question about switching and equipment

[clownin72]

ok Im looking at switching to D* from E* and wanting to know if it would be better to get the hr 34 and 2 h 25's for my other 2 tvs or 2 hr 24's and a h 25 for the other tv? Any advantages or disadvantages to either set up?

 

[Jimbo]

You can pause/FF/Rew LIVE TV with the HR24's, can't do that with the 25's.

 

[clownin72]

ok gotcha, other than having that function on one more tv, would it be better to have the 2 hr 24s or just the 1 hr 34?

 

[Kb Cool]

I would get all three! The hr34, hr24 and then a h25. That's what i did!

 

[DVDDAD]

I'd say that the best setup for you depends more on your viewing habits. Is most of your viewing in one room? Do you record a lot and would you constantly run into conflicts, when limited to just two tuners? With Dish I could have recorded four things on my main TV, two SAT & two OTA, which worked for me. But when I started with DirecTV, being limited to just two recordings per DVR, meant that I had to juggle programming on the HR-24's that I had. Now that I replaced one of my HR-24's with a HR-34, I juggle much less and enjoy having five tuners on my main TV, but still enjoy using my other three HR-24's to segregate recording tasks. For instance, although all sports programming, most family programming and movies and my shows are recorded on my main TV in the living room, news programming and my wife’s shows are recorded on the HR-24 in the bedroom. My kids programming is recorded on the basement HR-24 and my wife records her old movies and some programming that we like to watch in the Den on the Den's HR-24.

If you like to record a lot and most of it is on one TV, then an HR-34 is a must. If you like to be able to watch and pause live TV, on the other sets in your home and don't want to have to record that program in order to pause, RW or FF it, then you should look into having all HR-24's along with your HR-34. Remember that unlike Dish, it doesn't cost you more each month with DirecTV depending on if one receiver is a DVR or if you have 3 or 4 DVR's. DirecTV charges one DVR fee and the additional receiver fees are the same whether they are DVR's or not. It will cost you a little more upfront to have an HR-34 and two HR-24's, but not nearly as much if you start off with a HR-34 and a H25 or two or three HR-24's and later decide to upgrade because the setup you chose isn't working for you. Just keep doing your homework and asking your questions here BEFORE you order and you'll be glad you did. You’re at the right place, as an informed consumer is a smart consumer and no one does it better than SatelliteGuys!

 

[DVDDAD]

Keep in mind also that the HR-34 gives you PIP along with the five tuners and it has double the storage too. And that the HR-24's give you Pandora and YouTube and the H25 doesn't.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Going with 1 HR34,1 HR24,& 1 H25 would give you 7 tuners to work with recording programs,while the H25 gives you an independent tuner versus the Joey taking away a tuner from the Hopper. Also the 1 HR34,1 HR24,& 1 H25 set up gives you the 8 tuner max that a single cable SWM LNB gives you. 1 HR34 & 2 H25's set up gives you 5 tuners for recording & 2 HR24's & 1 H25 only gives you 4 tuners for recording. 1 HR34,1 HR24 ,& 1 H25 is the best way to go.

 

[DVDDAD]

I have 11 tuners with one HR-34 and three HR-24's, so I see no need to worry about 8 tuner max, when they can install a Swim-16. And yes, the H25 will take over a tuner on the HR-34, if you decide to record a program so that you can pause, RW & FF it.