# HR10-250 and the DirecTV HD DVR in the Same House?



## boltjames (Dec 21, 2002)

I have an HR10 and love it as a Tivo loyalist. I want to add another DTV HD STB in the house and need to know if I can get one of the new DirecTV HD DVR's without any of the following issues:

1. Being told I have to get rid of my HR10 in order to add a DTV HD DVR.

2. Being sent a DTV HD DVR and finding out that it won't work because of my HR10's configuration.

3. Being sent a DTV HD DVR and finding out that by activating it it does something to disable my HR10.

In a nutshell, I want the MPEG4 channels off the DTV HD DVR on one TV but I want to keep my HR10 and it's limigted MPEG2 channels on another TV in the same house off the same 5LNB dish.

Possible?

TIA


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

No problem at all with any of your concerns.


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## GusMan (Nov 16, 2004)

They are separate units and adding one will not impact the other.


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## jeffshoaf (May 21, 2004)

I have both an HR10-250 and an HR20-100 connected to the same TV and use the same Harmony 880 to control them both with no issues (other than forgetting which remote key to use for the "-" in OTA digital channels).


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## strack (Sep 17, 2004)

I have both an HR20-700 and HR10-250. Both have been working fine with the 5 LNB dish. Just make sure when you activate the HR20, that they set up for both types of DVR's.


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## Lije Baley (May 12, 2004)

strack said:


> I have both an HR20-700 and HR10-250. Both have been working fine with the 5 LNB dish. Just make sure when you activate the HR20, that they set up for both types of DVR's.


What do you mean, "set up for both type?"


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## Da Goon (Oct 22, 2006)

Lije Baley said:


> What do you mean, "set up for both type?"



You need 2 types of dvr service on your account for them both to work, and most csrs forget that and skip adding the additional service. There's no additional cost for it, just make sure you can record on the new dvr before hanging up during the activation call.


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## boltjames (Dec 21, 2002)

Thanks guys. Next question:

If I buy a previously owned DirecTV HD DVR (eBay, Craigslist, etc.) will I be able to call DirecTV, get an access card, and get it up and running just as I have my 3 T-60's and my HR10?

I heard somewhere that they're not for sale (just lease), and that only a pro installer will be allowed to hook them up, etc. I want an under-the-radar situation whereas I get a used DTV HD DVR from someone, hook it up myself, call DTV, and be all set without any interference from authorized installers, DTV leasing, etc.

Possible?

TIA

BJ


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

boltjames said:


> Thanks guys. Next question:
> 
> If I buy a previously owned DirecTV HD DVR (eBay, Craigslist, etc.) will I be able to call DirecTV, get an access card, and get it up and running just as I have my 3 T-60's and my HR10?
> 
> ...


Possible, but likely extremely expensive if you can.

Keep in mind that the "lease upgrade fee" that DirecTV charges for customers that want the HD-DVR (HR20-x00) is typically $299, many times as low as $199, and if you are incredibly, incredibly lucky, maybe a little less than that.

That is an *upgrade fee*, not a purchase price. It's a fee you pay for the right to be able to *lease* the box, not own it.

Owned boxes are typically much, much more expensive. Up closer to the price you'd be paying to get a TiVo Series 3, if not much more.

Why the concern about owning vs. leasing an HR20 though? Why does it need to be under the radar. If you want one, lease it. Yes, you'd incur a 2 year commitment period if you opted to lease one, but the cost of keeping DirecTV for that 2 years, or even the cost of dropping DirecTV and paying an early termination fee, is likely much less in comparison to how much you'd pay to *buy* an HR20.

You could perhaps find a used HR10-250 to get another one of those, but the usefulness of those boxes (no matter how much I loved the one that I used to use, which is now used by my wife and daughter in the living room while I use an HR20 myself) is going away as more of DirecTV's HD content moves to MPEG4 rather than the older MPEG2 format.


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

Oh, on the installer issues, etc., if you are concerned about potential issues with your service address vs. your billing address and such, that's not a problem. Tell them it's a "summer house/winter house issue" and you want the install to happen at the billing address location.

Unless you're getting service north of the border, you should be fine and won't experience any hassle by the pro installers. They come out, hook up stuff for you (for free), run cables and switches as necessary, replace any old dish you have with a new dish (required for the HR20), new switch, etc. They also install the BBC adapters on the HR20, and do the setup work, etc.

The install would require time off from work, or scheduling on a weekend (or other day off), and could potentially be as much as a month or two into the future, but you don't pay for the box until you get it.

