# MRV is now available on the HR2x



## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

Mine updated last night with the new software. You have to opt in because its listed as beta. Each DVR can optionally share its playlist with all the others on the local network. You can pick any show from a remote DVR and start watching it instantly. So far it seems to be working fine for me.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Note that DirecTV has said there will be a fee for the MRV feature, but has not revealed the cost.


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

I can't see paying a monthly fee for it. I don't understand why I wouldn't just record everything on every DVR instead. I'm still hoping they change their minds on the fee.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

I don't think that's going to happen, HiDefGator. Lots of discussion/debate at DBSTalk about the MRV fee now, but it seems that DirecTV has stated their intention very clearly.


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

true. but until they turn it off for nonpayment its free.


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## Jon J (Aug 23, 2000)

HiDefGator said:


> true. but until they turn it off for nonpayment its free.


It will be an item on your regular bill not something you can carve out to not pay.


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## southernbills (Dec 14, 2002)

Do you need to have your DVR's networked?


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

southernbills said:


> Do you need to have your DVR's networked?


Absolutely.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

However, DirecTV has developed a "networking over coax" adapter they call DECA that allows you to feed the network connection in at one point and it will provide network access (through DECA units) at each receiver, so you don't need to run Ethernet (or wireless bridges).


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

southernbills said:


> Do you need to have your DVR's networked?


You can also plug two receivers directly into each other to MRV between them. You just need a Cat5 cable of appropriate length. (You do NOT need a "crossover" cable.)

Or if you have more than two boxes you want to MRV, they can all see each other by connecting them to a low-cost "switch", such as this one.


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## TyroneShoes (Sep 6, 2004)

sluciani said:


> ...if you have more than two boxes you want to MRV, they can all see each other by connecting them to a low-cost "switch", such as this one.


Can you really use a 10/100 switch? I thought you needed Gig-E to move the video around.


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## litzdog911 (Oct 18, 2002)

TyroneShoes said:


> Can you really use a 10/100 switch? I thought you needed Gig-E to move the video around.


Not at all. Works fine even over WLAN, which typically maxes out at 30-50Mbps.


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## shibby191 (Dec 24, 2007)

TyroneShoes said:


> Can you really use a 10/100 switch? I thought you needed Gig-E to move the video around.


Definately no need for Gigabit, 100 is more then fine. Remember that a full OTA HD MPEG2 channel is at most 19 mbits and that's if there are no subchannels and no other things going on. Most are only 15-16. Now add in compression you are getting off DirecTV (or any other provider) and you're more then fine with 100.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

Wow! I just got three of my receivers running MRV. It works fantastic! 
Hmm...
Now that I have MRV, I really don't need redundant DVRs. I have two in our great room (his and hers) and I'm thinking about moving mine (HR20-700) up to a bedroom that only has an SD TV. How would a standard definition TV handle a show recorded in HD? Would it spit it out and not display a thing?


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

I just realized, it's supposed to be able to downconvert to 480, so we should be good to go. The only problem is, the darn thing won't power up. It's been off for a few months.


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

Scooter said:


> Wow! I just got three of my receivers running MRV. It works fantastic!
> Hmm...
> Now that I have MRV, I really don't need redundant DVRs. I have two in our great room (his and hers) and I'm thinking about moving mine (HR20-700) up to a bedroom that only has an SD TV. How would a standard definition TV handle a show recorded in HD? [...]


No issue at all connecting an HD box to an SD TV. Just select 4:3 aspect ration in your set-up. You can zoom in on a 16:9 picture by setting the default mode to CROP, or you can Letterbox it, as I do, on the 20 CRT in my office. Gives me black bars top and bottom.

One reason to keep multiple DVR's is the ability to record more then two channels at once, in case that's ever an issue in your household. It is in hours. Between my wife's shows and mine, there are a couple of time slots during the week where we routinely record three shows at once.

