Dish Network DTVPal DVR to ship in December

(Credit: Dish Network)

After a delay of several months, Dish Network will be releasing the DTVPal DVR in mid-December. The antenna-friendly HD DVR will retail for $250 (after a $50 instant rebate).

You may remember the DTV Pal DVR as the EchoStar TR-50. That's the name under which it was launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, where it garnered CNET's Best of CES award for the home video category.

The latest iteration of the DTVPal DVR is pictured above. While the name and look of the product have changed a bit, it appears that it retains its core feature set: the ability to record digital TV programming to its internal hard drive (30 hours of HD video or 150 hours of standard-def), a 7-day electronic programming guide, and--the big one--no additional subscription fee or contract. That last point is a big distinction from TiVo DVRs, which require a subscription fee above and beyond the cost of the hardware. Dish is also reaffirming that the device supports closed captioning, program search, and analog passthrough.

The DTVPal DVR will be available for pre-order starting November 19 at dtvpal.com. (It's not eligible for the $40 government DTV coupon, which is why Dish is throwing in the instant rebate.)

I know from my e-mail that there have been quite a few consumers looking for just such a device--an HD DVR for over-the-air programming that doesn't require a monthly fee. The question now is whether or not the DTVPal DVR will live up to its impressive specs, as well as to its excellent satellite-only predecessors such as the ViP722. Dish has promised us a review sample by the end of the month, so we should be able to share a full review soon.

[stedlj]

30 hours of HD video, a bit on the low end! So it comes with what a 250GB hard drive which is less than $50 away from say a 750GB or even 1TB. $299 maybe a better selling point than $350 but I would think being able to recored 90 or 120 hours of HD vs 30 would make up the difference!
Count me in for one at $300 but I for one would be happier to pay $400 for 1TB HD and 2 HD tuners!!!

[martykeath]

Didn't the CES version have 2 tuners. Is there any reason not to believe it won't have 2 tuners?

[ChimaC]

Excuse me, yes it does have 2 tuners. It almost feels like a dream, they kept putting the release date further and further out.

[eluebehusen]

My DTVPal's timer settings get wiped out whenever there's a power outage. Is this something that will be addressed with the DTVPal DVR? I hope so... cos this is a killer otherwise. Our current analog DVD-HD recorder does not have this problem, so I just assumed when I ordered my DTVPal that it would be the same with the new technology. Alas, every time I take the time to set up schedules, they get blown away whenever we lose power; needless to say, this is getting old, and I don't want to buy another Dish DTV product that has the same flaw.

[theaudiodoc]

Hopefully it is addressed, but, you should not be operating any of your equipment without a battery backup! If not to protect sensitive circuitry, to avoid interruption of programing! Like a PC, most of these products will reboot when power is interrupted -- worst case scenario, they'll fry!

[SnittyKitty]

I'd recommend buying an APC UPS for the express purpose of your home-audio equipment. Depending on the size of your battery-backup simply shut the equipment down and preserve the life of the battery and preserve your settings. Personally, I use APC UPSs on all my computers and sensitive electronic equipment and DSL modem.

[eluebehusen]

Follow Up: First, Thx for the replies... I will follow this advice inre to a battery backup. If there is one in particular u recommend, pls let me know. I'll do some research as well. Second, as it turns out, the DVR does remember recording timers in the event of a power outage, so DISH did address the problem. Third, I had ongoing problems with auto-rebooting, and was in contact with DISH Tech, who informed me they were aware of the problem and were going to address it in the next Firmware upgrade, which never arrived. Fourth, had a bizaare striped screen show up last week, which was disconcerting. It went away with a restart, but that was a prelude to my final issue. And finally, had a total failure of the unit, with a blackscreen; some sort of Hard Drive failure. They are replacing the unit, so hopefully the issues will be resolved. However, if I have a piece of advice, it is to email Tech Support rather than phone, cos that left a paper trail that was rather convincing. It was the email support that told me they were going to replace the unit, gave me the number to call, and armed with that info I experinced no problems. Hopefully, it is done.

[tubaloth]

Can somebody clarify what is standard definition? Is that the normal over the air stations you get Digital TV? Its not like you can set this to record in standard or HD, its pretty much just what ever the show is right?
I hope to see the review soon...

[Etobicoke-Lakeshore]

tubaloth , standard definition can best be though of as non-high definition - 4x3 aspect ratio, lower resolution (known as 480i). Note that upconverted standard definition (the shows where there are black pillars at the side of the picture) will probably waste space recording black pixels.

re: its pretty much just what ever the show is right?

Correct.

I too want to see some hands-on independent review before jumping in.

[w4nng1]

All the non-subcription NTSC DVR's that I know of, have A/V input of some form. It appears the DTVPal DVR does not. IMHO that's a bit of an aw-shucks. Means it will record only OTA ATSC signals. [RF from antenna]. Be nice to find a DVR that had both ATSC and video input. I would like, for example, to record from other devices like my existing Dish 811 which I use for the non-broadcast channels.

[kerrym80]

So wat happeed to the Eval unit that Disk was going to send to Cnet.

