There seems to be something more to this story than we know. My system is the SWM system with two DVR's. One is the HR24-200 and the other one is the HR21-100.
I just performed the following test:
I turned off the power to the HR24. Yes I completely turned it off since it is powered via a power strip. I turned off the strip. I left the HR21 turned on.
I went outside and disconnected my incoming coax from the dish. I then powered the HR24 back up. While it was powering up I went to the HR21 and started watching a recorded program (remember the HR21 had not had the power removed). No problem watching a prerecorded program. It even allowed me to watch a prerecorded program from the HR24 which was "waiting on a satellite signal".
I then went to the HR24 which was in the part of it's reboot where it was waiting for a d/l from the dish, which it obviously wasn't going to get. At this point I pressed the Menu button on the remote and it immediately took me to the normal Menu where I scrolled down to the Satellite section and went to the signal strength option and then Signal Meters. This HR24 stayed on this screen for approximately 6 minutes before it did reboot which would be plenty of time for me to aim my antenna, but a few more minutes here would be better.
After the HR24 rebooted and while at the waiting for d/l screen I pressed List. It would not bring up list. I pressed Menu which came right up as it did previously and THEN at this point pressed list. My recorded programs came right up and I started watching one of them in the normal manner. After approximately 6 minutes it rebooted. The coax is still disconnected from the dish.
Obviously the 6 minutes seems to be the magic number, at least on my HR24.
While I know things do change including updates to the DVR's software, I can attest to the above with absolute certainty as of 4-21-13 at 8:30am CDT.
