Hate to say it, but DirectTV makes me use Sage much less...

[Shield]

Well I got sick of the horrible Time Warner 8300HDC box that was very slow and didn't have 15 minute "ticks" for those few paltry HD channels. So I broke down and got Directv's DVR-HD plus pack.

I hooked a 750GB drive and can record about 150 hours of HD. Plus I have boatloads of HD programming and dual HD tuners.

Channels like:
MGM HD
Smithsonian HD
History Channel HD
National Geographic HD
MTV HD
VH1 HD
Spike HD
FX HD
Weather Channel HD
Sci Fi HD
Science Channel HD
Biography HD
Cartoon Network HD
Discovery Channel HD (Man vs. Wild and Mythbusters!)
etc.

Boy, the people at Sage could sure write better software for their DVR's, but it's more than acceptable. Remote that came with the HR-21 is IR/RF, so it works all over the house.


I must tell you guys, if you can get Directv, get it.

(I am in NO WAY affiliated with any satellite company, just an HD fan like you guys)...

Shawn

[flavius]

I'm waiting for the new Comcast/TiVo STB to be available. What's the model #of your STB?

[mayamaniac]

What options do DirecTV offers in terms of multi-room setups? Are you stuck watching in one room only? If you get multiple DVRs for each rooms, I assume the DVRs can't talk to each other still.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by flavius

I'm waiting for the new Comcast/TiVo STB to be available. What's the model #of your STB?

It's the HR21-700. It comes with a 300GB drive. Comcast is not an option here in central Ohio.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

What options do DirecTV offers in terms of multi-room setups? Are you stuck watching in one room only? If you get multiple DVRs for each rooms, I assume the DVRs can't talk to each other still.

Well, I have it going to 3 different rooms with my component switch and component over cat5 baluns (total cost about $200 not counting IR/RF remotes)
but here's what I was quoted from Directv:

You have to "lease" the HD DVR; it was a $199 fee after $100 new customer rebate. They will do up to 3 more rooms with standard recievers for no more out of pocket (but they will charge $4.99 / month per extra receiver). I'm going to wait a while and get a 2nd DVR and just plug it into my switch.

The quality of the picture KILLS the HD Homerun over QAM as well as Cable's HD.

By a long shot. I watched an entire HD NBA game on NBAHD last night without a single audio dropout or "break" in the HD video. You really have to check it out.

Anyone here in central Ohio is more than welcome to come and check it out - my wife is making brownies tomorrow! (You'll have to wait for my son to stop watching Shrek on Sage though).

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by Shield

Well, I have it going to 3 different rooms with my component switch and component over cat5 baluns (total cost about $200 not counting IR/RF remotes)

But what do you do if more then one person wants to watch a show at same time on different tv's? Thats the big thing stopping me from going sat, don't want to have multiple dvr's and have to record same shows on all so I am not forced to watch on a specific TV.

Btw, if I ever do, I'll be taking you up on the "come and see it" option...would love to see the component switch and component over cat5 setup you have.

[Jesse]

Hi,

We too have the DTV HR20-700 DVR. It took a good bit of tweaking to get reliable OTA reception in sage (antenna issues, not sage issues), so we got the HR20 so the wife could watch her fav network shows in HD. Right after we got it I got OTA working reliably. The HR20 does work pretty well and D* has really upped its HD offerings. The pq is quite good, although not quite as good as I get with sage via OTA tuners.

The D* box is mainly my wife's private domain. She does record and watch lots of stuff on sage, but the HR20's limited space means the kids and I use sage. You can add recording space to the HR20 (via usb external drive) but since we have sage there has been no need.

Obviously you cannot watch more than one thing at a time with the HR20. I do have it distributed to three rooms (two in HD and one in SD) using a long composite run, a pair of component>cat5 baluns, a short HDMI run and some RF capable remotes. D* has said that multi-room viewing is on the roadmap, but have given no eta.