[campbjp]

Is anyone else having a problem with their DTV Pal DVR freezing? I'm just trying to figure out if I have a defective unit or if this is a wide spread problem.

[imedgeman]

campbjp - is sounds like a widespread problem... check the av forums @ http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1099071 for other user's comments on this issue.

[rybrooks]

BEWARE! Do NOT order this. You will instantly be charged for it and good luck if you have problems or need assistance.
On 12/5/08 I placed an order for the DTVPAL DVR by telephone and was told it would not ship before 12/16/08. I called back on 12/09/08 after I had determined the signal at my location was not strong enough to receive all channels ( I have DirecTV because my terrestrial reception is so bad). I was told by a customer service representative (who I believe was at an offshore site) that the product had already shipped (!) and the only recourse was to refuse the shipment when UPS delivered it. I noted that my VISA account was charged $276.41 as soon as my order was processed on 12/6/08, even though nothing had been shipped. As of 12/16/08, I had still not received the DTVPAL DVR so I realized the customer service rep had lied about the shipment so I wouldn't cancel.
On 12/16/08 I called Dish Network, first the sales department (Shannon), who confirmed that NONE of the DTVPAL DVR's had been shipped as yet but could not help with this item and so put me through to customer service where I spoke again with an offshore person. ?Jessica?? said first that the order had been shipped, but when I asked for a shipping tracking number, she was unable to provide one. Then I asked to speak with her supervisor, so she put me on hold for 10-15 minutes. She came back on line, said she would connect me and then hung up on me.
I called back again and ?Jerry? put me through to customer service. I was connected with ?Jessica? who said I could not cancel the order, then said that only the executive division could cancel and issue a refund, but I would have to call back to get the refund. I asked for a supervisor and was eventually connected to ?Ryan? (also offshore). He worked on the issue and said he had sent it up to be canceled and a refund would be processed. He also gave me an RA# .
On 12/24/08, I came home to find the DTVPAL DVR box (no shipping box) out in my driveway in front of my garage door. So it is apparent that I was simply stalled by Dish ?customer service? until it was too late to prevent the order being shipped. Their email response is for me to return at my expense, but there is no mention of a refund.
Why if this is such a "great product" does Dish treat it as "all sales final" with no chance to cancel an order?

[Collin563]

I received a DTVPAL DVR in Dec.. 2008. It was riddled with problems. It would turn off by itself. Lights would come on the unit, picture would dissapear, and the unit would not respond to remote. Is very sad as this is a great idea which many waited so long for.

[SnittyKitty]

My wife's mother recently got new service with Dish Network and they sent her the 625 Dual Tuner which isn't a bad DVR. Reading the bill is like an AT&T bill. There's the monthly service and then there's the DVR free $5.98, we don't have a land line $5.00 and the Home Protection Plan $5.99. That's $16.97 and times 12 is $203.64 a year extra. I've been looking for a straight up HD DVR that does exactly what this DVR does, record over-the-air. No dink-you-to-death fees. About time!

[docemc]

It works pretty well but has bugs. I've been reporting problems for three months but they haven't come up with an software upgrade

[kstebleton]

I just bought one of these last week, previewed it for a few days, and delivered it to the parents, who are mid-80 in age.

This is one fantastic box! Mom was using it as a DTV converter box seconds after it was hooked up, and shortly thereafter calling up shows I'd recorded a few days earlier.

I had it out for 3 days testing it, and it didn't crash on me, and so far the folks have had no trouble either. For the money, this thing runs circles around digital capable VCR's and DVD recorders.

A++ device.

While ordering, the credit card fraud prevention kicked in, and I had to call to verify that the order was in the mill. There, I did find an ignorant DISH network employee who didn't know what the DVR was, and tried to offer me Platinum packages or some sort of rubish. DISH doesn't support this very well, but my unit needed NO support whatsoever. This box rocks!

[outdancing]

I finally figured out a solution to my DTVPal Plus turning itself on when the TV wasn't on and not being able to turn it off with the remote. It would also turn itself off and back on while I was watching a program or the picture will freeze on the screen but the sound would keep going in the background for whatever I was watching. I had even turned it off to watch certain shows in Analog format because of this and it would turn itself on and kill the show I was watching.

I decided to see what would happen if I pretended it was brand new out of the box and start all over. I went into the menu and set it back to the Factory Defaults. Then rescanned for new channels and waited for it to power back up. Since I did this it runs as well as it did since I first hooked it up. It has managed to behave for the last 2-1/2 hours.

Maybe these things are kind of like computers and when they freeze up and you just have to restart them from its original down state.

And by the way, I am a Blonde!

[GslMusic]

Quote: "It has managed to behave for the last 2-1/2 hours." - wow that's a record. The root of the problem is a lack of accountability and the fact that such companies like this get away with borderline low-quality, lack of testing, junior-engineers in charge of "designs", managers that override quality control concerns etc. This is why we have and need certain justified class action lawsuits and why we have and need organizations like consumer reports and the (toothless) BBB to name a few.