Well I finally got off my ass and called DirecTV to see what kind of deal I could get to upgrade my HR10s so I could get the new HD channels. Since all of the new channels are MPeg4 the HR10s can't receive them...

Anyway I called and the first person told me that she couldn't cut me any kind of deal so she transfered me. The next person was great. She told me right off the bat that since I had HR10s that I was instantly entitled to free upgrades to the HR20 HD DVRs. And of course the new required dish was included.

So if any of you have an HR10-250 you should call and get it upgraded. Just don't take no for an answer and try to be calm and polite.

Also ask if they can do anything else for you. If you have a good person they will check the current promotions they are offering and do whatever they can for you....

I had a recorded voice mail from DirecTV on my phone last night talking about making sure I have the right equipment for the new channels. I also have the HR10-250 and they told me when I bought it they would take car of me. They better!

Thanks for sharing your story Twister !!!

They already installed the 5 LNB dish when I moved to the new house for free.

Holy shit, whats all the lnb's picking up?

i just got off the phone with directv and got the upgrade for my non-HD reciver to the HD-plus (their tivo)and got the HD football package for $99.


the sats they are shootin are 91,101,103,110,119. now i'v got some prunin' on the trees to do


bubba

They do not have TIVO except for legacy TIVO customers.

All DTV DVRs are using non TIVO software which is ok. but sucks compared to real TIVO. JMHO

In less than 3 years there will be no more support of TIVO from DTV.

Yup, losing Tivo is going to suck. I love how it records stuff for me.

Actually from just about everything that I read in regard to people losing tivo features most said the same thing initially but after getting the new dvrs said that they were actually pleasantly surprised. They said that the new units are actually a lot better than they thought they'd be and in most cases they really don't miss the tivo features at all other than maybe the 30 skip feature. Actually they claim that the new units are better in a lot of ways.... Guess I'll find out soon. Still waiting for them to show up. It's nearly 10:00 and they are suppose to be here sometime between 8-12... Has anybody ever had any service to be done ever show up on the early side ever? Seems like if they say 8-12 it's always closer to 12 than 8...

When I moved and they came to install my new dish on the new house the guy called me on a Saturday and asked if he could come over early as he wanted to get my lines ran and done early.

I said hell yes, come on over and he was real happy to see I already had all of the RG6 ran inside of the walls. 30 minutes later he was on his way smiling.

He said he gets paid X number of dollars if he just points a dish or wires an entire house thru a hot crawlspace or attic.

Well I'm getting that bad feeling in my stomach about this install.

First off it's going to be done Ironwood Communications. I've read some real horror stories about installers that work for this company.

Finally after like 3 phonecalls the guy shows up at about 11:45... Real surprise that was... He walks in with only the standard DVR that is going to be installed in our 2nd bedroom. I tell him that there are 2 work orders and he only has the 2nd one. I tell him that there are 2 HD HVRs, a dish and a multiswitch on the first one. So he goes out and calls in. He comes back in saying that the first work order is with a 2nd guy who is on the way. That guy shows up but for whatever reason he doesn't have the 2 HD DVRs.... So he ends up just leaving. The first guy then says that he has to go and get the 2 HD DVRs and he'll be gone about 20 minutes. Well that was of course well over 1/2 hour ago... Looks like it's going to be a really fun afternoon...

Good luck Twister!

I called today and the lady at Dtv says I already have a HR20. I assure no I still have the HR10-250. She asked me to call back tonight from my house so I can give her my access card number and serial number so they know which receiver I really have.

I guess they don't believe me.

I wonder why they wouldn't believe you?

I wonder.

After talking to another dept last night the HR20 will be here next Tuesday and all I have to pay is a $21 S&H charge.

At first they wanted to charge me $299 in three easy payments.

I told them this HR10-250 was only about a year old and I paid $299 for it so maybe I should goto Dish and just get a free one.

The magic words to set off their panic button!

If I said that to them...they'd just laugh and say "Go ahead".



My threats never work.

Well everything is installed and running great. Couldn't get back here to update since now my DSL is all screwed up. Went down on Friday night and won't be back up until sometime this week.... If it's not one thing it's another.

At least it gave me plenty of time to accustom myself to the new DVR.... It was a bit of a learning curve from the HR10....

Pro's...

Really a lot faster functionally. Though start ups from a power off is still pretty long though I don't think quite as long...

