Getting the HR20-700

[borghe]

longtime no see friends!

Figured I would stop in and mention that after much run around with D* yesterday, I have a technician coming out on Oct 3rd to install the new HD DVR.

About a month ago I called D* and asked about retention offers to get another Tivo. The offer was quite good ($200 credit, $10/month off of service) but I would have to first buy the unit from Best Buy. Starting up a new business right now $400 out of pocket is a little steep. So I let it go. Now that I heard these new units are coming out, and that people are getting the AT9 dish and DVR shipped for $20 with free installation and no cost, I tried for that. D* insisted that the best they would do is exchange my existing Tivo for free and sell me another one for $199 (after $100 mail-in-rebate). Frustrated I said I wanted to cancel my service and the CSR said that was fine and she would cancel it right there for me. *click*

I called back a second time and the gentleman I spoke to (after apologizing for the previous woman) offered me my existing offer again. Well, the DVR is actually $300 now, so D* would be paying me $20 after a year to take this DVR. BONUS! The catch, I still had to go to Best Buy and buy it first. Well, for a $200 instant credit, I figured what the heck. Only problem is that no Best Buys in the area had the unit nor knew when they would be getting any more in (ok, who from the board has been buying these???). Strike two.

So I called back a third time, got yet another lady, and told her I couldn't buy it. She said that was too bad, but she couldn't ship me one. So I pointed out on D*'s page where it let me put one in my cart and get ready to check out with it. She sounded genuinely shocked and said she would put through a test order for me. Lo and behold the system accepted the order. She said a technician would be out on Oct 3rd to install the Dish and new DVR. :)

So anywho, really... does anyone else on the board have one? Someone in the area has to because they sold out at Best Buy. Also, does anyone here have MPEG4 locals? What is the quality? I really won't care too much. My antenna is still working like a champ and once D* activates the OTA tuners in the HR20-700 I'll just use those and not MPEG4, unless the D* locals look better. Does anyone know how DirecTV is getting the locals? Are they being fed the baseband video over fiber or are they getting the MPEG2 video and recompressing it to MPEG4? Just curious. If they are getting the baseband video then 4 (and 58 when they come up) should look better than OTA being they won't be compressed with 4-2 and 58-2.

[Tom Snyder]

once D* activates the OTA tuners in the HR20-700

Therein lies MY problem.

I'm planning on switching back to D* in the new house when we move in October. Pretty sure I'll be able to get all the OTA HD Locals with my trusty Radio Shack Double Bowtie. But if I get an HR20-700, even though D* will only give me HD Locals 4,6, and 12, I WON'T be able to get the rest OTA?

[borghe]

current schedule from what I've been reading is October. It is the first item on their list after the fix the more major bugs supposedly.

Though I know what you're saying. The only reason I don't care is because we already didn't have HD on the second TV. 3 channels is thus more than we currently have. Once OTA is activated I won't even worry about the MPEG4 locals. Although come to think of it they will save me some disk space.... hmm...

[Tom Snyder]

So would it make sense for me to just get the current HD DVR, wait for them to get the bugs out and activate the OTA, and then just get an upgrade?

But if I can get and DVR the locals OTA without Mpeg4 Compression, why would I?

BTW, Welcome back....

[borghe]

the hr10-250 is being phased out. quickly. you can no longer get the tivo directly from DirecTV, and when I looked at Best Buy for the NDS box yesterday, only one of them had any DirecTivos in stock. a poster on another forum said he believes DirecTV has already started aggressively swapping out Tivos in the LA area. Heck, even when I called the first thing all three reps offered was a flat out exchange (wouldn't even have to pay for shipping).

as for which way you'd be best to go with... honestly, I would go with the NDS box. I hope I don't shoot myself in the foot with this, but it will be the least hassle, will get you the AT9 dish installed for free, will get you at least 4, 6, and 12 over sat and possibly even the rest over OTA by the time you move.

if you did go with the tivo, it is a quality box. however DirecTV has their first CONUS Ka sat scheduled for Q1 2007. It is presumed (emphasis on presumed) that they will begin actively migrating off of MPEG2 HD at that point. so within the next 6 months. this is also when we will see the first national MPEG4 HD channels (likely to be Starz, Cinemax, National Geographic, etc) that will not be available on MPEG2.

About the only reason to not get the NDS box outright is if OTA wasn't enabled by the time you moved and you absolutely did not want to miss shows on 18 and 58 during the time it took to get them activated.

