, with newest first. Sounds like no big deal, wait till you have over a hundred, and if you were able to compare this against the replay unit, you would understand.
Rating: 1 / 5
Its great to be able to record things when you want but this model only has 2 tuners so unless you want both tvs to be watching the same thing there is no way to make use of the swap and pip buttons if you have it connected to another tv. It holds a pretty decent amount of video though up to 150 hours. It only has 1 USB input. Its kind of big so you would expect that it has a place to plug in your tvs power cord into it but it doesnt. You can pause but thats about the only good thing since you cant swap to skip commercials.
Rating: 3 / 5
Without a Dish Network subscription there are still a few things you can do with an old DVR 625. I found that you can watch the videos stored on the DVR without a service card. It cannot be used to record, watch TV inputs or USB memory stick. You can take the 235 G hard drive out and copy all the recorded shows to your own PC. Just remove the hard drive from the DVR and connect it to a desktop computer. The Dish Network uses a Linux hard disk format called Ext. (Dish Network uses Linux to run its unit if that helps.) You will have to Mount the three unnamed partitions to see them with Windows. Just use the Windows disk manager to see the DVR hard disk. A special program like Ext2fsd can be used to label the partitions. As far as I know the rest of the DVR 625 unit is useless without a subscription. I just kept the 235 gig HD in my desktop computer and trashed the rest of the DVR 625 unit.
Rating: 1 / 5
not really highly recommended, i bought this thing and it never come with a smart card which costs about $50 thru the company even tho it was supposed to. which i called the dish network they asked me if it had one and i told them no. when i contacted the ones from here i was told that the smart card was built in, for which it is not, i finally got the card after spending $50 and loaded it and tv’s still would not work, it was defective, I somehow lucked out and got the right technician who replaced the box not knowing that i bought it from here instead of an actual dealer. he come out and replaced the box with one of theirs and have had no problems since. so, no, i would not recommend buying this here, just go to your local radio shack and buy from there. I would have given it a 0 star but it would not let me. the only thing i can say positive is that i was shipped very quickly.
Rating: 1 / 5
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Feature loaded! The dual tuner works great. Now, I can be watching one show in the basment, while my wife watches another upstairs, both using all of the DVR functions from the same receiver. Plus, countless times I have recorded two shows at once while watching another on DVR — which used to be unheard of with Satellite TV.
Rating: 5 / 5