# Use of Receiver as DVR without Direct TV



## lmajunior (Jul 16, 2009)

Is it possible to use a Direct TV HD DVR (HR10-250) as a DVR only without having it hooked up to a satellite?

I have some old equipment that I thought I might be able to put to use, primarily to be able to pause and fast-forward live shows. I have Comcast HD cable.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

lmajunior said:


> Is it possible to use a Direct TV HD DVR (HR10-250) as a DVR only without having it hooked up to a satellite?
> 
> I have some old equipment that I thought I might be able to put to use, primarily to be able to pause and fast-forward live shows. I have Comcast HD cable.


D* DVR's will not work with Comcast cable, it might work as an OTA DVR only, but last I checked this only applies to the HR10, it does not apply to any of the newer HD DVRs from D*.


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## lmajunior (Jul 16, 2009)

Thanks! You saved me lots of experimentation and reading of manuals.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Yup, no go. It will not work on cable at all.

You can pickup OTA with it, but there is no guide or season passes/etc. without it being subscribed on directv. Works like a VCR really from what I have heard.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Cable uses QAM to send digital channels, while any DirecTV DVR with an OTA tuner will only work with ATSC, which is the OTA digital format. So, no, there's no way to make any DirecTV DVR work with cable.


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## ssandhoops (Dec 2, 2007)

Grentz said:


> Yup, no go. It will not work on cable at all.
> 
> You can pickup OTA with it, but there is no guide or season passes/etc. without it being subscribed on directv. Works like a VCR really from what I have heard.


Doesn't even function like a VCR because you can't schedule any kind of recording without DVR service. You get the 30 minute buffers so you can pause live TV but that's about it.


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## coacho (Aug 21, 2007)

Can you do manual recording even without the guide? Say I just wanted to use my old SD Tivo to record the 11:00 news every night?


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## jeffshoaf (Jun 17, 2006)

coacho said:


> Can you do manual recording even without the guide? Say I just wanted to use my old SD Tivo to record the 11:00 news every night?


I think the HR10 will do that, but not the HR20 series.


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## dishrich (Apr 23, 2002)

No, NONE of them will record w/out being activated w/D* service.
The ONLY thing the HD Tivo will do, is pause live OTA TV for 30 min & that's it! (and play back previously recorded shows, of course)


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