# D* On Demand



## sr6376 (Sep 18, 2007)

Am I seeing things correctly, that DOD is only available to those w/ HD-DVR's? I was contemplating finally setting up my upstairs DVR to get DOD, but from what I am seeing, it won't work. Just want to make sure I am not misreading things.
Thanks


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

It only works with the HD DVR's (HR2x's) and the SD DVR (R22).


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## sr6376 (Sep 18, 2007)

Ok, thanks. I have an R15 so I'll just wait until I upgrade to the HD-DVR someday.


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## Cmnore (Sep 22, 2008)

Call D* and ask them to do a courtesy upgrade on the R15. I just did. They're sending me an R22. Why wait? The R22 is just a 'limited' software release in an HR chassis anyway.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

Or why continue with SD hardware, why not upgrade to HD hardware? You can connect the HD boxes to standard definition TV's via either composite or S-Video connections and the HD picture will look much better even on a SD TV. The down sides of course if the extra $100 for the HD DVR and the extra $9.99 HD access fee, but it's something you might want to think about.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

sr6376 said:


> Ok, thanks. I have an R15 so I'll just wait until I upgrade to the HD-DVR someday.


Well here's why you may not want to wait.The R22 has access to VOD,mediashare,200 hour SD recording time.30 second skip,a guide with more information and first air date.It also updates recordings for first runs very well.Also we hope that in the future DirecTV will be able to change the R22 to an HR21 with the flip of a switch for all those SD viewers that convert to HD.


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## Cmnore (Sep 22, 2008)

ANd the R22 was free. The HR wasn't.


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## red.bean.head (Feb 1, 2007)

Jhon69 said:


> Well here's why you may not want to wait.The R22 has access to VOD,mediashare,200 hour SD recording time.30 second skip,a guide with more information and first air date.It also updates recordings for first runs very well.Also we hope that in the future DirecTV will be able to change the R22 to an HR21 with the flip of a switch for all those SD viewers that convert to HD.


Have you ditched your R15? Just curious...


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## Cmnore (Sep 22, 2008)

I still have it, but it sits idle. Isn't even hooked up. I hated the R15. Went back to my Phillips DSR708's because two R15's(and all of their recordings) died on us. Twice. I just don't trust them.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

red.bean.head said:


> Have you ditched your R15? Just curious...


Yes.I only have one TV and I was running the R15-500 and the R22-100.So i got a wild hair and bought a used HR10-250.The very next day the Tivo getting back with DirecTV is published talk about Deja vu.Anyways didn't have much against the R15 besides the guide not having first air date and I believe that was why it wouldn't do updates for first runs good in series links.I did like you could pause the live buffer in the R15 and the live buffer would expand and the guide speed was fast.

Anyways I kept hearing about this Tivo love and since I never had a DirecTivo thought I would find out for myself.So far it's an interesting format.


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## sr6376 (Sep 18, 2007)

Jhon69 said:


> Well here's why you may not want to wait.The R22 has access to VOD,mediashare,200 hour SD recording time.30 second skip,a guide with more information and first air date.It also updates recordings for first runs very well.Also we hope that in the future DirecTV will be able to change the R22 to an HR21 with the flip of a switch for all those SD viewers that convert to HD.


I have nothing but HDTV's in the house, I just refuse to purchase more HD boxes at $200 a pop. My contract is up in December and at that time I'll see what deal they will give me for two HD-DVR's. Then I'll be able to swap out my one H21 w/ a DVR, put the H21 in the kitchen and get the second HD DVR for the bedroom.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

sr6376 said:


> I have nothing but HDTV's in the house, I just refuse to purchase more HD boxes at $200 a pop. My contract is up in December and at that time I'll see what deal they will give me for two HD-DVR's. Then I'll be able to swap out my one H21 w/ a DVR, put the H21 in the kitchen and get the second HD DVR for the bedroom.


Why dont you go online to your account and click on add reciever just to see what price they are offering you the DVR's?


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## turey22 (Jul 30, 2007)

joshjr said:


> Why dont you go online to your account and click on add reciever just to see what price they are offering you the DVR's?


Yeah, most of the time it will give you the same offer the agent will offer you. isnt best buy still giving the HR21 at 169? i have to check that out.


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## turey22 (Jul 30, 2007)

just confirmed it myself, yeah they are so that will be cheaper that 199.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

turey22 said:


> just confirmed it myself, yeah they are so that will be cheaper that 199.