It has pretty much all the functionality of the tivo based HR10. I remember a lot of talk about the 30 skip feature not being available on the HR20s. Well that isn't exactly true. Though it a bit slower skipping the 30 seconds it still does have it and it is built-in unlike where with the HR10 you had to program it in.

Just about everything as far as recording and setting up season passes are pretty much the same. Different terminology but functionally pretty much the same.

It does have 4 colored buttoned (red, green, yellow and blue) that you find you will use quite a bit.

Also for customizable channel settings it has 2 favorites where the HR10 really only had one.

Con's......

Only a couple of things....

For me the biggest is the programming guide. I had gotten really acclimated to the Tivo style grid. It was just nicer to be able to view future programming for a specific channel. With the DirecTV type grid which was an option on the HR10s it's just a pain where you only get a 2 hour window so you have to scroll quite a bit. But I'll get use to it in time I guess since I have no choice. Actually I did start to get better use of it through out the weekend. But I do miss the other guide.

Another thing is that the HR20 only has one live buffer unlike the HR10 which had two. This isn't really a major thing as far as I'm concerned but it does take a bit of getting use to. You just have to remember that if you are watching something live and you pause it for whatever reason you can't then change to another channel because if you do the one buffer will then switch to the new channel. Then if you go back to the paused channel and unpause it you won't be at the point where you last paused it any longer so you lost what would have normally still been buffered if it were a HR10.. Hope this made sense...

Finally the last thing that sort of bothers me is that the LEDs on the front are extremely bright. Now the blue center ring which can really be annoying if you are in a dark room can easily be dimmed or completely turned off if you prefer like I do. But the other LEDs can't be dimmed or at least I haven't found a way to do so yet. The HR20 in the bedroom is really annoying if you are recording something after going to bed and trying to get to sleep. The amber recording light is just so bright. I had to actually put something in front of it because it bothered me so much...

Other than that they seem to be a pretty nice units. I ended up with the HR20-700 models. I was sort of hoping that they were going to be the HR20-100 since it is suppose to run a lot cooler but I don't have these enclosed so they should be ok.

As far as the installer. Well after the rough start detailed above he actually did a pretty nice job overall. I can't believe how large the new dish is...

Now if they would only turn on the new HD channels they keep saying are coming.....

Yes it did, with the HR10-250 a guy could watch two football games at once using the two buffers.



I was pretty shocked too.

My receiver should be here tomorrow.

Preview
mine is cummin on fryday,,,

now i need a good reason y the other 3 dishes are out there in my dish farm



on the buffer thing,,,
if ya start to record 1 show than switch to another channel and go back and stop the recording will it do the pause buffer thing than? that would put ewe on the 2 different tuners and it might do the buffer thing. i don't have my daveplus hooked up right now so i can't check that out. might be worth a try. if it doesn't work than i guess i'll be doin' a shitload of recording on the weekend what with all those sport event's on 594-599.

bubba

Did they swap you for free?

it cost me $99 and i got the football package with the HD football and the pro
setup,, i asked if i could set it up myself and they said no so i'll be there watchin to make sure he sets it up right.

i love it when the daamn homeowner is stairin over my sholder

i stopped stopped the NFL package before the season cuz they wouldn't give me the HD for free and now i have it so it's a win win for me. now all i need is the nascar pack. so i can use the colored buttons to shut up the announcers.

bubba

Good idea to watch the guy...

When I moved they told me it was mandatory for their guy to do the install...and he was worthless. I was pissed that I couldn't be there. I ended up changing everything he did.

I was pretty pleased with Hotpass this year. Unfortunately since Jr. didn't make the Chase he will no longer be one of the covered drivers though.

If you are recording you can watch and pause go to another channel, come back and unpause and it will be where you were when you paused. So you could do this while recording 2 channels and it would work like having two buffers.... It's just not quite the same as it was with the HR10s where you could do it watching 2 live broadcast and you might have to keep going to the list menu (now playing on HR10) to do the switching. But the HR20 is a lot faster than the HR10 so it really wouldn't be that much of a hassle....

Remember the days when you had three OTA channels to choose from...and that was it?

4 if you counted the PBS channel that came in like crap on UHF.

my dad was from Detroit and loved the red wings so we had a 75' tower with a real good UHF tenny so we got channel 50(wkbd) for the Wing games. Than came cable came and the tower went to a CB tenny. we were just breakin the law by 15' ,,, no biggie

Yeah, I forgot about PBS...and the independent channel that eventually became Fox. So I correct my statement to 5 OTA channels. (And you could only watch ONE at a time!)

