HD locals w/ HR10-250

[galaxie428]

I am hoping that someone can help me out. I just bought a new HR10-250 last year for $500. I rent my home and I am not able to put up an off air antenna to receive my local HD channels. I saw that finally through DTV I could get my HD locals if I upgraded to a 5LNB dish. Not a problem, I would have done it except they also mentioned that I would need to upgrade to a new receiver, the H20 that is not recordable. My HR10-250 that I just paid $400 is not compatible with the 5LNB dish. That irked me a little. My question is, what is not compatible? Is there any way I could upgrade to the 5LNB dish and make my HR10-250 work? In the setup on the receiver, i would only have three sats to get lined up. If I get those lined up I would assume i would be close to the other two if that is what the 5LNB means. Any ideas or am i getting screwed by DTV AGAIN?

[rlj5242]

HD locals via satellite are in MPEG4 format. The HR10-250 only has MPEG2 tuners. There's nothing you can do to change this. You could re-design the motherboard on the HR10-250 and re-write the software to work with MPEG4 but that takes time and costs R&D money.

As for being screwed, we've been discussing this very issue now for quite a while. A quick read through the threads on the first couple of pages will answer all of your questions.

-Robert

[JimSpence]

The reason the HR10 is not compatible is that it cannot receive the MPEG4 encoded signals from the new satellites. The phase III triple LNB dish receives signals from the 101, 110, and 119 satellites. The 5 LNB dish adds the MPEG4 sats at 95 and 103. There's no way to modify the HR10 to receive these.

Now why is it that you can't put up an OTA antenna? If you can put up a sat dish then you should be able to put up the OTA antenna. Have you tried to receive your local HD using an indoor antenna? How close are you to the towers?

[vikingguy]

I am lucky and get good OTA reception on my HD-Tivo 25 miles through a thick dens minnesota forest. As long as I get good OTA I won't bother with my locals over the satellite. OTA has a vastly superior picture and when a storm knocks out my direct tv service my OTA still works like a charm.

[super dave]

I'm a little confused on why the OP can install a 5 LNB dish but not an OTA antenna.

[T1V0]

I'm a little confused on why the OP can install a 5 LNB dish but not an OTA antenna.

Seriously.

[TyroneShoes]

...My HR10-250 that I just paid $400 is not compatible with the 5LNB dish. That irked me a little...
Unfortunately, the only HD PVR available for DTV was designed before there was a corporate paradigm shift planned for Ka/MPEG-4, and it is not upgradeable. IOW, you just paid $400 for PVR that is obsolete only for a few of the newer offerings, yet completely compatible with everything else.

Of course, you had little choice. If you want a HD PVR from DTV, the HR10 is the only choice (and still probably still far-and-away the best choice among all HD recorders for any service).

The good news it that the HR10 is compatible with all MPEG-2 services, which is 99% of what is offered. The 5LNB dish has 5 LNBs because 3 of them still look at the current core sats that the older dishes illuminate, where all of this content lives. So technically the HR10 is compatible with everything that can be received on 3 of the 5 LNBs on that dish, and should work just fine.

[galaxie428]

There was already a pole and wiring for the dish, all I had to do was mount it and hook it up.

I live about 60 miles out in the country from Indianapolis and a smaller antenna would not work well with all my trees. I am sure I would have to put up a tower and all that to get the channels. That is an expense that my landlord is not willing to do, I have asked. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on it because I won't be here forever.

[Runch Machine]

Go to antennaweb.org, put in your zip code and see what is available over the air. You might be surprised.