Dish Network 625 DVR Dual Tuner (2 TV) Satellite Receiver Video Recorder Dish Player

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.

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.

Imagine if a DVR could be as easy, straightforward and reliable as a Blackberry and this is it.

This DVR responds quickly to instructions and never lags (delay) when you push a button like the Motorola's from the cable company's are famous for.

Just like the Blackberry thumbwheel, this thing is easy to use.

The menu paths are intuitive so when you initiate a task, you start with the first function then likely just keep pressing the "Select" button to finish your task, just like the Blackberry thumbwheel.

Now, lets remember this is a DVR receiving a signal from miles in the sky and reacts crisply, while the Motorola DVRs connected to "fast" cable lag and stall and while you're sitting there pressing the buttons in frustration....

ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS EXPLODE ONTO THE SCREEN AT ONCE, THOROUGHLY CONVERTING YOUR LOYALTY INTO HATRED FOR CABLE TV !!!

Leave the cable company just for this DVR.

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.

I believe in stable rates, good selection, low cost, and no compromises on features. The Dish network covers me on this, and the DVR unit I have from them only cements my goodwill with them.

I have tried the Cablevision DVR, for about two weeks, and I've used a friend's DirecTV unit as well. I don't claim to be well-versed in all DVRs and I know they are all different in user interface, if not basic function. Dish's 622/625 unit is superior to these three systems' DVR offerings in function and UI.

The 625 can accept two lines for Picture-in-Picture, or if you have to dishes already, you can split one signal and run the split signal into the back. This is a nice feature for people who want to minimize cable runs in the house.

The PiP function is remarkable: it will do aspect-preserved scaled side-by-side, as well as two inset sizes that can be moved to nine preset locations (think Brady Bunch). The DVR records both signals, as part of the "pause live TV" functionality. Basically it keeps two two-hour buffers rolling, which is nice because, well, let's say you're watching the game and your wife wants to watch HGTV, because she's a woman who likes to tweak your home. Instead of switching channels, swap the PiP focus to HGTV and pause your game. During a commercial, you can swap back to the game, unpause, and stay with the action. Nice, smart.

The recording timers can be set to early-start and/or late-stop, so if you think something will run late or start early, or if your programming drifts (local stations especially), this will help catch opening sequences and surprise endings.

One of the best features is the menu. The unit, and almost all new Dish units, are continually upgraded to provide better features. Searching can be done by description keyword (exact or somewhat wildcarded) or title keyword (exact or somewhat wildcarded); results are quick and thorough. The timers can be set with priorities to bump less-important shows for more-important ones; while it won't find the next airing automatically, you can see the skipped events and restore one to keep filling up your DVR.

The list goes on and on, but the best feature of all is the skip forward. It will skip 30 seconds forward, or back 10. So, with some practice, you can blip-blip past just about every commercial in the program. The skipping function is much better than Cablevision's, and although I haven't tried DirecTV's, I can't imagine it being *better*. This, my friends, is how everyone should be watching "24", "Survivor", and "House": saved to disk, commercials skipped. Time-shifting at its absolute best.

In closing, look, I'll be the first to say I haven't seen all the DVR options available, but if my year-old daughter can accidentally program Univision Noticias, you know the interface is easy to access and use. Clear, powerful, and Dish has probably the best technical support of any service I've ever experienced, and that included cable, telephone, cell phone, electric and gas, water, and the State of New Jersey. Try it, buy it, love it.

-Fred