Switching to D. Am I making a mistake.

[jjb721]

yah that happened to me too!! I was shocked. They tried to tell tell me they were the HD leader and they were cheaper and I did not know what i was talking about and i must be mistaken. I let it go the first couple times then I got pissed and let the guy have it in a nice way

I switched about three weeks ago with no problems at all. The CSR was courteous and offered to suspend my account for 6 months if I wanted. The equipment return boxes arrived in a timely manner. I was really surprised it went so easily.

 

[cebbigh]

I discovered a couple of things. If I tune to a channel from the guide I can press BACK and it will bring me back to the guide with the last filter. This does exactly what I was look for and should work for me 99% of the time.

Secondly, I love the feature where I can press yellow and go to "previous viewed channels". This is a nice feature.

Sorry get carried away on this long post but hoped I could share some things I've built from knowledge that others here have shared with me.

Yellow button is quick way to change your favorites list too. I have my lists set up as "long" (any channel I might have a remote interest in) and "short" (the channels I really use). When I engage the favorites list I have it set so I go first to the subcategories screen. Using it this way you get to a similar solution as setting up your own favorites categories on the 622/722. Once I discovered how to do that it cleared up approx 1/2 of my functionality issues between the HR20/21 and the 622/722.

The next big issue for me was being able to do HD movie searches to set up future recordings without having to bother with sorting through pages of PPV. This was solved when I downloaded a CE that included boolean filters. I really missed the way you could totally block channels to clean up searches with my 622. The boolean filter does pretty much the same thing. Check the CE threads for the more info on the booleans but here is an example of one I use (I've got the Premier Package so I get all the possible movie packages):

AANY HDTV CCHAN 78 544 NNOT PPV & movies (enter AANY HDTV CCHAN 78 544 NNOT PPV as the keyword search and then select the category of movies).

What that does is limit the search to HD and the channel range to 78 544 (eliminates some MPEG2 duplicates) and also eliminates PPV during movie searches. I'm always amazed at the number of hits (just did it and it yielded 1298 matches) even if some of these are duplicate HBO/Showtimes. Then once you've found your movie if you find it conflicts with another recording you can check all the available showings by hitting info and selecting showings.

I also recommend purchasing a backlit remote RC64RB. That was a huge help when I switched from Dish because the button locations are so different.

 

[cebbigh]

Is there a way to force an update? I thought D* always automatically beamed to your receiver whatever the latest software happened to be. I'll check to see what I'm running.

You can force an update to the current national release by doing the process you'd use to force a CE. Just do it outside the the times of the CE release. (This is also helpful if you download CE and decide you don't like it and want to go to the current national.)

 

[Indiana627]

Here's the one problem I have with audio.....and I have a HR20-700 and an HR20-100. When I review something that I'm watching live and then hit FF or advance ahead to catch up with the live programming, the audio begins to drop out every several seconds. If I hit 'pause' and then release, everything is fine again. But I shouldn't have to be doing this....and it is occuring on both receivers. They really do need a 'live' button because this whole business of FF to the live broadcast and the dropouts is bothersome.

Just an update that new national software (version 0x022B) has begun a staggered rollout for both of your boxes, so you should be getting it sometime soon. No need to try to force a download as that will not work. Once your box is authorized, D* will automatically download it for you.

 

[stuckingoo]

OK, thanks for the update. Read the thread that describes how you force a download but didn't get around to actually doing it. And it wasn't clear to me if this would address the audio drop out problem. Anyway, will know soon enough. We really do need a live button though. I can't seem to get the tick-skipping trick down very reliably.

 

[Indiana627]

OK, thanks for the update. Read the thread that describes how you force a download but didn't get around to actually doing it.

No need to force a download - that doesn't work when trying to get a national release software (unless you have a brand new box you are installing). For national release software, you just have to wait for your box to be authorized and then it will automatically download.

EDIT: Looks the new software 0x022B has gone national for all HR20-700s, so your should get it very soon, if it didn't get it last night.

And it wasn't clear to me if this would address the audio drop out problem.

I haven't had that audio dropout problem since I upgraded to a CE software from 0x01FE.

We really do need a live button though. I can't seem to get the tick-skipping trick down very reliably.

Agreed.

 

[darrencp22]

I'm not aware of the "tick-skipping" trick. Can someone please explain?

 

[Indiana627]

If you're in the middle of a recording or are not at the end of the live buffer, you can press and hold the Skip button -->| and the buffer will jump to the end of a recorded show or the end of the buffer, bringing you to live TV. It doesn't work the best.

 

[uncrules]

EDIT: Looks the new software 0x022B has gone national for all HR20-700s, so your should get it very soon, if it didn't get it last night.

As of this morning my HR20-700 still doesn't have the new software.

 

[darrencp22]

I dont know what process they are using but it is not west to east. I got it 2 days ago.

 

[Indiana627]

As of this morning my HR20-700 still doesn't have the new software.

I dont know what process they are using but it is not west to east. I got it 2 days ago.

The HR21s got it sooner than the HR20s, so that's why you got it already.

 

[DodgerKing]

The HR21s got it sooner than the HR20s, so that's why you got it already.

My parents, Whom live in the same area as me, got their software update on their HR21 the same day we got ours on our HR20.

BTW, the update screwed up my display and the reaction time. The PQ looked the same as the PQ when Windows is started in safe mode, with a black background, white font, and only bright red and dull blue colors, and it literally took 45 seconds for the receiver to react to any command. I reset the receiver and nothing changed. I noticed I already received the latest software update the night before, so I forced the update again and that resolved the problem. I guess there must have been a glitch or an interference during the update process causing an incomplete update or missing data?