Is this information from DirecTV correct?

[Steve609]

I wrote to DirecTV:

"I saw the announcement regarding 100 HD channels this year.
1. Can I get them on the 10-250 TiVo units I already have?
2. Can the 10-250 with TiVo be upgraded to accept MPEG 4?"

DirecTV's answer was:

"Since you already have the HR10-250, you will be able to watch the upcoming national HD programs. However, for HD Local Channels, you will need to have an MPEG 4 capable receiver and a 5 LNB dish."

____________________________________

Is this correct? MPEG 4 for HD local channels only?
They did not answer #2

Thanks,
Steve609

[webini]

I wrote to DirecTV:

"I saw the announcement regarding 100 HD channels this year.
1. Can I get them on the 10-250 TiVo units I already have?
2. Can the 10-250 with TiVo be upgraded to accept MPEG 4?"

DirecTV's answer was:

"Since you already have the HR10-250, you will be able to watch the upcoming national HD programs. However, for HD Local Channels, you will need to have an MPEG 4 capable receiver and a 5 LNB dish."

____________________________________

Is this correct? MPEG 4 for HD local channels only?
They did not answer #2

Thanks,
Steve609

The answer for #2 is "no".

[JimSpence]

I believe that is correct, as DirecTV's current plans are to put national HD on the MPEG2 sats (101, 110, & 119). I don't know where they will get the bandwidth, however. Expect, a lot of HDLite. :(

[dswallow]

I wrote to DirecTV:

"I saw the announcement regarding 100 HD channels this year.
1. Can I get them on the 10-250 TiVo units I already have?
2. Can the 10-250 with TiVo be upgraded to accept MPEG 4?"

DirecTV's answer was:

"Since you already have the HR10-250, you will be able to watch the upcoming national HD programs. However, for HD Local Channels, you will need to have an MPEG 4 capable receiver and a 5 LNB dish."

____________________________________

Is this correct? MPEG 4 for HD local channels only?
They did not answer #2

No, it's not correct. It's correct NOW, though.

In mid-2007 the first of 2 national-coverage KA-band satellites will be launched; it's from those 2 satellites that DirecTV's Ka-band national MPEG-4 channels will be transmitted. That's were the recently announced "100 HD channels" will be broadcast; the HR10-250 will not be able to receive them, and it's not possible to upgrade the receiver to handle MPEG4. And even if upgrading were possible for MPEG4, the Ka-band satellites also will be modulating the signal with a different method that the HR10-250 cannot handle, either. And finally, the HR10-250 doesn't have a wide enough tuning range to be able to tune the full range of downconverted signals from the Ka-band LNB's they're using; they'd have to be further split in half, meaning a new multiswitch.

So no, the HR10-250 just isn't gonna work for MPEG-4/Ka-band. No matter what a DirecTV CSR tells you. :)

[Steve609]

Thank you!

Potentially, can the TiVo software be downloaded into the new HR20? Kind of like what Comcast is doing with their units.

The question I am trying to ask is if enough DirecTV customers complain about the loss of TiVo (or they lose customers because of the change) could potentially DirecTV do this?

[PJO1966]

Thank you!

Potentially, can the TiVo software be downloaded into the new HR20? Kind of like what Comcast is doing with their units.

The question I am trying to ask is if enough DirecTV customers complain about the loss of TiVo (or they lose customers because of the change) could potentially DirecTV do this?


No. If you want to stick with TiVo and want to receive all the new channels being added, you'll have to leave DirecTV. The future of HD with DirecTV is the HR20. My personal experience is that it barely functions as a DVR. Unless they get it fixed so that it records programs that are in its To Do List, they are going to lose customers.

[dswallow]

Thank you!

Potentially, can the TiVo software be downloaded into the new HR20? Kind of like what Comcast is doing with their units.

The question I am trying to ask is if enough DirecTV customers complain about the loss of TiVo (or they lose customers because of the change) could potentially DirecTV do this?
I can't say for sure, but in general I would expect that to be possible. These sorts of boxes all will have much of the basic stuff in common to be able to do what they need to do. It's certainly possible there might be some showstopper, but in general if TiVo can squeeze their functionality out of the Motorola cable boxes, I'd say it's a good bet the same could be done from DirecTV's latest one.

It's certainly not something I would hold my breath to happen, though. And certainly it'd take time; figure on at least a year or year and a half from the point where an agreement were made to do that. Best just not to consider it even a remote possibility.

[Billy66]

The question I am trying to ask is if enough DirecTV customers complain about the loss of TiVo (or they lose customers because of the change) could potentially DirecTV do this?