Finally, on the lease upgrade fees, you can have that done as a 3-pay situation where DirecTV divides that fee up over 3 months so you can spread out the pain a bit. Makes it easier to deal with the costs for sure.


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## boltjames (Dec 21, 2002)

bdowell said:


> Unless you're getting service north of the border, you should be fine and won't experience any hassle by the pro installers. They come out, hook up stuff for you (for free), run cables and switches as necessary, replace any old dish you have with a new dish (required for the HR20), new switch, etc. They also install the BBC adapters on the HR20, and do the setup work, etc.


Yeah, I'm a "New York locals in a state away from New York" kind of guy and can't have any installers at my different address.

I need to get an MPEG4 box, no matter the cost, at my non-New York address and hook up the coax myself and call DTV to activate myself. I understand that the spot beam might be an issue, but there's only one way to find out. Last thing I want to do is find out that the MPEG4's won't reach me and I accidentally zapped my out of town local situation on the HR10.

That's the scenario.

BJ


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

I know where you are, BJ, and I'm fairly certain that the NYC spot beams won't reach you.


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

boltjames said:


> Yeah, I'm a "New York locals in a state away from New York" kind of guy and can't have any installers at my different address.
> 
> I need to get an MPEG4 box, no matter the cost, at my non-New York address and hook up the coax myself and call DTV to activate myself. I understand that the spot beam might be an issue, but there's only one way to find out. Last thing I want to do is find out that the MPEG4's won't reach me and I accidentally zapped my out of town local situation on the HR10.
> 
> ...


If you are in the lower 48, you have nothing to worry about with the installer. They don't care at all what locals you get or where you are.

They care about getting paid by DirecTV for doing the job.

I'm absolutely certain that this can be done for you without problem, since well.... since I have a similar situation here.

The only real issue I had was the first CSR that tried to take my order wanted to send the installer to my service address and I wanted them at my billing address. I called back, asked to speak to a supervisor and had no issue at all. As I told the supervisor that handled the situation -- summer home vs. winter home situation. They were absolutely fine with that, did the free install, put in the upgraded switch, the new slimline dish, and everything else. Cost me $200 spread over 3 months.

While I'd rather have gotten it for free, I'm happy with the whole thing, and had no problems once I got a CSR that could understand my request. (Which only took the one follow-up call).

I guess the only thing to be concerned with at all would be to tell your installer what channels *your* locals should be on as they'll try to tune in locals when the install is done to make sure they are working. Again though, they have no issue if you get NY locals when you should get Wyoming locals. They only care about getting you to sign off on the install so that they get paid.

If you're in the lower 48 and can go that route, I'd do it. Put about $20 - $40 aside as a tip for the installer (not a bribe, just a tip). They'll appreciate the extra $$$ and it'll still cost a lot less than finding equipment to buy (which likely won't be that easy or cheap for you).


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

stevel said:


> I know where you are, BJ, and I'm fairly certain that the NYC spot beams won't reach you.


That wouldn't keep him from being able to get the "East coast" nationals (which would remain in MPEG2 for the forseeable future).

It also wouldn't keep him from getting New York sports channels.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

True, the east coast nationals are from the NYC market and are not on spot beams, but there are some additional NYC "HD" locals that are MPEG4 only. To be honest, I'm don't know if the MPEG4 satellites use spot beam transponders. I'd imagine that BJ already knows if he can get the MPEG2 spot for NYC, not that that means anything for MPEG4.


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## boltjames (Dec 21, 2002)

stevel said:


> True, the east coast nationals are from the NYC market and are not on spot beams, but there are some additional NYC "HD" locals that are MPEG4 only. To be honest, I'm don't know if the MPEG4 satellites use spot beam transponders. I'd imagine that BJ already knows if he can get the MPEG2 spot for NYC, not that that means anything for MPEG4.


I currently get MSG, YES, SNY (all non-HD) and all the NY teams on CBS/FOX for the NFL (HD) on my HR10.

I want to keep what I've got (above) and attempt to get MSG, YES, SNY in HD as well as the promise of "over 100 new HD channels by the end of 2008" which means I need the DTV HD DVR.

Let's say for a minute that I'm out of the MPEG4 spot beam; will the DTV HD DVR still give me the good old MPEG2 feeds for MSG, YES, and SNY (non HD) and CBS/FOX (HD)? Or will the DTV HD DVR just give me blank channels where those MPEG4 ones should be? Will I need to have both boxes on one TV just to get what I have now (NY sports MPEG2) and to get what other channels I'd like (non-sports MPEG4).

