Newbie with R10

[leftstrat]

Hi Y'all:

I just got the R10 Direct TV with tivo option, and it was installed with a dual tuner, so I can record one show while watching another etc... the upgrade was from a 6-7 year old RCA standard directv receiver. So far I love the DVR features though.. I think I recorded half a dozen shows over the weekend, just because I could. I have a couple of stupid, (I'm sure), questions for the folks who've had this for a while.

1. What is the window button on the remote? The docs show it on the remote schematics, but say nothing further about it, that I could find. I assumed that it was like picture in picture, so you could peek at what you were recording, but I hit the button, and the tivo recognizes that it's picking up a signal from the remote, but doesn't do anything. Is that something I have to set up?

2. Access to the Guide and other menus seems to be slower than on the standalone receiver. Is this normal, or is there something I can do to make them show up faster? (any way to add more RAM to the tivo box itself, to make it cache more info from the hard drive), Is there some sort of optimizing procedure. (defrag, diskscan, etc).

3. On my old receiver, there was a quick select feature, that just ran a quick view of the channels, and banners for those channels down the left side of the screen? Is there a key combo on the R10 that does something similar?

I thank you for your time in reading these questions.

Have a good one.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Hi Y'all:

I just got the R10 Direct TV with tivo option, and it was installed with a dual tuner, so I can record one show while watching another etc... the upgrade was from a 6-7 year old RCA standard directv receiver. So far I love the DVR features though.. I think I recorded half a dozen shows over the weekend, just because I could. I have a couple of stupid, (I'm sure), questions for the folks who've had this for a while.

1. What is the window button on the remote? The docs show it on the remote schematics, but say nothing further about it, that I could find. I assumed that it was like picture in picture, so you could peek at what you were recording, but I hit the button, and the tivo recognizes that it's picking up a signal from the remote, but doesn't do anything. Is that something I have to set up?

2. Access to the Guide and other menus seems to be slower than on the standalone receiver. Is this normal, or is there something I can do to make them show up faster? (any way to add more RAM to the tivo box itself, to make it cache more info from the hard drive), Is there some sort of optimizing procedure. (defrag, diskscan, etc).

3. On my old receiver, there was a quick select feature, that just ran a quick view of the channels, and banners for those channels down the left side of the screen? Is there a key combo on the R10 that does something similar?

I thank you for your time in reading these questions.

Have a good one.

1. "For Future Use"... yeah it doesnt work on the stand alones either

2. If you think that is slow you should see the predacesors... ha... but seriously unfortunately there isnt a way to speed it up... its has to do with the type of use of the linux operating system.

3. Not that I know of but thats a pretty good Idea... alternatively you can change the guide to display another way... might help you... if i was at home ide post te button to push... on the r10 i believe its info while in the guide.

 

[leftstrat]

Thanks, I appreciate the info. now I don't feel like such a dummy.

Have a good one.

 

[Hogarth]

but seriously unfortunately there isnt a way to speed it up... its has to do with the type of use of the linux operating system.

I beg to differ. It has to do with the fact that the CPU for the TiVos runs at no more than 200 Mhz and doesn't have very much on-chip cache.

Linux runs briskly on almost anything.

But put any OS on a 200 Mhz processor and then try to encode and stream video to a HD at the same time and watch it get sluggish.

I think TiVo could dramatically increase menu speed, but only if they increase hardware costs.

Would you rather have a fast TiVo that cost you $500, or a slower TiVo that cost $99?

TiVo and DirecTV feel that the latter is better. At the current price/performance ratio, I'm inclined to agree.

H

 

[ShadowEKU]

I beg to differ. It has to do with the fact that the CPU for the TiVos runs at no more than 200 Mhz and doesn't have very much on-chip cache.

Linux runs briskly on almost anything.

But put any OS on a 200 Mhz processor and then try to encode and stream video to a HD at the same time and watch it get sluggish.

I think TiVo could dramatically increase menu speed, but only if they increase hardware costs.

Would you rather have a fast TiVo that cost you $500, or a slower TiVo that cost $99?

TiVo and DirecTV feel that the latter is better. At the current price/performance ratio, I'm inclined to agree.

H

Technicly you agreed with me ... there isnt anything an end user can do.... They are using a powerful and versatile os on a POS processor that if they even doubled its speed would make a huge difference... unfortunately if they scaled back the processor usage (there are lots of processes that run at all times) they might be able to speed it up on the curent processor... unfortunately it would kill a lot of features.

 

[leftstrat]

Guess I just gotta get used to it. I think the processor in the old receiver was just 33 megahertz and 32 bits, but the guides and menus popped up quicker, (it seems like). I figured they'd shove a little more ram in it, so that the different parts (most used parts). of the programs would be in RAM instead of cached out to the hard drive. I know it was a cheap box for what it does, but I'd have liked them to at least have an extra slot on the mainboard for more RAM.. I wouldn't mind shoving a $50 module in it if it would make the response time snappier..


The last question I have, (maybe. ), is this. Is there an official feature request list somewhere, or some sort of list of future expansion of the Directv DVR units?

Have a good one.

 

[Hogarth]

The last question I have, (maybe. ), is this. Is there an official feature request list somewhere, or some sort of list of future expansion of the Directv DVR units?

Nope.

In all honesty, I don't think they care.

People have been clamoring for DirecTV to enable Home Media Option on TiVos for two years now, and DirecTV has yet to respond positively.

H