# Finally ready for HD - Which way to go?



## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

Since nobody has started this topic under DirecTV since 2007 I thought it might be nice to get an update.

It took me all of one month of retirement to kill my old SD TV so of course I am jumping to a 60 inch HD Plasma with 3D and Wi-fi. That means I need a Blu-Ray and DirecTV HD service.

My current setup:

Phase III oval dish feeding my trusty and much-valued DSR6000 with 500 SD hours and a D12-100 DirecTV standard receiver in the bedroom for a Series 2 TiVo and a 21 inch SD TV.

I want to keep my DSR6000 as long as DirecTV will support it. Love the remote management capability with TivoWebPlus along with the flexible padding with EndPadPlus and download capability with Tytools. Also have saved/replaced the hard drive multiple times.

I guess the big question is whether I sacrifice the TiVo interface to add a Genie to the mix or sacrifice newer features to get a THR22 and keep the TiVo interface albeit without the features I love on the DSR6000. The new TV will have all the online features that I could want and I'm not interested in the networking that the Genie provides. I don't really even need a DVR in the bedroom. The five-tuner capability of the Genie is the real draw in my eyes.

Along with the features I mentioned for the DSR6000, being able to recover the contents of the disk is a paramount concern as we tend to get very far behind on our network shows. For instance we are nearly a year behind right now. I know - record fewer shows.  The other possibility the new TV provides is online services to get old episodes.

So, I guess it's a Genie versus a THR22. If the THR22 would be the best bet, is there any disadvantage to getting a large capacity one from Weaknees?

Any advice, especially pointing out anything that I have factually wrong, is appreciated.


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## mexican-bum (Sep 26, 2006)

The THR22 is a decent DVR but as you already know doesn't support whole home dvr and a few other features of the genie and modern tivo's, its a good choice for folks with older TiVos who just want to add HD without relearning anything. 

The HR44 genie is a very good dvr, if your used to tivo will be a bit of a change but does basically everything as good, many things much better, and some things not as good. The genie supports many additional features, the major one's are whole home DVR, PIP,directv app(remote management), and 5 tuners. Also EndPadPlus is basically built in all directv branded dvr's 30 seconds before and 90 seconds after, if no conflicts. Also if shows run back to back on same channel padding can be added without using additional tuner.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

mexican-bum said:


> The THR22 is a decent DVR but as you already know doesn't support whole home dvr and a few other features of the genie and modern tivo's, its a good choice for folks with older TiVos who just want to add HD without relearning anything.
> 
> The HR44 genie is a very good dvr, if your used to tivo will be a bit of a change but does basically everything as good, many things much better, and some things not as good. The genie supports many additional features, the major one's are whole home DVR, PIP,directv app(remote management), and 5 tuners. Also EndPadPlus is basically built in all directv branded dvr's 30 seconds before and 90 seconds after, if no conflicts. Also if shows run back to back on same channel padding can be added without using additional tuner.


I really like the idea that it will pad that way and I guess I need to research the capabilities of the app. What doesn't it do as well as the THR22? Don't I remember something about the DTV DVRs not doing the equivalent of Wishlists?


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## TonyTheTiger (Dec 22, 2006)

First, let me state that I'm a TiVo fan. I lived with a THR22 for 2.5 years before finally relinquishing it nearly two years ago for a Genie (I was a beta tester, in case you're doing the math). I haven't looked back since!

I now have the HR44 and an HR21 in the bedroom for a total of seven tuners, plus whole home. I also have a Smart TV and a BRD player with apps, so I don't need to stream from the box.

I can search and do just about everything I could on the TiVo-powered box, plus the aforementioned whole home and, if I want it, On Demand works (it doesn't on the THR22!). In fact, the only thing I miss is the guide. The D* boxes go part-way, but IMHO, the TiVo screen is the best.

That said, I wouldn't go back to the THR22 (I still have it), so form your own opinion and go with your gut. Remember also that you will pay an extra $5 a month for the 'privilege' of the TiVo interface.


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## mexican-bum (Sep 26, 2006)

ronsch said:


> I really like the idea that it will pad that way and I guess I need to research the capabilities of the app. What doesn't it do as well as the THR22? Don't I remember something about the DTV DVRs not doing the equivalent of Wishlists?


directv has autorecord which is similar to wishlist, wife has many setup.

The directv smart search is pretty powerful, and most people don't even realize all it can do.

Here is a C&P from solid signal on search

*Smart Search on DIRECTV receivers is pretty smart. It can predict what you want as you're typing and even suggest likely matches. Did you know it's even smarter than that?

