The Truth behind Dish DVR's and TiVo...

I will never have DirecTV again,
DirecTV has terrible customer service and there satellite equipment
is horrible compared to Dish Network equipment.

I was just saying, why am I paying more for my two DVR's with Dish
when DirecTV charges per account, Dish per DVR...

because of the TiVo lawsuit?


I left DirecTV also while I was there I operated a HR10-250(DirecTivo) an R15 and R22 none of them can compare to the 625 I am running now.If you are Tivo you can see the writing on the wall Dish has the better DVR system so you sue to try and get some of that profit.If DirecTV could figure out a way I would imagine they would try and sue Dish too.:rant:
 
BTW if you get a TiVo machine and do not have anything else, TiVo charges for the guide info. The guide info is already part of the subscription cost on DirecTV and Dish's regular subscriptions.

Well you can always pay more and get lifetime and no longer have any bills from TiVo.
 
Well you can always pay more and get lifetime and no longer have any bills from TiVo.
Which is $399 (plus the cost of your Tivo unit). Over 5 and a half years worth of Dish DVR fees.

If you want the top Tivo HD DVR, it cost about $1,000 with lifetime service. That is about 2 years of Dish service for me.
 
Which is $399 (plus the cost of your Tivo unit). Over 5 and a half years worth of Dish DVR fees.

If you want the top Tivo HD DVR, it cost about $1,000 with lifetime service. That is about 2 years of Dish service for me.

399 first unit 299 each unit after...

It can pay for itself with cable where box rentals from the cable company run 15-20/month. Plus you can buy a lower end HD TiVo and upgrade the HD yourself, much better than the few hours you get with the cable box they rent you.

It is a not a good thing with DBS service since of course you cannot use TiVo with DBS (not counting the old DIRECTV TiVo box).

I calculated it would take about 4 years to break even with cable as far as fees saved verses costs. TiVo has sales every now and then and I picked up a couple cheap, replaced the HD with 1TB units and enjoy 150 hours of HD recording on each unit. I may or may not ever really break even, but 150 hours vs 18 hours on the cable box made the extra expense worth it for me.
 
Pretty sure the TiVo HD does ClearQAM.

A TiVo HD is $299, TiVo HD XL (150 hours of HD recordings vs. 20) is $599. So lifetime on an XL is right at a Grand, but it's yours forever...if you can deal with only two tuners forever. :)
 
I left D* about 8 months ago, and while I agree the 722 is better than HR20/22 -- I cannot say it is a better DVR than a HR10 TiVo.

I really miss the HR10's dual live buffers. My wife often misses simplicity of the TiVo; heck sometimes I do too. The 722 allows the user to do more things, but it is also more complicated than it needs to be in many aspects. I should also point out that I've had more recording issues with my 722 in 8 months than I did with my HR10 Tivo that I used for about 4+ years. Also, the 722 runs much hotter (and is likely using more power and thus more $) than my HR10. Lastly, the HR10 was easier to hack so I could transfer shows via ethernet to my PC (and actually watch or burn them to DVD).
 
Pretty sure the TiVo HD does ClearQAM.

A TiVo HD is $299, TiVo HD XL (150 hours of HD recordings vs. 20) is $599. So lifetime on an XL is right at a Grand, but it's yours forever...if you can deal with only two tuners forever. :)

I think they would be bragging about that if they did it well. I'm guessing guide data stinks. I don't know if I really want to do a $700 experiment, but it would bat a year and a half payback. With SGU available on Hulu, I don't really need Dish.
 
I think they would be bragging about that if they did it well. I'm guessing guide data stinks. I don't know if I really want to do a $700 experiment, but it would bat a year and a half payback. With SGU available on Hulu, I don't really need Dish.

I use one of my TiVos with cable card, never have had a problem with guide data. They get the guide data from TiVo. The other I use with OTA HD (mainly got long before Dish carried my market in HD).

2 Tuners is a limiting factor, but I work around it by recording my favorite shows on the TiVo using cable, so I do not miss them when I am at one house. When I am at my main house I have Dish and Tivo, so I get everything. Even Dish needs to have coordination with tuners. If your OTA or Sat tuners get all busy you still miss the show because they do not mix. It would be a big improvement if the satellite tuners were busy it would record using OTA, but Dish recievers view them as 2 different channels.
 