Oh, the horror!

I'd like to hear 5-channel weight and quad-zillion channel weight comparisons!

Installed yesterday. I told my wife to do whatever it takes to not let the technician take the HR10-250 with him. She said he fussed and didn't understand but he left it. He said he would have to report that we wouldn't let him take it.

Fook them, I need to finish watching some things that are recorded on it not to mention they are still bring $60 or more on eBay.

First impressions of the new HD DVR.

Overall I don't like it. Probably just because I'm not used to it and am a huge Tivo fan.

How do I turn off that annoying bright assed blue light cluster on the front? I'm going to pull the thing apart and cut the freaking wires.

The guide is really fast and that is one of the great features.
I found navigating the menues to be quite a hassle especially when trying to go backwards. Maybe I just haven't found the trick yet but just seemed too much like a maze.

I've only had it for one night so I'll report back after I've used it for a week or so.

Turning the annoying blue light off on the ring is easy. Just press the left and right arrows on the ring together until you dim it to where you want or off all together. BTW if the receiver takes an update then the light will be back on so it can be sort of like an update indicator....

As far as going back on the guide it's the same as going forward but of course using the back or left arrow. However on the remote if you press the green button it will step you forward 12 hrs and the red button will step you back 12 hours....

BTW... A bunch of new HD channels went live today... Here's the list...

A&E HD (channel 265)
Animal Planet HD (channel 282)
Big Ten Network HD (channel 220)
CNN HD (channel 202)
Discovery Channel HD (channel 278)
The History Channel (channel 269)
The Learning Channel (channel 280)
The Movie Channel (channel 544)
NFL Network HD (channel 212)
The Science Channel HD (channel 284)
Showtime 2 HD (channel 538)
Showtime West HD (channel 540)
Smithsonian Channel HD (channel 267)
Starz Comedy HD (channel 519)
Starz Edge HD (channel 522)
Starz HD East (channel 520)
Starz HD West (channel 521)
Starz Kids (channel 518)
TBS HD (channel 247)
The Weather Channel HD (channel 362)
Versus/Golf Channel (channel 604)

I noticed those channels last night !!

Thanks for the tip on the light. I cruised thru the manual a little but it doesn't seem to be a very detailed manual.



No, the menues. Like if I'm going into settings or messing with permissions.

Well in that case you have to either scroll down and select done or just hit the exit button....

As far as dimming the blue light info... I actually found it in the manual. It was mentioned in the section describing the buttons on the front of the unit....

The one other thing that I really don't care for is the remote. Well the remote itself is really ok except for the fact of not having any kind of back light.... Got to get my Harmony 880 reprogrammed I guess but right now I'm having a problem doing that...

Got the lights dimmed last night, much better.

I guess I just got spoiled with the Tivo menus. You could back out of them much easier.


I just wish DirecTV and Tivo could have stayed together.

I agree. They are going to stop all Direct Tivo support in 2010.

damn ewe DAVE
the installer is here right now

Use the Back button.... I believe that will do exactly what you want.

11 more HD channels went live this morning....

Cinemax East (Channel 512)
Cinemax West (Channel 514)
HBO West (Channel 504)
Bravo (Channel 273)
SciFi Channel (Channel 244)
USA Network (Channel 242)
Comcast SportsNet Chicago HD (Channel 640)
Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic HD (Channel 629)
New England Sports Network/NESN HD(Channel 623)
SportsNet New York HD (Channel 625)
YES HD (Channel 622)

That's the one thing that's keeping me from pulling the trigger. I use my dual buffer all the time to flip back and forth...bummer.

I sort of miss that as well. I keep forgetting about only having the one buffer.... But all of new HD channels are nice...

When they install the new dish, is there anything that needs to be done to the cabling from the dish to the dvr? Currently I've got two lines per dish, and I was just wondering if I'd have to add more for the new setup.

Well as long as both cables going from the dish go to the same location where the new DVR will be located then you will be ok. But if the two cables are going to 2 different locations then a 2nd cable will need to be added from the dish to the new DVR if you want to use both tuners on the DVR...

I've got two dishes with two cables each. Looks like I'm going to have to give them a call and upgrade!