What if you could use Smart Search to create complex conditions like, "Show me all programs that contain the word HOUSE in the title on channel 229." You can!

The key is using search keywords. These are hidden parts of the smart search system and although they're hard to use, they are very powerful. The search keywords are:

AALL (boolean AND operator) all the following words must be contained within search results
AANY (boolean OR operator) at least one of the following words must be contained within results
NNOT (boolean NOT operator) exclude programs that contain any of the following words in results
TTITLE Limits the search to the Title field of the Programs
NNAME Limits the search to the Name field (e.g. Actors, Director) of the programs
CCAT Limits the search to programs in the specified category
AABOUT Limits the search to the Info/description text of programs
CCHANS Limits the search to programs on specified channel (one number) or range (two numbers)

These words are intentionally spelled with extra letters so that they don't interfere with ordinary searches. Putting them in a search adds power to that search.

Start with AANY and AALL. Putting these words first will either give you a result that matches any of the words that come after it or all of the words that come after it. Here are some examples:

AANY TREK WARS SEARCH will give you results like Star Trek, Star Wars and Star Search because each of these has at least one of those words.
AALL TREK WARS SEARCH will probably not return anything unless there is a show like Trek to Search for the Wars because all of the words must be there.

You can then add NNOT to limit what you find. For example:

AALL LAW ORDER will find all Law and Order shows.
AALL LAW ORDER NNOT INTENT will find all Law and Order shows except Criminal Intent because it has INTENT in the name.

If you want to limit things further, use TTITLE, NNAME, CCAT and AABOUT. Here are some examples.

AALL LAW ORDER TTITLE would work better because it won't look through the program descriptions, just the title.
KING NNAME will find Larry King but won't find The King of Queens because it's looking only at names.
AANY LIONS TIGERS CCAT SPORTS will find Detroit sports teams but won't find shows about animals, because only sports are searched.
BATTERIES AABOUT will find shows about making batteries but not the movie Batteries Not Included because only descriptions are searched.

Finally, you can search only by a single channel or a range of channels. For example:

AALL CSI CCHANS 2 will only find CSI shows on channel 2.
AALL BEARS CCHANS 206 210 will find shows about the Bears on the ESPN channels

As you can see it can be very powerful and you can use this sort of search to combine series links. Looking at the example above, if you CBS channel is 2, AALL CSI CCHANS 2 will find all the CSIs on the network without the ones on other channels, and do it all on one series link.

To look at the example at the beginning... it's easy! AALL HOUSE TTITTLE CCHANS 229 will do the trick!*


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## mexican-bum (Sep 26, 2006)

ronsch said:


> I really like the idea that it will pad that way and I guess I need to research the capabilities of the app. What doesn't it do as well as the THR22? Don't I remember something about the DTV DVRs not doing the equivalent of Wishlists?


I would say most people would say the guide isn't as good as tivo, its not bad and I actually prefer it, but most like my wife like the tivo guide better.


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## mexican-bum (Sep 26, 2006)

Here is some good info videos from solid signal about directv dvr so you can make the right decision for you.

Directv voice control included in directv app




Manage series links(season passes)




Directv On demand




Startover




TV apps





Double play(dual live buffer) and a PIP





Filter guide





old directv app video, but can get general idea, didn't look hard enough for a current one, looks to me only thing missing is voice control and a few recording features though.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

I have both the THR22 and the HR44. My wife prefers the TiVo UI, which is why we have the THR22. The THR22 does have "deleted items" and "recording history" (showing why programs didn't record), but lacks many features the HR44 has. I agree that the TiVo UI is easier to navigate than the DirecTV UI (which I find has too many nested menus), but there are also more things to do in the DirecTV UI.


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## mexican-bum (Sep 26, 2006)

stevel said:


> I have both the THR22 and the HR44. My wife prefers the TiVo UI, which is why we have the THR22. The THR22 does have "deleted items" and "recording history" (showing why programs didn't record), but lacks many features the HR44 has. I agree that the TiVo UI is easier to navigate than the DirecTV UI (which I find has too many nested menus), but there are also more things to do in the DirecTV UI.


I agree directv should have made some highly used menu's have a direct button. You can enable shortcuts though...

Do a keyword search for MENUSC on you Genie will enable shortcuts

This keyword search gives you {MENU}+# codes kind of like the old TiVo used to give. Press {MENU} followed by a number and you'll jump straight to somewhere that used to take a lot longer to get to.

