# HD Upgrade?? Forum Opinion



## dngrant (Aug 25, 2006)

Just want to poll the forum and get some ideas...I am considering upgrading to the new HD-DVR. I have 3 HD receivers including the HD-DVR. At $99/ea., I am not exactly anxious to lay out that kind of cash. However, we all do what we need to do. Having said that, I live in Richmond, VA area and we do not have HD locals, yet. Should I upgrade now, or wait until HD locals? Will the HR-10/250 work with the new dish? I realize it won't pull MPEG-4, but will it will still record in HD what it does at this point? Thanks


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

1) I added the poll  Just a little more fun.

As for your later questions:

HR10-250 works fine with the AT9 dish


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## Reggie3 (Feb 20, 2006)

I got the HR10-250 free - but I would upgrade in a hearbeat to the new HR20 because we do not get HD locals here easily in the Denver area. I can pick them up but it is weather and time dependent and I can only do that on my SXRD as the HR10-250 does not have a sensitive OTA tuner. I can get the HD locals off D* if I were to get the new HR20 (along withi the AT9 dish) but waiting for D* to offer the upgrade free. From the interviews with D* people it looks like that will happen when the new sats go up next year.


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## tfederov (Nov 18, 2005)

I'm holding out for dual live buffers. I can't consider it an upgrade when I lose one the things I value most with my DVR. With 6.3 I can see at least another couple of years with my HD TiVo.


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## dngrant (Aug 25, 2006)

tfederov said:


> I'm holding out for dual live buffers. I can't consider it an upgrade when I lose one the things I value most with my DVR. With 6.3 I can see at least another couple of years with my HD TiVo.


That's a good point tfederov. I didn't realize that the new HD-DVR doesn't have two live tuners. How does it work so that you can record two shows at once? What if you want to record two shows simultaneously? Without two live tuners, I don't understand how that works.


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

I thought it didn't two live BUFFERS, not tuners. My understanding (I don't have one of the HR20's yet) is that the buffer is only on the live channel, not on the tuner you are not watching. I could be wrong.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

JLucPicard said:


> I thought it didn't two live BUFFERS, not tuners. My understanding (I don't have one of the HR20's yet) is that the buffer is only on the live channel, not on the tuner you are not watching. I could be wrong.


You are correct. The unit has 2 tuners, it just doesn't buffer on both tuners. Not a huge thing IMO. Even if I did rely on it I'd say that the HR20 is worth the sacrifice.

Will be fun to see how soon NFLST goes to Mpeg4 and all these people that "have to have" dual live buffers to watch NFLST have to upgrade to the HR20.


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## dngrant (Aug 25, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> You are correct. The unit has 2 tuners, it just doesn't buffer on both tuners. Not a huge thing IMO. Even if I did rely on it I'd say that the HR20 is worth the sacrifice.
> 
> Will be fun to see how soon NFLST goes to Mpeg4 and all these people that "have to have" dual live buffers to watch NFLST have to upgrade to the HR20.


All the more reason why it should have two buffers. What if you are flipping in between games and miss a critical play...I guess you are just screwed. Theorectically, you could record one and watch the other, but then which tuner is buffered?


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## captain_video (Nov 22, 2005)

OTOH, if you can get your locals in HD via OTA antenna, getting the HR20-700 instead of the HR10-250 would actually be a step down, IMHO. There is no clear advantage to making the switch until DTV starts beefing up their mpeg4 HD lineup. You have already been made aware of the HR20's shortcomings. The only reason I can see for getting the HR20 is if you are unable to get HD locals via OTA antenna or you absolutely can't live without your Regional Sports Network in HD.

Keep in mind that getting the HR20 will require a new dish, new multiswitch, and possibly new cabling. Granted, DTV will install these for you at no extra cost. Personally, I would never allow one of their "professionals" to ever set foot in my house again after my previous encounters with them, but YMMV. You'll be extremely lucky if they show up on the day they say they will, let alone within the scheduled window. 