Also, by keeping all shows on a certain channel on a single DVR, you can take advantage of the HR2x's ability to "overlap" the pre- and post-padding for consecutive shows on the same channel. Pretty much insures you won't miss a second of the beginning or end of any regularly-scheduled show that wasn't bumped by a sporting event.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

Married with a 6 year old... 4 HR20s, 1 D-TiVo and a SD Directv DVR (whatever model that is)...
I used to have 3 DVRs that I recorded on, but one of them that was in our great room was pretty much all mine. I have another recorder in the bedroom and one in our sunroom that I record on, so we have plenty of tuners. Now I don't need all of the redundancy though. Nice.

I'm going to adjust my recording schedule now that I have different options available to me, but I'll always have an available tuner. Now I'm wishing our D-TiVo was capable of MRV. :/ It's about to die anyway, so I'll get a free replacement with our Directv warranty plan.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

Scooter said:


> Wow!
> 
> Now that I have MRV, I really don't need redundant DVRs.


I presume it's customers like me that make Directv want to charge for MRV.

I'll probably halt service on one DVR. I sure hope the fee isn't much more than $10. Quite honestly, I think that would be a fair price. I hope they don't get too greedy.

Sounds like I'm going to lose my Grandfather'd 'lifetime DVR status' too. 

Okay, $5 sounds better. heh


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

If you paid for lifetime DVR service, you should keep it. I have not seen anything suggesting otherwise and I agree with those who say that DirecTV would probably find themselves in trouble if they tried to do away with lifetime status.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

I have a stupid question... How does it work when two different DVRs are trying to access the same show via MRV? For instance, if I fast forward the show on my DVR, will my wife see the same thing or do we have independent control?


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

Scooter said:


> I have a stupid question... How does it work when two different DVRs are trying to access the same show via MRV? For instance, if I fast forward the show on my DVR, will my wife see the same thing or do we have independent control?


I believe it puts a red icon next to the show if its already being fed to another client.

My only complaint so far is that trick play is really sloppy over MRV. It works great for watching regular shows. But the other night I tried to watch a football game, where I really wanted to ff a lot over commercials and stuff. It is really unpredictable where it stops and goes back to normal play.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

I did notice that 30 second slip wasn't very pretty, but using 30 second skip is quite good. Doing a regular FF was a bit different than I'm used to. If I quit fast forwarding when I normally do, it starts like there's no correction. As far as I'm concerned, that's okay because it starts playing where I wanted it to.

All of my receivers have Cat5e runs, perhaps that's why it works so well. I'm pleased!


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

As far as my stupid question goes, I see the red circle with a line through it, as in - do not enter. 

...that explains that. Thanks, HiDefGator.


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## alert5 (Nov 16, 2003)

I have two HR23-700s that come with dual ethernet ports and found the MRV beta software works extremely well with a direct connect CAT5E between the two DVRs. 30 second skip, FF, etc work fine and no issues with HD throughput that some have experienced with local network hookups through routers, switches or wireless.

I was pleasantly surprised that both ethernet jacks on the boxes are functional. I have one HR23-700 also internet connected via the second jack and VOD works just fine.

I've tested recording on all four tuners and doing an internet VOD transfer at the same time with no issues.


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

alert5 said:


> [...] I was pleasantly surprised that both ethernet jacks on the boxes are functional. I have one HR23-700 also internet connected via the second jack and VOD works just fine [...]


Someone who talked to technical folks at DirecTV about this told me that under certain circumstances, using the second port on the HR21/22/23's may cause other networking issues on your LAN, so it's better to go with a cheap switch instead. And for those using an HR20, only the top port is active.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

Does anyone know if both network jacks are active on the HR20-100? I sure could use it for my Slingbox.


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## whitepelican (Feb 15, 2005)

Scooter said:


> Does anyone know if both network jacks are active on the HR20-100? I sure could use it for my Slingbox.


See the post immediately above yours. Answer: No, there is only one network port active on the HR20-100. The other one is just dead (some sort of tricksy decoy).


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

whitepelican said:


> See the post immediately above yours. Answer: No, there is only one network port active on the HR20-100. The other one is just dead (some sort of tricksy decoy).


I can't believe I missed that part. Thanks! 

