Dish customer with a DTV DVR question

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GoWulfpack919

SatelliteGuys Family
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Oct 14, 2009
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I've had it with Dish so I'm looking into switching but the Mrs has concerns about the DVR options with DTV.

I currently have two HD TVs and two SD TVs. If I go the "whole home DVR" route with Direct TV, I will want a HD-DVR, HD receiver and two SD receivers.

1) Can I record SD programming and watch SD recordings on my SD TVs? I realize it will network HD programming between my two HD TVs but I'm curious about the SD TVs as well.

2) How many programs can be recorded at once while watching others throughout the house?


Thanks in advance.
 
dtv

GoWulfpack919 said:
I've had it with Dish so I'm looking into switching but the Mrs has concerns about the DVR options with DTV.

I currently have two HD TVs and two SD TVs. If I go the "whole home DVR" route with Direct TV, I will want a HD-DVR, HD receiver and two SD receivers.

1) Can I record SD programming and watch SD recordings on my SD TVs? I realize it will network HD programming between my two HD TVs but I'm curious about the SD TVs as well.


2) How many programs can be recorded at once while watching others throughout the house?




Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

1) No, the Standard Def Receivers will NOT allow you to pull up recorded programs

2) TWO. You can record two things at once BUT the person watching the DVR will have to watch one of those programs that are being recorded or pull up something that has already been recorded.. On the HD receiver you can watch something else live while two recordings are being done.. I hope this helps
 
On any DirecTV DVR HD or SD, you can only record two streams at once, OTA or Satellite. You cannot record two and watch something else other than recorded TV.

As far as the SD receivers for the other TV's. Do what I did. I got HD receivers or HD DVRs on every TV so they can all share recordings. Two of my TV's are still SD. They work great! An HD receiver has s-video and composite video outputs to connect to SD televisions. They do not have coax however, in case your SD TV's do not have video inputs.
 
wildbill129 said:
On any DirecTV DVR HD or SD, you can only record two streams at once, OTA or Satellite. You cannot record two and watch something else other than recorded TV.

As far as the SD receivers for the other TV's. Do what I did. I got HD receivers or HD DVRs on every TV so they can all share recordings. Two of my TV's are still SD. They work great! An HD receiver has s-video and composite video outputs to connect to SD televisions. They do not have coax however, in case your SD TV's do not have video inputs.
Click to expand...



Now that's interesting. On one of my SD TVs I have the video inputs but on the other one I do not. I guess I could run it through a DVD player and run a coax from the DVD player to the TV? :confused:
 
Also, on the DirecTV HD receivers, is there an OTA antenna coax jack? I have on on my ViP211 from Dish.
 
You can feed the S-Video or composite outputs to a modulator (~$15-20), which will give you a channel 3/4 signal to run to the TV.

The current receivers do not have ATSC tuners but Directv sells the AM21 tuner, which is a dual-tuner device which connects to the receiver via USB. The OTA guide information is integrated with the satellite channels.
 
Bob Nielsen said:
You can feed the S-Video or composite outputs to a modulator (~$15-20), which will give you a channel 3/4 signal to run to the TV.

The current receivers do not have ATSC tuners but Directv sells the AM21 tuner, which is a dual-tuner device which connects to the receiver via USB. The OTA guide information is integrated with the satellite channels.
Click to expand...

What Bob said :up
 
guys - this is very helpful - thanks. i too am with dish and thinking of switching. i have 2 HD tvs and want two HR24's. my questions are:

is MRV the same as whole house dvr?
will i in effect have 4 tuners available for use with this setup?
will i be able to schedule recording for any of the 4 tuners from any tv. i know i can watch any recording from any HR24, but can i set up a timer for either HR24?
Can you record from the AM21 - so you end up with 3 tuners for that tv? (i have OTA). or can i at least record two shows and watch live OTA via the AM21?

thank you all in advance for your assistance!
 
- Yes. MRV and Whole House DVR are different ways of saying the same thing.
- You will have 4 tuners.
- You can not set up recordings on DVR#1 from DVR#2, but you can WATCH all recordings from either.
- The recording limit of an HR24 is 2 programs. The AM21 does not add another recorder. If you're recording 2 things and want to watch TV, you'd have to watch one of the things you're recording.

