Can an HR10-250 be used as standalone OTA HD receiver?

Yes, your HR10-250 will work fine for OTA reception without any DirecTV subscription or connection. You won't have any Guide Data of course. But you should be able to pause Live TV within the 30-min record buffer.

 

There is no need for him to disconnect from the satellite, from which he can continue to get guide data.

Beyond the buffer and the guide, continuing capabilities of the HR10 are more ethical/moral/legal questions than technical.

If a person finds himself with an abandoned piece of gear, he may believe he is OK in pursuing capabilities (limited obviously to OTA) which were previously totally out of bounds.

 

I don't think you'll get Guide Data unless you maintain an active subscription and satellite connection.

 

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Only the satellite connection is required to get guide data (which is what Wil said above). You don't need an active subscription or even an access card in the HR10-250 to get the guide data. You also get the benefit of the DUAL live buffers both functioning just fine, so the HR10-250 makes a very nice OTA tuner.

 

Cool! Good to know. Thanks.

 

YES you get guide data.....with a sat input while deactivated.

 

Now, how do we make the buffer longer than 30 minutes?

 

I thought about hiring a 16 year old computer guru.....they know everything.

 

That's another reason I like my HR2x's.....

 

I've got mine set up with dual 90-minute buffers. It requires hacking the HR10-250. I also have a few HR10-250s networked together and I'm running mfs_ftp & MovieLoader to insert/extract/transfer recordings between them.

Just a setup note for anyone interested in using their HR10-250 as an OTA tuner: If you go through Guided Setup and tell it you have OTA only, then you won't get any guide data. You need to set it to Satellite & OTA and tell it you have two satellite feeds connected (if you want dual buffers). It will fail the connection test, but you will then be good to go. You just need to unselect all channels except the OTA ones in the channel list.

 

You would just need to hook up a Zinwell WB68 6x8 Multi-switch. You run 4 lines into it from the dish, and it gives you 8 lines out. You can probably pick one up on ebay for $10-$15.

 

It won't work as an OTA ONLY DVR though will it?

 

No recording while deactivated....but you get cruise control functions and the buffer(s). And you can still watch all your programs in the NPL.

 

I was afraid of that. Was thinking about buying one to use as an OTA DVR and turning Directv off.

 

You can....Just cannot record.

I have one or two coming up soon to sell that have 250gig drives....now that I have 4 units w/750's deactivated to use as OTA DVplayers.

 

So do you use movieloader to get the video onto the HR10s?

 

No....movies and programs already recorded. Can be played back forever after deactivation.

 

Another question, I have an Tivo S2 that is connected but is failing that I also only use to watch the news on occasion. I have an extra Hr10-250 but have not used it to replace the S2 because it seems D* always figures out a way to add another 2 year committment. If I do not deactivate the S2 and just connect the Hr10 in place of the S2, will it activate or just function as an OTA tuner as discussed above?