How Does DTV Handle HD in a Whole Home Setup?

[chargerrich]

I have not yet had my install (July 9) but am wondering, from a technical perspective, how the whole home DVR setup handles 1080p across all boxes.

So in my setup for example, I will have two HR-24 DVRs and 3 additional HD receivers. The CSR was very clear that any of these rooms would be able to share the DVR's programming and show it in any room in HD.

So Coax comes into the box from the Sat Dish to the receiver and the program is recorded in 1080p on the DVR. This means that (and I am assuming, again not installed yet) that Coax will be run to each receiver since wireless CANNOT do 1080p (or 720p for that matter).

Is this a correct statement?

Also does the whole home DVR display in 1080p or 1080i or perhaps even 720p (assuming program is recorded in 1080p)? The CSR was clueless on signal and resolution and could only say each would get HD (which could be 720).

Thanks.

 

[TigerpounceTN]

The recorded programs are unmodified and will display in whatever resolution you set your receiver to. The boxes will be wired using coax. Wifi and Ethernet are unsupported for mrv. If you want it that way then you have to connect the boxes together yourself and call DirecTV to enable the unsupported version of mrv.

 

[chargerrich]

OK that makes sense. Since DECA is in fact a proprietary means of sending a network signal (read Ethernet) over Coax, that is mainly used to support MRV. I guess it makes sense that the signal can then be sent over the same "network" (read DECA) to each receiver for display.

So in effect, if the program is captured in 1080 (or any other native resolution) it will display at that provided the TV can support it (otherwise a down conversion will take place).

Guess I just needed to better understand DECA but I think I got it now.

Thanks.

 

[SpaethCo]

OK that makes sense. Since DECA is in fact a proprietary means of sending a network signal (read Ethernet) over Coax, that is mainly used to support MRV. I guess it makes sense that the signal can then be sent over the same "network" (read DECA) to each receiver for display.

DirecTV is using DECA because they don't want to be in the business of helping people troubleshoot their home networks. Since you have to run a coax line to every receiver anyway, it just makes sense to run their network connection over that same coax rather than having to pull separate cat5 runs and connect to residential-class network hardware that may or may not be up to the task.

So in effect, if the program is captured in 1080 (or any other native resolution) it will display at that provided the TV can support it (otherwise a down conversion will take place).

The broadcasts from satellite providers are all digital (1s and 0s). For the DVR function the raw video data gets written to files on the receiver's hard drive for playback. Think of both watching DVR content or MRV content as simply streaming the same video data that it received from the satellite, and the receiver processes it just as if it were a live satellite feed. It can do all the necessary rescaling or native resolution processing that it normally does. Since it's a bit-wise copy of the video data stream, the MRV and DVR playback will always be identical to watching it live.

 

[bnwrx]

Remember only about 2% of the programming is 1080p(Mostly PPV)