HR10 - can't record OTA/ATSC and DirecTV at same time?

JaserLet · 12-24-2005, 10:32 PM

I just finished setting up my new HR10-250, I choose both satellite and OTA during the guided setup and am able to watch both satellite DirecTV and OTA / ATSC local digital stations. I currently have the machine configured for one coax to satellite plus the one coax to the OTA antenna.

However, I cannot record an OTA channel while I am recording a DirecTV channel at the same time. This doesn't make sense to me. I was under the impression that the HR10 has four tuners, two DirecTV tuners and two OTA/ATSC tuners. I was also under the impression that each DirecTV tuner requires its own coax to the mulitswitch and that the OTA tuners have an internal splitter so they only require one coax to the OTA antenna. So with my current setup, I should in theory be able to record one DirecTV channel and two OTA channels. But in reality I am only able to record one thing at a time.

Is it possible to record a DirecTV channel and an OTA channel at the same time with the HR10? If so, what do I need to do? I can't seem to get this to work and the manual is not help.

dswallow · 12-24-2005, 10:36 PM

The software logically groups one OTA tuner and one satellite tuner together, so if you only activate one satellite tuner with just a single connection to your dish, you only have the one OTA tuner that goes with it; logically a single tuner that can only be used to record one thing at any given time. You need to connect the second satellite input in order to gain access to the second OTA tuner.

JaserLet · 12-24-2005, 10:38 PM

Eww.

Ok. I guess that means I need to pull some coax asap!

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

TyroneShoes · 12-24-2005, 10:39 PM

You also need to activate all tuners in setup (it really is in the manual).

JaserLet · 12-24-2005, 10:43 PM

Yeah, I see it now. I guess I was using some wishful thinking and assuming that a one LNB drop + one antenna drop user would be able to record from both sources at the same time. The explanation makes sense though and I doubt there are many (or any) people that use an HR10 with just one satellite connection. In my case it's own temporary until I have time to pull another coax run.

Adam1115 · 12-26-2005, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaserLet

Yeah, I see it now. I guess I was using some wishful thinking and assuming that a one LNB drop + one antenna drop user would be able to record from both sources at the same time. The explanation makes sense though and I doubt there are many (or any) people that use an HR10 with just one satellite connection. In my case it's own temporary until I have time to pull another coax run.

You can. Just tell your TiVo you have two sat tuners (even though you don't ) and ignore/skip past all warnings about no signal... it will then record 1 OTA and 1 Sat at the same tim.

dswallow · 12-26-2005, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam1115

You can. Just tell your TiVo you have two sat tuners (even though you don't ) and ignore/skip past all warnings about no signal... it will then record 1 OTA and 1 Sat at the same tim.

You can't guarantee the unit will choose the satellite input that's active when a recording is scheduled, thus you will end up with unrecorded shows on any satellite channel. So it's really not a very functional workaround.

JTAnderson · 12-26-2005, 01:20 PM

You could use a splitter on the sat feed that blocks DC on one leg. Then you'd only get the wrong thing recorded 25% of the time.

dswallow · 12-26-2005, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JTAnderson

You could use a splitter on the sat feed that blocks DC on one leg. Then you'd only get the wrong thing recorded 25% of the time.

Probably more like 75% of the time... but still.

Adam1115 · 01-08-2006, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dswallow

You can't guarantee the unit will choose the satellite input that's active when a recording is scheduled, thus you will end up with unrecorded shows on any satellite channel. So it's really not a very functional workaround.

That's not exactly right.

In my testing, it defaults to sat input 1. If a second program tries to record you'll get a blank recording, but if you had the second tuner turned off it wouldn't have recorded anyway, so it has the same net-effect.

Still, it's a way to be able to record OTA and Sat at the same time...

dswallow · 01-08-2006, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam1115

That's not exactly right.

In my testing, it defaults to sat input 1. If a second program tries to record you'll get a blank recording, but if you had the second tuner turned off it wouldn't have recorded anyway, so it has the same net-effect.

Still, it's a way to be able to record OTA and Sat at the same time...

I'm sure there are some patterns it'd use after all it's going to be picking the tuner to use based on some rules itself. I would expect one issue might be if it thinks you're watching tuner 1 because it's seen remote activity in the last 15 minutes, it'd just use tuner 2 silently which would have not satellite signal.

The main thing is that you just couldn't count on it. But if all or most of your recordings are OTA material, then it probably doesn't really matter.