HR20 & HD Tivo ?

[jhillestad]

If I buy a HR20 and keep my other hd tivo active will they charge me a different $5 fee or is the $5 fee a dvr fee and it will fall into the slave price ?

I wasnt sure if that money went to tivo or not...

Also will an HR20 work on a 3 lnb dish (sans locals of course and sans ka of course) ?

[Fahtrim]

You have the $5 per receiver and then the 5 DVR fee (if you don't have the "full all everything premium" package)

[ebonovic]

And yes... and HR20 will work with a 3LNB

[jhillestad]

Sounds like a winner. I have a philips ds704 hooked to a 3 lnb dish that is in turn hooked to my older sony wega that is hd - I think I'll just switch it with the hr20. I heard but an not sure is the hr20 over the air antenna stuff working ? That would even sweeten it more and give my old wega crt something to do.... its a '01 36" wega xbr crt that has hd but its not widescreen so it blackbars it but when I add it all up its the equiv of a 30" hd crt sony.

Thanks for the input.

[bwaldron]

Sounds like a winner. I have a philips ds704 hooked to a 3 lnb dish that is in turn hooked to my older sony wega that is hd - I think I'll just switch it with the hr20. I heard but an not sure is the hr20 over the air antenna stuff working ? That would even sweeten it more and give my old wega crt something to do.... its a '01 36" wega xbr crt that has hd but its not widescreen so it blackbars it but when I add it all up its the equiv of a 30" hd crt sony.

Thanks for the input.

Yes, the OTA is working on the HR20.

[iaflyer]

I wouldn't unsubscribe the HD Tivo until you're happy with the HR20.

Earl's site has more details in the current status of the HR20 - the OTA works, but it has some issues (as well as others - his site has more details in the forums).

[jbradway]

They swapped out my old 3 lnb for the 5 for free. I was glad they did because I've had better signal strength since.

[jrock]

I have 2 HR10-250's and they got the update to 6.x a few months ago and where running perfect until mid December when they both started locking up or rebooting every other day.

I started missing recordings and having partial recordings and was fed up so I finally decided to get an HR20. I called and was able to get the deal where if you have an HR10-250 you can upgrade to the HR20 for $99 and you get a free dish and they will relocate the HR10-250 for you.

Since I have 2 HR10-250's I had to upgrade both though. It was $219 after tax. I called back and tried to get it for free since I am having so many problems with my HR10-250's. They wouldn't do that but they did give me a $100 credit so I am getting 2 HR20's for $119.

They did tell me that a fix was coming out this month for the HR10-250's. I notice I just got b out in the living room but still have a in my bedroom. The bedroom one rebooted last night on me but so far the living room one seems to be fine.

What is so odd was that both would lock up or reboot at the same time when they both had the a software. Both are on there own UPS's so it wasn't a power issue. The techs I talked to kept trying to get me to replace them or have a tech come out. I told them it has to be a software issue, tons of people on the forum are reporting it and one of them is 3 years old and the other is only a year old and both are having identical issues.

Well hopefully the b software fixes it and the new HR20 works well. One plus with the HR20 is I will get 2 more locals in HD making it a total of 3 instead of 1. (No OTA here since I live to far away) Secondly I have an 800 GB eSata drive all ready to hook up to my living room HR20 so I will have plenty of room.

I just hope they send a good installer since I have three 4 x 8 switches cascaded already they will need to put one of the new switches in front of them and continue the cascade so all the existing rooms work with all the SD TiVo's.

Oh and by the way as for the thread topic, I have the $100 package that comes with everything so I will end up getting a $10 additional charge for the 2 new receivers. I still want to continue using the HR10-250's for SD content and maybe a little HD if I run out of tuners on the 2 TiVo's. I already have an S3 with Comcast and the HR10-250 in the living room. I only use Comcast for the HD locals, I get all 4 in HD from Comcast plus CW HD. I may be able to drop Comcast once I get the HR20 but it's so cheap since I only have basic it's $79 and $52 of that is for High Speed Cable. So for the basic cable and cable cards it's only an additional $27.

Ok I've rambled on enough :D

-Joe

[TomF]

You have the $5 per receiver and then the 5 DVR fee (if you don't have the "full all everything premium" package)
Just to clarify a bit, you'll be charged an additional $5/mo "lease fee" on the HR20. Even if you have a TiVo lifetime subscription, you will pay an additional $5/mo "DVR fee" on the HR20 because it isn't a TiVo.

[rminsk]

Just to clarify a bit, you'll be charged an additional $5/mo "lease fee" on the HR20. Even if you have a TiVo lifetime subscription, you will pay an additional $5/mo "DVR fee" on the HR20 because it isn't a TiVo.DirecTV changed it to lifetime DVR service. If you find the right CSR you can get the HR20 under lifetime also.

