How do you like DirecTV?

[mdram]

I have a HR54, I put a 6TB hard drive in it, a C61K for 4K output, and four HR24s, I upgraded each of them to a 2TB drive.
.

you know this is a big violation of the TOS and you will most likely be charged full price if the receivers ever have to be returned

 

[bobvick]

you know this is a big violation of the TOS and you will most likely be charged full price if the receivers ever have to be returned

What are you the TOS police?

Do you lurk round waiting for someone to post they’ve ‘violated’ the TOS and run and ‘tell on them’ to DirecTV.

It’s not any skin of your back.

Besides this is not my first rodeo with DirecTV.

I have upgraded HDDs in HR20s, 21s, 24s, 34s and 44s.

I put the old HDD back in and sent it back to them without a word, and this is when they put the sticker that you had to cut, so they literally KNEW you had been in the box.

They don’t even put any stickers on the boxes anymore that you have to cut.

How are they going to know if they don’t even put stickers you have to cut on there anymore if you put the originals back in?

Fingerprint the inside of the box?

 

[trojan67]

Thought I would update this thread.

I went ahead and got DirecTV.

I have Dish too right now, with the $30 credit for a year, I kept one Hopper 3 going, and dropped down to the FlexPack on Dish.

I wanted DirecTV for the extra 4K, ability to stream on my AT&T wireless plan without data usage counting, and the extra HD channels that DirecTV has.

I know that PQ is subjective to every one, but I can see a big difference in the HD quality.

I have a HR54, I put a 6TB hard drive in it, a C61K for 4K output, and four HR24s, I upgraded each of them to a 2TB drive.

Over all, the Hopper 3 is a much smoother experience, that being said, the HR54 is pretty fast.

I am getting used to the DirecTV user interface again, the new one on the Genies’ is not too bad. I think I like the old one on the HR24’s better.

To me, at least, the difference in the performance of the equipment is outweighed by the picture quality.

Too bad you can’t have Dish equipment with DirecTV PQ and HD/4K channel lineup.

Have you compared both SD as well, for picture quality?

 

[bobvick]

Have you compared both SD as well, for picture quality?

To me it tends to depend on the content. Obviously, old movies don't look too bad, but newer stuff looks pretty soft. CNBC World is practically unwatchable it is terrible. Most of the SD is 'OK' about as good as Dish. Overall though, I would have to say the best looking SD content is on Dish Eastern Arc, I am assuming maybe it is because it is MPEG-4. It looks a lot better on EA on Dish than it does on Dish WA (Western Arc). If DirecTV does go MPEG-4 with everything, even if all channels do not go HD, maybe the MPEG-4 encoding might make the SD look a little better.
I see you are in Jamaica, do the Ka beams peter out well before down there? Can you get 101 only? Can you 'see' any of the beams for Puerto Rico?

 

[trojan67]

To me it tends to depend on the content. Obviously, old movies don't look too bad, but newer stuff looks pretty soft. CNBC World is practically unwatchable it is terrible. Most of the SD is 'OK' about as good as Dish. Overall though, I would have to say the best looking SD content is on Dish Eastern Arc, I am assuming maybe it is because it is MPEG-4. It looks a lot better on EA on Dish than it does on Dish WA (Western Arc). If DirecTV does go MPEG-4 with everything, even if all channels do not go HD, maybe the MPEG-4 encoding might make the SD look a little better.
I see you are in Jamaica, do the Ka beams peter out well before down there? Can you get 101 only? Can you 'see' any of the beams for Puerto Rico?

To get ka in Jamaica, requires a 10-12ft dish, only a few people can afford that, early 2000 DirecTV shift a few transponder from the 101 sat focal point, thus reducing a lot of channels, once they switch to mpeg4 they will final eliminate the grey market for good, I personally feel Dish as better SD quality, I am watching CNN (sd) right now on my HWS and the picture quality has improved

 

[bobvick]

To get ka in Jamaica, requires a 10-12ft dish, only a few people can afford that, early 2000 DirecTV shift a few transponder from the 101 sat focal point, thus reducing a lot of channels, once they switch to mpeg4 they will final eliminate the grey market for good, I personally feel Dish as better SD quality, I am watching CNN (sd) right now on my HWS and the picture quality has improved

Which arc do you use for Dish? EA or WA? I am guessing EA? Can you get Dish HD?

 

[trojan67]

Which arc do you use for Dish? EA or WA? I am guessing EA? Can you get Dish HD?

WA only 110, 119 & 118, about 25 HD channels

 

[bobvick]

WA only 110, 119 & 118, about 25 HD channels

What size dish are you using? Have you ever tried anything like a 30” Dish at each satellite or a 1 or 1.2m antenna on each bird?

 

[trojan67]

What size dish are you using? Have you ever tried anything like a 30” Dish at each satellite or a 1 or 1.2m antenna on each bird?

I can use a DirecTV slimline convert it use on 119 & 110 or two 18" dish one for 119 the other for 110, but those get block out by over cast easily, so we mostly use 1m upwards, to get 118, you need 4ft upwards, on a 4ft dish upwards, I can do 110, 119 & 118 on a single dish

 

[Claude Greiner]

Thought I would update this thread.

I went ahead and got DirecTV.

