Use of OTA tuner after receiver deactivation

[SD493]

Even though I have really liked my Tivo I had to go with the $19.95 deal from dish for a HR20, slimeline dish and installation. With the new receiver all of my OTA channels come in fine with the exception of one (it came in fine with my Tivo). I tried to compare the signal with my Tivo. However, I was unable to get a picture of any kind to come up with my Tivo. I tried using component and S-video but all I got was a blue screen (yes I was on the right input and my Tivo was powered on.)
Can the OTA tuners no longer be used once D* deactivates the boxes?

[TyroneShoes]

They can, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having an intelligent recorder, because the HR10 gets its EPG info from DTV via Tribune service, rather than OTA via PSIP from the local stations as most HDTVs do. That means that without EPG info, recording would be minimal and spotty at best, even if you could authorize it without DTV service (which you can't, and as you can see, that's for a very good reason) and scheduled recording would be completely impractical. So you can tune stations live, but Tivo service (EPG, recording, trick play) is unavailable without also subscribing to some minimal level of DTV service and keeping it pointed at the sats.

So using a HR10 just for OTA usually doesn't make a lot of sense financially or practically. But ironically, that is sort of what I'm doing (3 times over) as I have 3 HR10's that I get 95% of my programming free from 6 OTA HD channels, and the other 5% from the hundreds of DTV channels that I pay dearly for.

[SD493]

They can, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having an intelligent recorder, because the HR10 gets its EPG info from DTV via Tribune service, rather than OTA via PSIP from the local stations as most HDTVs do. That means that without EPG info, recording would be minimal and spotty at best, even if you could authorize it without DTV service (which you can't, and as you can see, that's for a very good reason) and scheduled recording would be completely impractical. So you can tune stations live, but Tivo service (EPG, recording, trick play) is unavailable without also subscribing to some minimal level of DTV service and keeping it pointed at the sats.

So using a HR10 just for OTA usually doesn't make a lot of sense financially or practically. But ironically, that is sort of what I'm doing (3 times over) as I have 3 HR10's that I get 95% of my programming free from 6 OTA HD channels, and the other 5% from the hundreds of DTV channels that I pay dearly for.


Thanks. I was just going to use it to compare OTA tuner performance with the HR20 to see if the problems I am having with one OTA station is due to the difference in tuners or something else. Just wondering why I couldn't get any
video at all on the screen.

[TyroneShoes]

You should still be able to use the signal quality metering in your HR10 to judge that, even if the video is muted. As has been widely reported, the tuners in the HR10 are not that great as far as marginal reception or reflective environments are concerned, probably gen2 or gen3 quality. The HR20 and S3 use gen5 tuners which receive much better. Of course if you can receive at all on any HD tuner, the PQ itself will always be the same regardless of the tuner.

[SD493]

You should still be able to use the signal quality metering in your HR10 to judge that, even if the video is muted. As has been widely reported, the tuners in the HR10 are not that great as far as marginal reception or reflective environments are concerned, probably gen2 or gen3 quality. The HR20 and S3 use gen5 tuners which receive much better. Of course if you can receive at all on any HD tuner, the PQ itself will always be the same regardless of the tuner.


The problem is I don't get any video at all--just a blue screen. After deactivation, does a sat line need to be hooked up the the DVR initially.