Potential new DirecTV customer Q: Is getting the Home Media Center and a HD DVR overkill?

[Silly Burrito]

I just went to DirecTV's site to price out a potential 2 year contract. It looks like with their deal now, I'd be able to get Choice Xtra for 50.99 for the first 12 months, then 65.99 for the last 12 months. If I use my dad's refer-a-friend code, I could save a bit more too. What really intrigues me is that I could get the HMC for $99, and then as a second receiver for the bedroom, I could get a HD DVR for another $99. From my calculations, that would give us seven tuners combined, correct? We don't watch a ton of TV in the back bedroom, but I'm wondering if having the extra DVR space is worth the extra $99. Plus, from what I see on DirecTV's site, you have to have a HD DVR to watch Video on Demand and Youtube.

I realize everyone's situation is different, but is there any reason not to just bite the bullet and get a HMC and HD DVR for the two receivers needed?

 

[Guardian]

i have 2 HD-DVRs. It's nice to have the added features and after you pay the additional fee up front it's not going to cost you any more per month than what a standard HD receiver would cost (as I understand it).

 

[SA Holly Springs GA]

I just went to DirecTV's site to price out a potential 2 year contract. It looks like with their deal now, I'd be able to get Choice Xtra for 50.99 for the first 12 months, then 65.99 for the last 12 months. If I use my dad's refer-a-friend code, I could save a bit more too. What really intrigues me is that I could get the HMC for $99, and then as a second receiver for the bedroom, I could get a HD DVR for another $99. From my calculations, that would give us seven tuners combined, correct? We don't watch a ton of TV in the back bedroom, but I'm wondering if having the extra DVR space is worth the extra $99. Plus, from what I see on DirecTV's site, you have to have a HD DVR to watch Video on Demand and Youtube.

I realize everyone's situation is different, but is there any reason not to just bite the bullet and get a HMC and HD DVR for the two receivers needed?

Save your 2nd 100 bucks unless you do some serious recording. There's slot of space on the 34. If you need more space in future then get an external HD for less than 99 bucks.

 

[Mr Tony]

a word of advise...get whatever you THINK you need/want up front...because it will cost ya more in the long run after that. I learned that the hard way

 

[Mr Tony]

If you need more space in future then get an external HD for less than 99 bucks.

That wouldnt work as the external hard drive overrides the internal one

 

[Muckrak3r]

That wouldnt work as the external hard drive overrides the internal one

Is that going to be changed at any point? Seems silly to have the capability of using an external drive, but at the expense of the internal drive!

Right now the only thing that makes sense is a 2Tb external drive, and eSata drives that size are expensive.

 

[mcintire123]

With a HR34 and another HDDVR you will actually end up with 8 tuners, not 7... all the HDDVRS other than the HMC have two tuners....

GO FOR IT... thats all I have to say, I had the other guys and wont ever go back to them from D*.... The more tuners , the more DVRs the better. If you dont you will be wishing you did down the road like iceberg said...

 

[Hutch1814]

With a HR34 and another HDDVR you will actually end up with 8 tuners, not 7... all the HDDVRS other than the HMC have two tuners....

GO FOR IT... thats all I have to say, I had the other guys and wont ever go back to them from D*.... The more tuners , the more DVRs the better. If you dont you will be wishing you did down the road like iceberg said...

HMC=5 HDDVR=2 them both add up to 7, what did I miss?

 

[Jimbo]

Is there a limit you can add to any of these recvrs as far as HD space goes, I thoughtit was 2tbs, butthat may have been on older units.

That said, don't keep something of major importance on the HR, if the recvr gos bad, you lose it as you can't transfer programming.

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

 

[Silly Burrito]

a word of advise...get whatever you THINK you need/want up front...because it will cost ya more in the long run after that. I learned that the hard way

With a HR34 and another HDDVR you will actually end up with 8 tuners, not 7... all the HDDVRS other than the HMC have two tuners....

GO FOR IT... thats all I have to say, I had the other guys and wont ever go back to them from D*.... The more tuners , the more DVRs the better. If you dont you will be wishing you did down the road like iceberg said...

That's sort of what I'm thinking as well. It's a little more up front, but it would cost more in the long run if I wanted to upgrade. One of the uses that I read about on this board is the padding of the timers. Right now, my Dish will cut off a recording at the end of Parks and Rec to record the Office, and you always end up with a sliver of the show that you can't delete, or if you do, you miss something. Padding all those timers with 2 extra minutes should work with 7/8 tuners, I would think. Plus, I just found out about the DirecTV iPad app, and I'm assuming that if they all share shows, I could easily control the back bedroom DVR with the iPad when no one is using it, and watch any of the shows from there out in the shop.

 

[generix]

That's sort of what I'm thinking as well. It's a little more up front, but it would cost more in the long run if I wanted to upgrade. One of the uses that I read about on this board is the padding of the timers. Right now, my Dish will cut off a recording at the end of Parks and Rec to record the Office, and you always end up with a sliver of the show that you can't delete, or if you do, you miss something. Padding all those timers with 2 extra minutes should work with 7/8 tuners, I would think. Plus, I just found out about the DirecTV iPad app, and I'm assuming that if they all share shows, I could easily control the back bedroom DVR with the iPad when no one is using it, and watch any of the shows from there out in the shop.

One of the small, but very noticeable, things that the DTV DVRs do is to automatically add padding around tv shows if there aren't recording conflicts. Most of the problems I had with Comcast cutting off the beginning or end of shows has been mostly resolved by this little feature. Even though the recording says it's only 30 minutes (or an hour) there is often an extra minute or so on either side of the recording.

