# DirecTV whole house server DVR?



## comtech5 (Dec 17, 2002)

4 or 5 years ago at CES, the DirecTV booth had a prototype of a central server DVR with 4 built-in tuners. It could be stacked with a second server for a total of 8 tuners for whole house access. At a more recent CES, I was told by a DirecTV rep that the project was not "dead" by any means, but rather on "hold". Does anyone know if we will see such a product soon?


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## Todd (Oct 7, 1999)

I've wondered that too...


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

on hold sounds pretty dead to me


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## balboa dave (Jan 19, 2004)

The HR21 Pro has been out for several months now. Only two tuners though.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

The HR21 Pro is not a server. It's meant to be installed in a rack for custom installs.

I have not heard anything further about the proposed server.


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## shibby191 (Dec 24, 2007)

It was talked about in the financial calls and investor guidance for the next 2-3 years back in the spring. If I remember correctly their goal was to get down to just one receiver (MPEG4 DVR for all) in 2009 and the whole house server was on top for 2010. Since it was presented to investors I'd give that a bit more weight then showing something at CES where so much stuff is vaporware, but who knows really until we get an official announcements. And Tivo coming back certainly changes some of that (one receiver with a single GUI) so who knows what's really going to happen.


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## bigpuma (Aug 12, 2003)

shibby191 said:


> It was talked about in the financial calls and investor guidance for the next 2-3 years back in the spring. If I remember correctly their goal was to get down to just one receiver (MPEG4 DVR for all) in 2009 and the whole house server was on top for 2010. Since it was presented to investors I'd give that a bit more weight then showing something at CES where so much stuff is vaporware, but who knows really until we get an official announcements. And Tivo coming back certainly changes some of that (one receiver with a single GUI) so who knows what's really going to happen.


I recall the one receiver for all customers was based on the HR2x line which by then should have the ability to stream shows between DVRs. This is a different concept than the whole house server was one DVR with a large HD that could stream the shows to clients placed at each TV.


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## bpratt (Nov 20, 2004)

bigpuma said:


> I recall the one receiver for all customers was based on the HR2x line which by then should have the ability to stream shows between DVRs. This is a different concept than the whole house server was one DVR with a large HD that could stream the shows to clients placed at each TV.


I wonder whats taking D* so long to implement this. I have 2 ReplayTVs I purchased in 1999, and they allow you to view a show that was recorded on another receiver using ethernet. Since D* purchased ReplayTV and has rights to use any and all of their software, putting that code into the HR2x should be fairly easy.


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## shibby191 (Dec 24, 2007)

Whole home DVR/server was mentioned in the Liberty investor call today as their next step/platform including one hard drive to record shows to be viewed on all TVs and PCs in the house. No details.

And curiously not one mention of Tivo during the entire presentation.


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## balboa dave (Jan 19, 2004)

stevel said:


> The HR21 Pro is not a server. It's meant to be installed in a rack for custom installs.


I didn't mean to imply it was, but that's my fault for not being specific. It is a step in the right direction. Imagine how good it will be if they ever port the upcoming TiVo software onto this platform.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Or adapt the MPEG4 tuners onto the Series 3 platform, similar to the initial DTiVos being based on the Series 2 (or the "1.5" for the Series 1 DTiVos). I have read it as happening either way, so I don't know what to expect. From DirecTV's perspective, a single hardware platform makes more sense, but I suspect the software development would be more difficult using DirecTV's platform.


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## Matt L (Aug 13, 2000)

ATT uverse called me today and offered a whole house server option, 4 tuners to record. To be honest at this point a couple of days a week I need 5, but I'm sure that will change as the season shakes out.

Anyway my point is that ATT seems to think there is a market for this, and they are not exactly cutting edge with their video service.


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## sjberra (May 16, 2005)

stevel said:


> Or adapt the MPEG4 tuners onto the Series 3 platform, similar to the initial DTiVos being based on the Series 2 (or the "1.5" for the Series 1 DTiVos). I have read it as happening either way, so I don't know what to expect. From DirecTV's perspective, a single hardware platform makes more sense, but I suspect the software development would be more difficult using DirecTV's platform.


Would rather see them move forward with the media center intragration that was supposed to be in Fiji that got pulled right before release. Already have a whole house setup for movies, music and OTA HD feeds in my rack mounted media center PC and extenders, only thing that takes up a seperate slot is Directv.


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