Does DirecTV have an "answer" to the Hopper?

[dspcap]

But if you live in the right DMA, PTAT will get you 4 for 1 (tuners) for the primetime hours as far as tuners... It records the mux, which would really be cool if Directv can implement. I find I record quite a bit of net shows lately, but PTAT for Directv for those of us "Grandfathered" to the Distants could get complicated... I have both providers, and reap the benefits & deficits from both...

I have no idea what you just said. Can you please dumb it down for me?

PTAT would be good if you could set it to automatically save your favorite shows for more than 8 days.

 

[sparc]

You used three tuners not four. The two shows on PTAT were recorded on one tuner and the two cable channels each used one tuner.

The four Prime Time Any Time channels are your local FOX, ABC, CBS and NBC. Some or all are recorded on one tuner during prime time.

correct. I was just trying to get it across to dspcap that i was actually recording more channels than there are physical tuners via timers.

PTAT "quasi" turns one physical tuner into essentially 4.

However, in order to "save" one of your PTATs, you have to manually go in and save it, it can't happen automatically and it will delete after 8 days.

PTAT automatically saved it to my recordings without me doing anything manual. All I had to do was set a timer and it worked. The same thing is working for many others in the Hopper forum as well...

I set a timer and it showed up in my recordings without using extra tuners beyond the PTAT tuner. I have no idea what problems you encountered, but it's not working that way anymore.

(BTW, i'm not trying to drag this out in the DirecTV forum. Really just trying to correct information that is not accurate. This is my last post here on the matter.)

 

[dangue]

correct. I was just trying to get it across to dspcap that i was actually recording more channels than there are physical tuners via timers.

PTAT "quasi" turns one physical tuner into essentially 4.

PTAT automatically saved it to my recordings without me doing anything manual. All I had to do was set a timer and it worked. The same thing is working for many others in the Hopper forum as well...

I set a timer and it showed up in my recordings without using extra tuners beyond the PTAT tuner. I have no idea what problems you encountered, but it's not working that way anymore.

(BTW, i'm not trying to drag this out in the DirecTV forum. Really just trying to correct information that is not accurate. This is my last post here on the matter.)

I can verify this from personal experience. Created timers for the PTAT shows I was interested in saving on the user portion of the drive and it used the PTAT stream to record them without using any additional tuners.

 

[dspcap]

correct. I was just trying to get it across to dspcap that i was actually recording more channels than there are physical tuners via timers.

PTAT "quasi" turns one physical tuner into essentially 4.

PTAT automatically saved it to my recordings without me doing anything manual. All I had to do was set a timer and it worked. The same thing is working for many others in the Hopper forum as well...

I set a timer and it showed up in my recordings without using extra tuners beyond the PTAT tuner. I have no idea what problems you encountered, but it's not working that way anymore.

(BTW, i'm not trying to drag this out in the DirecTV forum. Really just trying to correct information that is not accurate. This is my last post here on the matter.)

Anything recorded with PTAT goes into the PTAT folder and only stays for 8 days.. Do you agree with that?

If you have PTAT setup and then record a show that is one of the PTAT shows (separately), it counts as your second tuner, leaving only one free. Correct?

 

[Coach Knight]

Anything recorded with PTAT goes into the PTAT folder and only stays for 8 days.. Do you agree with that?

If you have PTAT setup and then record a show that is one of the PTAT shows (separately), it counts as your second tuner, leaving only one free. Correct?

No that is not correct according to posts in the Hopper forum. Many people confirm that if you schedule a recording of a show already in PTAT that it will put the show both in your recordings and in the PTAT section but only use one tuner to do so. At the end of the 8 days it drops from the PTAT space but remains in your personal recordings. I'd strongly recommend for the most accurate Hopper info to pose your questions there...if you haven't already, since that area is where most folks who have it are hanging out.

 

[king3pj]

No that is not correct according to posts in the Hopper forum. Many people confirm that if you schedule a recording of a show already in PTAT that it will put the show both in your recordings and in the PTAT section but only use one tuner to do so. At the end of the 8 days it drops from the PTAT space but remains in your personal recordings. I'd strongly recommend for the most accurate Hopper info to pose your questions there...if you haven't already, since that area is where most folks who have it are hanging out.

This is how it works exactly.

 

[Shady12]

I don't really understand the point of it recording all primetime network shows(if I'm understanding correctly). Why is that better than us just recording the ones we want on those channels? The thought of three tuners sucks once you have experienced an HR34.

 

[king3pj]

I don't really understand the point of it recording all primetime network shows(if I'm understanding correctly). Why is that better than us just recording the ones we want on those channels? The thought of three tuners sucks once you have experienced an HR34.

It is better for the reason you just said. Recording or watching 3 shows at a time isn't enough for a whole home DVR. This gives you the ability to record or watch 6 shows at a time during primetime which is much better. If most of your recording isn't from Network channels than I agree with you. The HR34 would be much better option at least until they get 2 hoppers fully integrated.

 

[mdram]

but what if my wife wants to record all the soaps during the day and watch discovery at the same time?

why isnt ptat 24/7?