On a slight aside, looking around apparently "upgrading" the unit is a simple as putting in a new SATA1 drive. Not only that but when you take a drive out of the unit and put it back in later, all of your recordings are still viewable. Of course opening your box voids the warranty, but this spells out much hope considering there is an external SATA port on the back. By all accounts, upgrading your storage on the device is as simple as just plugging another drive in.

[murdoc]

longtime no see friends!

Figured I would stop in and mention that after much run around with D* yesterday, I have a technician coming out on Oct 3rd to install the new HD DVR.

About a month ago I called D* and asked about retention offers to get another Tivo. The offer was quite good ($200 credit, $10/month off of service) but I would have to first buy the unit from Best Buy. Starting up a new business right now $400 out of pocket is a little steep. So I let it go. Now that I heard these new units are coming out, and that people are getting the AT9 dish and DVR shipped for $20 with free installation and no cost, I tried for that. D* insisted that the best they would do is exchange my existing Tivo for free and sell me another one for $199 (after $100 mail-in-rebate). Frustrated I said I wanted to cancel my service and the CSR said that was fine and she would cancel it right there for me. *click*

I called back a second time and the gentleman I spoke to (after apologizing for the previous woman) offered me my existing offer again. Well, the DVR is actually $300 now, so D* would be paying me $20 after a year to take this DVR. BONUS! The catch, I still had to go to Best Buy and buy it first. Well, for a $200 instant credit, I figured what the heck. Only problem is that no Best Buys in the area had the unit nor knew when they would be getting any more in (ok, who from the board has been buying these???). Strike two.

So I called back a third time, got yet another lady, and told her I couldn't buy it. She said that was too bad, but she couldn't ship me one. So I pointed out on D*'s page where it let me put one in my cart and get ready to check out with it. She sounded genuinely shocked and said she would put through a test order for me. Lo and behold the system accepted the order. She said a technician would be out on Oct 3rd to install the Dish and new DVR. :)

So anywho, really... does anyone else on the board have one? Someone in the area has to because they sold out at Best Buy. Also, does anyone here have MPEG4 locals? What is the quality? I really won't care too much. My antenna is still working like a champ and once D* activates the OTA tuners in the HR20-700 I'll just use those and not MPEG4, unless the D* locals look better. Does anyone know how DirecTV is getting the locals? Are they being fed the baseband video over fiber or are they getting the MPEG2 video and recompressing it to MPEG4? Just curious. If they are getting the baseband video then 4 (and 58 when they come up) should look better than OTA being they won't be compressed with 4-2 and 58-2.

So I'm confused. Did you have to give them your old hr10-250? Will you be charged a monthly fee for leasing the new hr20-700? If they took my old tivo (which I bought and paid for) and charged my a lease fee I would be upset.

[Tom Snyder]

About the only reason to not get the NDS box outright is if OTA wasn't enabled by the time you moved and you absolutely did not want to miss shows on 18 and 58 during the time it took to get them activated.Hmm.. that's a toughie. I watch nothing on 18, but lots on 58 (and several shows on PBS), and I DVR everything and time shift it all.

Tough call.

[Bebop]

Speaking of HR10-250, the 6.3 upgrade is slowly showing up on some people's unit.

[borghe]

So I'm confused. Did you have to give them your old hr10-250? Will you be charged a monthly fee for leasing the new hr20-700? If they took my old tivo (which I bought and paid for) and charged my a lease fee I would be upset.
To be straight, the lease fee is a "technicality". Fees have not changed with D*, just the ownership. Previously you bought your receivers, and for every receiver after the first paid a mirroring fee. Now you "lease" your receivers, and have the "lease fee" waived for your first receiver. So the fees are the same, only now when you cancel with DirecTV you have to turn in your receiver. To answer your question, no I didn't have to give them my Tivo. It was a customer retention deal. Though I haven't used a customer retention deal with them since 2002, and have been with them since I think 97. If you have a second HDTV you want a dvr on, call customer retention. At the very least they will give you $100 of the HR20 for $200. I mean you can actually probably even get that without getting to customer retention. But as long as you aren't in a contract customer retention should be able to match what I got. If you are at the beginning of a contract or still have a way to go, you might only be able to get an even swap for the Tivo or the $100 off deal.

