I have 2 receivers a 722 and a 612. The 612 is in the basement family room and I have a HDMI to CAT5e plate with (2) CAT5e cables to another HDMI to CAT5e plate in my bedroom. The 612 has 2 remotes a IR in the basement and and a UHF upstairs. I also have TV2 coax out from the 722 to the downstairs HD TV. I also have another HDMI to CAT5e adapter from the upstairs family room 722 to the living room for another HD TV. and finally I split the TV2 out to my kitchen computer screen.
Whole house DVR
- Thread starter cparker
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I do agree that Dish needs to have a better solution for homes with multiple HDTVs. Majority of customers have at least 2 if not 3 HDTVS now. People will start replacing most of their secondary TVs this holiday season because of the competitive prices.
First of all, thank you for the detailed response. I know I don't have all of the information and this helps a great deal.
We only record 2 things at once now on the E* receivers. We have to balance what we're recording against what we want to watch WHILE things are recording so that we maintain the ability to just watch TV on that receiver. If I want to watch a hockey game on a satellite tuner, my wife knows to set recordings to only record from 1 satellite tuner and if she wants to record a second program while I'm watching hockey it has to be on the OTA tuner. Since we also have a VIP612 in the bedroom, she can also decide to simply record in there instead of the TV I'm watching hockey on. So I guess we're already adhering to the "only 2 tuners recording at a time" rule. From what you're saying above it sounds like even with an AM21 I wouldn't be able to record 2 programs and also watch something in real time.
Example: Record from a satellite tuner and the AM21... would I still be able to watch something real time on satellite or is the unit now tied up due to recording?
We would only have 2 HD DVRs. The primary goal would be able to watch any recorded program in either the bedroom or living room regardless of which DVR actually recorded it. I heard D* has some computer program you can run that would let (for example) my son access the DVRs and watch TV through his computer. He's have to watch from a DVR that's not currently streaming over the network. Might not be the most convenient, but he has NO access to satellite TV right now so it might be a plus for him. This assumes that teh program I've heard about both exists and that it works OK.
We have 2 DVRs now and we have to be at each one to set up programming. Sit in front of living room TV and set up that DVR for recording. Go to bedroom TV and set up that DVR for recording. If wife forgets there's a hockey game on (for example) then she has to go into the living room and delete timers from that DVR and go into the bedroom and recreate them in that DVR. If she could simply sit in one place and set them both up, even if she was bouncing back and forth between the 2 of them, at least she wouldn't be running back and forth between 2 physical TV locations. This could be a plus.
We wouldn't have any HD non-DVRs so this probably isn't an issue.
Right now it SOUNDS LIKE we might be going backwards in our ability to record multiple programs at the same time if I switch to D*. It is not uncommon for us to have both DVRs recording from 2 tuners (each) while we are watching something in real time on both (me watching hockey in the living room while recording 2 programs and she watching NCIS or something in the bedroom while recording 2 programs in there as well). We make fairly heavy use of the DVRs. I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't be looking at a separate DVR device (media server) just for the OTA programming. A lot of the shows that go onto the DVR are available OTA. HMMmmmmm..... food for thought. I just don't know how I'd distribute it.
We only record 2 things at once now on the E* receivers. We have to balance what we're recording against what we want to watch WHILE things are recording so that we maintain the ability to just watch TV on that receiver. If I want to watch a hockey game on a satellite tuner, my wife knows to set recordings to only record from 1 satellite tuner and if she wants to record a second program while I'm watching hockey it has to be on the OTA tuner. Since we also have a VIP612 in the bedroom, she can also decide to simply record in there instead of the TV I'm watching hockey on. So I guess we're already adhering to the "only 2 tuners recording at a time" rule. From what you're saying above it sounds like even with an AM21 I wouldn't be able to record 2 programs and also watch something in real time.
Example: Record from a satellite tuner and the AM21... would I still be able to watch something real time on satellite or is the unit now tied up due to recording?
We would only have 2 HD DVRs. The primary goal would be able to watch any recorded program in either the bedroom or living room regardless of which DVR actually recorded it. I heard D* has some computer program you can run that would let (for example) my son access the DVRs and watch TV through his computer. He's have to watch from a DVR that's not currently streaming over the network. Might not be the most convenient, but he has NO access to satellite TV right now so it might be a plus for him. This assumes that teh program I've heard about both exists and that it works OK.
We have 2 DVRs now and we have to be at each one to set up programming. Sit in front of living room TV and set up that DVR for recording. Go to bedroom TV and set up that DVR for recording. If wife forgets there's a hockey game on (for example) then she has to go into the living room and delete timers from that DVR and go into the bedroom and recreate them in that DVR. If she could simply sit in one place and set them both up, even if she was bouncing back and forth between the 2 of them, at least she wouldn't be running back and forth between 2 physical TV locations. This could be a plus.
We wouldn't have any HD non-DVRs so this probably isn't an issue.
Right now it SOUNDS LIKE we might be going backwards in our ability to record multiple programs at the same time if I switch to D*. It is not uncommon for us to have both DVRs recording from 2 tuners (each) while we are watching something in real time on both (me watching hockey in the living room while recording 2 programs and she watching NCIS or something in the bedroom while recording 2 programs in there as well). We make fairly heavy use of the DVRs. I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't be looking at a separate DVR device (media server) just for the OTA programming. A lot of the shows that go onto the DVR are available OTA. HMMmmmmm..... food for thought. I just don't know how I'd distribute it.