Menu 0. Settings
Menu 1. Movies
Menu 2. Sports
Menu 3. TV Shows
Menu 4. Smart Search
Menu 5. On Demand
Menu 6. Playlist
Menu 7. Manage Recordings (Really the only one I use)
Menu 8. YouTube
Menu 9. Pandora

As always keyword search 30SKIP gives you 30 second skip vs slip. Unilke tivo though reboots don't remove feature.

Not sure you meant to mislead him but directv dvr's do have a history list of recorded items, cancelled, why something didn't record etc... you just made it sound like they didn't.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

It was my error.


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## Diana Collins (Aug 21, 2002)

If staying with DirecTV is a given, I'd go with the Genie over the THR22. The Genie is equivalent in functionality to the Roamio DVRs, the THR22 is much less capable.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I had decided to add a Genie to my existing setup so I would have the HD capability and all the DTV phone people said I could add to my existing setup. Turns out I couldn't and I'm surprised nobody mentioned it here.

Stevel - Do you have two separate accounts? The tech who showed up a short time ago to "replace" my DSR6000 says none of the DTV HD DVRs work without a SWM and that the DSR6000 won't work with one.

He basically said I need a whole new dish, that the triple LNB oval dish won't support the SWM and the Genie. That would be a whole new install with a second dish and be a chargeable item. Does this tech know what he's talking about?

This is all making Comcast with a Roamio a more attractive alternative. At least I could keep the DSR6000 until it breaks and maybe keep it running long enough to watch the years worth of network shows on it.


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## TonyTheTiger (Dec 22, 2006)

The upgrade should include a new dish as well as the SWiM. It certainly shouldn't be a chargeable item.

It is true that the DSR6000 won't work with one, but the HR2x DVRS WILL work, but need the SWM for the whole home feature and, of course, single wires to each location.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that Steve does not have two accounts as there is no need to spend twice as much for service.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

TonyTheTiger said:


> The upgrade should include a new dish as well as the SWiM. It certainly shouldn't be a chargeable item.
> 
> It is true that the DSR6000 won't work with one, but the HR2x DVRS WILL work, but need the SWM for the whole home feature and, of course, single wires to each location.
> 
> I can tell you with absolute certainty that Steve does not have two accounts as there is no need to spend twice as much for service.


So then the THR22 does work with the SWM?


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## TonyTheTiger (Dec 22, 2006)

Yes.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

Okay.

And do I remember correctly that the DSR6000 will still function in playback only mode without the satellite connections?

If so, my best bet will probably be to upgrade to the Genie now and gradually work away at the backlog on the DSR6000.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

Thanks again Everyone!

I have my Genie scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon. Will use the old DSR6000 in playback-only mode until we catch up. If my brain wasn't getting old I would have remembered right off the bat that I could do playback without the satellite connection.

In looking through the online Genie manual I was very happy to see pretty much every TiVo feature I've come to know and love realizing that I'm comparing to release 3.5d, which is ancient nowadays. It looks like the only thing it won't do is automatically record suggestions. I love that the endpad feature can be specified globally or just locally to individual programs/series but with 5 tuners it wouldn't be an issue to make it global. The season pass also seems to be fully compliant with TiVo capabilities as well.

Now if we could only port Tivowebplus to the Genie.....


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## bpratt (Nov 20, 2004)

> I had decided to add a Genie to my existing setup so I would have the HD capability and all the DTV phone people said I could add to my existing setup. Turns out I couldn't and I'm surprised nobody mentioned it here.


Turns out you can depending on which SWM setup you get.
I have an HR44-500 Genie which is SWM. I also have an HR10-250 which is not and both work together well. If I had installed a SWM dish or had changed to a SWM LNB, then I would not be able to use the HR10-250. However, if you install a non-SWM dish and run the 4 coax cables into a SWM8 Multiswitch, you can support up to 8 SWM tuners and an additional 3 legacy devices. There is also a SWM16.

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=SWM-8&ss=366478

A second option is to have a SWM dish in addition to your oval dish.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

Is there anything like "PyTiVo" for those other boxes, where you can download your own content directly to the DVR? Losing that functionality would be a deal breaker for me...


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

Well, as it turns out, the tech who game out the second time said the order was coded as an upgrade so he didn't see anything wrong with adding the SWM dish and leaving the original in place! He even pulled out my old, thick 12' dish cable so that is finally gone. So, I still have a fully functional DSR6000 along with my Genie, which so far, I love. It took about 24 hours to get the hang of the interface.

What I need now is a shortcut to get to the Series Manager screen, although once I get all my season passes and wishlists properly coded and prioritized it will get used less and less just like the Season Pass page on the TiVo.


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