I have Dish too right now, with the $30 credit for a year, I kept one Hopper 3 going, and dropped down to the FlexPack on Dish.

I wanted DirecTV for the extra 4K, ability to stream on my AT&T wireless plan without data usage counting, and the extra HD channels that DirecTV has.

I know that PQ is subjective to every one, but I can see a big difference in the HD quality.

I have a HR54, I put a 6TB hard drive in it, a C61K for 4K output, and four HR24s, I upgraded each of them to a 2TB drive.

Over all, the Hopper 3 is a much smoother experience, that being said, the HR54 is pretty fast.

I am getting used to the DirecTV user interface again, the new one on the Genies’ is not too bad. I think I like the old one on the HR24’s better.

To me, at least, the difference in the performance of the equipment is outweighed by the picture quality.

Too bad you can’t have Dish equipment with DirecTV PQ and HD/4K channel lineup.

How did you upgrade the hard drive?

What type of drive?

My 87 year old neighbor has been bugging me about running out of space

 

[bobvick]

How did you upgrade the hard drive?

What type of drive?

My 87 year old neighbor has been bugging me about running out of space

On the HR54 or the 24’s?

Of course you can add an external eSATA drive, but I don’t like having to worry about finding a place to stick the EHDD, so I just crack open the receivers and replace the HDD.

The 44 and 54 can ‘see’ up to a 8TB drive

24’s can’t ‘see’ over 2TB

The cover on the 54 is SUPER easy to get off, just flip it over, there are four slots, just about big as the end of a paper clip. I took a paper clip and stretched it out, took one of the curved ends and stick down in that slot, it will release a clip and you can begin to pull the cover off the top of the 54.

The 24s, there are four slots on the sides, take a flathead scewdriver and pull back in those tabs, you’ll hear a click where the clip releases, I cut up an old plastic card, kind of like a credit card, ease that sliver of that card in between the cover and the clip, do it on all four sides, and pull the cover off, then you’ll be able to take the HDD out.

The HR24-200 will only accept a very thin platter, so you have to basically find one that is the right thickness or use an eSATA enclosure with it. The 500s will work with about any thickness.

I bought WD Black drives, they’re a little more expensive, but they’re high performance. Probably overkill, but I read where a good high performance HDD could help improve the performance of the HR receivers.

Seems to have made the 24’s quite snappy for them.

Of course it could be the placebo effect of me spending the extra bucks.

 

[slice1900]

To get ka in Jamaica, requires a 10-12ft dish, only a few people can afford that, early 2000 DirecTV shift a few transponder from the 101 sat focal point, thus reducing a lot of channels, once they switch to mpeg4 they will final eliminate the grey market for good, I personally feel Dish as better SD quality, I am watching CNN (sd) right now on my HWS and the picture quality has improved

Since Directv is moving the T15 satellite to 101 and it will temporarily take over for the current satellites, the beam footprint will change. We're assuming this 'temporary' move will be in place until T16 is launched (whenever that is) and when that happens the beam footprint may change again.

Might be better reception from 101 in Jamaica, might be worse, might be cut off completely. T15 could take over as early as later this month.

 

[TheRatPatrol]

I like DIRECTV overall for the picture quality and amount of sports (with the exception of a few channels).

But with their current server client system they really do need to offer more than 7 tuners.

I agree with syphix above, Dish’s 16 tuner DVR has DIRECTV beat in that area.

 

[bobvick]

I like DIRECTV overall for the picture quality and amount of sports (with the exception of a few channels).

But with their current server client system they really do need to offer more than 7 tuners.

I agree with syphix above, Dish’s 16 tuner DVR has DIRECTV beat in that area.

I do like the simplicity of the Hopper 3. I have 13 tuners in my DirecTV setup, the HR54 and four HR24s. The most aggrevating part is having to go from DVR to DVR to set timers.

 

[Claude Greiner]

If they would just allow for more than 1 genie it would solve lots of issues.

 

[rad]

If they would just allow for more than 1 genie it would solve lots of issues.

Agreed. Didn’t see a technical problem when I had 3 of them, only their problem of client accounting, which they figured out with the HS17.

 

[slice1900]

I like DIRECTV overall for the picture quality and amount of sports (with the exception of a few channels).

But with their current server client system they really do need to offer more than 7 tuners.

I agree with syphix above, Dish’s 16 tuner DVR has DIRECTV beat in that area.

The HS17 has 16 tuners, they just get used differently because of the way Directv plans to implement 4K in the future.

 

[TheRatPatrol]

The HS17 has 16 tuners, they just get used differently because of the way Directv plans to implement 4K in the future.

Yup you know how we feel about that.

I also like Dishs Sports Bar Mode, it’s great for sports.

 

[trojan67]

Since Directv is moving the T15 satellite to 101 and it will temporarily take over for the current satellites, the beam footprint will change. We're assuming this 'temporary' move will be in place until T16 is launched (whenever that is) and when that happens the beam footprint may change again.

Might be better reception from 101 in Jamaica, might be worse, might be cut off completely. T15 could take over as early as later this month.

Well, we shall see

 

[Pere845]

Only thing keeping me with DirecTV is sports. From my experience dish has better equipment, cheaper, and was easier to deal with.