Even with all the new HD content D* offers most of the HD we watch is available OTA. This will not last forever though. More and more of the pay channel stuff we watch is becoming available in HD so why would we watch it in SD if we don't have to? However, switching from sage to HR20's exclusively does not yet make sense. With no multi-room viewing we would need three seperate DVR's with extra storage for at least two of them. An HDMI matrix switch (3 x 3) and three sets of HDMI > cat 5 baluns. Add a pretty sophisticated RF remote system and you are talking some pretty serious $$$.

Hopefully either some sort of hack for the D* mpeg4 STB's will happen or a pci based D* receiver will come along to save the day.

Jesse

[mohanman]

Can't give up my series 3 TIVO. Multiroom viewing and tivotogo rocks. Plus the interface is great.

Love my TIVO! Expensive but worth it!

Mo!

[stanger89]

You know, with a couple exceptions (notably SciFi and Speed) you can get the same thing (unlimited recording of HD) in Sage with Dish Network and an R5000'd box.

[flavius]

No HBO or Showtime either.

[stanger89]

Dish has SHO and HBO HD (if that's what you're getting at).

[mohanman]

I would love to get the R5000 box, but I am curious about lifespan (outdated, but we can never be sure about anything we buy with that), warranty, and doesn't it take like 10 seconds to change a channel? My TIVO takes a few seconds. Any crashes with R5000?
Thanks
Mo

[flavius]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Dish has SHO and HBO HD (if that's what you're getting at).

Well, but I can't record them or can I?

[Shield]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You know, with a couple exceptions (notably SciFi and Speed) you can get the same thing (unlimited recording of HD) in Sage with Dish Network and an R5000'd box.

Well, hold your horses Stanger! There's also a few other channels that Directv has that Dish doesn't, like:

Biography HD
Cartoon HD
Bravo HD
CMT HD
CNN HD
MGM HD (This channel is awesome)
Nickelodeon HD
Smithsonian HD (Another incredible channel)
USA HD
VH1 HD
and a few Stars HD channels...

[Shield]

Originally Posted by Bandit

But what do you do if more then one person wants to watch a show at same time on different tv's? Thats the big thing stopping me from going sat, don't want to have multiple dvr's and have to record same shows on all so I am not forced to watch on a specific TV.

Btw, if I ever do, I'll be taking you up on the "come and see it" option...would love to see the component switch and component over cat5 setup you have.

That's true - but here at my household, my son monopolizes Sage by watching Shrek/2/3 or Cars, so I just watch whatever on Directv somewhere else (if I'm lucky)...

I can watch Mythbusters and Man vs. Wild in HD - two of my favorite shows!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by flavius

Well, but I can't record them or can I?

With an R5000 mod, you can record anything you subscribe to.

Originally Posted by Shield

Well, hold your horses Stanger! There's also a few other channels that Directv has that Dish doesn't, like:

I said "notably", not "only"

[Shield]

Originally Posted by stanger89

With an R5000 mod, you can record anything you subscribe to.




I said "notably", not "only"

Right, but you did say "with a couple exceptions" and then named two channels.
A couple is two.
More importantly, I wanted to be able to say "hold your horses"...

[flavius]

Originally Posted by stanger89

With an R5000 mod, you can record anything you subscribe to.

Hm, I finally did some reading. For cable (comcast) this would mean around $300 for a new DCP501 or so and $500 for the r5000 mod. I'd save $12 a month for the DCT2xxx I no longer need. Well, and comcast need to provision it.

That's quite a bit of money, and now I remember while I stopped reading the first time around: All this - so that the kids can watch Dexter or Californication on their computers or in the basement?

Nope.

[ybrew]

I'm happy with DirecTV.

I've got 3 standard receivers connected next to my computer, controlled through sage, and 1 HD DVR in my theater. I primarily use sage, but it's nice to have access to all the DirecTV HD.

I looked at U-Verse briefly. The "record 4 shows at once" sounds great! - But....

You can record 1HD & 3SD simultaneously or 4SD. Only 1 HD at a time is pretty much useless (to me).

[Yooper]

The only piece of the puzzle that is missing is a cheap and easy way to get the satellite HD content into the sage video server.

I'm sure that will happen in the future.