I own an HD DirecTivo, HR10-250. I got a vague email starting with this paragraph:



What exactly does this mean?

If it's just the usual thing of how some of the channels are on the MPEG-4 birds now, and I'm not getting all the channels I could be getting because I don't have MPEG-4: Yeah fine whatever.

If it's telling me that they're going to discontinue all HD programming on the older birds, and that I *must* have an MPEG-4 capable receiver to get some of the HD channels I'm currently getting, then I'm listening, but I want a timetable.

I've heard there's going to be a new HD DirecTivo coming in 2009. If I can wait, I'll wait. I don't want to move to the DirecTV brand of DVR, even temporarily, if I don't have to.

Anyone have any more information on this? I'd call them, but I just know that if I call that number, I'll just get some customer service rep in India who's going to spout a script. I don't want a script, I want technical answers. Anyone?

There are several threads on tivocommunity.com about this. Basically, if I understand it correctly, your HD satellite channels are about to go poof, but you should continue to get HD locals over the air, as well as the SD content you're getting now.

Do you have a link to an individual thread for me? Something with known timetables preferably?

The west coast local feeds have already been removed from the MPEG2 stream. While this took longer than I expected, I don't think the east coast will last until the end of the year. Since everything else is now simulcast in MPEG4, channels in the 70s are sure to follow soon after.

I'm interested in the 2009 DirecTivo boxes as well, but I'm not dying living with the HR2x machines. I can't say I strongly prefer one over the other.

I was going to say "I don't care about the HD Locals because I don't subscribe to that feature because I can get those OTA". But the truth is that my OTA HD channels are spotty and I've been thinking about subscribing to that service anyway.

I notice that the thread says that none of the DirecTV DVRs have OTA tuners. Ick.

You can get a $70 add-on called the AM21 to provide ATSC tuning to the HR21 boxes. I plugs into the USB port on the back and provides two ATSC tuners. Since you have an HR10-250, you can probably demand they provide that for no cost.

I have no experience with the OTA capabilities of the HR2x boxes.

Oooh. I also want to say that I imagine the Tivo software will be ported to the HR2x machines. Then, you would be able to pay an addition fee to have the software loaded on your boxes. Tivo has done this with comcast already. It makes sense since there is nothing wrong with the hardware. Why reinvent it?

You could argue that there is nothing wrong with the software either, but the interface is mostly a matter of preference. I find the HR2x software much more responsive than tivo, but dual live buffers would be nice to have again. I like that HR2x has an iTAP-like feature for searcing, but maybe Tivo has this now too? The media streaming features of the HR2x are not nearly as good as Tivo was, but it's still better than my PS3.

There's no question that DirecTV really effed-up on the HR20 launch, but none of those issues/bugs exist anymore. I know people still bitch about lock ups, but I never see that on any of my 3 boxes. I have a strong signal, so maybe that's it. I have peaked these 5-LNB dishes before, and it is indeed a pain. If you get a competent installer, I would imagine there will be no issues.

Got the unit this morning. HR22. Purty nice, 500gb I'm told. Schweet. Locked up once already. Gr. Had to yank plug to get it working again. But hasn't locked since.

Got a few questions, uncle google isn't helping, anyone know the answer to these questions?:

- When programming the unit to tape an entire series (what we used to call the "Season Pass" feature on the Tivos), it appears as though it only ever gets the series for *that* channel. What about shows that are played on multiple different networks? On the Tivo, by default, if I just told it to get a bunch of episodes of MASH, it would grab those episodes from whatever channels on which it was available (TVLand, Hallmark, whatever). Can I make the HR22 do this same thing without having to program a separate season pass for each channel?

- The remote control appears to do a lot of interesting things with "codes". For instance, there is a code to do volume-punch-through, much like I could do on the OneForAll-compatible remotes, thus allowing the volume buttons to always control my stereo's volume. Is there a location on the internet that lists what all these codes are (for this rc64r remote that came with the receiver)?