Well, I have dual Cat5e runs to each television, but I had the second ones wired for the telephone. Either I buy a switch or rewire the Cat5e, which won't be simple considering how many are hooked into the patch panel. I really should convert them as I really don't need phone lines hooked up to my DVRs anyway.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Switches are cheap.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

stevel said:


> Switches are cheap.


So true, but I'm trying to avoid more wires and cables if possible. That room has the TV hanging in the corner. I guess I'm trying to convince myself to do what I've been meaning to do for a while, rewire the home run down in our basement. I looked for a switch down there, but I didn't find one yet. It's pretty messy right now. 

Lesson learned... Don't marry a pack rat.


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## whitepelican (Feb 15, 2005)

stevel said:


> Switches are cheap.


~ $12 at Newegg. I wouldn't be doing any rewiring to save that much money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127085


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

whitepelican said:


> ~ $12 at Newegg. I wouldn't be doing any rewiring to save that much money.
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127085


Also at Newegg, for $20 more, you can get an *8*-port _gigabit _switch that is supposedly optimized for VOIP, VIDEO an Gaming. The DirecTV boxes only support 100 mbps, but the extra bandwidth may be useful for other computers or devices connected to your home network.

Total is $30 after rebate, free shipping, no tax in some states: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127082


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## snoots (Aug 14, 2002)

This should be a free feature..Dish advertises it as a feature now. It only recently required the beta opt in. Up until a few CEs ago there was no fee indication. I won't pay for it if they start charging for it. I agree free beta is just that free for now and hope DirecTV wakes up and uses some common sense. My bill is way too high already especially for the low quality HD on some of the channels they label as HD.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

Thanks for the links, gang.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

Dish's feature isn't what you think. You can connect a second TV to the DVR by coax and can control the DVR with a second remote.


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## snoots (Aug 14, 2002)

Thanks for the info. Only going by commercial. I really miss my HD Tivo. I could do so much with it including keeping HD mpgs of shows I wanted to archive. Yes it had to be hacked but it still spoils me. I often curse my 2 HR20s for being non hacker friendly. I have not had much luck with the network playback from media shares either. I do find the MRV to be a decent implementation other than trick play. I just don't think it's worth paying extra for.


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

HiDefGator said:


> I can't see paying a monthly fee for it. I don't understand why I wouldn't just record everything on every DVR instead. I'm still hoping they change their minds on the fee.


50 series link limit is one reason...


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## HiDefGator (Oct 12, 2004)

Adam1115 said:


> 50 series link limit is one reason...


but a monthly fee for that ability? I can't see it.


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

snoots said:


> This should be a free feature [...] My bill is way too high already especially for the low quality HD on some of the channels they label as HD.


I agree it should be free as well, unless you are going to go with DirecTV's DECA networking solution instead of your own and expect them to support it.

That said, your comment about HD quality surprises me, unless you're blaming the broadcasters. Otherwise, AFAIK, DirecTV's HD quality has been a non-issue since they went to MPEG-4. I receive both OTA and SAT, and I have to stand as close as 5' away from my 65" 1080p screen before I can see any difference between the OTA MPEG-2 "original" and the DirecTV MPEG-4 "transcode" of that same channel. And the difference is subtle at worst.

MPEG-2 vs. MPEG-4 trickplay is another story, but that's not DirecTV's fault. It's the cost of going MPEG-4.


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## MighTiVo (Oct 26, 2000)

I switched to Comcast as soon as it was available so I could get MRV, glad to see it is coming to DirectTV.

Now the question I have is, can I MRV from a DTV TiVo to/from my stand alone HD TiVo? How about my 2 series 2 TiVos?

Is TiVo Desktop working?


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## kaszeta (Jun 11, 2004)

MighTiVo said:


> I switched to Comcast as soon as it was available so I could get MRV, glad to see it is coming to DirectTV.
> 
> Now the question I have is, can I MRV from a DTV TiVo to/from my stand alone HD TiVo? How about my 2 series 2 TiVos?


What works is streaming between different DTV HR2x series (and H21-23 non-DVR receivers). It's not Tivo compatible.


