# Switching from Genie 44 and 5 Hr 24's to 54 and mini Genies



## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

20 year Dtv user 

Currently Genie 44 and 5 HR24's. Purchased 75 inch 4K Samsung.

Must go to Genie 54 for 4K support, realize very little 4K Dtv offerings. May keep one 24 in event Genie breaks,,,,have had 2 others fail in past. Will likely acquire external 4 terabyte drive.

Questions:

1. I live and breath with 30 second quick skip. Will this still work with mini Genie? If not,,,some fear may not,,,what is skip protocol from remote Genie? Fast Forward only,,,ugh?
In fact the lack of 30second skip could prove a deal breaker.

2. Anyone having made switch to mini Genie from Dvr's, may I ask you speak to your personal pro's and con's. My main reasons to switch are A. Reduced energy cost spinning all these drives each year,,,likely a lot more than realized. B. Each year I have at least one that goes into failure mode and must be replaced. A PITA not to mention lost recordings not to mention dealing with Dtv tech's, and setting up programming and options again Of course Dtv could very simply resolve this issue,,,but has always refused for reasons known only to them. Periodic auto backups to an external drive would be a start,,,allowing switch of hard drive to a replacement machine another. Security issues easily resolved.

3. I will post another thread asking about external drive options. DVRdaddy looks good and simple. Somewhat be less expensive to buy enclosure and hard drive separately. Any reason not to go this route to save some dollars? Will have questions on WD black, blue, green, or red drives. Longevity and reliability being primary criteria.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Im the first guy to push for minis... but you are suggesting going from 15 tuners to five. Maybe seven. That's extreme for the amount of channels. Plus i would never have more than 3 minis with a hr44/54 since they can only drive three at a time. 

For you.. personally, I'd probably look at replacing two HR24 with minis. One with the c61k for 4k. This allows you to still have 11 tuners and all tvs at once. Maybe go to three minis leaving you with nine. But that's the most I'd even consider because of the limit of three minis at a time as I suggested. 

With that said, how many things do you actually watch and or record at any one time? Still I wouldn't go past 3 minis ever myself with the current genies. Minis are fantastic since it's like having the same machine and guide and series manager at every machine.

Also how many series do you have set to record? There is a limit of 100 on a genie and 50 for hr24s. 

And don't worry minis still have skip. Just enter the same code. And minis don't show the playbar like the main genies do. Even RVU tvs without a mini have the skip.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

As for the backups, we've been wanting at least a backup of the series links and such for years. Maybe one of these days...

If you go to an external drive, keep in mind if the box needs replaced, you will still lose access to any recordings. You'll see them, but unplayable, unless they were recorded over the air with an AM21. Series links and such would work fine as they are not encrypted.

There might not be a whole lot of 4K content, but I know I'm looking forward to Planet Earth II this weekend...

This thread should probably be moved as well.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

inkahauts said:


> Im the first guy to push for minis... but you are suggesting going from 15 tuners to five. Maybe seven. That's extreme for the amount of channels. Plus i would never have more than 3 minis with a hr44/54 since they can only drive three at a time.
> 
> For you.. personally, I'd probably look at replacing two HR24 with minis. One with the c61k for 4k. This allows you to still have 11 tuners and all tvs at once. Maybe go to three minis leaving you with nine. But that's the most I'd even consider because of the limit of three minis at a time as I suggested.
> 
> ...


All this time and you never told me that? All this arguing about the benefits of the minis and now I can see a reason to get one, finally. 

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

dpeters11 said:


> (1) As for the backups, we've been wanting at least a backup of the series links and such for years. Maybe one of these days...
> 
> If you go to an external drive, keep in mind if the box needs replaced, you will still lose access to any recordings. You'll see them, but unplayable, unless they were recorded over the air with an AM21. Series links and such would work fine as they are not encrypted.
> 
> ...


(1) And now, as I prepare to cut the cord, they'll come to their senses and the ugly marriage will be over. Ironic.

(2) Wow! I had to scroll up to see what you meant. Good catch.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> 3. I will post another thread asking about external drive options. DVRdaddy looks good and simple. Somewhat be less expensive to buy enclosure and hard drive separately. Any reason not to go this route to save some dollars? Will have questions on WD black, blue, green, or red drives. Longevity and reliability being primary criteria.