- The remote has a discrete off and a discrete on button, which will power down my TV+HR22, or power up my TV+HR22. I'd like a third device to power down and up along with the TV+HR22. I'd like my recevier to go down and up too. Does anyone know if I can program the remote to do this?

Anyone know about these?




This would be very nice. I much prefer the Tivo software. My first question above represents a situation where the Tivo is, by default anyway, superior.

The answer to this one appears to be no.



For this one, it appears as though the remote responds to at least some of these codes. Not as much as a fully programmable OneForAll device.

A harmony is starting to look better and better these days.

I don't think Season Pass recorded the same show on multiple channels either, but I am out of practice. I think the only way to do that is do a "keyword search" and set it to auto-record.

Harmony is definitely the way to go for a remote. The DirecTV one isn't very good and it doesn't support discrete on/off codes on all tvs... even ones that support it.

If it has USB host ports on it, then check to see if it also powers those down when the unit is "off". If so, then just purchase a $5 USB power relay, and plug your external gear into that.

Cheers

Nope, all I ever had to do was hit "Season Pass" on, say, "Family Guy", and it would record it from our local Fox station as well as the syndicated cable channels on which it aired.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't work in my particular situation, on two separate levels. 1: When I say "off", it's really not off, it's just putting the receiver into standby mode, where it turns off its user interface but keeps recording shows in the background. So I don't think the USB ports shut off in that case. 2: Even if it did, "pulling the plug" on my stereo has the opposite problem, where when you plug it back in you still need to bring the stereo out of its own standby mode with the remote (and then reset which input it's on).

I think my real solution is to program my current one-for-all compatible remote to fit the new receiver, or shell out for a harmony. Then I can do macros for everything I want to do.

Never owned Tivo, but I think searching on Title would be the only way to get every instance of a show on multiple channels with DirecTV. Would be nice if they just gave you the option on the "Record series" menu.

Even that doesn't work.

On the HR22 receiver, "Search by Title" is what I was doing. After searching by title, it shows me a list of the same show on, say, five different channels. It forces me to pick only one of those channels before I can get the "record a series" option. When I do that, it has text on the screen saying "...only on this channel...".

My "real solution" that we use here, is simply to press the on/off buttons on both remotes. It's not like we don't need the exercise!

Having only one remote for all my gear is a "thing" with me.

The One For All remotes do a pretty good job of it for the most part. The Harmony units are looking more and more attractive every day though.

I dunno. I'd rather keep the extra money for other things.

Cheers

I think you're right, Tony. My wife is a Seinfeld fanatic, so I just set up a season pass to record all episodes of Seinfeld. We get both the Fox and TBS reruns.

I think they only time a choice of channel comes in play when setting up season passes is when you select whether to record a show on the regular or HD version of a channel. It will know which you prefer based on which one you picked when you set the season pass up.

You need to do a keyword search. Then you will be able to autorecord.

OK I'll give that a try.

I thought I'd mention one cool surprise that I discovered about the unit.

The HR22 receiver unit has ethernet so that you can download Video On Demand from the internet. But I had already used up the two ganged ethernet wires I was running to the AV rack for my Rio Receiver and for my Empeg dock.

On the back of the HR22 unit are two ethernet ports. I tried to look up details about them on the web and in the manuals, but I couldn't find out any information about how to use the second one; every document shows only one of the ethernet ports being used. So I just *tried* it and it worked: I can successfully daisy chain the HR22 and the Rio Receiver on a single ethernet cable. Huzzah!

The ethernet port is also used for DirecTV2PC. I don't know how well that works though because none of my PCs have enough power.

This reminds me of another useful gizmo I found on ebay: RJ45 Splitter. A pair of these is a neat and effective way to add another ethernet drop without having to run more cable. Requires a second port on the hub/switch, of course.

Cheers

AKA Wishlist, When a Wishlist is recorded it shows up in the Season Passes with a different icon. A Captain America like blue shield with a white star.

