$90 hdtv ota receiver with HTMI


http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104191

I may have to give that a try while I wait for the new DirecTV box.

I got the HD directv tivo for xmas from the wife.

Very nice indeed.

It's going to be a toaster later this year. Read the other thread about it.

http://www.dumbasspeople.com/forum/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1651297976/an/0/page/0#1651297976

Geeze DE let the guy enjoy his X-mas present... As far as it being toast later this year... Well not necessarily.. Couple of things. First if he is getting his locals OTA then it will still receive and he will be able to record those channels for however long he has the unit. All that's being impacted is getting locals via DirecTV and possibly other HD programming that might be coming. As far HD programming there really isn't that much and who knows how long before we see more. Also HD games via Sunday Ticket will most likely need to be upgraded to the newer mpeg4 box if he wants to get those channels. But I would still think that SD Sunday Tickets channels would work ok...

LOL, that was kind of harsh. I like fookin' with the tiny balled one.

My last conversation with the rep said to wait till Summer and buy the new box. Currently they have no plans to upgrade the HD10-250 and no plans to do a swap. Current HD10-250 owners who would like the new box will have to pay 200-300 for the new box later this year. Non HD10-250 owners would have to pay a higher price like around 500.

Yes the box will still work but like you said. Any additional channels will not be received by the current box.

And the way it sounded that down the road, not soon, ALL HD channels would eventually converted to mpeg4.

So will the exsisting non-local HD channels be able to be watched without a new receiver? Bear with me-it's an age thing.

After further consideration and reading the rest of the posts.. if you think the swap will be $200-$300...

You guys think I should just return the fooker.. what a pain in the arse.

OK, here's my latest scoop.

I called and talked to yet another rep.

She said starting around June or July of 2006 they will have the new HD DVRs available. If you currently have a HD10-250 they will offer you an upgrade for "probably" around $100. That will include the new HD DVR receiver and a new dish that will be required and all installation. She said "probably" because they do not have a firm amount at this time but around $100 is what she has been told.

Should you choose not to upgrade the HR10-250 will work fine with "current" HD programming "probably" thru 2007.

Based on what she said I went ahead an put my order back on. Since I already have the triple LNB I talked her into throwning in the OTA anteanna for free.

I told her that come this summer if I need to pay $200 or more to upgrade I'm going to call asking for her by name and raising hell.
She said not to worry, they will take care of me.

Come time for the upgrade if they do not want to take care of you do not call the regular directv reps about it. You will want to call and talk to a customer retension rep... I don't have the number in front of me but if you want or need it it can get gotten fairly easily. These are the reps who will work with you to keep you a customer. As long as you have been with them for awhile and your account has been in good standing then they generally will work out deals for you whereas the regular reps don't have that capability... Plus the customer retention reps always seem to be much more knowledgeable as to what's really going on.

The retention center has saved DTV getting my business.
They are the old Primestar reps and are based in Idaho. They are
solely minded on pleasing customers or keeping them. As long as
the customer's request is not outrageous they usually grant it.
DTV f-ed up so badly once with me that I got 6 months of service
and a $200 hardware credit.
I had cancelled service I was so mad about them cashing my
check and still shutting me off. I paid 3 months in advance because
I hate writing checks and they still shut me off. Some yahoo in the
collection dept keyed in the wrong number for shutting down a
a deadbeat and the incorrect account number was mine. To make things
worse when I called they said the computers to verify that I paid
could be down until 4pm the next day. So I sad cancel my account.
Send me a refund because by 4pm the next day I could be watching
Dishnet. I fully intended to go to the store and get a dish setup.
About noon the next day I get a call from DTV. It was the retention
dept. That is when I told them all of the nagging little issues I had
been thru over the years and the payment mix up was the last straw.
She agreed it was horrible service and before I could say I want that
month free she made the offer of 6 months and $200 hardware credit.

Well, after DE's post (thanks for taking the time) of saying it may be $100.. I'll just stick with the hd tivo receiver now and hope it doesn't run me a chitload in future. The cost of manufacturing these units are falling fast anyway.