The HR22 for $199 at Best Buy is worth it for the extra Hard Drive space.


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## turey22 (Jul 30, 2007)

joshjr said:


> The HR22 for $199 at Best Buy is worth it for the extra Hard Drive space.


true story, i would but i already have an install for 10-10-08am. CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT I GET!


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

sr6376 said:


> I have nothing but HDTV's in the house, I just refuse to purchase more HD boxes at $200 a pop. My contract is up in December and at that time I'll see what deal they will give me for two HD-DVR's. Then I'll be able to swap out my one H21 w/ a DVR, put the H21 in the kitchen and get the second HD DVR for the bedroom.


This is the best time to try and get what you want(when your out of contract).


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## red.bean.head (Feb 1, 2007)

Jhon69 said:


> Yes.I only have one TV and I was running the R15-500 and the R22-100.So i got a wild hair and bought a used HR10-250.The very next day the Tivo getting back with DirecTV is published talk about Deja vu.Anyways didn't have much against the R15 besides the guide not having first air date and I believe that was why it wouldn't do updates for first runs good in series links.I did like you could pause the live buffer in the R15 and the live buffer would expand and the guide speed was fast.
> 
> Anyways I kept hearing about this Tivo love and since I never had a DirecTivo thought I would find out for myself.So far it's an interesting format.


I have the HR10-250 in my bedroom. It was a good box but really slow & since it is only MPEG2 the HD choices are slim now since most are now MPEG4. I have noted that it reboots almost everynight at least twice around 10pm PT. Not sure what is up with it. I still have my R15's (Kids rooms) & HR21's (Living Room/Family Room/Garage) as well. All have been ok too. The expanded HD channels that the HR can receive is really cool though & it is faster than the Tivo unit. Anyhow, just curious as I have not seen you post much in the R15 area. Take care...


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

red.bean.head said:


> I have the HR10-250 in my bedroom. It was a good box but really slow & since it is only MPEG2 the HD choices are slim now since most are now MPEG4. I have noted that it reboots almost everynight at least twice around 10pm PT. Not sure what is up with it. I still have my R15's (Kids rooms) & HR21's (Living Room/Family Room/Garage) as well. All have been ok too. The expanded HD channels that the HR can receive is really cool though & it is faster than the Tivo unit. Anyhow, just curious as I have not seen you post much in the R15 area. Take care...


Ya that's the reason why.I didn't do my homework cause when i activated the HR10-250 I got stuck paying the HD Access fee(I'm going to use the HR10-250 for SD) no matter I'll just cancel it after all the MPEG2 HD channels are gone.I have noticed when I turned off the sound effects I can scroll thru the guide faster.Keeping mine hooked up to a phone line running 6.3f.The DirecTivo guide doesn't have first air date but then the R15 doesn't either.

The R22-100 has me spoiled(first air date) plus all the other features.You take care too.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

Jhon69 said:


> Well here's why you may not want to wait.The R22 has access to VOD,mediashare,200 hour SD recording time.30 second skip,a guide with more information and first air date.


150 Hours SD recording time.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

ThomasM said:


> 150 Hours SD recording time.


OK.Depending on what you record up to 200 hours recording time.ThomasM gets 150.I get 200.OK?.


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## LameLefty (Sep 29, 2006)

I get 200 on mine too.


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

It seems like a good number of participants here work in the technology sector. For those of us that do, we tend to be “problem solvers”. Even though we might have no way to fix a problem like this or even prevent it from happening again, we want to know what went wrong. We need to know what went wrong to get closure. Personally this is driving me nuts! In order to keep from going totally insane because I can’t get any closure on this, I began to consider what it could be.

Here’s what we know: The problem was caused by something in the satellite data stream, and it only affect HD-DVR’s and R22’s. So, what comes down in the data stream? Well, obviously MPEG2 and MPEG4 video and audio programming. Also, we get guide data, authorization data, and we get firmware updates. 

I think we can rule out firmware updates because no one reported their IRD’s being in update mode. Also, we can eliminate any specific audio or video programming because the devices only have two tuners and it’s unlikely that all affected receivers were tuned to the exact same channels at the same time. This leaves us with guide data or authorizations. But why wouldn’t that have affected other receivers? What do the HD-DVR’s and R22 have in common? VOD over Ethernet! So, my guess is that they were trying to put some code in related to that. Maybe it was the ability to authorized or de-authorize VOD capabilities, or maybe it had nothing with authorization. Maybe somebody tried to create a VOD channel number with five digits or an alpha character and that caused the units to puke and die. 

