DIRECTV HR34 Home Media Center

[Mr Tony]

Thinking of getting the HR34 and 3 additional rooms. Now...say the 3 bedrooms are watching live TV. Do they use their own tuner or do they use one of the 5 in the HR34? So could you record 5 programs at once then the other 3 rooms watch live TV?

the CURRENT setup that Directv gives you yes this is how its done. They give you H25's (usually...may be a H24) which have their own independent tuner in it. So in a H34/3 H25 setup you have 8 tuners + the ability of the H25 watching something off the DVR
But when they come out with the RVU units then those units work off the 5 tuners of the HR34

 

[digiblur]

No busineess to be in this part of the world but just FYI, you can have 2 hopper if you need 6 tuners.

Looks like that isn't supported at first. Plus it would blow my cost out of the water since I don't have AT200 nor do I need it. My mind is already made up anyways. The 8 tuners in the house sounds very nice and more than I need. Getting more for less is always nice!!

 

[dodger72]

Awesome!! I figured as much but wasn't sure. Yeah that joey hopper thing is laughable. 3 tuners and you have to share...what were they thinking!!??

that's what i thought although it would work for me i dont think many would like it. i do like the hr-34 but not the price

 

[Mr Tony]

but for new subs $100 on the HR34 ya cant beat

 

[fr8flyr]

That means 3 more lines off the dish, they'll need to install a swm16. Hope you was aware of this

They installed a swm16 when they did the install so it should be just a swap out.

Earl

 

[Hutch1814]

They installed a swm16 when they did the install so it should be just a swap out.

Earl

Don't make a whole lot of sense why but hey, if ya got its all good!

 

[fr8flyr]

Thinking about it further I think it's a swm 8 in my system not the 16. I talked to the installer about the 16 but I think they used the 8. I don't know what the D** policy is on an upgrade, with E** they would add whatever was necessary to make the upgrade work at no charge. I can't see D** putting in an swm16 for free though. I'll have to see what the installer says when he comes tomorrow.


Earl

 

[fr8flyr]

Have to wait until Wed now. It snowed last night and they need to install the swm16 switch but it is in a box on the roof, so no access. Everything will be melted by Wed so we'll see what happens then.


Earl

 

[DVDDAD]

Thinking about it further I think it's a swm 8 in my system not the 16. I talked to the installer about the 16 but I think they used the 8. I don't know what the D** policy is on an upgrade, with E** they would add whatever was necessary to make the upgrade work at no charge. I can't see D** putting in an swm16 for free though. I'll have to see what the installer says when he comes tomorrow.


Earl

They installed a SWIM 16 for me at no extra charge, because I now have 11 tuners altogether. I have three HR-24's and the HR-34, although the HR-24's aren't playing back any of the recorded content off the HR-34.

 

[DVDDAD]

Thinking of getting the HR34 and 3 additional rooms. Now...say the 3 bedrooms are watching live TV. Do they use their own tuner or do they use one of the 5 in the HR34?So could you record 5 programs at once then the other 3 rooms watch live TV?

the CURRENT setup that Directv gives you yes this is how its done. They give you H25's (usually...may be a H24) which have their own independent tuner in it. So in a H34/3 H25 setup you have 8 tuners + the ability of the H25 watching something off the DVR
But when they come out with the RVU units then those units work off the 5 tuners of the HR34

Keep in mind that if you went with one HR-34 and three H-25's that in order to pause live TV in one of the bedrooms with an H-25, that you would have to record the program on the HR-34 thus using one of its tuners. If pausing live TV is important you may want to switch an HR-24 for the H-25 in any of the room(s) that pausing live TV would be important for you to have. The same would be true, if and when the RVU units were made available.

 

[Mr Tony]

The same would be true, if and when the RVU units were made available.

no it wouldn't
The RVU's utilize a tuner on the HR34 which already has a DVR option so I assume it would work that way (DVR)

 

[DVDDAD]

no it wouldn't
The RVU's utilize a tuner on the HR34 which already has a DVR option so I assume it would work that way (DVR)

What I was trying to convey, was that whether you were pausing live TV on a H-25 box in a whole home set-up with a HMC HR-34 or watching TV on a RVU TV or client box, one of the HR-34 tuners would be used. Isn't that correct?

 

[DVDDAD]

Just a quick update to the problems I've been having withmy three HR-24's not being able to play back recorded programs of of my HR-34. For the heck of it I decided to disconnect the 2tb EHD that was attached to itand voila, no more issues. The EHD had worked flawlessly on the HR-24 that my new HR-34 replaced. And, it was working flawlessly on the HR-34 except for the problems with my HR-24's not being able to play the content on the drive. I wouldn't have suspected it was the problem, but I had tried everything else and thought to give it a try. In speaking to a rep on the case management team, when I told him that I figured out the problem, he told me that there are only a few approved EHD's for the HR-34 and that they are all 1tb. Which doesn’t make any sense to me? Why would you want to replace the internal 1tb drive with a 1tb external drive? In any event, I guess I have to live with the puny 1tb drive that the HR-34 comes with.

 

[Mr Tony]

you are correct. But if you're just watching something on the H25 that wont utilize a tuner on the HR34

 

[DVDDAD]

Thanks Iceberg. I guess I could have been a little clearer the first time.

 

[Mr Tony]

WOO HOO! I did it

This morning I was setting up some timers for programs on Saturday because I'll be working. Setting some one time things like a hockey game and then all of a sudden it happened

"The program cannot be recorded because it conflicts with one or more OF THE FIVE TUNERS".

Yep. Had a conflict and didnt even try to.

 

[Rey]

Only thing I'm not happy about so far is that I lost the optical connection. Yet it has coax which is older. I'll have to see if my av receiver has any coax connections.

Problem solved For only $9.77 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Coaxial (RCA) to Optical Toslink Digital Audio Converter | Toslink Switch / Converter

 

[Mr Tony]

hmmm...had to do a reboot again today. Turned on the TV and just had a black screen.

Thats 2 in 5 days

 

[Drucifer]

hmmm...had to do a reboot again today. Turned on the TV and just had a black screen.

Thats 2 in 5 days

That's often normal. I have seen it take a few minutes before there is A/V.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Only time Ive had issues is a reboot. Now I have turned it on and had what seemed to be a tuner freeze. Channel up or changing a channel seemed to fix it. Ive not had to reboot mine in a long while, but Im on a two week old CE and it still needs work.