D* and partial locals.....

[badtlc]

I hope someone can help me. I am trying to refer a friend to D* but they live in Joplin, MO. Directv carries the locals but I guess they are having a dispute with the local Fox and CBS stations. Therefore, D* does not offer those at this point. My friend needs to be able to DVR those channels.

From what I can gather, D* won't allow any way of recording OTA channels. Is there a way to get Springfield MO CBS and Fox stations? What about getting the NY CBS and Fox channels?

 

[raoul5788]

I hope someone can help me. I am trying to refer a friend to D* but they live in Joplin, MO. Directv carries the locals but I guess they are having a dispute with the local Fox and CBS stations. Therefore, D* does not offer those at this point. My friend needs to be able to DVR those channels.

From what I can gather, D* won't allow any way of recording OTA channels. Is there a way to get Springfield MO CBS and Fox stations? What about getting the NY CBS and Fox channels?

I don't know where you heard that you can't record ota channels, but that information is wrong. Using the AM21 ota tuner module, you can record local channels that Directv doesn't yet offer. If Directv does have local channels, they can be recorded on a dvr like any other channel.

 

[Mr Tony]

yeah just get an AM21 for $50 from D* and hook it to the DVR. Then he can record his locals from OTA (I do it all the time). I have one and it works awesome!

 

[badtlc]

Thanks. I asked DirecTV about the AM21 and they said they do not support it and I cannot buy one anymore. Then, I went and looked in my account and I could buy one online under the "accessories" tab under my equipment for $50.

I'll just tell my friend to get it ordered and then buy the OTA when he has equipment showing up on his account. I'm glad to hear the AM21 will provide DVR functionality to the OTA channels.

Does the AM21 work with the new HR24?

 

[dishrich]

It works with ALL of the HR2x & H2x receivers, as well as the R22's (except the HR20/H20's, which obviously don't need it...)

 

[Mr Tony]

yeah Directv said the same thing to me a couple months ago that I couldnt order a AM21.....but I went online and ordered it through the D* site

setup is easy
1. unplug the power cable from the reciever (the back of it) and plug that into the AM21
2. plug the "jumper" power cord from the AM21 to the D* receiver
3. Hook the USB cable from the AM21 to the reciever

power on and it will go through the reboot then will ask if you want to set up OTA. Plug in zip and it should load all the locals for the market. If there is a neighboring market that you can get you can enter that as a secondary market. The only drawback of the AM21 is you can't add channels manually. Its done automatically

 

[badtlc]

yeah Directv said the same thing to me a couple months ago that I couldnt order a AM21.....but I went online and ordered it through the D* site

setup is easy
1. unplug the power cable from the reciever (the back of it) and plug that into the AM21
2. plug the "jumper" power cord from the AM21 to the D* receiver
3. Hook the USB cable from the AM21 to the reciever

power on and it will go through the reboot then will ask if you want to set up OTA. Plug in zip and it should load all the locals for the market. If there is a neighboring market that you can get you can enter that as a secondary market. The only drawback of the AM21 is you can't add channels manually. Its done automatically

Thanks for the info. So you can enter two different zip codes and it will automatically load the info instead of scanning the channel signals? The area my friend lives in he can get 3 sets of locals depending on the direction he points his antenna. If he has it pointed to springfield, he cant get joplin locals and vice versa. I ask because I want to make sure he doesn't need to be pointed at joplin to load the joplin channel info.

 

[Jables]

No scanning involved - the box will load a pre-determined set of OTA locals based on the ZIP you put in.

 

[Mr Tony]

So you can enter two different zip codes and it will automatically load the info instead of scanning the channel signals?

yes I loaded in my zip to give me Minneapolis locals then it asks for a secondary and I put in 56001 for Mankato, MN which is just CBS & FOX

the drawback of not being able to scan is it loads ALL the main stations in the market and misses some smaller ones. Minneapolis DMA is HUGE so there are 12-13 stations that I remove from the list as I cant pick them up. Right now we're missing 23-3 which is a country music station that plays videos 24/7. That doesnt show