DirecTV, HD DVR

[wallinbl]

I had a DirecTivo (Sony SAT-T60) until I was hit by lightning last year and lost both the Tivo and the TV. I bought a HDTV, and didn't want to pay the $1000 for an HD Tivo, so I switched to BHN. I'm pretty close to fed up with them now (missing channels, can't record on Fox, can't record at all, fails to complete recordings, missing all the bells & whistles that made Tivo pleasant, etc). Is now a bad time to buy an HDTivo and DirecTV service? Are they on the verge of their own HD DVR? I know their relationship with Tivo isn't what it used to be. I don't want to drop $1000 on the HD Tivo to find out that their new MPEG 4 HD stuff isn't going to work for me.

[Dknow]

They are going to change their whole HD format which will lead to tampa local HD channels and 150 national HD channels but this will require a new HD receiver that can decode Mpeg-4. They have already said that they will swap out exisiting HD receivers with Mpeg-4 capable ones for free but haven't specifically said whether or not they would do the same for HD-Tivo owners. I would assume that they will but the first three letters of that word do spell A-S-S. If I was you I would wait to be sure they will swap for free.

[wallinbl]

They push the HD Tivo on their website. I would imagine a tremendous backlash if they made those things worthless in 6-9 months. Of course, I'll be making sure before I buy.

It looks like the HD Tivo comes with the HDMI cable. Is that correct?

[Dknow]

it comes not only with the HDMI cable but it also come with an HDMI-DVI converter cable which is nice.

[bdraw]

I have had mine for about 6 months now and I love it. I am even considering buying a second one for the HDTV in the bedroom. Currently I use a matrix switcher so I can use the same HD-Tivo on both TV's.

Each person's situation is different. Some pay 1k for a tv others pay 8k. Some drive economy cars others luxury. It is a choice.

That being said, if you hate the idea of having a antenna, to recieve locals and if you don't mind paying $5/mo for locals.
Or if you believe the new HD-DVR from Directv will as good or better than the HD-Tivo then you should probably wait.

Personally I don't believe that Directv will get the HD-DVR right the first time. I don't think it will be as good as a HD-Tivo. I also don't mind having an antenna. I also will be surprised if Directv is more successfull than BHN with carrige agreements for the HD locals. (I don't see Directv carrying 8-2, or 8-3). I also don't want to pay $5/mo for locals that probably won't look as good as OTA.

Worst case you pay 1k now, and in 6 months the new HD-DVR for mpeg4 is out. At that point only 12 markets will get their STB's swaped out, for local channels. So your HD-Tivo will still have a good resale value, so you can sell it.

If the question is to stay with the 8300HD on BHN or spend the 1k on the HD-Tivo. Put $1 in a jar every time the SA8300HD lets you down, and you will have the money in no time. ;)

[wallinbl]

If the question is to stay with the 8300HD on BHN or spend the 1k on the HD-Tivo. Put $1 in a jar every time the SA8300HD lets you down, and you will have the money in no time. ;)

That's not the question. If I don't get rid of that thing, my wife is going to shoot me. The question is when to go back to DirecTV.

So, you have the HD Tivo set up to get locals OTA? I assume it works correctly with the guide info & scheduling recordings?

[bdraw]

That's not the question. If I don't get rid of that thing, my wife is going to shoot me. The question is when to go back to DirecTV.

So, you have the HD Tivo set up to get locals OTA? I assume it works correctly with the guide info & scheduling recordings?

Yes I get all the locals with a indoor antenna except 38.1 which seems troublesome for everyone.

The guide acts exactly as expected with any Directv reciever.
There are 3 channel profiles.
"channels I recieve" "Favorites" "All"

I have Favorites set to HD channels, and Channels I recieve to just that.
So if I hit guide it shows all the channels in the profile, the only way to indicate which channels are OTA and which are via D* is to look at the channel numbers.
73 is D*
10-1 is CBS via OTA
10 is CBS via D*

I get both local via antenna and via D* because my SD Tivo in the bedroom doesn't have an OTA tuner, and I record most of my wives SD shows in their.