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## MighTiVo (Oct 26, 2000)

kaszeta said:


> What works is streaming between different DTV HR2x series (and H21-23 non-DVR receivers). It's not Tivo compatible.


Doh!

So not really TiVo MRV, but some DTV streaming technology like Uverse...


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

MighTiVo said:


> Doh!
> 
> So not really TiVo MRV, but some DTV streaming technology like Uverse...


Correct. Streaming only... no copying. And until we see a feature-list for the new DirecTiVo, we won't know if it can act as an HR2x MRV client or server.

Since DirecTV's MRV / DirecTV2PC implementations appear to be based on an industry standard (DLNA), and a new DirecTiVo will most likely use a similar encryption scheme as an HR2x, it would not surprise me if the boxes _were_ able to MRV stream to each other on the same network, but that's just a WAG on my part.


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## psywzrd (Mar 25, 2003)

It would be nice if in the Now Playing List you could see which show is I on which DVR. I know that the idea is that you share playlists but I may want to delete a show off one DVR and not the other one and there's no way to tell which one I'm deleting from.


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## kaszeta (Jun 11, 2004)

psywzrd said:


> It would be nice if in the Now Playing List you could see which show is I on which DVR. I know that the idea is that you share playlists but I may want to delete a show off one DVR and not the other one and there's no way to tell which one I'm deleting from.


Huh? The first item of every show description is the name of the DVR that it's on.


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## psywzrd (Mar 25, 2003)

kaszeta said:


> Huh? The first item of every show description is the name of the DVR that it's on.


I don't see that information anywhere. Is there an option I need to enable or something? I know for a fact that I'm opted in for the beta and I have named both of my DVRs. I don't see anything that tells me which DVR a program is on.


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## Blurayfan (Oct 6, 2003)

psywzrd said:


> I don't see that information anywhere. Is there an option I need to enable or something? I know for a fact that I'm opted in for the beta and I have named both of my DVRs. I don't see anything that tells me which DVR a program is on.


When you highlight a recording in the playlist or press the info button on a currently playing program the info displayed for an MRV remote program will show [Remote DVR Name here] followed by the program description. If you don't see this detail in the program description your program is from the local DVR.


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## psywzrd (Mar 25, 2003)

DVDKingdom said:


> When you highlight a recording in the playlist or press the info button on a currently playing program the info displayed for an MRV remote program will show [Remove DVR Name here] followed by the program description. If you don't see this detail in the program description your program is from the local DVR.


I just went to my bedroom DVR and checked several recordings that I know for a fact are on my Den DVR and none of them say "Den" anywhere. What the heck am I missing here?


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## bpratt (Nov 20, 2004)

psywzrd said:


> I just went to my bedroom DVR and checked several recordings that I know for a fact are on my Den DVR and none of them say "Den" anywhere. What the heck am I missing here?


When I first enabled MRV I saw the DVR name in as the first thing in the list. After using it for about a day, the names disappeared. They came back for a while when I opted out of the MRV and opted back in, but disapeared again after about a day. This is beta code and has a few bugs.


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## Blurayfan (Oct 6, 2003)

psywzrd said:


> I just went to my bedroom DVR and checked several recordings that I know for a fact are on my Den DVR and none of them say "Den" anywhere. What the heck am I missing here?


Check this pdf out and see if it's helps you any.
http://hr20.dbstalk.com/docs/MRV First Look.pdf


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## psywzrd (Mar 25, 2003)

Thx for the pdf. The DVR names popped up today so I guess I can just blame it on the beta software.


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## cstelter (Mar 18, 2002)

I've used the DirecTV2PC occasionally since it came out. One thing I think I noticed is that when playing HD, the PQ was reasonably good but I'm pretty sure I did *not* get 5.1 sound coming through. I don't think I've gotten the new software yet (at least I don't recall anything new last night when I was using the DVR), so I'm wondering

1) Am I right that 5.1 does not stream to DirecTV2PC?
2) Does this MRV solution have that same limitation?