I'm really confused.

BJ


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

boltjames said:


> I currently get MSG, YES, SNY (all non-HD) and all the NY teams on CBS/FOX for the NFL (HD) on my HR10.
> 
> I want to keep what I've got (above) and attempt to get MSG, YES, SNY in HD as well as the promise of "over 100 new HD channels by the end of 2008" which means I need the DTV HD DVR.
> 
> ...


I don't work for DirecTV, I'm not a lawyer, and all of the other standard disclaimers, but lets try it from this approach:

As best I could tell from an educated guess, you'd keep getting any and all MPEG2 stuff you currently get.

The sports channels are likely gonna be there for you in MPEG4 also, and not go on spot beams. On the one hand it makes some sense that DirecTV would put the regional sports channels on spot beams so they could save room for more national content, but keep in mind that DirecTV sells the sports channels as part of their premium channel offerings (the sports pack). In order to sell that content they need to have it available to all potential customers, so it's not going any where.

A new receiver will get you any other national MPEG2 and MPEG4 content, and of course in the future things will be MPEG4 and not MPEG2.

You'd likely wind up losing locals somewhere *way* down the road, primarily because you are getting NY locals and those are the East Coast national locals. Whether or not DirecTV keeps the NY locals available via MPEG4 I don't have a clue. Folks on DBSTalk.com might have some more info on that question.

I think you'd get at least the 2 years of usage out of the new equipment to meet the 2 year requirement, so I'd say go for it if you want more hi-def, the interactive features, and that stuff.


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## vogon13 (Jun 1, 2005)

I had a customer with a D* TIVO and a D* DVR.

No one liked the DVR and they all fought over who got to use the TIVO.

Problem was solved when I found an over looked HR10-250 in the back of the display at BB. Family cheerfully packed up the DVR and sent it back to D*.


I have informed them that to receive new HD channels they will have to switch, but for the time being they are all happy.


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## boltjames (Dec 21, 2002)

bdowell said:


> I don't work for DirecTV, I'm not a lawyer, and all of the other standard disclaimers, but lets try it from this approach:
> 
> As best I could tell from an educated guess, you'd keep getting any and all MPEG2 stuff you currently get.
> 
> ...


Need one point of clarification please.

Is it true that on a DTV HD DVR, if an MPEG4 channel is not available it automatically puts an MPEG2 channel in it's place and/or you get both?

Let's say that YES is available in MPEG2 (SD) in NY and MPEG4 (HD) in NY but I am out of the MPEG4 spot beam. Will the DTV HD DVR give me the MPEG2 (SD) YES feed? Or will I lose YES completely on the DTV HD DVR? In my current situation, I get YES (SD) on the HR10. Does that mean I'd get the same MPEG2 feed on the DTV HD DVR? Not get the HD, but at least get the SD signal that's reaching my HR10 in another room?

Thanks.


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

Best place to get the technical answers for those questions is over on http://www.dbstalk.com They can absolutely confirm what will happen.

I wish I could say I knew the answer but I just use the box to watch TV 

(Honestly, I know that some remapping of channels happens, but how, where and when are out of my league. I know I get locals over the air, know that I'm getting locals via MPEG4 and know that I'm getting SD locals also, all using different channel numbers, or at least using different designations that leave me able to see which one is really which.)


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## jeff125va (Mar 15, 2001)

One issue you might want to think about has to do with running OTA antenna signals through the multiswitch for the DirecTV HD-DVR. I may not be correct in all the details about this since I was able to work around it very easily, but I don't believe you can run your OTA signal through the multiswitch that is required for the DirecTV HD DVR (which is different than the ones I had previously). 

Also, I can't get all of the channels the DirecTV HD DVR is capable of receiving using my older multiswitches. So I have to run the lines to my DirecTV HD DVR's directly from the new multiswitch, which has to be the first one in line from the dish. So with four outputs going to my two HR20's and the other four feeding my older multiswitches (which in turn feed my HR10's and SD TiVos) I can't right now add any more HR20's without replacing the older multiswitches. Well, I could, but I couldn't get all the channels.

There may be some way to use OTA with the newer multiswitches, but I don't know about it. Both of my HR20's are in my basement and I was able to just split the antenna line and run it directly to them, so I didn't have to deal with the issue really. I am kinda curious though, in case I ever replace one of my HR10's, which are upstairs.

All in all, I like having both units. Each have their strengths and weaknesses. I've gotten used to the non-TiVo interface which wasn't as hard as I thought.


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