Question about Direct TV DVR

[tresmith]

Hello,

I want to get in on the dvr deal with my DirectTV. My question is can I use the directtv dvr as a stand alone unit? In other words, do I have to use it in conjuction with Directtv service for it to work?

Thank you.

 

[couchpotato]

Yes you do..

 

[tresmith]

Is there anyway around it? A hack or something?

 

[hongcho]

Without a DirectTV sub, your DirecTV DVR will not do much, AFAIK. With HD10-250, you can watch and manually record OTA channels, I think. I don't think the SD models can receive anything but the satellite channels.

Hong.

 

[beejaycee]

Is there anyway around it? A hack or something?

With the standard DTiVo, it is a hardware issue, not really software, so there is no hack.

One of the reasons that satellite PVRs can be sold so cheaply is they simply record the signal directly from the service provider. All of the encoding and compression is done before the signal ever gets to you. Stand-alone PVRs have to have the hardware (and software) to perform this conversion internally although they can not do it as efficiently as the mega-$$ encoders used by D* or E*.

DTiVos have the hardware equivalent of 2 receivers and 1 decoder (which is the hardware that turns the compressed signal back into a signal usable by your TV), thus they can tune to (and record) 2 channels but only output 1. E*'s 501, 508, and 510 have 1 receiver and 1 decoder -- record 1 channel and output 1. E*'s 522 has 2 receivers and 2 decoders -- record 2 channels and output 2.

As always, someone will correct me if I'm wrong.