DirecTV does not support multi room DVR functionality DISH does

[Dwight_B]

I was a DISH network customer for a long time. Recently I switched because I was not happy with the DISH network customer support.

One of the key criteria for my business was that DirecTV must be able to do what DISH network does, specifically provide DVR functionality (pause, rewind etc) on each set. DISH does this effortlessly.

With my DISH setup I had a single DVR in my family room and a simple STB in the other rooms. With this setup I had full DVR functionality AND access to DVR recordings on each set.

I was told by the DirecTV sales guys that DirecTV could do this with no extra cost and I believed them since DISH network could do it.

DirecTV CANNOT do it and this really makes me mad and now I am stuck on this SHITE network or get slammed with $400 if I go off the service.

I have asked them to provide me with this functionality and they say it will cost me an extra $300 including gear and install. They cut down the cost to $150 but it is still not good enough

Because of this I want to make DirecTV's life miserable but I can't because I am not big enough nor can type fast enough

Also the channel acquisition time with DISH is MUCH better than DirecTV.

 

[JAG72]

Feature is coming soon and I personally like the way Directv is doing it over the way Dish did.

 

[Dwight_B]

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you know how soon this feature is coming on the DirecTV system? For the record how is DirecTV going to be doing vs. DISH?

 

[JAG72]

It is in testing right now. What receivers do you have from Directv? If you let me know that I could tell you if you might be able to help with the testing of the feature.

 

[JAG72]

With my DISH setup I had a single DVR in my family room and a simple STB in the other rooms. With this setup I had full DVR functionality AND access to DVR recordings on each set.

And how were you able to do this with Dish. From when I had them you had to have a 622 or 722 DVR and it was just using the coax feed from the receiver to control one more TV. You could not do this with multi TV's unless you wanted to watch the same programming on the other TV's

 

[Dwight_B]

I have an HR22 on the primary setup and D12's on the other sets. If I can get this soon I will then be a happy DirecTV customer.

 

[Dwight_B]

This is embarrassing but I don't know exactly how it was accomplished. It is embarrassing because I am an engineer in the business and helped to build the DirecTV uplink in Culver City, CA. I don't even remember the model number but I had a DVR in the family room and a basic STB in the other rooms. With that setup each set had a unique remote that had full DVR capability. I will have to figure out how the did it now that I am caught flat footed by my own question.

 

[Dwight_B]

Oh and each set could watch it's own unique programming...

 

[JAG72]

Sorry but that can not be done with Dish Network equipment. You can't run a DVR to more than two TV's and all watch their own unique programing. The only way Dish does MRV is to have a DVR control two TV's.

 

[Dwight_B]

I am telling you what I had. I had a DVR in my family room and basic sets in other rooms. I had unique programming on each set. Are you telling me I did not have what I knew I had?

 

[Dwight_B]

You know come to think of it I had three TV's for only a short time at the very beginning and I don't remember if it had unique programming. For most of the time I had only two sets, one in the family room and one in my bedroom. So maybe it was one DVR running two TV's... in fact I am sure now that was how it was done. The DVR could be in one mode and the programming would be the same on both sets in which case I could do PIP on the main set or in dual mode. You are right.

 

[Dwight_B]

So will I be able to participate with this new functionality? I hope so. I like some feature so of DirecTV but this is a deal breaker.

 

[scarebear]

it's coming and it's done through ethernet
(also lol)

 

[Dwight_B]

LOL eh? Glad you have so much to add. Thanx. Brain fry on my part.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Well my mother has Dish (sold it to her when I worked at Radioshack) and the way the dvr worked was it was an independent dual tuner box. meaning tuner 1 and tuner 2 had completely different programming that could be watched seperately (D* doesnt offer this at this time) now tuner 1 on the dish dvr connected to the tv via composit, s, or coax, but tuner 2 had only a coax output. now the way that the second tv got the dvr was through this coax. the techs in my case ran the lines off the dish through the exterior wall into the receiver then the coax from tuner 2 went into the cable that was prewired in the house. down in our basement the techs toned out the line that went to my bedroom, then barreled it into the line running to my mothers room. likewise the other dish box (not a dvr) sent its 2nd tuner signal to my grandmothers room using the same method. now, the way I see it is if you only want to watch the same programming on multiple tvs (this is called mirroring and d* does it for 45$ per tv) you can just run the output into a cable splitter and then feed your lines that way.

 

[mlb]

Dish had a setup that you could control 2 TV's with 1 DVR, 1 set top box (only 1 TV could be HD if you wanted to watch separate programming).

DirecTV will have true MRV soon thanks to allowing you to stream video from a DVR to a non-DVR box.

I have no idea how you can be an engineer and not know how the Dish setup worked... it was very straight forward.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

It's coming, but won't work with your D12, since that does not have network capability. You will need a H21/H23, HR2x (possibly R22) or some as-yet unannounced future model.

 

[BlackHitachi]

It's coming, but won't work with your D12, since that does not have network capability. You will need a H21/H23, HR2x (possibly R22) or some as-yet unannounced future model.

I can't wait!! This will be so GREAT!!:up

 

[iwc5893]

I'm glad to see that DirecTV is still working on their single dish, single wire, single receiver solution.

 

[jacmyoung]

The soon to come D* MRV might still not be good enough for the OP because the remote receiver will not be able to do full DVR functions, only to playback from the other DVR with trickplays, but no searching, scheduling and programming recordings at the remote end.

The OP should have gotten two DVRs in the first place (and yes D* only charges a DVR fee once per account), there was some miscommunication during the ordering process.