To HD DirecTV or not to HD DirecTV - AKA Should I return my HR10-250?

[schuang74]

OK so I need some help here. On somewhat of an impulse I bought my HR10-250 from Best Buy on the 28th (just a few days ago). The last possible day I could cash in on the $200 rebate and still own the box.

I should have done a little more research prior to doing this, because now I am having second thoughts.

Currently I have just a standard eliptical dish setup receiving the 101 and 119 sattilites. On the reciever front I have 1 standard DTV (D10-200) reciever box in the office, and 2 standard DTivo (1 older Sat T60 and 1 newer S2 Samsung model) boxes one in the bedroom and one in the living room.

My problem is that after reading some posts in this article I realized that the HR10-250 doesn't support the newer Mpeg4 standard. Also as mentioned above, because I bought my 250 so close to the pricing and lease policy change, i now have to go through the hassle of making sure they are aware that my box is purchased. Finally it sounds like Tivo will be releasing the Series 3 box before years end, assuming DirecTV does not come out with a S3 box of their own, then I would mostlikely want to switch to an HD cable provider.

So I guess my options are

A) Get stuck in a 2 year contract to cash in on the $200 rebate just to use a box with a very fixed lifespan (assuming I only use it for HD). And possibly miss out moving over to a S3 Tivo until my contract is up and then switch to Digital Cable.

B) Use my $499 purchase and upgrade it to 2X500GB for only SD Tivo use and wait until years end (not too appealing as my Sat T60 with dual 160GB drives serves me just fine).

C) Just ditch the whole mess and return the box back to Best Buy, and wait for something better to come along.

The more I think about it the more of a hastle it seems to get HD from DirecTV. Especially since I would have to get my Dish replaced and then have to add an additional HD OTA. Anyhow what do you all think I should do?

[Guindalf]

No-one (except maybe some VERY opinionated people on this board) can answer that question but you. However, we could suggest some factors to take into your consideration before making the choice...

1. Where do you live? This is vital because it depends if you can gat OTA local channels from your location. If you can, then the HR10 is an excellent choice for at least the next three or four years as you won't even NEED MPEG-4 capabilities for a long time.

2. What is your local cable company and what can they offer? Can you get a decent DVR from them and do they offer any HD programming? Of course, price comes into this option as well.

3. TiVo vs. ? - Again, your choice. Many people say they MUST have TiVo, nothing else will do. This does not have to be true for you. After all, this is a TiVo forum!

4. The Series 3 TiVo is looking like a great box (as far as the pre-publicity is concerned), but it may be a year or two before it's really affordable. I would expect TiVo to charge a premium initially to recoup some of the research costs from early adopters.

From my point of view, I don't have a good cableco and I've had reasonable service from D* (not great, I've had my share of problems!), so I have little or no choice. I'm not specifically pro or anti anything except what works best for me. And this is where you want to be. Ignore the pro-cable or even pro-TiVo/D* trolls and make up your own mind.

[ssandhoops]

If you already have the eliptical dish, there's no need to replace it other than to get the MPEG4 channels which as you've already determined, the HR10-250 won't receive anyway. By adding the Sat C kit to your current dish, you'll be able to receive all of D*s current MPEG2 HD channels. So, if you can receive your local HD channels via OTA.....well let's just say that's the setup I have and I'm quite happy with it.

[schuang74]

Thanks for the comments. I am still leaning toward returning the HR10-250. I am not sure if I am willing to get stuck in a 2 year contract with Tivo S3 possibly comming out within the year. Anyhow Comcast is the local cable provider (Orange County California), and I can already recieve OTA HD. I could go DISH, but I heard their PVR isnt that great. Oh well, i guess I will wait until something "better" comes along.

[fastep]

Thanks for the comments. I am still leaning toward returning the HR10-250. I am not sure if I am willing to get stuck in a 2 year contract with Tivo S3 possibly comming out within the year. Anyhow Comcast is the local cable provider (Orange County California), and I can already recieve OTA HD. I could go DISH, but I heard their PVR isnt that great. Oh well, i guess I will wait until something "better" comes along.


I used hr10-250 for over 2 years. Recently I switched to Comcast and have been extremely happy with their DVR (motorola 6412 series III) and service. In another post 2 others with inferior cablecos have switched to Dish VIP622 and seem to like them (so far anyway).

My advice is to try cable or dish FIRST since you can cancel easily with either if you are unhappy (cable-no contract no upfront fee, DISH - no contract with good credit and $299 upfront fee). Dish will refund the $299 and pay for return shipment if you are not happy. DTV - $499 upfront to lease and MANDATORY 2 year contract.

Your first choice should be cable ONLY if they have gone "all digital" (call and ask them). If not, try Dish. If dish 622 is a bust, DTV HR10-250 is a fine last resort (decent but SLOW!).

Good luck and keep us posted!