For those interested here's a link to a review of the new HR20-700 unit that will be coming soon from DirecTV... Good info with screenshots...

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=61862

Cool Beans ! Thanks Twister.

Cool beans!?!?! That review was like, totally radical!

Damn kids.

I still for the life of me can't understand why you should have to pay $300 for something you will not own and then a monthly lease fee on top of that and also returning the unit if ever you cancel your service. Oh and top of that a 2 year commitment. And not all that much HD programming other than a so called promise about 100's of HD channels that will soon be available. All this from the same people who bitched so much about satellite piracy. Well who are the pirates now? It's all nothing more than fucking greed. But hey it’s the American way I guess…..

They are now selling on eBay and I haven't seen any references mentioned about not owning them. Hmmmm.

And damn it, I see you need a new 5LNB dish. I just wired my new house for the 3LNB with 4 feeds. I see the AT9 has a 4 way multi switch so hopefully my feeds will still work with the new dish in the future.

Woo Hoo !!!

While looking around for info I see where the HR10-250 will be receiving an update soon to speed the fooker up. Be on the lookout for version 6.3 HR10-250 owners.

That has been my only bitch is that it is slow.

When ever I hit the record button or doing something with the season pass it take FOREVER to process. That's what I want speeded up. And the guide is pretty slow too.

My unit use to get real slow over a period of time. The way to cspeed it up is to do a complete restart wiping everything. This will get the unit back to running pretty fast again. But you will wipe out everything, including everything you have recorded. I would do this a couple of times a year when I didn't have any recorded shows saved and when season pass programming was minimal.

But what's weird is that my unit for the past 3 or 4 months has been actually pretty fast for some reason. So much so that I at first thought that they pushed out a software update or something. But they hadn't. Not really sure why it hasn't gradually slowed down like it use to in the past. I mean in the past it got almost unbearable to program anything to record. Upwards to 2 or 3 minutes to finish programming a show to reord. Drove me nuts. That is why I would do the complete reset from time to time.

By the way do you know about the 30 second skip setting that you can progam into the box so that the forward button that normally skips to the end of the recorded program will instead only skip 30 seconds. Great for skipping through commercials...

If you don't know it here it is...

Using the remote while watching and playing a recorded program do this sequence...

Select
Play
Select
3
0
Select

The forward button now should only skip 30 seconds instead of to the end. You have to reprogam this in if ever you do a complete restart like if the power goes out or something.

By the way if you want to go to the end just hit fast forward 3 times and then hit the forward button. Yoiu might have to hit the forward button a couple of times but it will jump to the end of the reording.

Yup, I've been a code junkie since my first Tivo. I thought about a complete reset of the unit but my wife would kill me if all of her lifetime movies got wiped.

I'm guessing mine is currently taking upwards of 3 minutes also to process a request to record.

When and if I get the new software from DirecTV i'll do a complete wipe and just tell the wife that it has to be done to activate the software, similar to rebooting a compter after an install.

Well you might not have to do that with the new software. And from what I read when the new software is applied it will not wipe out anything you have recorded. Also I don't think it will wipe out your season pass stuff or other planned programs that you have scheduled for recording. Or at least in theory. Guess we'll find out.... Hopefully real soon...

Well what you can do is to force a phone call. I've been reading that this has been workng for some people though it hasn't work for me yet... But people are definitely getting this update now so it's only a matter of time...

As far as your wife's Lifetime movies at least with the new software you will be able to create a folder for them and stuff them all into it and they'll be out of your way....

That would be pretty cool too...

Have you heard if you can lock certain folders ? Like create a folder with movies that the kids can't see?


I'll have the receiver call home tonight and see what happens.

I forced a call yesterday but no luck.

I've been forcing a call everyday with no luck either. Knowing my luck I'll be one of the last to get the update....

I can't help it that my wife enjoys adult movies.

Quote:

---

Knowing my luck I'll be one of the last to get the update....