If you can perform the dish and multiswitch installation yourself then you're way ahead of the game. I wouldn't worry about the cabling until you see if your existing setup will support the wider band signals. You can purchase the HR20 from BB or other DTV retailer and not have to deal with DTV's requirements for "professional" installation when buying directly from them.


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## asousa (Sep 12, 2006)

captain_video said:


> If you can perform the dish and multiswitch installation yourself then you're way ahead of the game. I wouldn't worry about the cabling until you see if your existing setup will support the wider band signals. You can purchase the HR20 from BB or other DTV retailer and not have to deal with DTV's requirements for "professional" installation when buying directly from them.


In the past I have done my own installs...was thinking about doing the AT9 install soon. What is the multiswitch for? Does it come with the dish? I think all the past dishes have had a built in switch


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

The dish does have a built in multi-switch. If you use four leads or fewer (the dish has capability of four leads), then you just need to run the cables you need off of the dish. If you have more than four inputs that you need to feed, you need to run the four leads from the dish to a separate multi-switch to feed more than four,

That is the switch you will see discussed here.


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## vikingguy (Aug 1, 2005)

I will add a hr20 to the fold but keep the hr10 for my most important OTA like lost, 24 ect. The HR20 will be used for mpeg 4 nationals and recording shows that if I miss I won't be upset. Maybe one day when the MRV and e-Sata ports on turned on and the unit is more stable I will make it my only unit and move the HD-tivo to another room.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> You are correct. The unit has 2 tuners, it just doesn't buffer on both tuners. Not a huge thing IMO. Even if I did rely on it I'd say that the HR20 is worth the sacrifice.
> 
> Will be fun to see how soon NFLST goes to Mpeg4 and all these people that "have to have" dual live buffers to watch NFLST have to upgrade to the HR20.


You get some kind of joy out of people losing something they use effectively?


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## jimmymiko (Nov 19, 2005)

It would depend on the picture quality of the HR20. If the quality is better than the HR10 than I would change in a minute.


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## dnell1 (Jul 16, 2005)

I will upgrade when there is more than just the locals in mpeg-4. No reason to before that I can get locals with OTA.


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## cmoss5 (May 26, 2006)

jimmymiko said:


> It would depend on the picture quality of the HR20. If the quality is better than the HR10 than I would change in a minute.


The picture quality is better on the HR20 than the H210-250 as just replaced
mine on 9/16...what a nice difference.....


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## newsposter (Nov 13, 2003)

OP didnt say about getting OTA. If you cannot get OTA, they i wouldn't pay for HDtivo. If you get it free/low cost,yes I would.


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## mndwalsh (Nov 16, 2005)

Personally this will be the first time I have waited to get an upgrade. I really want the HR20 but would like OTA to be enabled. With Sunday Ticket I am missing out on the interactive features but I think it will be worth the wait once OTA is running an another software update or 2. This has been hard to wait. If my installer would have put the new dish when I got my HD installed in May it would have been much easier but I got in a debate with him over if it worked with HR10-250 which I new it did thanks to this forum but he wouldn't install it. I did get the R15 the day it hit Best Buy and missed some shows the first couple months with it. It is killing me to hold of because I am somewhat a tech junkie but I am waiting (hopefully not too long).


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## plj12345 (Sep 2, 2006)

I'm going to stick with the TiVo. The new dish for HDTV locals is way too big. It weighs over 40 pounds and looked to be almost 4 times the surface area of the 3 LNB dish. I live in a condo building and the dish is placed on my balcony with a pole in a flower pot. I cannot place the dish anywhere else. DirecTV needs to come out with a much smaller dish before I can upgrade. I understand the technical limitations they are working under because they have the receive a signal from five different satellites. I know they're coming out with the slimline dish but I heard that is not that much smaller.

Fortunately, I can receive my locals OTA. A few of the channels cannot always be received but I don't watch them very much. The new MPEG-4 at the present time will not offer me anything new. Until they add new national HD channels (which wont be for a while given their track record), I have no reason to worry.

If DirecTV does not come out with a smaller dish in the next few years, I will probably have to be forced to switch back to cable. As much as I hear people complain about DirecTV, cable is a hundred times worse because of its monopoly.


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