# HR10-250 as an OTA tuner



## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

Do I have to activate it to use it simply as an OTA tuner?


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

Yes. Each sat tuner and OTA tuner are treated as one, so in order to get the OTA tuner to work the unit has to be activated.


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## Trehutch (Aug 9, 2007)

Yes you can use it as an OTA tuner. You will get an annoying message that it's searching for Sat signal but it does work as an OTA. You Do Not have to activate it to use it as an OTA tuner

Trevor


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

I don't believe you'll get the GUIDE data without an active subscription, however, so you'll have to schedule all recordings manually. /steve


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

You'll get guide data and be able to use it as an OTA tuner without a subscription. People that are telling you otherwise have obviously never checked it out for themselves but are relying on misinformation they read in a forum such as this and are taking it as gospel. You will need to connect it to a dish to receive the guide data as well as an OTA antenna to receive your locals. You won't be able to record anything, however, without a subscription.


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## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

Thanks for the information. With the encouragement, I went to my friend's house last night to set this up. But the HR10 keep trying to acquire satellite information. We don't really care about the guide data, but I can't figure out a way to tune to the OTA channels without the guide.

Anyone got this to work without the satellite feeds?


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## Dknow (Oct 11, 2006)

All you have to do is go into settings and reset everything and when you go through the guided setup you have the option to set it up as an off air tuner only. Then you wont' get SFSS


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

I believe you can run a separate setup for OTA channels. The HDTivo will scan for all local channels to see what you can receive and display the signal strength of each one, similar to the transponder signal strength displayed during the dish setup. The thing is, all local HD channels have a "-" between the main channel number and the subchannel designation. You can't select any subchannels using your remote unless they're listed in the guide so without guide data you're SOL.


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## dishrich (Apr 23, 2002)

captain_video said:


> You can't select any subchannels using your remote unless they're listed in the guide so without guide data you're SOL.


Not true - as long as the Tivo finds the actual channels when you do the OTA channels scan, they will populate the guide with something, EVEN if D* is NOT supplying them in their guide data stream. I KNOW this for a fact, because a couple of our subchannels were NOT listed by D*, but the Tivo would let you select them & watch them anyway - the guide just listed these as "to be announced", or something to that effect.


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

Now that you mention it I believe this to be true. I haven't performed an OTA channel scan on an HR10-250 for quite some time but I do believe the channels do populate the guide once the scan has completed. The guide data still has to come from DirecTV, however, which is why they all say "To be announced".


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## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

OK. Thanks for the tips. It makes sense. I'll try it tonight and report back.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Slightly off topic, if you don't have cable or satellite, you will be able to qualify for a $50 voucher toward an ATSC tuner. So far the vouchers (and for the most part, the tuners) are vaporware.


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## down2seagain (Apr 6, 2007)

Dknow said:


> All you have to do is go into settings and reset everything and when you go through the guided setup you have the option to set it up as an off air tuner only. Then you wont' get SFSS


I would like to use the HR10-250 for an OTA tuner only as my Samsung HLN5065W TV tuner sucks. I currently have a HR20-700 connected to a 5LNB Dish and have a Winegard SS2000 Antenna for OTA signals.

When I power up the 10-250 (not activated) it goes through the normal sequence i.e. searching for Satellite and I then enter the Guided Set-up program. I set the unit for Off-Air only and then get message

1.Call D* to activate service.
2.When you get off the phone, press D* Button and choose "Messages & Settings to complete setup.

The next step is "Press Live TV when instructed"

I, of course, don't call D*, press "Live TV" get a "No info Available" message on channel 2-1 and then get "Searching for signal on: antenna In." After an eternity the screen goes black.

When I go back to setup and check the Off-Air signal there is none.

*Is the HR10-250 able to act as an OTA tuner without activation or am I missing something here?>*

*If I do activate the HR10-250 will I lose the OTA signal in a heavy rain storm? If so, this pretty much defeats the whole purpose of what I want to achieve.*


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## down2seagain (Apr 6, 2007)

Okay, I found an answer to my questions above. The one step I left out was to Scan for OTA Antenna Channels. D* actually walked me through this.

