dropshadow
join:2000-12-17
Plano, TX
clubs: 
 ·Verizon FIOS
| [DIRECTV] hr10-250 confusion
i am confused about the hr10-250. if i buy one of these off ebay right now, will it work? i DO NOT subscribe to driecTV HD channels and do not have any intention right now of doing so, although i do subscribe to tivo service and have an SD direcTivo box in use.
so my questions are:
1) will i be able to receive local HD channels using this box as is...meaning just connecting up to an HD TV?
2) if not, would i be able to receive local HD channels, if i installed one of those ugly antennas and then hooked it up the box?
3) would i be able to record HD channels if i am able to receive them?
4) how does the digital transition next year affect this box? my TVs are all HD.
thanks for helping to clear this up for me. it's very confusing since it is a legacy box. i wish direcTV would just make a mpeg4 HD tivo box and make me happy. |
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dbmaven
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join:1999-10-26
Sty in Sky
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edit:
May 13th, @07:54PM
| 1 - Probably not. Most HD from DirecTV is MPEG4, the HR10-250 is an MPEG2 unit and can't decode MPEG4, which is why it's been obsolesced. And even if you can now, within a year all of the Local HD will be transitioned to MPEG4. And even if your area is still MPEG2, you have to have the DirecTV HD pack ($10/month) to get the HD locals.
2 - Maybe. Depends on signal strength in your location and distance from the broadcast antennae.
3 - Yes.
4 - Don't know. The OTA receiver in the HR10-250 may not be able to handle the transition to digital OTA - I haven't seen any information that says it can (or can't).
The likelihood of ever seeing an HD MPEG4 DirecTV receiver with TiVO software is somewhere between slim and none. And as they say, Slim took the day off..... |
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dropshadow
join:2000-12-17
Plano, TX
clubs: | thanks for the responses. you cleared up a lot for me. |
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kcblack
Premium
join:2000-09-11
Chicago, IL
·RCN CABLE
| reply to dropshadow
2. You'd still probably be able to get the MPEG-2 versions of the network channels from either the east or west coast via DTV.
If you use the OTA tuner, you actually get more local channels than DTV retransmits. In the Chicago area for example, one of the stations transmits 6 Standard Definition digital channels rather than one of the HD channels. Also, Channel 7 here has 3 digital HD channels....one regular programming, one alternate programming, one 24 hour weather radar and streaming news channel that are only accessable via a digital tuner. I have several of the HR10-250s and I love them since you can do all sorts of fun things including decrypting the recorded programs and transfer/play them on your computer. You also have access to some of the Home Media stuff that regular Tivos (i.e. I can play my tunes via the box and do things like "Hot or Not" with the remote 
4. Not really at all. It's a fully capable Digital OTA dual tuner box. It can record two OTA channels at the same time and as long as you can get the signal, you can display the channels.
I have the same wish. I have one of their HR20s and IMHO its a piece of crap. You'd think they could do things like buffer shows like the directivo does. About the only right thing they've done right is let me add more disk space via an ESATA external drive and VOD (if it had more stuff to download/selection).
The only thing that keeps me going is the hope that the tuner boxes that they were showing at the last CES happen and I can do everything from my Vista Media center PC soon. I already do most from there now and it would be nice if I could do it all from one place. If I had two of those dual tuner boxes hooked up to my Media Center PC, I'd be in hog heaven. Right now we are just waiting for Microsloth to get off its butt and get the media center updates to support it and test and then it's suey time...
Kevin
--
"Because we’ve invested over $4 billion in building our MegaBand network so you can enjoy the internet the way it was intended to be – fast and uncapped." (RCN marketing Promo) |
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herdfan
Premium
join:2003-01-25
Hurricane, WV
| reply to dropshadow
1) If you add an HD capable receiver to your account, you will pay the HD access fee whether you want to or not.
2) The OTA in the HR10 will handle the analog to digital transition better than DirecTV's current line of HD receivers because it can scan OTA frequencies. The new boxes are "told" which channels you can receive and in most cases, you don't get them all.
3)DirecTV has shut down the MPEG-2 West Coast HD DNS feeds and the East Coast ones will follow shortly. Expect all HD to be MPEG-4 by the end of the year.
But the HR10 will continue to be a good SD recorder with the added benefit of OTA HD. |
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