The WD Green drives are now combined with the Blues. I have a couple Blue drives. Dependable, quiet and they work well on/in the HRs. I have a WD Red drive, too. Don't have a clue which HR it's in. Must be working. I think the Black drives might be more expensive than the Blue drives. My WD drives seem to last a long time. More than 5 years so far.

Just checked out DVR Upgrade | DVRDaddy Hard Drives & Expanders Increase Capacity. Pretty expensive for an enclosure. Good enclosures, for the past few years, have never been that expensive. You might want to check out the Vantec enclosure on Amazon. The HDDs they sell...you can beat their prices by a lot on Amazon.

Rich


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Rich said:


> All this time and you never told me that? All this arguing about the benefits of the minis and now I can see a reason to get one, finally.
> 
> Rich


I swear you knew that! I could have sworn that was discussed ages ago in a thread you where in.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

inkahauts said:


> I swear you knew that! I could have sworn that was discussed ages ago in a thread you where in.


Might have happened at a time when I didn't have a Genie. I was kinda shocked when I read that post. I would have tried a minie had I known. Too late now, I'm ready to bail on D*.

Rich


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

Ordered up a 6 terabyte blue WD and DVRdaddy enclosure from Amazon. DTV scheduled in Tuesday to upgrade to a 54 and replace 24's with minis. Likely would have ordered a 4 terabyte, but out of stock for now. 

Outrageous that I must lose several years of recordings,,,,however Customer first has never been D*'s strong suit. 

Will keep one 24 assuming that first one or two Genies will require swap outs as I had gone thru with Genie 44's several years back. Will replace five 24's with three minis. 

Hoping for a decent tech and no refurbished/recycled product.

Thanks for your advice and help. Will post how it went


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Ordered up a 6 terabyte blue WD and DVRdaddy enclosure from Amazon. DTV scheduled in Tuesday to upgrade to a 54 and replace 24's with minis. Likely would have ordered a 4 terabyte, but out of stock for now.
> 
> Outrageous that I must lose several years of recordings,,,,however Customer first has never been D*'s strong suit.
> 
> ...


So you're OK going from 15 tuners to 7? That is a significant decrease, but if that meets your viewing and recording habits, good luck.

I used to save a bunch of recordings until I went through 4 HR24s in less than one year. Changed my viewing habits after that. Until DIRECTV changes their system, there is no way I would put a 4TB drive in the system for storage.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

trh said:


> So you're OK going from 15 tuners to 7? That is a significant decrease, but if that meets your viewing and recording habits, good luck.
> 
> I used to save a bunch of recordings until I went through 4 HR24s in less than one year. Changed my viewing habits after that. Until DIRECTV changes their system, *there is no way I would put a 4TB drive in the system for storage*.


If the HDD is kept at 50% of capacity I can see a 4TB drive. If it's intended for near full capacity, well I wouldn't do that.

Rich


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

trh said:


> So you're OK going from 15 tuners to 7? That is a significant decrease, but if that meets your viewing and recording habits, good luck.
> 
> I used to save a bunch of recordings until I went through 4 HR24s in less than one year. Changed my viewing habits after that. Until DIRECTV changes their system, there is no way I would put a 4TB drive in the system for storage.


Only 2 of us in the home. Viewing from MB, FR, Den, and garage only. 7 tuners are enough and then some.

Point well taken on 6 terabytes of storage,,,,as noted wished 4 but Amazon said out of stock. Almost went for one of the so called used or refurbished at a substantial cost saving until noted 60 day warranty and who knows how long delivery time or if DOA and need to exchange within 30 day return window.

Yes at 6 terabytes, by the time filled close to at capacity, will likely have failed and lose everything again. Perhaps by then they will get their act together and have on demand for everything broadcast, or learn how to treat the cloud as a DVR ala Comcast.

In 20 years with this company, have taken a lot of body blows from them and their generally inept support,,,,always user error until every customer has reported it twice! Well over 30k thrown their way for the privilege!

