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Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR

August 19, 2007

Many people have been writing me asking me what is the difference between the Dish Network ViP622 receiver and the new ViP722 receiver.

"Not much" has been my usual reply.

The new ViP722 receiver was announced back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show and it finally made its official release last week. The ViP722 is almost identical to its first generation sister, the ViP622, however here are the main differences:

1) The color is black, the older ViP622 is silver.

2) The ViP722 has a larger 500 gigabyte hard drive, while the ViP622 only has a 250 gigabyte hard drive.

3) The ViP722 features a Broadcom BCM7412 MPEG4 Decoder Chip, the ViP622 has a Broadcom BCM7411 MPEG4 Decoder Chip.

The major two differences are the hard drive and the MPEG4 decoder chip.

If you already own one of Dish Network’s ViP622 receivers, then the hard drive space issue should no longer be a concern as you can now add external USB storage to your ViP622.

This makes the big improvement on the ViP722 the new Broadcom BCM7412 MPEG4 decoder chip.

However how big improvement is this chip really?

On the MPEG4 in the unscientific tests that I have done, and that have been posted on the online forums, it appears that the picture quality on Dish Networks MPEG4 HD channels are identical between the ViP622 and ViP722. I know you’re asking yourself, "so then if they look the same then what’s the big difference?"

The answer my friends is VC-1.

No, not VH1… According to Wikipedia "VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard initially developed by Microsoft."

For those of you who are familiar with online streaming, think of VC-1 as a slightly advanced version of the Windows Media 9 streaming codec. For those of you techie folks out there, you might have heard that the rumor that the ViP622 also had VC-1 support built in, while this may indeed be true it is a really early version of the VC-1 standard and from the reports I have heard the VC-1 support on the ViP622 is very buggy. Thus only the new ViP722 will actually support and use VC-1.

So now the big question is, what will VC-1 be used for?

The answer is simple, Dish Network plans on using VC-1 sometime in the future to deliver it’s customers High Definition - Video On Demand.

While ViP622 owners will be able to enjoy standard definition video on demand via Dish Network’s upcoming "DishONLINE" ethernet based video on demand service scheduled to launch later this year, they will not be able to order and download HD content via the "DishONLINE" service.

If you are a ViP622 owner and don’t care about HD VOD then my advice would be to keep what you have now, it will work great for you for many years. However if your one of those folks who want’s to have it all available at your fingertips then the new Dish Network ViP722 MPEG4 High Defition DVR is for you.

Major Dish Network Outage On Saturday

On Saturday afternoon Dish Network customers we left without service for almost two hours. Customers were unable to get through to customer service reps at Dish Network to find out what was going on, and those who were lucky enough to get through were told it was an uplink issue.

The online disccusion forums at SatelliteGuys.US were quickly filled up by consumers looking for help to trouble shoot their equipment. Many were relieved to find that this was happening to others and that there was no issue with their equipment.

At press time there has been no official explanation for the outage from Dish Network. However we have received reports that there was a strong storm in Cheyenne, Wyoming which is the location of Dish Networks main uplink center.

Posted by Scott Greczkowski on August 19, 2007 | Comments (7)

8/29/2007 6:48:17 AM EDT

In response to: Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR
LeavingDirect for Dish commented:

Does the Vip722 support two HDTV's simultaneously via the HDMI and Component connections? According to Cnet the 622 does ... but before making the leap from Directv to Dish I thought I would inquire here. From Cnet: "The back panel of the Dish Network ViP622 naturally includes all of the connections you'll need for today's HDTV sets, and unlike with many cable box outputs, they're all active and ready to go. All outputs are also simultaneous; for example, you can hook up two HDTVs, one via component video and the other via HDMI, simultaneously."

8/21/2007 2:57:26 AM EDT

In response to: Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR
riffjim4069 commented:

Good read, but I would like to know if the Broadcom BCM7412 in the ViP722 is any faster than the Broadcom BCM7411 in the ViP622.

8/20/2007 8:38:42 PM EDT

In response to: Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR
Scott Greczkowski commented:

Sorry guys, had to clean up a few comments, seems like some kids from other sites wanted to play here.

This is not the place for it. :)

8/20/2007 10:46:50 AM EDT

In response to: Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR
David Bott commented:

You gotta luv them - don't you? I know I do.

8/20/2007 6:10:04 AM EDT

In response to: Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR
dfergie commented:

Yes, one of the online forums does have a "First Look" which took several page's to cover what Scott put in this article...there was no need ;)

8/20/2007 5:48:53 AM EDT

In response to: Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR
Ndcart commented:

I agree! Great summary. Even many of the Dish retailers aren't aware of the differences. I had my 722 installed Saturday, and I must say, I'm impressed. :)

8/20/2007 1:19:25 AM EDT

In response to: Dish Network's New Turbo Charged HD DVR
David Bott commented:

Good summary on the difference between the 622 and 722. There is a detailed "first look" that summarizes some of the key points on one of the online forums.

I had a busy weekend and was unaware of the Dish Network outage. Wonder if Dish Network will make an announcement on what happened.

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