[Philly Bill]

a) How can you tell if your unit reboots? Does it show in System Info? Or do you have to be sitting there when it does?

b) I saw the original 5LNB dishes when they came out. They looked sort of round/square and had a triple LNB and it looked like two smaller LNBs that sat out extended from the three. The instructions for installing them sounded pretty difficult... after setting the tilt/elevation/azimuth you still had to make adjustments for the other two LNBs.

http://i12.ebayimg.com/05/i/08/31/bf/a8_1.JPG

But the other day I saw a house with a 5LNB dish that looked just like a Phase III. It looked like it just had one quintuple LNB. Has anyone else seen this?

http://i10.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/79/b2/b6e3_1.JPG

I'm wondering if with this setup it might just be like installing a Phase III now... Just set the tilt, azimuth and elevation and put it on the mast.

In fact it LOOKS almost like you could just swap the LNB on your Phase III to one of these new ones.

[jrock]

a) How can you tell if your unit reboots? Does it show in System Info? Or do you have to be sitting there when it does?

I always use the 30 second skip feature. So every time I am watching a show and all of a sudden it goes to the very end instead of 30 seconds I know and have to reset the 30 second skip again.

-Joe

[bwaldron]

a) How can you tell if your unit reboots? Does it show in System Info? Or do you have to be sitting there when it does?

b) I saw the original 5LNB dishes when they came out. They looked sort of round/square and had a triple LNB and it looked like two smaller LNBs that sat out extended from the three. The instructions for installing them sounded pretty difficult... after setting the tilt/elevation/azimuth you still had to make adjustments for the other two LNBs.

http://i12.ebayimg.com/05/i/08/31/bf/a8_1.JPG

But the other day I saw a house with a 5LNB dish that looked just like a Phase III. It looked like it just had one quintuple LNB. Has anyone else seen this?

http://i10.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/79/b2/b6e3_1.JPG

I'm wondering if with this setup it might just be like installing a Phase III now... Just set the tilt, azimuth and elevation and put it on the mast.

In fact it LOOKS almost like you could just swap the LNB on your Phase III to one of these new ones.

You saw the Slimline dish, which is the new standard being installed by D*:

Slimline at Solid Signal (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?main_cat=2&CAT=&PROD=AU9-S)

It's larger than the Phase III, a little smaller and lighter than the AT9.

[Philly Bill]

Yeah, but is it as easy to install as the Phase III is? Anyone have one? It just seemed like the AT9 looked more difficult to tweek to get all 5 in... it seems that this LNB with the Slimline is one piece and once you get one sat dialied in the rest should fall into place.

[bigpuma]

you will pay an additional $5/mo "DVR fee" on the HR20 because it isn't a TiVo.

There is only one DVR fee per DirecTV account so if you already have "lifetime" you will not be charged an additional DVR fee.

[crpndth]

What can I use the front USB and rear RJ45 connection for? Thanks for newbie help.

[bwaldron]

Yeah, but is it as easy to install as the Phase III is? Anyone have one? It just seemed like the AT9 looked more difficult to tweek to get all 5 in... it seems that this LNB with the Slimline is one piece and once you get one sat dialied in the rest should fall into place.

I have not installed either, but I would expect that the install of the Slimline would be essentially the same as the AT9 (perhaps slightly easier due to the LNB setup). Alignment with either is going to be a bit tricker due to Ka as well as Ku...but there are plenty of DIY-types who have had success installing theirs. I plan to do so myself when I need to for MPEG4 content down the line.

[videojanitor]

Yeah, but is it as easy to install as the Phase III is? Anyone have one? It just seemed like the AT9 looked more difficult to tweek to get all 5 in..

I installed one of each. :D The Slimline requires pretty much the same precision as the AT9, though on the surface it LOOKS like it should be simplier. On the AT9, there weren't any adjustments that needed to be made to the LNB "arm" that was attached to the main assembly -- that just bolted in place and you were done with it.

The main differences are really in the back assemblies -- the Slimline does away with the "dither" mechanism, so it's a little easier. But it still needs to be aimed with greater precision than a Phase III, and requires fine tuning of both the azimuth and elevation for peak performance. That said, I found the installation of each one to be relatively easy.

[MacNAround]

And yes... and HR20 will work with a 3LNB

I was told by an installer that the new dish points to the 3 older satellites, and the new satellites are in and amongst them but not interfering with them since they use a different band to send the signal down to earth (and the band allows the new satellites to be grouped closer together).

So I would assume that my HR10 would work fine using the new 5 lnb dish too?

[bigpuma]

So I would assume that my HR10 would work fine using the new 5 lnb dish too?

Yes, I have an HR10 and R10 hooked up to a 5lnb dish. The HR10 just can't "see" the 2 new sats.

[reh523]

What can I use the front USB connection for? Thanks for newbie help.

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