Right now have a general sense of forbodiing that when they show up Tuesday that all will likely not end well.

Paranoia is merely an enlightened sense of awareness.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Only 2 of us in the home. Viewing from MB, FR, Den, and garage only. 7 tuners are enough and then some.
> 
> Point well taken on 6 terabytes of storage,,,,as noted wished 4 but Amazon said out of stock. (1) Almost went for one of the so called used or refurbished at a substantial cost saving until noted 60 day warranty and who knows how long delivery time or if DOA and need to exchange within 30 day return window.
> 
> ...


(1) I'd never consider buying an HDD that's been "refurbished" or used. That's just asking for problems.

(2) If you're planning on filling that 6TB drive up, you're gonna have problems. You're gonna see slow responses and just terrible performance. I always try to keep my HDDs, whether internal or external, at half full and have few problems. For whatever reasons, the HRs just do not like working with a near full HDD.

Rich


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

Rich said:


> (1) I'd never consider buying an HDD that's been "refurbished" or used. That's just asking for problems.
> 
> (2) If you're planning on filling that 6TB drive up, you're gonna have problems. You're gonna see slow responses and just terrible performance. I always try to keep my HDDs, whether internal or external, at half full and have few problems. For whatever reasons, the HRs just do not like working with a near full HDD.
> 
> Rich


The low cost resellers(some) on Amazon claim drives are new unused. Claim that have been fired up for testing. They do appear to get decent reviews,,,,perhaps however roll your owns.

Based upon your experience, perhaps a 6 terabyte is the option to select as the drive will always be at a smaller percentage of capacity than would a smaller drive.

I've even have pondered upon the strategy of retaining a HR 24, adding a 6 Terabyte to it in addition to the Genie 54. Then recording more critical programming, not once but twice. This would give somewhat a quasi-backup,,,at least until the second dvr fails.

As I recall my earlier days with Tivo's until D* unceremoniously dumped them,,,one could backup to DVD any critical programming,,,,,,and better yet, when a TiVo was retired to unlicensed status, one was able to playback all programming and not forced to pay continuing monthly ransom.

And remembering my days of hacking the disc drives to larger sizes for more recording hours(as I recall the initial Tivo's gave only 30 hours of SD programming storage),,,,you were able to move all your programming to those larger capacity disk drives. Of course D* will tell us now that it is impossible to design their dvr's to allow this for 'technical' reasons.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

No they won't. 

I simply cannot see the brilliance in recording hundreds of hours of programs that will never be viewed. And that's assuming the content remains for 30 years.....


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Laxguy said:


> No they won't.
> 
> I simply cannot see the brilliance in recording hundreds of hours of programs that will never be viewed. And that's assuming the content remains for 30 years.....


I have lost recordings twice from HD dying.
Each time it took awhile but I was able to re-record all the programs except for 1. That was a Celine Dione live in Las Vegas show that was on Paladia. I do like Rich and others and delete things to keep the drive about half full.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> I've even have pondered upon the strategy of retaining a HR 24, adding a 6 Terabyte to it in addition to the Genie 54. Then recording more critical programming, not once but twice. This would give somewhat a quasi-backup,,,at least until the second dvr fails.
> 
> .


You can only use up 2TB on any HR2X HDDVR.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> (1) The low cost resellers(some) on Amazon claim drives are new unused. Claim that have been fired up for testing. They do appear to get decent reviews,,,,perhaps however roll your owns.
> 
> (2) Based upon your experience, perhaps a 6 terabyte is the option to select as the drive will always be at a smaller percentage of capacity than would a smaller drive.


(1) I just had a terrible experience with an Amazon seller. I'll only buy Amazon supported items from now on. Read the reseller's return policy carefully, not many are as lenient as Amazon.

(2) The bigger the HDD the more you can record and still keep the HDD around half full. Definite advantage.

Rich


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## NR4P (Jan 16, 2007)

Best Buy puts HDD's on sale fairly often so prices get competitive. WD Purple's which work great in the Genie and have a multi year warranty. Yeah the warranty doesn't cover lost recordings but if your experience is many HDD failures, it covers the $$.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

The need for large home libraries diminishes over time. Way different now than 4-5 years ago. With so much on demand, with the big guys making independent programming shown 80 times a week, why store up stuff on an HDD when you're not likely to ever get to it??


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> The need for large home libraries diminishes over time. Way different now than 4-5 years ago. With so much on demand, with the big guys making independent programming shown 80 times a week, why store up stuff on an HDD when you're not likely to ever get to it??


Being a fan and collector of 50's thru early 70's muscle cars, I record entire runs of televised auctions such as Barrett Jackson and Mecum. Often these live telecasts are never re-broadcast and I will at times wish to go thru these auctions in my archives to pull up the auction results of specific cars. These can require massive amounts of storage.

I appreciate that the vast majority of other programming of import to me such as science or history channel episodes are usually rerun on regular basis.

Upgrading to a 54 from a 44 will cost me much of these archives,,,it is inexcusable that D* is quite indifferent to their users needs that for purposes known only to them that they refuse to provide a product that with a modest amount of effort they could accomodate the needs of their clients in providing a recovery mechanism in event of failure or hardware migration. Particularly as they provided the hardware at great expense to me that is so prone to failure and unpredictably do so often after very short hours of use. Over the years I have paid them in excess of well over 30,000.00 dollars for which I cost them very little in marginal effort or expense.

For many years, I highly recommended their system over the competition to family and friends seeking my advice. Some years back I realized that I gained nothing from this. I since have ceased to recommend this company to anyone. It is likely that many others have done the same.


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

peds48 said:


> You can only use up 2TB on any HR2X HDDVR.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


.

Good information.

Any opinions on replacing the internal drive instead of running as an external so you end up gaining a full 2 terabyte storage instead of only 1 1/2 terabyte, and not having to pay the electric bill to power 2 drives instead of 1. Realizing that one could have 2 1/2 terabyte if willing to undergo the inconvenience of powering the external drive up or down on demand.

Curiosity wondering if in theory if one could have 2 Terabyte internally plus 2 terabyte external.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> The need for large home libraries diminishes over time. Way different now than 4-5 years ago. With so much on demand, with the big guys making independent programming shown 80 times a week, why store up stuff on an HDD when you're not likely to ever get to it??


Right, I have 9 HRs and loads of content I/we have no intention of watching. Nobody here watches D*. I really oughta start selling off the HRs. Now everyone wants a streaming box on each TV in the house. The HRs get little use. Kinda sad.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Being a fan and collector of 50's thru early 70's muscle cars, I record entire runs of televised auctions such as Barrett Jackson and Mecum. Often these live telecasts are never re-broadcast and I will at times wish to go thru these auctions in my archives to pull up the auction results of specific cars. These can require massive amounts of storage.
> 
> I appreciate that the vast majority of other programming of import to me such as science or history channel episodes are usually rerun on regular basis.
> 
> ...


That "recovery mechanism" is something we've fought about for years and got nowhere. D* doesn't care.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> .
> 
> Good information.
> 
> ...


Yes, you can have a 2TB internal drive and a 2TB external drive on each HR. Never saw a reason to do that, but it's easily done. You could also have a Genie with a 6TB internal and a 6TB external (or larger). Seems a bit irrational, but it can be done.

There was also a time when we could remove the internal HDD and just use an external HDD. That's changed but it was possible for awhile. I don't see the savings from an electricity POV as anything substantial.

Rich


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## the2130 (Dec 18, 2014)

inkahauts said:


> And don't worry minis still have skip. Just enter the same code. And minis don't show the playbar like the main genies do. Even RVU tvs without a mini have the skip.


If the minis don't show the playbar, how can you determine how far into a program you are? Also, what kind out outputs do these models have? Can they be connected to a TV with only component inputs?


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Being a fan and collector of 50's thru early 70's muscle cars, I record entire runs of televised auctions such as Barrett Jackson and Mecum. Often these live telecasts are never re-broadcast and I will at times wish to go thru these auctions in my archives to pull up the auction results of specific cars. These can require massive amounts of storage.
> 
> Upgrading to a 54 from a 44 will cost me much of these archives,,,it is inexcusable that D* is quite indifferent to their users needs that for purposes known only to them that they refuse to provide a product that with a modest amount of effort they could accomodate the needs of their clients in providing a recovery mechanism in event of failure or hardware migration. Particularly as they provided the hardware at great expense to me that is so prone to failure and unpredictably do so often after very short hours of use. Over the years I have paid them in excess of well over 30,000.00 dollars for which I cost them very little in marginal effort or expense.


They are not in the business of selling you programming for you to keep for a life-time.

But if you did want to archive these, burn them to a DVD. But at some point, like the VCR, those DVDs will also be obsolete and everything you have stored there may not be accessible.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Rich said:


> Yes, you can have a 2TB internal drive and a 2TB external drive on each HR. Never saw a reason to do that, but it's easily done. You could also have a Genie with a 6TB internal and a 6TB external (or larger). Seems a bit irrational, but it can be done.
> 
> Rich


While you could is worth mentioning that you can't use both at the same time. Once an external gets connected the internal gets disabled.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Rich said:


> (1) I'd never consider buying an HDD that's been "refurbished" or used. That's just asking for problems.
> 
> (2) If you're planning on filling that 6TB drive up, you're gonna have problems. You're gonna see slow responses and just terrible performance. I always try to keep my HDDs, whether internal or external, at half full and have few problems. For whatever reasons, the HRs just do not like working with a near full HDD.
> 
> Rich


Rich, I love ya man but I have to totally disagree on the full hard drive. My genies just don't slow down from full hard drives. Even when it's 4tb full. My hr2xs did yes but not my hr44.


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

I suggested in an earlier post in this thread that I had a sense of foreboding that today's upgrade day would not turn out well.

D* just as anticipated has not disappointed my ability to predict future events. I was promised an installation time window of 8 to 12 noon. This AM I find a voice mail on my answering machine that a tech will be at my home for my 12 noon to 4Pm appointment.

After fighting my way thru their vacuous twilight zone voice mail system to a real live person(not certain however) I am told my appointment was for 12 noon, not the 8 Am that I claimed. Which means that their dispatcher took it upon itself to change the schedule.

Oh yes, it is now 1:48 pm, no sign of anyone. Oh yes, they claim it will take 3.5 hours for the upgrade service call. 

Will they still be working here at midnight if the tech shows up at 8:30 pm.

Performing to their normal standards!


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

inkahauts said:


> Rich, I love ya man but I have to totally disagree on the full hard drive. My genies just don't slow down from full hard drives. Even when it's 4tb full. My hr2xs did yes but not my hr44.


Wouldn't know about the Genies. Never filled up my 3TB internal drive. Just assumed they'd be the same.

Rich


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

It is now 3pm, no calls from them giving updates on arrival time. Call D*, on hold for 14 minutes listening to their insipid blathering telling me what a great company they are, what a valued customer I am, encouraging me to sign up for new offerings, and the great things I can learn on their website, before finally getting a live agent. Told her the tale. She is so sorry.

Informed by her that ETA is now 7pm.


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## the2130 (Dec 18, 2014)

Laxguy said:


> The need for large home libraries diminishes over time. Way different now than 4-5 years ago. With so much on demand, with the big guys making independent programming shown 80 times a week, why store up stuff on an HDD when you're not likely to ever get to it??


The problem with on-demand content is that the programming you want to watch may not be there when you're ready to watch it. That's the main reason for storing content in your own library.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> I suggested in an earlier post in this thread that I had a sense of foreboding that today's upgrade day would not turn out well.
> 
> D* just as anticipated has not disappointed my ability to predict future events. I was promised an installation time window of 8 to 12 noon. This AM I find a voice mail on my answering machine that a tech will be at my home for my 12 noon to 4Pm appointment.
> 
> ...


There was an outage on their systems today which impacted all techs nationwide. No work order could be dispatched.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

My multiple calls to them, I was continually told that they would have someone at my home...As indicated earlier, the final time was set for 7 PM. 

This time came and went,,,,again no show, no telephone call, nothing. So I sat at home 11 hours waiting and not a single courtesy call from anyone at firm saying that they had an outage of any sorts,,,,everything I learned(more promises unkept), I got from calling them on 4 occasions suffering thru their insipid voice mail system each time. 

Out of boredom, I did a check of Yelp reviews of this company in my local area,,,some 90 percent of 42 reviews gave them a very solid and revealing 1 star.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

This only affected the techs so I would not expect any of the CSRs to have a clue. 


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

the2130 said:


> The problem with on-demand content is that the programming you want to watch may not be there when you're ready to watch it. That's the main reason for storing content in your own library.


Or, more simply put, D*'s on-demand offerings are pretty poor. I think (and have always had that opinion).

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

peds48 said:


> This only affected the techs so *I would not expect any of the CSRs to have a clue. *
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


A statement that can apply to anything you hear from most CSRs.

Rich


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

Now 9:55 AM next day Calyfornua time. Still no word from D* as to when techs will show up.

Looking at options.

Have Comcast 50 meg cable, neighbors have their television and say content with it,,,,particularly the ability to record to the cloud with no DVR's required.

Has anyone any experience with this offering from Sony. In particular the ability to bypass commercials. Other pros and cons?

Channels

Already have Apple TV system and Amazon Prime and Smart TV for Netflix.

Also Antenna with rotator.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Now 9:55 AM next day Calyfornua time. Still no word from D* as to when techs will show up.
> 
> .


Besides last night call, did you call this morning to inquiry about the status of your appointment? Because of the claustro @"&$ about yesterday you most likely will need to reschedule your appointment.

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## the2130 (Dec 18, 2014)

Rich said:


> Or, more simply put, D*'s on-demand offerings are pretty poor. I think (and have always had that opinion).
> Rich


DTV's on-demand offerings are poor, but I was referring to streaming services as well. Programs and movies expire all the time. You can be in the middle of a TV show that was on for multiple seasons when it expires and you can no longer watch it, unless you have it recorded. Or movies that you want to see, but they disappear from the menu before you find time to watch them. I was replying to a comment from another poster who didn't understand why anyone would want to record and store anything when there is so much content available.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

the2130 said:


> DTV's on-demand offerings are poor, but I was referring to streaming services as well. Programs and movies expire all the time. You can be in the middle of a TV show that was on for multiple seasons when it expires and you can no longer watch it, unless you have it recorded. Or movies that you want to see, but they disappear from the menu before you find time to watch them. I was replying to a comment from another poster who didn't understand why anyone would want to record and store anything when there is so much content available.


I realize the streamers delete some shows each month, but we are notified on many sites of the deletions. I have yet to see any deletions that disturbed me. On the D* side, you can never tell what is gonna be on demand. I've tried many times and just gave up on D*'s on demand service.

Rich


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

Yes I called again,,,,7th call now thru their vacuous telephone system in attempt to have scheduled 'upgrade' performed ,,the exact same do-do system they have used for decades to annoy their paying customers. 

Now scheduled for next Sunday morning between 8 and noon,,,,,likely as worthless as their earlier promise. 

In comparison this firm makes the Keystone Kops appear as competent as NASA's success in landing a man on the moon.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Actually a morning appointment is generally better. You could be first... and chances of being late are slimmer imho. 

Here's to guessing and hopping this one goes well!


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

the2130 said:


> I was replying to a comment from another poster who didn't understand why anyone would want to record and store anything when there is so much content available.


If that was me, you misunderstood. I record everything I watch. My comment was questioning those who have thousand of hours of unwatched material. Or hundreds of hours they won't watch because they're recording hundreds more.

And DIRECTV's On Demand is quite good these days.


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## the2130 (Dec 18, 2014)

Laxguy said:


> If that was me, you misunderstood. I record everything I watch. My comment was questioning those who have thousand of hours of unwatched material. Or hundreds of hours they won't watch because they're recording hundreds more.
> 
> And DIRECTV's On Demand is quite good these days.


Well, maybe I misunderstood. I have a lot of stuff recorded on my own drives, and while there may be some of it I don't get around to watching, I do watch a lot of it. I like to put stuff on my Plex server so I can stream it to my portable devices and Roku without having to worry about when it's going to expire.


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> If that was me, you misunderstood. I record everything I watch. My comment was questioning those who have thousand of hours of unwatched material. Or hundreds of hours they won't watch because they're recording hundreds more.
> 
> And DIRECTV's On Demand is quite good these days.


I too generally will hit record while watching programming. Too often my mumble fingers manipulating my remote control will brush the wrong button and I will lose the channel that I'm watching and if watching is trailing where broadcast actually is,,,,,you get the idea.

Also helpful when you turn on the set and you find programming of interest with a long buffer, to hit record is a very nice feature.

On demands can be problematic, as usually you cannot FF. However on the other hand, often I have set an on demand to record and found a 1 hour program records say only 41 minutes with commercials not being recorded.

Have never discovered the rhyme or reason for what and when this might occur. Has anyone figured this out?


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

There are two types of VOD files. The one that is available immediately or a few days after the show has aired is the same file that was broadcasted live with same commercials. The second type is the one that is available after a week or so is this is the file that has limited commercials


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## the2130 (Dec 18, 2014)

Rich said:


> I realize the streamers delete some shows each month, but we are notified on many sites of the deletions. I have yet to see any deletions that disturbed me. On the D* side, you can never tell what is gonna be on demand. I've tried many times and just gave up on D*'s on demand service.
> 
> Rich


I've missed out on quite a few movies and shows that expired before I had a chance to watch them. You can watch for expirations by going to the streamer's web site, but it's easy to miss stuff you wanted to see. And if you're in the middle of watching a show that was on for eight season and you find out it's about to expire, that doesn't really help you. That's why I like to capture content I want to see and store it in my own library. I can watch it when I get around to it and it will never expire.

I use DirecTV's service mainly to catch episodes of shows I missed for one reason or another. It's not ideal because of the unskippable commercials, the limited number of episodes available, and expiration dates, but it's better than nothing.


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

inkahauts said:


> Actually a morning appointment is generally better. You could be first... and chances of being late are slimmer imho.
> 
> Here's to guessing and hopping this one goes well!


Nice theory on being first appointment if morning appointment. Now 9:50 am. No sign of D* on this beautiful 60 degree Sunday morning with an exotic car show going on until noon that I would much rather be attending than hanging around for this outfit, that if recent history is any guide, is problematic that again they will not show.

Also told scheduled for a 3.5 hour installation which means most of the day will be shot again even if they do show. Thanx AT&T, you are off to a great start!

Does anyone have an opinion on using a 5 Terabyte Seagate hard drive verses a 6 Terabyte WD drive. Costco has the Seagate at 129.00. Amazon has WD blue at 216.00. I really do not need 6 or 5 Terabyte, however Amazon is fresh out of 4 terabyte blue drives,,,at more reasonable cost. I did buy a DVR Daddy case. It appears of good quality, manual is a bit of a kick to interpret.


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## sxrxrnr1 (Feb 10, 2007)

peds48 said:


> There are two types of VOD files. The one that is available immediately or a few days after the show has aired is the same file that was broadcasted live with same commercials. The second type is the one that is available after a week or so is this is the file that has limited commercials
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Good information, solves that mystery for me. What is 'streamers' that I see mentioned occasionally?


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Nice theory on being first appointment if morning appointment. Now 9:50 am.


My last DIRECTV 8-12 appointment, the installer showed up at 11:57. Stayed until 8pm that night AND had to come back the next day from 10am-noon to finish the install.

But on the other hand, yesterday I had AT&T fiber installed. 9-11am window. Guy was here at 9:02 am.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Good information, solves that mystery for me. What is 'streamers' that I see mentioned occasionally?


Not sure since you don't provide context. But usually "streamers" refers to the standalone streaming boxes such as Rokus and Apple TVs, etc.

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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

sxrxrnr1 said:


> Nice theory on being first appointment if morning appointment. Now 9:50 am. No sign of D* on this beautiful 60 degree Sunday morning with an exotic car show going on until noon that I would much rather be attending than hanging around for this outfit, that if recent history is any guide, is problematic that again they will not show.
> .


Hey, someone must be first on that techs route, in this case that someone wasn't you. ;(

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