Using DirecTV DVR and Tivo

I recently purchased a DirecTV HD DVR. I thought it would be as good or
possibly better than Tivo. I have been using a Hughes DirecTV compatible
TIVO for several years. Although I believe some of the software needs to
be upgraded on Tivo, the DirecTV DRV has turned out to a nightmare. I would
like to be able to use both of these sets at the same time and have been
told by Best Buy that by hooking the Tivo into the DirecTV box and then the
Tivo into the television that I would be able to use both. I am going to
try that tomorrow.

I called Tivo and they are not making satellite compatible Tivos any more.
They said they might make one in the future. I have considered buy the HD
Tivo and trying to attach that to my HD DirecTV. I really don't care about
the HD, but my husband does so I would like to be able to use it once and a
while. I have also considered cable. That is a choice I am not through
considering.

Can anyone give me some advice or suggestions with my DVR problems?

I would like to thank anyone that sends me any information at all.

Mara Stancavage

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 05:19:19 GMT, "Mara" wrote:

Mara,

I recently purchased a DirecTV HD DVR. I thought it would be as good or
possibly better than Tivo. I have been using a Hughes DirecTV compatible
TIVO for several years. Although I believe some of the software needs to
be upgraded on Tivo, the DirecTV DRV has turned out to a nightmare. I would
like to be able to use both of these sets at the same time and have been
told by Best Buy that by hooking the Tivo into the DirecTV box and then the
Tivo into the television that I would be able to use both. I am going to
try that tomorrow.

This suggestion by the Best Buy salesman doesn't make any sense to me.
If you bought your HD DVR from Best Buy, did they install it? I bought
(actually leased) mine from DirecTV, and they delivered and installed
it. If you want it to work on HD, and want to also keep your old
DirecTV Tivo working, the technician needs to install a new satellite
dish, a new mulltiswitch that takes 4 cables from the dish, and then
install enough new cables so that you have 4 cables from the
multiswitch to your DVRs, two to the DirecTV Tivo, and two to the new
DirecTV HD DVR.

Neither DVR should "connect to the DirecTV box" like the saleman told
you. Both should connect to the satellite dish via two cables each
(since each is a dual tuner model).

I called Tivo and they are not making satellite compatible Tivos any more.
They said they might make one in the future. I have considered buy the HD
Tivo and trying to attach that to my HD DirecTV. I really don't care about
the HD, but my husband does so I would like to be able to use it once and a
while. I have also considered cable. That is a choice I am not through
considering.

Can anyone give me some advice or suggestions with my DVR problems?

I would like to thank anyone that sends me any information at all.

Mara Stancavage


My suggestion is that you should either get DirecTV to fix your
installation (if you got the new DVR from them), or get Best Buy to
fix it if you got it from them, or take it back and get the box from
DirecTV.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Can anyone give me some advice or suggestions with my DVR problems?
I would like to thank anyone that sends me any information at all.

It's really a tragic situation. DirecTV took their leadership position of
using a dual-tuner Tivo-based solution and flushed it down the toilet in
exchange for a house-branded unit that's just horrible to use and
unreliable.

Meanwhile cable and verizon's fiber services come from behind and have the
option of using a Series 3 Tivo with dual tuners, using dual cablecards, to
provide an alternative. Granted, it doesn't (currently) support MRV but it
does pick up where DirecTV's dual-tuner solution dropped off.

It'd be great if Tivo started delivering a DirecTV compatible unit. But I
sincerely doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

My advice is ditch DirecTV and go with cable using a series 3 Tivo.

-Bill Kearney

On 2007-02-11, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
This suggestion by the Best Buy salesman doesn't make any sense to me.
If you bought your HD DVR from Best Buy, did they install it? I bought
(actually leased) mine from DirecTV, and they delivered and installed
it. If you want it to work on HD, and want to also keep your old
DirecTV Tivo working, the technician needs to install a new satellite
dish, a new mulltiswitch that takes 4 cables from the dish, and then
install enough new cables so that you have 4 cables from the
multiswitch to your DVRs, two to the DirecTV Tivo, and two to the new
DirecTV HD DVR.

They could also run 2 wires to the area, put a multiswitch right there by
the two DVRs and run two wires from each DVR to the multiswitch. If there
was a DVR there before, there are probably already 2 wires so this route
would prevent needing to run 2 more wires.

--
This is my .sig

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:14:14 -0000, Mike Hunt
wrote:

On 2007-02-11, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
This suggestion by the Best Buy salesman doesn't make any sense to me.
If you bought your HD DVR from Best Buy, did they install it? I bought
(actually leased) mine from DirecTV, and they delivered and installed
it. If you want it to work on HD, and want to also keep your old
DirecTV Tivo working, the technician needs to install a new satellite
dish, a new mulltiswitch that takes 4 cables from the dish, and then
install enough new cables so that you have 4 cables from the
multiswitch to your DVRs, two to the DirecTV Tivo, and two to the new
DirecTV HD DVR.

They could also run 2 wires to the area, put a multiswitch right there by
the two DVRs and run two wires from each DVR to the multiswitch. If there
was a DVR there before, there are probably already 2 wires so this route
would prevent needing to run 2 more wires.

Well, I don't think that will work with the 3 LNB dish. I actually had
a setup (before I got my HR10) that had 2 wires from a 2 x 4 switch to
my den, then another 2 x 4 switch , then 4 wires to a pair of
DirecTivos. It worked fine, but the HR10 installer said it wouldn't
work with the HR10 and one DirecTivo, so the additional 2 wires were
run. Of course, it could be that he just didn't know what he was
talking about, as my experience with their installers is that they
just know what to do, not why they do it. But there are 4 wires now
from the 3 LNB dish, so....?

Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:14:14 -0000, Mike Hunt
wrote:

On 2007-02-11, Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
This suggestion by the Best Buy salesman doesn't make any sense to me.
If you bought your HD DVR from Best Buy, did they install it? I bought
(actually leased) mine from DirecTV, and they delivered and installed
it. If you want it to work on HD, and want to also keep your old
DirecTV Tivo working, the technician needs to install a new satellite
dish, a new mulltiswitch that takes 4 cables from the dish, and then
install enough new cables so that you have 4 cables from the
multiswitch to your DVRs, two to the DirecTV Tivo, and two to the new
DirecTV HD DVR.

They could also run 2 wires to the area,

That would probably need to be FOUR wires. It takes 4 to carry ALL the
signals in a multi-satellite system.

put a multiswitch right there by
the two DVRs and run two wires from each DVR to the multiswitch. If there
was a DVR there before, there are probably already 2 wires so this route
would prevent needing to run 2 more wires.

There are 4 groups of signals from the dish, these 4 require different
cables. Only 2 are needed for a single DVR because it isn't capable of
receiving more than 2 at a time. This isn't true is you have more than
one DVR, so you need all 4 (assuming a multi-sat system, nearly
essential for HD).
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Unlike biological evolution. 'intelligent design' is
not a genuine scientific theory and, therefore, has
no place in the curriculum of our nation's public
school classes." -- Ted Kennedy

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:26:35 -0500, "Bill Kearney"
wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote:

Can anyone give me some advice or suggestions with my DVR problems?
I would like to thank anyone that sends me any information at all.

It's really a tragic situation. DirecTV took their leadership position of
using a dual-tuner Tivo-based solution and flushed it down the toilet in
exchange for a house-branded unit that's just horrible to use and
unreliable.

Meanwhile cable and verizon's fiber services come from behind and have the
option of using a Series 3 Tivo with dual tuners, using dual cablecards, to
provide an alternative. Granted, it doesn't (currently) support MRV but it
does pick up where DirecTV's dual-tuner solution dropped off.

It'd be great if Tivo started delivering a DirecTV compatible unit. But I
sincerely doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

My advice is ditch DirecTV and go with cable using a series 3 Tivo.


I'll probably be doing that sometime. Maybe when the HD DirecTiVo
(HR10-250) becomes unusable here (more HD channels?).

The missing feature (referring to MRV) is more likely to be added to
it (TiVo 3) than the DirecTV unit.

-Bill Kearney
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Unlike biological evolution. 'intelligent design' is
not a genuine scientific theory and, therefore, has
no place in the curriculum of our nation's public
school classes." -- Ted Kennedy

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:17:38 -0600, Mark Lloyd
wrote:

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:26:35 -0500, "Bill Kearney"
wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote:

Can anyone give me some advice or suggestions with my DVR problems?
I would like to thank anyone that sends me any information at all.

It's really a tragic situation. DirecTV took their leadership position of
using a dual-tuner Tivo-based solution and flushed it down the toilet in
exchange for a house-branded unit that's just horrible to use and
unreliable.

Meanwhile cable and verizon's fiber services come from behind and have the
option of using a Series 3 Tivo with dual tuners, using dual cablecards, to
provide an alternative. Granted, it doesn't (currently) support MRV but it
does pick up where DirecTV's dual-tuner solution dropped off.

It'd be great if Tivo started delivering a DirecTV compatible unit. But I
sincerely doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

My advice is ditch DirecTV and go with cable using a series 3 Tivo.


I'll probably be doing that sometime. Maybe when the HD DirecTiVo
(HR10-250) becomes unusable here (more HD channels?).

The missing feature (referring to MRV) is more likely to be added to
it (TiVo 3) than the DirecTV unit.

-Bill Kearney

I've heard that DirecTV intends to add something like MRV capability
to their HR20. Anyone know anything about that? There is an ethernet
port, Serial ATA connection, and a USB connector on the back panel,
and the manual says of all of them "for future use".

Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:14:14 -0000, Mike Hunt
wrote:

They could also run 2 wires to the area, put a multiswitch right there by
the two DVRs and run two wires from each DVR to the multiswitch.

Won't work.

Well, I don't think that will work with the 3 LNB dish. I actually had
a setup (before I got my HR10) that had 2 wires from a 2 x 4 switch to
my den, then another 2 x 4 switch , then 4 wires to a pair of
DirecTivos. It worked fine, but the HR10 installer said it wouldn't
work with the HR10 and one DirecTivo, so the additional 2 wires were
run. Of course, it could be that he just didn't know what he was
talking about, ...

The installer is correct.

The three-satellite dish has three receiving antennae, some of which
put out two signals each. With various combiners, it boils down to
four independent signals. Each tuner on the DVR has to tell the
dish which one of the four signals to send down the cable.

Any multiswitch in a three-satellite system has to have four inputs in
order to provide all four signals to any DVR that asks for them.

With two DirecTV DVRs, putting a multiswitch next to them won't buy
you anything since four cables are needed, with or without the
multiswitch. On the other hand, if you had three dual-input DVRs
in the house, then a 4-in x 8-out multiswitch would make sense.

-Joe

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:

I've heard that DirecTV intends to add something like MRV capability
to their HR20. Anyone know anything about that? There is an ethernet
port, Serial ATA connection, and a USB connector on the back panel,
and the manual says of all of them "for future use".


IIRC, that's how they described the USB ports on the back of the various
TIVO based DVRs, and we all know how that worked out ;-)
--
Nik Simpson