*The HR10-250 lives on*


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

down2seagain said:


> Okay, I found an answer to my questions above. The one step I left out was to Scan for OTA Antenna Channels. D* actually walked me through this.
> 
> *The HR10-250 lives on*


Are you still able to record and watch recordings? If so, How do you set up the recordings. Via an "empty" guide? Or manual recording setup? TIA. /s


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## three something (Oct 6, 2007)

Hi folks - thanks for posting this info, I used it to get my HR10-250 working as an OTA receiver only, no satellite. 

I can't get the DVR service working, though, other than recording the last 30 minutes of a channel. When i try to record any program or schedule a recording, I get the "You must activate your DVR service by phone" message. So i connected a phone line and tried to get it to activate, but no go.

This is a box I got from a neighbor - it was retired from his house when he updated to a new DTV DVR. I don't have a DTV account...

So my question is, does anyone know if there's a way for me to get the DVR service working while not being a DTV subscriber?

Thanks in advance for the help / suggestions!!


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## three something (Oct 6, 2007)

Well i answered my own question - the answer would be "no, you cannot use the dvr function of the HR10-250 with a direct tv connection / subscription", based on serveral other threads I found...

Thanks again, for posting the info and helping me out!


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## down2seagain (Apr 6, 2007)

Steve said:


> Are you still able to record and watch recordings? If so, How do you set up the recordings. Via an "empty" guide? Or manual recording setup? TIA. /s


If you try to record you get a message indicating that you need to subscribe to D* services. Not worried too much about the lack of a guide as I was more interested in just getting another OTA tuner up and running.

Unfortunately, my Samsung DLP only uses antenna in, S-Video and standard video inputs for *PIP* so this whole experience has been just a learning exercise. I just swapped out the HR10-250 for a HTL-HD as I see no need to spin up a hard drive that's not being used.


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## Keeska (Feb 10, 2007)

captain_video said:
 

> The thing is, all local HD channels have a "-" between the main channel number and the subchannel designation. You can't select any subchannels using your remote unless they're listed in the guide so without guide data you're SOL.


My remote for the HR10 has a '-' button. I could always choose a a local HD channel (4-1, 9-1, etc.) from the remote. (I just looked at the remote and the '-' button is still there.) Does the button not work if the HR10 is not activated?


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

I currently don't own an HR10 but I don't ever recall seeing a "-" button on the remote. Truth be told, I never used the peanut remotes as I have a universal remote that I programmed with all nine Tivo codesets so I never used the remotes packaged with any Tivo DVR.

I just checked the HR10-250 manual and it does appear to have a button labeled (-). It's just to the lower right of the transport function pad. The button apparently has a dual function, depending on which mode you're in, and is placarded with "->|".


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## dwlevy (Sep 4, 2007)

I just received an HR20-100 to replace my HR10-250, however I would prefer to keep using the HR10-250 as my OTA DVR.

Since the box is still activated and connected to a phone line, if I remove the SAT cables and redo the guided set-up to only be an OTA receiver, will I still get the guide updates so that I can continue to use my season passes and utilize the guide for choosing programs to record via my OTA locals?

I've always been under the impression that the HR10-250 receives its guide updates via the daily phone call.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

For those looking for an HR10-like OTA recording solution, freeware MythTV on a PC plus this one-day special from woot.com might be a suitable replacement. Act fast, though, because it's only available today, October 8. /steve

Pinnacle PCTV HD Card
$49.99 + $5 shipping


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## Keeska (Feb 10, 2007)

captain_video said:


> I just checked the HR10-250 manual and it does appear to have a button labeled (-). It's just to the lower right of the transport function pad. The button apparently has a dual function, depending on which mode you're in, and is placarded with "->|".


Don't know about the manual. The remote has the button labeled with a '-' and some other symbol. Don't know what the other symbol means nor what the button does if you are not entering OTA channel numbers.


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