I think they would be bragging about that if they did it well. I'm guessing guide data stinks.

If it has an ATSC tuner and CableCard interface, it must have a ClearQAM tuner, because QAM is the core modulation system that CableCard is built on. As for guide data, it's the same guide data that would be used on an encrypted network, but you're not viewing encrypted channels. (I don't know how the TiVo knows to hide channels you don't want to see...)

I think that TiVo uses Tribune Media Services like Dish, but I'm probably wrong about that.

If your OTA or Sat tuners get all busy you still miss the show because they do not mix. It would be a big improvement if the satellite tuners were busy it would record using OTA, but Dish recievers view them as 2 different channels.

I'm the other way around. I have two timers for every local TV show I watch, an OTA timer at the top of the list and a sat timer in the middle of the list. Then I add timers for the satellite networks below them (because they repeat, local channels don't). That way, I'm most likely to get a first run of, say, Bones via OTA, or via satellite if it got bumped off the OTA, then I get a first run of The Closer and a second run of Royal Pains later in the night because Bones was occupying a sat tuner at 8PM...just for example. Then at the very bottom of the list I have a group of timers for "Premiere" shows, so that I don't miss anything when a new season starts. :)

I hear this is easier with Windows Media Center; that you can simply give a tuner or a type of tuners a global priority, and if WMC can't find your program on that tuner or type, it looks to the other tuners.
 
I left D* about 8 months ago, and while I agree the 722 is better than HR20/22 -- I cannot say it is a better DVR than a HR10 TiVo.

I really miss the HR10's dual live buffers. My wife often misses simplicity of the TiVo; heck sometimes I do too. The 722 allows the user to do more things, but it is also more complicated than it needs to be in many aspects. I should also point out that I've had more recording issues with my 722 in 8 months than I did with my HR10 Tivo that I used for about 4+ years. Also, the 722 runs much hotter (and is likely using more power and thus more $) than my HR10. Lastly, the HR10 was easier to hack so I could transfer shows via ethernet to my PC (and actually watch or burn them to DVD).


How is that possible? The HR10-250 has 2-30 minute live buffers.I don't know about the 722 because I run Dish's 625 but my 625 in Single Mode has 2-120 minute live buffers.The 625 has PIP and split screen when in split screen I can see
what's on tuner 1 and tuner2 then I can press the swap button and tune each tuner to the channel I want to see.I can also tune each tuner to the same channel if I want:confused:
 
My 722 is in Single mode, and I have dual 60-minute buffers. Three if you count the OTA buffer, but you can only swap between two of them, not all three. The thing that sucks is that if you're watching a recording, it ends, and you get dumped back to live TV, the buffers start from the point in time when your recording ended, so the last hour is lost.
 
My 722 is in Single mode, and I have dual 60-minute buffers. Three if you count the OTA buffer, but you can only swap between two of them, not all three. The thing that sucks is that if you're watching a recording, it ends, and you get dumped back to live TV, the buffers start from the point in time when your recording ended, so the last hour is lost.


Dish needs to make their live buffer 120 minutes like my 625.DirecTV's HR2xs and R22s have 2-90 minute live buffers.Maybe mine is like it is because I hardly ever record anything(As soon as I watch it I delete it) as low hard drive space remaining can cause the live buffer time to be less.:confused:
 
Last edited:
I use one of my TiVos with cable card, never have had a problem with guide data. They get the guide data from TiVo. The other I use with OTA HD (mainly got long before Dish carried my market in HD).

If you are using a Cablecard, it isn't clear QAM. I'm just thinking it might be something Tivo shut of to appease cable companies.
 
If you are using a Cablecard, it isn't clear QAM. I'm just thinking it might be something Tivo shut of to appease cable companies.

Dude. It's the same data, and the same modulation. The only question is with or without encryption, which is only answered by the presence or absence of a bonded cablecard. I just spent an hour reading over at TiVoCommunity, and there are plenty of people with good-running TiVo HD boxes and no cards. If this pseudo-fear is the only thing keeping you from getting a TiVo, you're wasting energy fretting about a non-issue.

The next question is how long will it be before the only QAM that's NOT encrypted are local channels. As a matter of fact, Comcast and others have already started petitioning the FCC (with blatant disregard for law) to allow them to encrypt EVEN local channels, just so they don't have to make a truck roll every time somebody gets 15 days late on their Comcrap bill.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts