DirecTV news from CEDIA

[Digital Dude]

Greetings from Denver. Today I visited the DirecTV booth right away.
They were demonstrating their new HR21P professional DVR.
First off, the picture posted about 1080p output is FALSE!! Attached is a picture of the actual working unit, if you zoom in it clearly shows 1080i as the maximum output.

The specs on the HR21p and additional info are as follows.
1-Ships December 2007
2-Expect to pay at least $599 for it
3- Has HDMI Fiber Optic output and comes with a 100ft HDMI fiber optic cable.
4- 1080i is the max resolution output.
5- NO ATSC TUNER!
6- Available only thru custom retailers, no upgrades!
7- RS 232 control. (For codes go to SBCA Educational Programs Website and select SBCA Tech Updates)
8- No annoying swirling blue lights on front!

How did it look on a LG LCD display? In a word, crap. It exhibited so much macroblocking that the action was really hard to watch.

It was also on display in the Samsung booth since it's manufactured by Samsung and the Samsung display attached there did a better job displaying content but it still wasn't anything to brag about.

The DirecTV robots in their booth could easily be replaced by $1.00 an hour Indian call center people flown in. Why? When I asked about NHL Center Ice and the amount of games shown in HD the reply was "We're only allowed to say new HD programming is coming later this month."

I really feel sorry for the DirecTV people staffing the booth, they have a script and can't say anything else. It's just like getting a call center in Bangladesh but without the accent, another term may be "TCN". (see Third Country National - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

[charper1]

So its just the same as the retail HR20 but rack mountable for sports bars and such and with a HDMI Fiber Optic output.

Its no surprise to me that they stay on script, it is exactly what they were hired to do and likely ALL that they know; not real DirecTV emps I would guess.

Any info on the "optical HD connector box" in the photo? Thanks

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The price is not bad actually. its under what they were hinting to me, but this has no MSRP on it so anything could be the price.

 

[moonman]

Swanni sezs:
DIRECTV HD DVR: 100 Hours of Storage

 

[jcrandall]

Well, that is kinda disappointing. They eliminate the OTA to save cost of tuners, and the only new feature is the larger hard drive, which anyone can do.

The casing is nice, looks like better cooling. The optical HDMI sounds interesting, especially for individauls/business with a media server type setup, then run long hdmi cable to projectors, etc.


Definately a limited target market.

You want top of the line D*:
Build an HR20 with 3 x 1TB HDs for Hundreds of hours of storate. Make the casing bigger to hold the three drives along the top of the unit with rear & top cooling. Add a built in raid controller, and market the top end consumer / business customer.

Then you can call it PRO.

 

[Digital Dude]

Swanni sezs:
DIRECTV HD DVR: 100 Hours of Storage

Anybody (like Swanni) can cull and post press releases, but you get the real info here!

 

[Smith P.]

It's not interesting anymore read old news from his site. We have more info and before him.

 

[uncrules]

Anybody (like Swanni) can cull and post press releases, but you get the real info here!

When Swanni mentions the fact that E*'s 622 has external USB storage, he fails to mention that the HR20 has external eSata storage which from some people I've read, is a preferable format.

 

[patmurphey]

The HR20 allows you to REPLACE the internal hard drive with a larger external drive. Of course it has to be eSata to function. The E* external storage is an archive feature allowing transfer of UNLIMITED recordings from the 622/722 to an UNLIMITED number of drives (from which the recordings are playable with all functions) - USB is satisfactory for this purpose.

 

[Smith P.]

622 allowed to change internal drive, but to very limited number of models.
Practically to only some WD or Seagate/Maxtor 320 or 500 GB.

 

[uncrules]

The HR20 allows you to REPLACE the internal hard drive with a larger external drive. Of course it has to be eSata to function. The E* external storage is an archive feature allowing transfer of UNLIMITED recordings from the 622/722 to an UNLIMITED number of drives (from which the recordings are playable with all functions) - USB is satisfactory for this purpose.

And E* charges $40 for this pleasure. D* charges nothing and I can get a 500 gigabyte eSata drive for around $140.

 

[wmj5]

I wouldn't have without the atsc antenna hookup!