Hmm.. that's a toughie. I watch nothing on 18, but lots on 58 (and several shows on PBS), and I DVR everything and time shift it all.

Tough call.
You could get away with the HR10 right now and upgrade later. My call is based on that I already have OTA in the living room, and with what I record on 4 and 6 (and eventually 58) I would get a ton of extra room with the HR20. It all depends on if you want to risk the OTA being up right around when you move, or what your lead time is. My lead time on this was 3 weeks, but they were just released, it might go down by then........ ??? :confused:

[sp44again]

I'm getting one from D* with AT-9 dish on the 30th. Got the $19.95 deal and I don't have to give them my HR10-250. They just asked if I wanted to move the existing one somewhere else in the house.

[borghe]

nice. the first customer ret rep was the only one who got beligerent about replacing my HR10. the rest just offered it up as an option. the remaining two I could only get one HR20 for free. a second one (as an HR10 replacement) would have been $200.

[sp44again]

took me about 4 times

[jf3233]

Well I could not resist after these posts. I have the 250 and it really does work well so I called D* to see what I could do. I was not really in the fighting mood so I was glad things went well. I got the new 700 coming 9/27 already! They gave it to me for $99 with free shipping. They also gave me a HBO credit(which I have for $12 a month) of $10 for 6 months. So this brings the new 700 to 40 bucks-not to bad. I think I could have got a little more but like I said I was not in a fighting mood. The rep was actually the best I have ever had in 6 years of service! Also no swap out of the 250 in fact he put an order for a multi switch on the order as I have the 5 lnb dish and am using all lines! He also said that lately people have been calling quoting online forums for deals and have been requesting outrageous deals(hd dvr for 5 rooms for free etc) and he was relieved that I was pleasant and realistic.

[sp44again]

The 250 works really good with the 6.3 upgrade. All this time I could of been enjoying that receiver even more.

[Bebop]

Unfortunately, the 6.3 upgrade has been halted due to bugs that are affecting selected few. You're luck if you have gotten yours.

I'm calling tomorrow to see if I can get a good on the HR-20.

[borghe]

alas I am screwed on the 6.3 upgrade for now. My HR10 is still modded, and I logged in to try to force the 6.3 upgrade only to discover that my entire /var/hacks directory had become corrupted. :( to force the upgrade at minimum I have to install binutils and TivoWebPlus to be able to see where the 6.3 upgrade is in the SwSystem database.

Does the 6.3 upgrade do much beyond folders? Is it worth it for me to install the software and force through the upgrade?

edit - and I can't believe you have your install date earlier than mine. that's hilarious. I guess having DirecTV pay me $20 after the year's up to take the DVR means I'm shuffled low on the priority list.

[sp44again]

Does the 6.3 upgrade do much beyond folders? Is it worth it for me to install the software and force through the upgrade?
.

Oh yeah! Much snappier guide, menus.

[jf3233]

Yeah go figure on the install dates. Although they did say based on equipment availability? Of course D* could not predict supply only one week away!

[Tom Snyder]

Yeah go figure on the install dates

Yeah... I just called to try and schedule my install for our move-in date on the 3rd, and the soonest they can do it is October stinking 13th! :bang:

Last time I needed a DTV install, I went to Best Buy, and they had a guy the next morning. Has it changed, or are there different "networks" of installers based on who you buy from?

[jf3233]

Tom,

Got a call yesterday to rechedule my install which was supposed to be today! Then got another call from D* to schedule my install? Long story short the first apt never made it into the system so you may want to call and CONFIRM. I am in Men Falls and D* always sends a company called premeir Communications in my area. To their credit their installers have always been pretty good if watched! Customer service not so good at times IE SCHEDULING

[sp44again]

Yeah... I just called to try and schedule my install for our move-in date on the 3rd, and the soonest they can do it is October stinking 13th! :bang:

Last time I needed a DTV install, I went to Best Buy, and they had a guy the next morning. Has it changed, or are there different "networks" of installers based on who you buy from?

First time I got through it was Oct 7th. Then I called a week later and they could change it to a couple weeks earlier.

[borghe]

if you haven't already made the leap, afaik there is only one directv installer in the area. at least that's how it was a couple years back when I needed work on my disc (sat "c" lnb died). I know when I bought my last receiver from Best Buy (2001) they told me to call directv for installation. don't know if it is different now.

[sp44again]

I'll see how they are tomorrow.