I skipped the AM21 for now. I'll be getting a pair of HR24s and I'll hook my OTA directly to my TV. If I can only record 2 streams at once, I think this will be fine. If the HR24 is busy recording 2 things I can switch over to OTA directly on the TV very easily (URC MX-980 remote.... I'll never look back!)

The AM21 would be nice for seamlessly integrating your OTA into your guide if that is of interest to you. In that case I'd run a splitter and take the OTA antenna feed to both the TV and AM21. Just because it's all about options.
 
cparker - thanks so much for clearing that up for me. i get it now (i think!). not sure i see the advantage of the AM21 - i would just hook up directly to tv as you mentioned.

to be clear tho - if i do have the AM21 and i'm recording two shows at the same time, can i at least watch ota live (i know i can't record it)?
 
I'm not sure on that one, eddieras.
I don't believe you can, but I am not sure and could be wrong so we'll need a more experienced D* sub to answer that one.

My understanding currently is that if both tuners in the HR24 are in use recording programs, that you can not watch something from the AM21. It would be REALLY nice if I'm wrong about that.
 
No, two tuners only in the DirecTV DVRs. You can record two ota or satellite and watch a recorded program.

The advantage to the AM-21 is the channels are integrated into the guide and you can record them like any satellite channel. If you want to be able to watch OTA and record two more split the antenna into the AM21 and your TV tuner.
 
thanks guys for the clarification - i do appreciate it. so for the whole house set up - i assume these HR24s come with RF remotes? do the boxes need to be hooked up to the internet?
 
eddieras said:
thanks guys for the clarification - i do appreciate it. so for the whole house set up - i assume these HR24s come with RF remotes? do the boxes need to be hooked up to the internet?
Click to expand...
Don't need to be hooked up to the internet. I have 5 older DVRs and 1 HD receiver running to a switch with Cat-5 with nothing going to the internet. If you're going to pay for their DECA install you might as well have them tie it into the net for VOD etc.
 
thanks again guys- i'm trying to make an informed decision on moving from dish to directv -mostly for HD center ice - esp MSG HD!
 
Hi guys. I too am thinking of switching to D* from E* and had some questions about the equipment I'm going to need to get the same recording capacity I currently have.

Right know I have the VIP722 DVR in the family room and two VIP211's in each of the bedrooms that have a EHD attached to them.

We record everything we watch so we can skip through commercials (tired of lawyer and political commercials). Most of our TV viewing is done in the family room but we do watch some TV in the MBR.

There are a few days during the week we record three (3) or four (4) shows at the same time in the family room (2 off sat and 2 off OTA) while we watch shows we previously recorded. In the MBR we record a couple of other shows (one is recorded at the same time as shows being recorded in the family room) every day that we watch when we go to bed.

My question is this, will three (3) D* HD DVR's (whole house setup) give me the same recording capacity I have today?

Another question I have is we are in Arizona so shows like Chelsea Lately and The Daily Show are on earlier here (east cost feeds) and wanted to know if that is the same case for D*.
 
If you get 2 HD DVRs and an HD receiver, you could record 4 things at once (2 things on each HD DVR) while watching something you had previously recorded.

OR you could watch live satellite TV on the HD Receiver while the 2 DVRs are each recording 2 shows. The HD receiver will be able to watch the shows you have recorded on the HD DVRs.

My current understanding is that the plain HD Receiver can not do the pause, rewind, etc when watching a show from a DVR over Whole Home DVR (MRV). It can only play it.
 
Thanks for the info. Sounds like if I want all of the recording capacity I need and full control of what I watch and how I watch it I'll need the three DVR's.

Now if D* would only get the HD versions of G4, E!, AMC, and BBC-America, I'd pull the trigger.
 
hemway said:
Thanks for the info. Sounds like if I want all of the recording capacity I need and full control of what I watch and how I watch it I'll need the three DVR's.

Now if D* would only get the HD versions of G4, E!, AMC, and BBC-America, I'd pull the trigger.
Click to expand...

The gun might get rusty by the time you get ready to fire it.
 
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