Direc VOD? Cant get a straight answer

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Yes my HR20 passed the network connection test for the internet. Heres a overview of what I have done.

My laptop which has built in wirless connectivity also has an eithernet port on on it. This is the computer we always use in the living room to access the internet. I ran a eithernet cable from my HR20 to my laptops eithernet port. I then went to "Network and Sharing Center" in the control pannel of Windows Vista Home Premium. I clicked on "Manage Network Connections" and selected both my wireless and eithernet adapter at the same time. I then right mouse clicked and selected "Bridge Connections". I made sure my internet still worked on the laptop then went to the network menu on the HR20. I then connected and everything passed with flying colors.

I didn't have "On Demand" in the menu until today.
 
Sounds about right, but I don't have Vista so not sure of all it's settings. As I said, if you just recently did this then just give D* some time to enable DoD (ch 1000) on your box. If it's been a couple days then I defer to others to see if they can assist, sorry. Or just consider getting a standalone cable/DSL router and use that for sharing your internet connection, they're fairly inexpensive.
 
I just hooked it up today so I should give it some time.

I have wireless router for my internet connection. Thats how my laptop connects to the internet. The cable modem connects to the router and my laptop connects to the router wirelessly.

I had no other way to conncet the HR20 to the internet as the router is in the other room. I know about those adapters that everyone has been talking about but, I can't seem to find them in stock ever. Could I just use another wirless router and use that in the living room? I could make that connect to the other router's internet connection and then always leave my HR20 connected?

Could a reset or call to DTV do the trick to make it go quicker? I just want to try it out to see if it's something the wife and I would even like to keep.

Will this allow me to share the recorded shows on the HR20 with the computers on my network to watch those shows on my computer?

Sorry for so many questions but I am very interested in this VOD.
 
If you just hooked it up today then wait a day or two. And PLEASE don't call DirecTV on problems with this since it's still a beta feature and they're not set up to handle DoD issues at this time.

What the network connection allows, besides access to the DoD content, is the Media Share function that allows the HR20 to view JPEG's or play MP3's from your laptop with the correct software (Windows Media Player, Twonkyvison, TVersity are some). With the latest Cutting Edge software (see the Cutting Edge section for info if you haven't) release you can also view some videos from a PC on your network. You can't view content from the HR20 on your PC or share programs with other HR20's on the network and you can't store content from the HR20 on a PC.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks Rad for all your help. I'm like a little kid waiting for Christmas to make this all work. I won't call DirecTV on this.

Do you think I could buy another wirless router and have it connect wirlelessly with the other one to allow a constant connection for the HR20 without having to use my laptop all the time to use the On Demand features?
 
Thanks, I found a step by step guide how to set the Linksys WRT54G up as a client to make this all happen. I'm gonna run and get the router and to try it out. I'll let ya know how it all turns out. I assume as long as the HR20 passes the internet test I'm all good?

Thanks again for all your help. This forum is great.
 
Good news: When I returned from CC VOD was up and working like a charm.

Bad news: The Linksys WRT54G v8 only has 2mb of flash memory so I can't flash the firmware with the 3rd party software needed to make things happen.

I guess I will to wait until Newegg gets some BUFFALO WLI-TX4-G54HP's in. In the mean time I can use my laptop bridge to get content when I want on VOD.
 
That's good news. IIRC someone said the Buffalo's were off the market for some patent dispute, didn't know when they were going to come back on. I thought some folks said they were able to get the Linksys wireless game adapter to also workm, might want to check some of the networking threads to check on that.
 
guys, check your account statements online. i just discovered a brand new entered 1/8 $0.00charge for directv on demand. this sounds like a good indicator national release has started or at least, made it to the southeastern region.

i don't have a router so i can't check if i have anything yet!
 
Alright, I now have a PS3 for the Blu-ray player. It has wireless and is connected to the internet. It also has a eithernet jack. Does anyone know if I can use the PS3 like a bridge?

Ex. PS3 is connected to the internet wirlessly, I run eithernet from the HR20 to the eithernet jack on the PS3 to connect the HR20 to the internet.

Is something like this possible?
 
Alright, I now have a PS3 for the Blu-ray player. It has wireless and is connected to the internet. It also has a eithernet jack. Does anyone know if I can use the PS3 like a bridge?

Ex. PS3 is connected to the internet wirlessly, I run eithernet from the HR20 to the eithernet jack on the PS3 to connect the HR20 to the internet.

Is something like this possible?

I would doubt it. Wireless is great on a laptop where you can watch for problems with the signal. On embedded systems like the HR20, an ethernet connection significantly reduces issues. You can spend about the same amount of money on a homeplug pair of devices that will more than suffice. They require zero configuration and run at more than adequate speed for the HR20.

The theoretical advantage of 54Mbps versus around 14Mbps of cheap homeplug devices aren't that great. The homeplug will much more consistently hit its target bandwidth. Wireless can be degraded by any number of factors, including neighbors using the same frequency for their wireless to cordless phones.

If you really want good performance, run an ethernet cable to the HR20. If you can't run ethernet, buy a homeplug pair (from the cheap ones to the "HD" variety with a higher bandwidth rating). I would only use wireless as a last resort.
 
Yes, and those are the homeplug devices to which I refer. These are not to be confused with the ISP over powerline devices.

How much do they charge?

The cheapest kit at Fry's or Best Buy is Netgear's 108Mbps kit with 2 plugs for $79.
 
Better the OP gets the home power networking adapter kit from DirecTV for $30. The same thing at the store is about $70-$80.
i wanted to buy one of these from directv but could not find it on their website, anyone know where it is, Thank you
 
I got mine free from my isp, ust complained loud enough about having interference with my wireless signals and they sent me two powerline adaptors at no charge, and it works dandy with the hr20-700.
 
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