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## snoots (Aug 14, 2002)

In my post about the HD quality, I have seen content on numerous channels that look very poor. I'm not talking about networks like fox,abc,nbc etc. those look about the same as OTA to me. But speed hd for example often looks like total crap. I'm not talking 4:3 SD but full screen HD. I am using HR20 on 50" Plasma. Sometimes USA looks questionable also. As to paying for MRV I still don't feel it's worth extra money. The trick play is marginal and I find i'm always overshooting and having to go forward and back to skip commercials. I do appreciate watch in one room then going to bed and picking up right where i left off in the living room. But not enough to pay for it. DirecTV already gets way too much of my money.


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

snoots said:


> In my post about the HD quality, I have seen content on numerous channels that look very poor. I'm not talking about networks like fox,abc,nbc etc. those look about the same as OTA to me. But speed hd for example often looks like total crap. I'm not talking 4:3 SD but full screen HD. I am using HR20 on 50" Plasma. Sometimes USA looks questionable also. As to paying for MRV I still don't feel it's worth extra money. The trick play is marginal and I find i'm always overshooting and having to go forward and back to skip commercials. I do appreciate watch in one room then going to bed and picking up right where i left off in the living room. But not enough to pay for it. DirecTV already gets way too much of my money.


DirecTV is no longer transmitting "HD lite" on MPEG-4 channels, so if those channels look lousy, they're not going to look any better on a competitor's system, IMHO. It's a case of garbage in, garbage out, if you know what I mean.

RE: trickplay, it will get better than what you may be seeing now. They're still tweaking it. E.g., they haven't yet implemented FF autocorrection on the MRV beta that was released nationally, but I think they're holding off on that until all the other basic tuning is finished.


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## cstelter (Mar 18, 2002)

cstelter said:


> 1) Am I right that 5.1 does not stream to DirecTV2PC?
> 2) Does this MRV solution have that same limitation?


FWIW, I found last night that my boxes did have MRV avaialable. The upstairs DVR had the SB on it and it came through via MRV in Dolby 5.1 just fine. However the same show in DirecTV2PC did not come through in 5.1. Not sure if I just never properly configured DirecTV2PC or if it's a limitation, but MRV seems better than the DirecTV2PC solution in plenty of ways to me.


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## 230 (Nov 3, 1999)

DIRECTV2PC has always been 2 channel only. I don't know if they ever intend to jump to 5.1.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

What bitrate does MRV typically run at?

All of my HR20 receivers are connected via 10/100 Mbps ethernet.. Can I stream 2-3 videos at a time without worrying about bandwidth? I'm usually only streaming 1 at a time, but I'm sure my wife will start using it more now that she knows how it works.


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## cthomp21 (Jul 15, 2007)

Scooter said:


> What bitrate does MRV typically run at?
> 
> All of my HR20 receivers are connected via 10/100 Mbps ethernet.. Can I stream 2-3 videos at a time without worrying about bandwidth? I'm usually only streaming 1 at a time, but I'm sure my wife will start using it more now that she knows how it works.


An HR2X will only allow a single remote stream. I've got three of them networked and haven't had any bandwith symptoms when streaming.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

cthomp21 said:


> An HR2X will only allow a single remote stream. I've got three of them networked and haven't had any bandwith symptoms when streaming.


Right, I knew a receiver can only stream at once. I was wondering if my network would choke if there there were a couple receivers streaming from different DVR hosts.

Thanks.


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## sluciani (Apr 21, 2003)

Scooter said:


> What bitrate does MRV typically run at? [...]


There's no transcoding going on, so same as the source. For HD, that means anywhere from 8-18Mbps, depending on whether it's MPEG-4 or OTA MPEG-2. That's a minimum of 5 streams over an otherwise quiet 100Mbps home network.


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

sluciani said:


> There's no transcoding going on, so same as the source. For HD, that means anywhere from 8-18Mbps, depending on whether it's MPEG-4 or OTA MPEG-2. That's a minimum of 5 streams over an otherwise quiet 100Mbps home network.


Sound good to me, thanks!!


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