[Bebop]

Anyone has a spare 3LNB after the 5LNB install and don't know what to do with it?


Someone well known here will gladly dispose of it for you. :)

[sp44again]

My install was suppose to be Saturday but the guy never showed! :bang: Said he had truck problems. Didn't bother to call til after 5, 1-5 slot. Set up another appointment for yesterday. Guy showed up at 12, 8-12 slot. The guy knew what he was doing for the most part. I ended up with a pole in the yard because of the weight of the new dish. He said most people with nice houses have been doing this. AT-9 dish is 35lbs. Looks alright to me just weird that's it's not on the house anymore. The HR20-700 had a problem, no picture! He had to manually download an update to get it work. That took a while. Got a 6x8 multiswitch now. So far so good but it's only been a day. Only area the new box is faster is with recording. I'm comparing the HR10-250 with the 6.3 update. Box itself is very hot to the touch. I'll add more if anything comes up.

[Drake]

Do you notice any vibration when you touch the HR20? Mine shakes like crazy, and turned the shelf it sits on into a sounding board. Now I get this nice audible hum whenever the unit is plugged in (i.e. always :mad: )

[sp44again]

Do you notice any vibration when you touch the HR20? Mine shakes like crazy, and turned the shelf it sits on into a sounding board. Now I get this nice audible hum whenever the unit is plugged in (i.e. always :mad: )

not at all

[Tom Snyder]

And I assume the antenna in isn't active?

[sp44again]

And I assume the antenna in isn't active?

I actually didn't check because I'd think I would of read it somewhere. The SATA port is active though. It does shut down the internal drive and then formats the new SATA drive for use. So if anybody has a 500 or 750GB hard drive you can have mucho space!

[borghe]

antenna is not active.

my install also was delayed, twice. I swear I think we had the same installer ditch us. I think he is out of a job now (really, I think I heard him get fired).

anywho, the guys who finally came (at 6:30pm, god bless em) knew what they were doing. I actually have 95+ across all five satellites.

the system is LIGHTSPEED compared to the 3.1.5 tivo (still have to fix my mods to pull down 6.3). however as others have noticed, it's lightspeed because it doesn't commit all changes right away. the most noticeable area this has been in is when setting up season passes. we hit the R button twice and it still only shows "record" even though it is really a season link. also when you add items to record and it doesn't show up in now playing right away. I also (accidentally) started and stopped a recording last night like 3 times. all three times showed up in the now playing list, but only one of them was really the recording.. odd.

I have the receiver set to native mode (nice) but it is kind of annoying with my tv, though I am pretty sure that's the TV (switching resolutions and vertical compression settings). there is a delay when going to and from Ka channels (4,6,12) and Ku channels (everything else). so far haven't hit any bugs yet.

one thing I do like about it over the tivo is how the picture ALWAYS displays when in the guide or menus (and in OAR even). I also like finally how when you hit channel 4 (For example) that the D* HD local comes up instead of ML4. this has always been a sticking point of the tivo, though not the tivo's fault. if I hit 4 on the tivo, ML4 comes up. kind of a pain to hit 4-1, especially given the location of the "-" button on the tivo remote.

user interface is nowhere near as intuitive as the Tivo. again, not a showstopper, but it will take some getting used to, whereas the tivo it took me like two seconds to get used to using it.

long story short, this is the future.. we have no choice. as has been said before, DirecTV will never add another MPEG2 HD channel. RIP DirecTivo.. :( I'll keep my living room Tivo probably until they activate the eSATA port (assuming that is after the OTA tuners) after which I will lose the last remanents of tivo from my house. :(

edit - nm.. just read the thread on the esata activation. kind of cool and what we already knew. very handy for those who have the cash to drop on a 700GB drive. :)

edit - oh, and as for local channel quality... hehe... I really don't get a wow from it, but that more likely has to do with this being on a 32" set. I won't have a better feeling with it until I replace the Tivo in the living room. Anyone else who has MPEG4 locals on a big screen, I would like to hear your opinions on PQ. Also wish there was a way we could find out what kind of bitrates the MPEG4 is compressed at. would be fun.

[sp44again]

just read this post. are you sure about this? last I read there was no activity across the eSATA port and the only way you could swap drives was internally. can you show me where you read this? in theory, even though the internal drive was shutdown, when you unplug the external drive the internal should still come back up with all of its recordings intact (that's what happened when the guy was swapping around internal drives at least).

