# R15 & R16 What's the Differences?



## hallrk (Apr 15, 2010)

I'm new to DirecTv. I have been a customer since June 7th. I orginally got an R15-500. I started having problems with it not long after I got it. I kept getting the searching for satellite signal on an intermittent basis and at times pixellation. I finally called DTV support and after going through all the checks they set up an appointment with a repair person. He came out and found the problem. It was a voltage problem with the tuner. Tuner 2 in fact. So he replaced the R15 with a R16-500. It's now working great! So far after using it for a few days I really can't find any difference bewteen the R16 and R15. Are there any? Or are they just basically clones of each other. If there is any feature I'm missing please let me know. 
Also the service so far with DTV has been superb! The repair person as well as the original installer were very professional and courteous. They knew what they were doing and did it well. Much better than the other satellite competitor.


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

The two major differences are 1) obviously a differnt style case, and 2) SWM compatible. You would only need 1 line for both tuners on a SWM setup.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

hallrk said:


> I'm new to DirecTv. I have been a customer since June 7th. I orginally got an R15-500. I started having problems with it not long after I got it. I kept getting the searching for satellite signal on an intermittent basis and at times pixellation. I finally called DTV support and after going through all the checks they set up an appointment with a repair person. He came out and found the problem. It was a voltage problem with the tuner. Tuner 2 in fact. So he replaced the R15 with a R16-500. It's now working great! So far after using it for a few days I really can't find any difference bewteen the R16 and R15. Are there any? Or are they just basically clones of each other. If there is any feature I'm missing please let me know.
> Also the service so far with DTV has been superb! The repair person as well as the original installer were very professional and courteous. They knew what they were doing and did it well. Much better than the other satellite competitor.


Since your installer replaced an R15-500 with an R16-500 you have a DC voltage-based system of selecting transponders (the old system). DirecTV cooked up a scheme requiring only 1 satellite cable to a box having two tuners. It's called SWM-Single Wire Multiswitch. You don't have it. The R16 was created to support this new technology. But the R16 does not support "stacked" LNB's, a technique often used in multi-tenant buildings like apartment houses. The R15 does. Both DVR's support the old voltage-based system.

In case you're nosy, the -500 refers to the manufacturer of the equipment that makes it to DirecTV's specifications. "500" is a company called Humax.


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## hallrk (Apr 15, 2010)

Thanks to you both for the info. I did notice the look of the box was different than the R15. As long as it works I don't really care if it's silver,black or purple.
I really had no idea what SWM was. Thanks for your explanation. I think I understand it now.
Also had no idea 500 referred to the manufacturer of the DVR. I just thought it was a series number for a line of R16's. You can certainly learn much on these forums.


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