---

That's what I'm scared of.

Yeah, the kind they have on Lifetime!

That station should be outlawed.

Well I've read in a few forums that the 6.3 upgrade has been temporarily put on hold. They found a problem with updated systems having signal issues with the 72.5 and 95 satellites... Also read where there might also be a problem with audio dropoffs as well... So it looks like we'll have yet a longer wait.... Bummer...

Damn.

Ok I've read that they are again pushing out the software update. It's noe v6.3a and it fixes problems with the 72.5 and 95 sat signal issues. However I guess it doesn't fix the OTA dropoff issues that have been reported. Guess that will be addressed along with any other reported problems later. Since I don't use OTA it's a non-issue for me. Now if they would only put me in their queue so can get the damn update....

Well I force a call on both of my units and after the call I had a messaging saying that I'd soon be getting the update and that in order to get it you have to have the phone line connected.

The actually update comes from the satellite but in order to activate the download the box has to call home to say it's ready. Then the download will take place. When the download is completed you will need to reboot the DVR to install the update....

Anyway it looks like it's getting close. I had read that they wanted to complete the update by around October 4th. But that was before they temporarily stopped pushing 6.3 out. Now that 6.3a is being pushed out I'm not sure if the October 4th date is still the target date or not...

I'll have to get back to forcing calls this weekend.

My message popped up yesterday. Sit and wait.

i got my message on Wednesday and no update yet..is there another way to get the update than the forced call? On the screen it said it was gona come at 2:00am Sat and nothing this mornin

Do ya think Dave would say something than not do it?

u dave

bubba

There is no way to really force the update unless you have a hacked unit. I've read that those who have hacked their HR10's can force an update somehow. But I've never bothered to read much about since I didn't want to muck around with my 2 HR10's. The only thing that I would consider doing would be to install a larger HD but again I'm too lazy to get into that as well.

Where did you get a message saying that you were going to get the update at 2:00AM Saturday? The only message I've ever gotten was saying it would be coming soon...

Mine was the same as Twisters.

my bad

i saw the message and did the call on wednesday and the next scheduled call was Saturday 2:02am so i thought it was the 6.3 update and i was wrong for the first time in my life ,NOT,

oh well i'll just do the call everyday till i get it

i'll post if and or when i get it

bubba

Well I was really hoping that you did get a different message than I did so I'd know what to be looking for... I've read where quite a few people got this same message, forced a call and got the update right away but it hasn't worked for me yet...

Well I've read that DirecTV told somebody who called asking about the update that everybody will have it by October 18... . We'll see....

:stillwaitinghere:

It's probably just me but ever since I read about the update I think my damn machine has gotten slower.

Well one of my boxes took the update. The 2nd one I'm still waiting on and of course that's the one that I use all the time.... But I'm guessing iy will get the update real soon now...

Nothing here yet. You said it took the update but has it installed yet ?

If so, what do you think?

Well we happened to both take the day off today and when she turned on the TV this morning she complained that the video was all hosed. When I checked it out I noticed that the yellow light was on so I suspected that it was getting the update. So I let it sit until the light went out about 10 minutes later. At that point the video was still messed up so the only thing I could was to do a hard restart. It then went throught the regular process of acquiring the satellite and stuff but the those screens were a bit different and it was quite a bit faster getting thru that process than it had been with the earlier software. Then when it was completed it came back up ready to go. So the update appeared to have started by itself. It didn't tell me that a restart was pending or anything to get it going or at least with the video all messed up I could tell if there was any kind of message pending.

As far as the differences? Well hard to tell. As I said above this isn't the dvr that I use. It's the one my wife uses in the livingroom on the bigscreen tv. I have my own setup in the bedroom with my Panny 35" HD TV where I'm delegated to for watching sports. Plus our taste in regular type shows are vastly different for the most part. I don't think she's ever watched the Discovery ,Science or Military channels. So right now I couldn't really tell if it was faster as I haven't really messed with it other than to get it configured for the wife. Folders are ok but not exactly as I hoped. All folders does is to group the same titled recorded shows into their own folder. That's it. You have no control over this other than to turb the feature (called groups) on or off. I was hoping that you could maybe create folders and move what you wanted into them but you can't.