 

[king3pj]

but what if my wife wants to record all the soaps during the day and watch discovery at the same time?

why isnt ptat 24/7?

They probably figured it would take too much hard drive space to record and store 4 HD channels 24 hours a day.

 

[dspcap]

No that is not correct according to posts in the Hopper forum. Many people confirm that if you schedule a recording of a show already in PTAT that it will put the show both in your recordings and in the PTAT section but only use one tuner to do so. At the end of the 8 days it drops from the PTAT space but remains in your personal recordings. I'd strongly recommend for the most accurate Hopper info to pose your questions there...if you haven't already, since that area is where most folks who have it are hanging out.

If everyone says it works that way, hard to argue with everyone. I only had it installed for the days and three tech support specialists said your method doesn't work that way. But it is new and maybe they were still learning too.

Either way,I have 9 tuners in my just and no complaints.

 

[Shady12]

It is better for the reason you just said. Recording or watching 3 shows at a time isn't enough for a whole home DVR. This gives you the ability to record or watch 6 shows at a time during primetime which is much better. If most of your recording isn't from Network channels than I agree with you. The HR34 would be much better option at least until they get 2 hoppers fully integrated.

Just doesn't sound appealing to me I guess. There might be times I'll have four things recording and I want to watch something live. Sometimes all four might be non-network, sometimes everything might be network, sometimes a mix..Why wouldn't they have just made something with a lot of tuners instead of that? Just sounds like a weird solution.

 

[harshness]

but what if my wife wants to record all the soaps during the day and watch discovery at the same time?

Unless you subscribe to Latino programming, there are only four daytime soap operas left (B&B - CBS, DOOL - NBC, GH - ABC and Y&R - CBS). In my market, only GH and Y&R are on simultaneously so PTAT during midday would be not all that useful here.

Discovery is relatively time independent, has tons of commercial breaks and is on a rather short replay cycle so it makes sense to record it for later viewing while your waiting for the first 20 minutes of a soap to get over with (so you can watch and skip all the commercials).

 

[dspcap]

Unless you subscribe to Latino programming, there are only four daytime soap operas left (B&B - CBS, DOOL - NBC, GH - ABC and Y&R - CBS). In my market, only GH and Y&R are on simultaneously so PTAT during midday would be not all that useful here.

Discovery is relatively time independent, has tons of commercial breaks and is on a rather short replay cycle so it makes sense to record it for later viewing while your waiting for the first 20 minutes of a soap to get over with (so you can watch and skip all the commercials).

Regardless, during the day, you can only record 3 things at a time and you have to watch one of them.

 

[dspcap]

Just doesn't sound appealing to me I guess. There might be times I'll have four things recording and I want to watch something live. Sometimes all four might be non-network, sometimes everything might be network, sometimes a mix..Why wouldn't they have just made something with a lot of tuners instead of that? Just sounds like a weird solution.

It sounded very appealing to me, which is why I got it. But after using it for a few days, I realized it wasn't for me. Having the HR-34 and 5 tuners is much better in my opinion. I think they could have done the 5 tuners, but they wanted to make something different than what directv already did. Also, I think the PTAT is kind of a gimmick.

 

[mdram]

Regardless, during the day, you can only record 3 things at a time and you have to watch one of them.

someone got what i was hinting at

 

[king3pj]

Regardless, during the day, you can only record 3 things at a time and you have to watch one of them.

And that is why I got two hoppers. 3 tuners just isn't enough for a whole home DVR unless you only have 2 TVs or something. Everyone in my house works during the day and their arent many original daytime tv shows anyways. Besides the weekends and in the morning when people are getting ready for work our TVs aren't on until about 6 or so and I don't think we record a single show that starts before 8:00pm. That doesn't mean we only record network tv but most new shows come on during primetime hours whether they are network or not.

Most of our conflicts used to come on Thursday nights. I like to watch The Office, Parks and Rec, Swamp People, and Archer. The women of the house like to watch American Idol and the Big Bang theory. With our old 722k we had conflicts every Thursday. Swamp People and Archer could be recorded during one of the many reruns FX and History show but we couldn't watch anything besides what we were recording. Sundays are similar between the women's ABC dramas and my HBO shows.

PTAT went a long way to get rid of our conflicts but since we don't only watch network TV 3 tuners just doesn't cut it. Our 2 hopper 3 joey solution won't be perfect for us until they are fully integrated and we can access 9 channels at a time but it is still so much better than what we had before. Like I said in an earlier post the HR34 is a much better option if you don't watch much network tv.

 

[Shady12]

Also, I think the PTAT is kind of a gimmick.

Exactamundo.

 

[whitewolf8214]

It sounded very appealing to me, which is why I got it. But after using it for a few days, I realized it wasn't for me. Having the HR-34 and 5 tuners is much better in my opinion. I think they could have done the 5 tuners, but they wanted to make something different than what directv already did. Also, I think the PTAT is kind of a gimmick.

+1

 

[Mr Tony]

The 5 tuner thing is awesome. I rarely have a issue with conflicts and the couple times I did was due to a show running til 9:01 (with padding) and a new show starting at 8:59