As indicated many places the worst part about the HD-Tivo is that the interface is very slow, reminds me of the very first D* recievers. Especially the guide. This doesn't bother me much becuase I mostly watch recorded shows. I use the internet to look at a guide. The other reason why this doesn't bother me is because I only watch HD, so there are only 14 channels to search through if I do just feel like watching TV.

[wallinbl]

Does it still require dialing out once a month? That was my one grip with the DirecTivo I had. I don't have a phone line anywhere near the TV. I tried those "wireless phone jacks", but the Tivo wouldn't hold the call on it.

[bdraw]

I don't have mine connected the phone line.
But it does nag me every time I go into the now playing list.
It has been 6 months and it still works.

I have hacked my Tivo, but I have not done the fake call, which will eliminate the nag screen.

[wallinbl]

That's interesting. My previous Tivo would stop recording if it couldn't make the call for 60 days. After 30, it would nag you. Eventually, I'd break out the 50 ft phone cord and let it make the call.

[LonghornXP]

Yes like others said I would hold off as it seems you have to think about spending 1 grand. Local channels in HD via satellite is coming around mid year. Now you will not see 150 national HD channels even if they had that many on air but expect to see mostly everything out there now to be up towards the end of the year.

Now the new HD DVR will be offered as a lease so you won't have to buy it. This DVR will be a multiroom DVR. Now only the TV set connected to the server can pause live TV from what I understood but the other rooms connected via client boxes can watch live TV and playback anything recorded from the server with full ff and rew ability. The server will have either a 350GB or 400GB hard drive. It has 4 total tuners (two D* and two OTA HD tuners) only 2 of which can be used at any given time. So if you don't use an OTA antenna and you want to record say ABC HD, FOX HD and CBS HD via satellite at the sametime between 8-9pm you can't do that. But you could recrod both Fox HD and CBS HD at the sametime for example using the satellite. Now say if D* doesn't carry NBC HD or UPN HD you can still hookup an OTA antenna and record it in HD using the OTA HD tuner.

Now I could be wrong on this but I'm hearing that the only local HD feeds D* won't carry right away is going to be WB HD and UPN HD. I'm hearing they will carry NBC HD. Also they plan to carry UPN HD and WB HD but that won't occur until closer to the end of the year. They will only focus on the big 4 in the top 12 markets to get those done and if the new satellite goes up good they will work on getting the top 12 markets WB and UPN HD feeds.

From what I'm hearing whether you all like it or not but all D* subscribers will be paying a small fee for us to get our HD locals. So to get HD locals you will have to get the local channels package which won't go up in price just in case you wanted to know but from what I'm hearing is that D* feels that they could gain a big edge by paying for HD locals and they can do this behind the scenes so to speak because current SD local subs will pay some of the cost but their bills won't go up so they won't know any difference and for customers in the top 12 markets who currently get the SD locals package they will also get HD locals for no extra charge.

So remember that 25-50 cents per sub that Sinclair was talking about it would now seem that D* will pay that amount and all customers that get SD locals package will help pay for that.

[bdraw]

But the question still remains, and I suspect it will untill the HD-DVR is relesed.
Will it be as good as a Tivo or will it be like the SA8300? I doubt it will be as bad as the 8300 considering none of Directv's boxes are as bad as any SA box I have had.

The current HD-Tivo will still be a viable option untill D* turns off the mpeg2 HD channels. Which may be 4 years till then who knowes.

[LonghornXP]

But the question still remains, and I suspect it will untill the HD-DVR is relesed.
Will it be as good as a Tivo or will it be like the SA8300? I doubt it will be as bad as the 8300 considering none of Directv's boxes are as bad as any SA box I have had.

The current HD-Tivo will still be a viable option untill D* turns off the mpeg2 HD channels. Which may be 4 years till then who knowes.

I agree and didn't really care to think about how bad it could be but as you said nothing could be as bad as the SA boxes. With that kind of money its almost required that some just wait and see. I'm not sure what I'll do in a year from now but I went back to BHN because I knew that D* was not planning to add new HD channels and worse I knew they planned to reduce the resolution of the current HD channels.

[rgreenpc]

I want to see the new hardware before I make the switch...

I know the forums of DBS and other places are prone to grose misrepresentations...

But if the exchange policy holds true it could be quite good.

I can't see DIRECTV making the same mistakes as DISH with their 921 rollout.