I did have to go back in and create favorites which I was aware of already. They do it a bit differntly now. When you want to add a channel to your favorites you need to select using the thumbs up button. There is no seperate menu option for favorites like in the previous software. But this is ok and pretty straight forward. An improvement in my opinion.

I also had to go in to the audio and turn the dolby digital back on which I also was aware of. Other than that everything else seemed still set at least so far as I can tell. I just wish the update would get pushed to the dvr I use all the times so I can tell if it is indeed faster especially when setting up something to record or modifying my Season Pass list....

How about the guide? Does it seem to load faster?

Now I'm going to be checking mine every day.

You suck.

I forced a call last night and nothing. I guess I keep trying.

Well keeping trying the call. I did it 3 different times before it finally took last night. the 18th is suppose to be the target date for completing the push of the update... So I would think that you should get it by sometime tomorrow....

I'm probably last on thier list.

I'm probably last due to a certain piece of certified mail that I received years ago.

Nah... I doubt that. This update isn't actually from DirecTV. It's actually from Tivo.

I'm thinking about subing to DTV an want a HD receiver with DVR, is this the kind of receiver you two are talking about?
Charters HD channels look good but what they call digital cable for expanded basic sucks.
Any advice would be great.

Well if you a want to go dvr then you want to go with the DirecTV Plus HD-DVR aka HR20-700 for one basic reason. It supports MPeg-4 whereas the HR10-250 doesn't. What does this actually mean. Well it means that you will be able to you locals in HD as well as future HD programming. Now the drawback is that as already mentioned it is not a tivo so the software doesn't have some of the nice tivo capabilites. But if you have never had a tivo unit then you won't be missing anything to begin with.

Well from what I read the new sodtware is actually a lot better than what was first feared. The one thing that I will really miss will be the 30 second skip. I use that all the time. It's suppose to have something similar but it's doesn't do a fast skip but more of a slow fast forward so you have to sit there and still sort of watch the stuff you don't want to watch.

Also one other big difference is only having one buffer. So if you go back and forth between two channels you lose whatever was in the buffer. With the HR10 which has 2 buffers when you switch each channel has it's own buffer. Not really a big deal to me but I've read where this is one of the biggest complaints people have bitched to DTV about so maybe they will do something about it with future models...

Ok whats the difference in Tivo and DVR other than pausing and fastforwarding shit with Tivo.
A DVR just records?

Well there is a bit more to it than that. Tivo has patented some neat things that the DTV dvr can't use. The 30 second skip is just one of them. Season Pass is another although the DTV dvr does have something sort of similar. There are other things but to tell the truth since I haven't used one of the DTV dvrs myself I can't really give any details. Bottom line though is that if you want future HD from DTV then you will need to at some point in time go with their dvr because of MPeg-4...

Still no update.

My luck they would want to send their new DVR unit and not the H10-250.

I'll give it til Sunday. If no update I'll call then.

After the wife goes to bed tonight I'll force a couple and see what happens.

i got my update last night



when it first booted thiis mornin' the screen was all screwed up so i pulled the plug and it finished installing something,,,now alls well.

i was forcing call 3 times a day and it started on the last call last night at 2:30am..

so now i'm good to go and the guide is a bunch faster

good luck

bubba

Cool.. So it's looking line DE might indeed be the last one to get this update... Hey DE don't bother buying any lottery tickets man..

True, if he won he would celebrate by getting drunk and then getting busted for a DUI.
I meant another.

Got it last night !!!!

And the guide is WAY faster. I picked a show to record and that also seemed much much faster. Still haven't messed with a season pass yet.

That wouldn't do you any good cause I'm getting drunk with ya.

Added a season pass last night just for a test and it was 10 times faster.

i agree it's a shitload faster,, thanks TIVO

and Dave,, just because



bubba