.

here you go

linky (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66201)

[borghe]

edited my post but didn't see you already replied.

very nice feature, well, will be once it doesn't full replace the internal drive.

also found instructions for manually upgrading my HR10 to 6.3a :) That should make the living room a happy camper, at least until the first national MPEG4 channels are announced.

[Chinatown]

longtime no see friends!

Figured I would stop in and mention that after much run around with D* yesterday, I have a technician coming out on Oct 3rd to install the new HD DVR.

About a month ago I called D* and asked about retention offers to get another Tivo. The offer was quite good ($200 credit, $10/month off of service) but I would have to first buy the unit from Best Buy. Starting up a new business right now $400 out of pocket is a little steep. So I let it go. Now that I heard these new units are coming out, and that people are getting the AT9 dish and DVR shipped for $20 with free installation and no cost, I tried for that. D* insisted that the best they would do is exchange my existing Tivo for free and sell me another one for $199 (after $100 mail-in-rebate). Frustrated I said I wanted to cancel my service and the CSR said that was fine and she would cancel it right there for me. *click*

I called back a second time and the gentleman I spoke to (after apologizing for the previous woman) offered me my existing offer again. Well, the DVR is actually $300 now, so D* would be paying me $20 after a year to take this DVR. BONUS! The catch, I still had to go to Best Buy and buy it first. Well, for a $200 instant credit, I figured what the heck. Only problem is that no Best Buys in the area had the unit nor knew when they would be getting any more in (ok, who from the board has been buying these???). Strike two.

So I called back a third time, got yet another lady, and told her I couldn't buy it. She said that was too bad, but she couldn't ship me one. So I pointed out on D*'s page where it let me put one in my cart and get ready to check out with it. She sounded genuinely shocked and said she would put through a test order for me. Lo and behold the system accepted the order. She said a technician would be out on Oct 3rd to install the Dish and new DVR. :)

So anywho, really... does anyone else on the board have one? Someone in the area has to because they sold out at Best Buy. Also, does anyone here have MPEG4 locals? What is the quality? I really won't care too much. My antenna is still working like a champ and once D* activates the OTA tuners in the HR20-700 I'll just use those and not MPEG4, unless the D* locals look better. Does anyone know how DirecTV is getting the locals? Are they being fed the baseband video over fiber or are they getting the MPEG2 video and recompressing it to MPEG4? Just curious. If they are getting the baseband video then 4 (and 58 when they come up) should look better than OTA being they won't be compressed with 4-2 and 58-2.

I have been a customer since 2002................Spoke to Jennifer............she was a delight................This is the offer she gave to me...................2 payments of $66.23....so a total of 132.46 + tax...........installation on October 16th.......I did not commit, but probably will after getting the OK from the boss.........She did give me here ID #. That will insure me of getting this same offer when I call the installation department ( 1-888-382-1222)

[borghe]

as an update, I was less than thrilled with MPEG4 WTMJ last night. During The Office, a show with, believe it or not, lots of fast camera movement and lightning quick pans, the picture was horrible. When the camera was stationary even with reasonable movement on the screen the picture looked very nice though with some noticeable artifacting, though I would definitely still call it HD (not HD Lite). But man, when the camera would do a quick pan the entire picture just fell apart.. and it also suffered from the notorious fast forward degradation.. that is when you fast forward the picture becomes extremely pixelated and grainy.

not meaning to sound overly negative here. For the vast majority of the show the picture was pretty damn close to OTA, and at only 66% the hard drive space of it to boot. but if PQ is of the utmost concern to you, you'll be complaining with everyone else for D* to get those OTA tuners activated. will check out some WITI and WISN programming for you as well and report back. Would LOVE to check out some WDJT programming, but I guess that ain't happening.

[Chinatown]

I have been a customer since 2002................Spoke to Jennifer............she was a delight................This is the offer she gave to me...................2 payments of $66.23....so a total of 132.46 + tax...........installation on October 16th.......I did not commit, but probably will after getting the OK from the boss.........She did give me here ID #. That will insure me of getting this same offer when I call the installation department ( 1-888-382-1222)


...FYI................If you currently are getting Fox & ABC east, you will probably get a letter in the mail. The gist of same will be to keep them or lose the locals HD,via "D". It seems like a simple choice if you are also getting them over the air. Afterall, with the Fox East, an extra NFL game is worth retention........