I did have to pad some recordings on Comedy Central, however. They can't seem to even get close to the actual time for some of their shows.

 

[mcintire123]

Wow do I feel like an idiot. For some reason my brain was saying 6, I am wrong I apologize. I must be going senile or something. Sorry sorry .. umm sorry... my bad haha But either way, I would go with the set up your thinking about. Like is said youll be glad you did now while you can get the good deals wrather than later and with whole home dvr you can use all that space and tuners to your advantage.

 

[Silly Burrito]

One of the small, but very noticeable, things that the DTV DVRs do is to automatically add padding around tv shows if there aren't recording conflicts. Most of the problems I had with Comcast cutting off the beginning or end of shows has been mostly resolved by this little feature. Even though the recording says it's only 30 minutes (or an hour) there is often an extra minute or so on either side of the recording. I did have to pad some recordings on Comedy Central, however. They can't seem to even get close to the actual time for some of their shows.

A bit offtopic, but a question about those timers. I notice that when I tried to record The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I'd end up getting 3 or 4 of them daily even if I chose New Only. In the end, I just made a M-F timer from 10-11. How well does Direct's timers work in that regard? Is there an option to only record this show at this time?

 

[mcintire123]

A bit offtopic, but a question about those timers. I notice that when I tried to record The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I'd end up getting 3 or 4 of them daily even if I chose New Only. In the end, I just made a M-F timer from 10-11. How well does Direct's timers work in that regard? Is there an option to only record this show at this time?

I have noticed that it considers a show new or re-run on the terms of if it has been recorded to your dvr before or not. In other words, the system does not designate if a show is new or re-run so the DVR just looks at the recording history, if it had not recorded it in the past it considers it a new show...

 

[generix]

A bit offtopic, but a question about those timers. I notice that when I tried to record The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I'd end up getting 3 or 4 of them daily even if I chose New Only. In the end, I just made a M-F timer from 10-11. How well does Direct's timers work in that regard? Is there an option to only record this show at this time?

I record the Daily Show (with 3 minutes added for reasons I listed above) set to New Only. Every now and then it picks up an extra episode or two on Mondays, but for the most part, it only records the 11pm showings. This is based on whether the guide data has the show marked as "New" or not, so there is occasionally an extra episode.

 

[Mr Tony]

as long as the date says new it should only grab one showing
There are some shows (I have two of them in the list) that just dont have a "episode date" shown so it always grabs all recordings (which is 2 per week but 1 is a repeat)

 

[george99]

I would go for the HDDVR and not the regular HD only.
I have been with DirecTV for 4 years. I have 3 HD DVRs and 4 HD onlys.
The HD only receivers constantly stop working and need to be replaced. I have replaced at least 5 of them already in 4 years. They just stop working. Don't turn on at all. I had one of them with a different problem. It turned on, but no signal no matter what.
I never had an issues with the HDDVRs.

 

[ageism]

I too have two HD DVRs and whole home. Paid the 99 dollars when I signed up a year an a half ago. Have not regretted it for a minute. I try not to watch anything live and had so many conflicts with recording shows that were on at the same time. Now I do not have that issue. Both receivers are filled to about 70%. Do not much like going up stairs to record a program but enjoy watching any program on either receiver. Would do it again if I ever left and came back.

 

[Silly Burrito]

Sounds like the HMC/HD DVR combo is the way to go. I'm still holding out just a bit to see if Dish releases the Hopper in the next few days. Otherwise, I'm off to DirecTV land. One thing I did find funny, if you calculate the current offer with Choice vs. Choice Xtra, it's actually cheaper over the two years to get Choice Xtra. Now after the two years are up, all bets are off, but I'll worry about that then.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

 

[Silly Burrito]

Just an update: I pulled the trigger. I used the refer a friend code and picked up the HR34 and the HR24 (hopefully that's what they send.) for $215. My first bill should be $40.99, and it goes up to 50.99 for two months, then 65.99 until 2014. I did look at the order, and it says

LIFETIME FREE HD ACCESS, ​

so hopefully that sticks. I remember seeing last year's Free Sunday Ticket promo as a pretty good deal, but this seemed like a better deal to me for now and the HR34 really has me intrigued. Thanks to this board, I've already learned to submit the rebates.

​

Now, my installation is scheduled for Feb. 13. Since I ordered it today, I should still get Sprout with the Choice Xtra package, correct? Also, am I going to be billed starting today, or once the installation is done? I would figure installation day, but we'll see.

One other additional question, and I'll also scour the forums for the answer. I called DirecTV to verify a few things, and one of the things the CSR mentioned was that you couldn't share programs between the HR34 and the HR24 (but you could with a HR25). Is that true? If so, that negates a big reason why I wanted the HD DVR in the first place.

Edit: Just found this on DirecTV's website:

[h=1]Can I have more than one HD DVR in my Whole-Home DVR setup? What are the benefits?[/h]
Yes, you can have more than one HD DVR. If you have more than one, DIRECTV's Whole-Home DVR service combines all of the programs recorded on your separate HD DVRs into one easy-to-use playlist. You never have to remember which HD DVR you recorded your programs on. They're all available to you in a single playlist on any TV. With more than one HD DVR, you also gain extra storage space, so you can record and keep more of your favorite shows.

As long as this applies to the HR34 as well, we're gold, Jerry.
​