Otherwise, just picking a show from the guide, choosing record, then following the season pass option, gets only the showings on that channel.

The neat thing about wish lists is that you can decide to stop recording them, but the wish list remains and may be resumed as a season pass in the future.

The bad, A title search Wishlist may grab anything. "Stargate" will get not only SG1, and Atlantis on all channels, but also the animated version.

They've (somewhat) recently added some nice advanced features to wishlists, including negative boolean operators.

*grumble* TiVo *grumble* UK support of the old S1 units is even worse now. They've changed some things at the server end and suggestions no longer work and there isn't a fix.

On S1 units, actual show recordings use a TiVo server generated ID. However, suggestions on a S1 use an ID generated by Tribune Media Services who provide the guide data to TiVo. They've extended the length of the ID because they were running out of available IDs. S1 units don't like this and they won't provide a fix because of the amount of work required to upgrade the old 2.5 software.

Yup. I've been using the splitter trick on network runs for about 12 years now. Works great. Works on the principle that only four wires out of the eight are actually used for a given ethernet run, so you can gang two network connections on a single cat-5 cable. Sometimes I use pre-made plugs for the purpose, sometimes I use hand-made breakout boxes.

In the particular instance that I described, where I already had two ethernet plugs in use, those two plugs just happened to be *already* from a split. I had run only one ethernet wire from the router in the basement up to the AV rack in the living room, and split it at both ends so I could get two plugs there. Adding the HR22 meant needing a third connection off of a single cat-5 wire, which can't be done with the splitter trick. My choices would have been: a) run another wire from the basement, b) put a hub in the AV rack, or c) magic faeries come to my rescue and let me daisy chain the HR22. For the life of me, I didn't expect that it actually would end up being (c).

Right. On a *tivo*, that's the feature name and that's how it works. I'm talking about the DirecTV (non-tivo) DVR here. Does it also have the same feature name and the same icon on the DirecTV unit?



On my Tivo, I would get showings on every channel, not just one of them. That's what I was saying earlier in this thread.

Perhaps the difference was that I was doing a Search By Title to find shows for my season passes, instead of picking the show from the Guide screen. I could imagine it working that way.

But in any case, I'm certain that, on the *tivo*, I did not need to do a Wish List to get a given TV show on all its channels. I only needed a single Season Pass, and it would get all instances of that show no matter which channel.

My problem is that I can't find similar functionality on the *DirecTV* DVR device, and that's what I'm looking for.

I haven't tried the previously-suggested keyword search feature of the DirecTV DVR yet, perhaps I'll try that tonight when I'm back home. It sounds like doing so might have the same drawbacks as the "Wish List" feature of the Tivo.

Boolean searches are also available with the DirecTV boxes:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1564551&postcount=2

Now THAT is a very useful little reference. Thanks!

Wow. That's an oddly awkward and incomplete implementation.

But having it *at all* on that device? Incredibly useful.

Yeah you are right I never have used wish lists and my Tivo would record the show on multiple channels if I got a season pass. I could live without that I guess but I want suggestions and no one else will do that it seems.

Tony,

The only way to do what you want on the DirecTV DVR is to do a keyword search, the choose the "Autorecord" option that appears on the left of the results screen.

But, having said that, I'm 100% positive that a Season Pass on a TiVo box is tied to a specific channel. Setting up a Season Pass for a particular show on a particular channel will record all instances of that show on that particular channel only.

http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/technicalsupport/compatibilityhelp/Glossary_of_Terms.html Not a detailed reference, but still.

Keep in mind that when you go to the Now Playing list and open the folder for that show, you may find other instances of that show from other channels thrown in there. But, if you do, that's because the suggestions engine picked them up, and that's no guarantee that any episode on any other channel will always be recorded.

Now, it's possible that TiVo has modified this behavior in some recent release for the standalones. But it's definitely the way Season Passes have always worked on the DirecTV boxes.