A lot of the things that make all Dish Network satellite receivers easy to use and increase the amount of enjoyment that you can have from watching TV can be found on Dish Network's HDTV receivers as well. There are currently two models of HDTV receivers that Dish Network provides for anyone who subscribes to its high definition television programming packages. The basic one is called the ViP 211 and the more advanced one is called the ViP 622 DVR.
The basic model, the ViP 211, is analogous to the Dish 301 standard definition satellite receiver model. Both will provide a TV signal to a single TV set and provide access to all of the software and other interactive features that you expect with Dish Network. These features of course include on screen Caller Id, favorites lists, theme lists, even timers, Parental Control Locks, and of course the Dish Interactive Electronic Program Guide- also known as the EPG. The Parental Control Locks and the Electronic Program Guide are probably the most commonly used features. The Parental Control Locks allow you to set up safeguards that prevent children in your household from accessing programming that you deem to be inappropriate for their level of maturity. This can be done according to the MPAA ratings of movies or time of day, and you can even block specific TV shows as well as entire channels. Of course, the adults in your household can still watch the programming that they want by entering a simple password. The Electronic Program Guide is probably the software feature that you'll use the most. It allows you to read up on each and every one of the programs that you might want to watch and then decide what you want to watch. The EPG is really indispensable when it comes to figuring out what you want to watch on TV. The only major difference between the ViP 211 and the Dish 301 is that the ViP 211 will display HDTV programming as well as standard definition television programming.
The ViP 622 DVR is a much more advanced receiver overall than the ViP 211. The ViP 622 DVR has a Digital Video Recorder built into it as well as the capability to deliver two separate TV signals to two separate TV sets at the same time. The only disadvantage of watching TV on the two separate sets is that the receiver automatically down converts HDTV programming to standard def before sending it to the second TV- even if the second TV is an HDTV set. The Digital Video Recorder is really a great bonus feature for this piece of equipment. The Digital Video Recorder can be programmed using software that's integrated into the Electronic Program Guide and will record up to two hundred hours of standard definition TV programming or thirty hours of HDTV video. Of course if you record a combination of the two formats you'll end up with a maximum possible storage capacity of something more than thirty hours and less than two hundred hours.
All of these features mean that Dish Network's HDTV receivers have clearly come of age.