Oh well, that’s probably about as close as I’ll ever get to knowing the cause. It doesn’t give me closure, but it gives me something to keep my geek brain busy enough that I’m not so worried about not having closure.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

rudeney said:


> It seems like a good number of participants here work in the technology sector. For those of us that do, we tend to be "problem solvers". Even though we might have no way to fix a problem like this or even prevent it from happening again, we want to know what went wrong. We need to know what went wrong to get closure. Personally this is driving me nuts! In order to keep from going totally insane because I can't get any closure on this, I began to consider what it could be.
> 
> Here's what we know: The problem was caused by something in the satellite data stream, and it only affect HD-DVR's and R22's. So, what comes down in the data stream? Well, obviously MPEG2 and MPEG4 video and audio programming. Also, we get guide data, authorization data, and we get firmware updates.
> 
> ...


There was a problem with DOD?


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

spartanstew said:


> There was a problem with DOD?


Dangit! I posted to the wrong thread - that was supposed to go here:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141604&page=60

(But yes, I guess if you tried to use DOD, it would have not worked yesterday morning!)


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

rudeney said:


> So, my guess is that they were trying to put some code in related to that. Maybe it was the ability to authorized or de-authorize VOD capabilities, or maybe it had nothing with authorization. Maybe somebody tried to create a VOD channel number with five digits or an alpha character and that caused the units to puke and die.


The best information I have been able to obtain is that it was a problem with the guide data that DirecTV was provided. Once they identified the problem they worked with the source to have that corrected, then had to accomplish resets of all the DVRs. I have no information on the specifics.

Carl


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## cobaltblue (Feb 22, 2006)

Cmnore said:


> Call D* and ask them to do a courtesy upgrade on the R15. I just did. They're sending me an R22. Why wait? The R22 is just a 'limited' software release in an HR chassis anyway.


I would like to switch out my R15 for the R22. Did you call the main D* number or was there a specific one for this? Is there a commitment invovled? Thanks...


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## clb4g9 (Sep 24, 2007)

cobaltblue said:


> I would like to switch out my R15 for the R22. Did you call the main D* number or was there a specific one for this? Is there a commitment invovled? Thanks...


There will be a commitment involved......if you haven't had an upgrade in the past 6 months you are likely to get at least some sort of deal. I was able to get a HR21 from D* for free (only paid shipping charges) as long as I extended my commitment another 24 months (I think it's the same for the R22--it will at least be 12 months).......I called the regular D* number; I have in the past said "cancel service" when they ask what this is regarding--this will get you sent to retentions and I have HEARD (I have no idea if this is accurate or not) that retentions might do a little more for you.


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## sr6376 (Sep 18, 2007)

clb4g9 said:


> There will be a commitment involved......if you haven't had an upgrade in the past 6 months you are likely to get at least some sort of deal. I was able to get a HR21 from D* for free (only paid shipping charges) as long as I extended my commitment another 24 months (I think it's the same for the R22--it will at least be 12 months).......I called the regular D* number; I have in the past said "cancel service" when they ask what this is regarding--this will get you sent to retentions and I have HEARD (I have no idea if this is accurate or not) that retentions might do a little more for you.


Thanks again to all that responded, just wanted to put back in my $.02 regarding retentions. I have not YET called in, though probably late next month will bite the bullet and give it a try. I have seen posts on these forums stating that the retentions dept. is much less likely to give you the deal you want than they were in the past, and if you say you want to cancel, they will ask where you want the boxes sent so you can package your equipiment and ship it back.

I am hoping that this isn't the case when I call, but being that I have a middle-of-the-road package ($90/month) and don't do any of the extra sports or movie channels, my "Deal" will be far from what I want. We'll see how it goes, and who knows, maybe the greatest of all great things will happen and they'll drop the HD boxes retail price to $50 and the HD-DVR to $100 without even getting into the deal. :sure:


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## LameLefty (Sep 29, 2006)

sr6376 said:


> We'll see how it goes, and who knows, maybe the greatest of all great things will happen and they'll drop the HD boxes retail price to $50 and the HD-DVR to $100 without even getting into the deal. :sure:


You never know. When the HR20 first came out, the most common "deal" was the full $299 lease fee (I got somewhat . . . ahem . . . better than that: $0, period, plus a bunch of credits). After the HR21 was released, the price dropped a hundred bucks. So think positive.


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