# No DirecTV Cinema PPV or On Demand?



## macq (Feb 19, 2006)

I'm baffled.

In the Guide I see DirecTV Cinema channels (100-200). One movie looked interesting (Hugo) so I selected a future showing and recorded it. During that process it showed me a price of $0. The movie was scheduled just fine and recorded. However, when I play it back I can see the movie w/audio but a small box in the middle says I didn't pay for that channel. Why can't I order PPV?

Similarly, I can view the DirecTV On Demand choices after pressing the Tivo button. But, if I select anything in any of the lists I get a message saying "Home Premiere Movies are not available on DirectTV Tivo DVR". I tried selecting quite a few and all of them gave this same error. Why would I have a big list of things I can't view? Can anyone help me understand what's possible with VOD? 

I have a wired ethernet connection and the setup/testing of that is successful.

Thanks.


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## macq (Feb 19, 2006)

Sorry, I think I just found the answer to at least part of my original post. 

The DirecTV website says the THR22 does not support "DirecTV Cinema (satellite downloads)" so I guess that means no PPV on channels 100-200. I wish it wouldn't have let me go through the entire ordering process and even record the thing - albeit with the "not authorized" message during playback. But, oh well. I can just un-select all those channels in the setup now so no one does it again.

But, I still don't know why I can't do On Demand. Anyone?


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## macq (Feb 19, 2006)

OK, well, I've resolved part II with a 45min call to D*. Maybe this will save someone else some time. 

The executive summary is that any movie currently showing as a PPV movie on channels 100-200 is not available on the THR22. It's not available as PPV and not available in On Demand. 

The details are that the THR22 cannot access movies on PPV channels 100-200. You get a series of menus like its working but the resulting recording is not viable. It simply cannot get PPV over satellite which is how these channels work.

The On Demand has a similar problem. If the "channel" of the On Demand program or movie is shown as 1100 Cinema, then you cannot access it. This is equivalent to PPV channel 100 and is downloaded via satellite so is not possible on the THR22. The error message is "Home Premiere not Available". 

For any other On Demand "channel" number, you just take off the leading "1" and then if your program package includes that channel then you will be able to download that program over your ethernet connection. For example, if the show is Psych on On Demand channel 1242 then you can download it if your program package includes the USA channel 242 (which it would since USA is in all packages). If you try to download a movie from a channel that is not in your package (like a premium movie channel) then you get the "Home Premiere not Available" error. 

Sadly, there is no way to filter the On Demand list to only those shows and movies (i.e., channels) that you can view. It seems especially odd that you can even view any items showing on 1100 Cinema since these are not at all possible to use on the THR. I even un-selected channel 1100 from my Settings / Channel list and they still appear in the On Demand section.


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## mkdtv21 (May 27, 2007)

I know the satellite downloaded titles aren't available on the THR22 but I don't see how you can't record a linear pay per view channel because even the old Tivos could record from channels 100 to 200. Can anyone else confirm that you can't record from the pay per view channels 100 to 200 on the THR22?


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