# DirecTV HR10-250 TiVo DVR



## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

I was just about to throw several HR10-250s in the trash that have been collecting dust for about 8 years, when for grins I thought I would see if anyone was paying anything for these on eBay.

To my surprise 3 have already been sold this year for between $60 and $70.

What can these units be used for now?

They have an OTA tuner, but without a current DirecTV subscription you cannot get a guide or use them, can you?

Am I missing something?


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> I was just about to throw several HR10-250s in the trash that have been collecting dust for about 8 years, when for grins I thought I would see if anyone was paying anything for these on eBay.
> 
> To my surprise 3 have already been sold this year for between $60 and $70.
> 
> ...


As is they get the OTA guide but you can't use them as a full OTA dvr. As a labor of love they can be made to work nicely for a niche need. If you lived next door to me (is that you, Sam?) I'd offer to pick them up because I hate to see them go to landfill when there's still some use, but I haven't been paying anything for them, even shipping, for years now; donations only.

Frankly even the people who have been getting them from us, after we refurb & modify, for free through the church group are dropping out so the need to support with parts, etc. is disappearing. A real shame.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

Wil said:


> As is they get the OTA guide but you can't use them as a full OTA dvr. As a labor of love they can be made to work nicely for a niche need. If you lived next door to me (is that you, Sam?) I'd offer to pick them up because I hate to see them go to landfill when there's still some use, but I haven't been paying anything for them, even shipping, for years now; donations only.
> 
> Frankly even the people who have been getting them from us, after we refurb & modify, for free through the church group are dropping out so the need to support with parts, etc. is disappearing. A real shame.


What is the niche use?

And why would they go for $60 to $70?


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## CrashHD (Nov 10, 2006)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> They have an OTA tuner, but without a current DirecTV subscription you cannot get a guide or use them, can you?


I used a pair of unsubbed units for a few years for OTA only.

They were hacked with the zipper. Guided setup was done configuring for OTA & Satellite. Then use the "channels I receive" to limit it to only the OTA channels.

It had to have a card in it. Mine were able to work with a random old unsubbed directv card.

They worked decent, but were prone to reboots, and the OTA tuner quality of these units was poor by modern standards. I replaced them years ago when I got some broken, lifetimed S3's on ebay cheap and repaired them.


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

CrashHD said:


> ...worked decent, but were prone to reboots, and the OTA tuner quality of these units was poor by modern standards.


I agree about the reboots; we set them to deliberately reboot once a week at a scheduled time and that seems to keep them from doing it on their own randomly. The tuners are not as sensitive and don't handle signal issues like reflection as well as most modern tuners but the picture quality is fine. Also, in terms of playing back hidef material, the quality is fine.


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