It's not going to happen. Let it go.

Throw away the picture of your first dog, and the id braclet your first girlfriend gave you. Let it go.

[bonscott87]

Yep, as has been the plan for about 3 years now, all new HD will be in MPEG4 from the KA sats. The HR10 cannot see those sats nor decode MPEG4.

So you'll need an HR20.
The HR10 will still be good to you for SD recording and OTA HD however.

[nrc]

The question I am trying to ask is if enough DirecTV customers complain about the loss of TiVo (or they lose customers because of the change) could potentially DirecTV do this?

It won't happen because costumers complain - lately DTV has shown that they're pretty inured to that. It will only happen if the churn from prime customers leaving is unacceptable or TiVo's patent case against Echostar is slam dunk. The trouble is, a lot of those prime customers are sports package subcribers and they're more addicted to their sports packages than their TiVo.

Either way, if it were to happen we're probably a year away from a decision point and another year away from an actual product.

[drew2k]

It won't happen because costumers complain - lately DTV has shown that they're pretty inured to that. It will only happen if the churn from prime customers leaving is unacceptable or TiVo's patent case against Echostar is slam dunk. The trouble is, a lot of those prime customers are sports package subcribers and they're more addicted to their sports packages than their TiVo.

Either way, if it were to happen we're probably a year away from a decision point and another year away from an actual product.It could also happen if come June/July 2007, the new owners of DirecTV look at the success Comcast has attacting customers to their new TiVo interface, and these same owners consider the costs of renegotiating with TiVo or continuing current contracts with NDS. As I said in another thread, Murdoch dumped TiVo because he wanted to use another of his companies to supply their new DVR software. Malone may not want to keep paying Murdoch's company and may instead prefer to go back to TiVo.

[bwaldron]

It could also happen if come June/July 2007, the new owners of DirecTV look at the success Comcast has attacting customers to their new TiVo interface, and these same owners consider the costs of renegotiating with TiVo or continuing current contracts with NDS. As I said in another thread, Murdoch dumped TiVo because he wanted to use another of his companies to supply their new DVR software. Malone may not want to keep paying Murdoch's company and may instead prefer to go back to TiVo.

Anything's possible. I personally wouldn't expect them to drop the HR15/20 in favor of Tivo. I could possibly see a Tivo box as as optional offering, at an additional monthly cost.

[TyroneShoes]

...Murdoch dumped TiVo because he wanted to use another of his companies to supply their new DVR software. Malone may not want to keep paying Murdoch's company and may instead prefer to go back to TiVo.
We could dream, but the way things normally work when a company changes hands, especially when a minor owner becomes a controlling shareholder and the controlling owner becomes a minor shareholder, is that the hardware or software agreements in place with subsidiaries are protected, more or less. Liberty could have agreed to this to help make the deal happen, and News Corp could have insisted so that they were insured the revenue for NDS and were not put in a position to be made to look like NDS failed and that they had to go back hat-in-hand to Tivo. IOW, the chances are probably less than 20% that Liberty is seriously considering a new Tivo DVR for DTV, even it they actually understand how much sense that makes. Time will tell.

[bonscott87]

Liberty would only consider even thinking about Tivo again if by this fall the HR20 is a complete failure. But if it's stable and all the extra stuff they plan is rolling out or in place then there is no need, zero need, to even look Tivo's way.

Everyone just need to give it up. Tivo is done with DirecTV. Period. If Tivo is #1 on your list of features (which it isn't for the vast majority of people out there who think all DVRs are Tivo's) then move on to cable.

Chance of a new Tivo for DirecTV in the next 2 years? Less then 1%.

[boneskrw]

Right now, even though Direct TV won't ship an HR10 to a new customer, anyone is free to buy one and Direct TV will support it.

What is there to stop a manufacturer from building a genuine Tivo DVR for Direct TV with MPEG4 capability and selling it through Best Buy, etc.?? A substantial percentage of HR10's were purchased this way.

By the time the MPEG4 system is up and running, the HR20 will be outdated, and the HR10 will be REALLY outdated.

[dswallow]

What is there to stop a manufacturer from building a genuine Tivo DVR for Direct TV with MPEG4 capability and selling it through Best Buy, etc.?? A substantial percentage of HR10's were purchased this way.
An agreement with DirecTV is required to build such a thing. At least until the FCC steps in. If TiVo could do it alone without DirecTV's permission, I'd bet that we'd have already had an MPEG-4/8PSK version of the HR10, even before the Series3 hit the market.