They do I missed that one. Do you have any prove of that?
I still have friends that don't even have a first one.
Wow some real informative and truthful information about D* MVR. That's something you don't see around here to much.
Watch out the D* police may come and get you.
They do I missed that one. Do you have any prove of that?
I still have friends that don't even have a first one.
Maybe I should rephrase that. Most people looking to sign up for Dish. I am a Dish retailer and I sell TVs. I can see that the trend is turning more towards multiple HDTVs. I also read a lot of Consumer Electronics magazines and newsletters. I also think it's kind of common sense. HDTVs have been on the market for enough years and the prices have dropped a lot. HDTVs are a pretty standard thing now.
My guess is that they don't want to promote the fact that their receivers don't have OTA capability.
It's tied up. The AM21 doesn't add a tuner, it just lets one of the unit's internal tuners pull from OTA instead of sat.
The software does indeed exist, but you can only use it to watch programming off a DVR drive. The programming providers have required DirecTV to lock that software down though, so there is a good chance it won't work for you. I have a combination of 5 netbooks and laptops in the house, and none of them meet the hardware / driver requirements to comply with the software's copy protection implementation.
I did get the software to run on one of my desktop systems with a standard NVidia video card, but the video stuttered like crazy. Others have reported success, but YMMV.
DirecTV DOES NOT have central management as I stated above. You still need to schedule the recordings on the individual units the same way you do today; the DVRs can only schedule on the local unit. The HD non-DVR receivers have a feature where they can send a timer event to any DVR on the network, but that's it. The HD non-DVR receivers can't manage timers on DVRs after that. The principle advantage is once a recording is on any given unit, you can watch it anywhere.
There are a number of options for OTA. In my case I push all OTA recording off to a TivoHD after giving up on a HD Homerun & media recorder solution. Tivo's guide data, recording schedules, and conflict resolution just worked better for my needs than any of the software I was looking at 2 years ago. I take my OTA recordings, download them, recode them to H.264 and archive shows. If you're not going to do that, probably your easiest option would just be to add a 3rd DirecTV DVR to your house at $5/mo to get the same number of tuners you have now with Dish receivers.
AT&T's Uverse has it. You can record 4 shows at once and playback on any TV at the same time. You can pause on one TV go to another and continue the show if you want.
AT&T's solution is limited by their delivery bandwidth, not the actual DVR. It could handle 4 HD streams if they ever get their rickety DSL system to deliver 4 at once.
I have a vip622 & a vip211 both have external hard drives which work flawlessly. I was contacted by Direct so I ordered the HR24 & H24 whole house setup with two AM21's at $60.00 per copy. I stayed home two different days waiting for installer a no show I called the office and was told he came by on a nonscheduled day and decided I didn't have LOS which torked me off because I wanted to be there. The reason for switching was to get the mlb plus extra innings package and full time HD rsn. Needless to say I was very disappointed with the whole process.
This is not an accurate statement. The AM21 contains two ATSC tuners and it pushes out video streams through a USB connection, not an RF connection.
There still only exists the ability for 2 tuners to be used by the DVR based on the architecture of the system.
So your correction is noted, I guess, even though it changes absolutely nothing in the context of this discussion.
I've been aware of AT&T Uverse "whole home" solution and I don't count it as being a real one either because of the effect or the result of its limitations of bandwidth that diminishes the 4 channel experience into only a TWO HD streams (channels) /I] into each residence experience and we are HD in this house, big time. In other words there is an unacceptable cost or compromise to using Uverse "whole home" solution with HD. However, I do believe Uverse has addresed the limitation in some areas by now providing an additional HD stream for a total of three, but still, the result is a diminished experience and not an enhancement as as many as 4 or even 6 HD streams (channels) are being recorded or viewed in our household at any one time.
My point is that any "whole home" solution has to at least maintain it best bandwidth situation, in Uverse's case it is 4 channel (in SD), and at an appropriate scale for a family household: hubby, wife, and at least 2 kids? Sorry, but when adding HD service a providers' quantity of service decreases by a whopping 50%, leaving at least half the household not able to even watch live the HD channels, let alone record them, it just doesn't meet the standard.
Further, while Uverse does allow for up to 4 SD channels recording at any one time, I don't think Uverse "whole home" solution provides for each of the four channels to be viewed in separate 4 rooms by 4 different people at the same time. Please correct me on that if I have it wrong but that was last I knew of Uverse's solution. While I'm willing to concede that if a provider allows at a minimum of only one tuner per person in a 4 person household for the "whole home" solution, it would meet only the most restrictive notion of such a solution, but it would still have to be considered a diminished one as each individual would not be able to watch one channel while recording another at the same time in a 4 person household, a reasonably sized household, but, yes a one tuner solution could work in some households were there is less demand than others.
Again, I don't think there is any provider out there who provides a true "whole home" solution. Certainly not at the appropriate scale for multi-person households. However, I understand the point you were making and appreciate it.
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Does anyone know if FIOS Home DVR viewing works the same way? Does it have the same limitations as Direct's? Thanks
OK, well I guess the D* whole home DVR solution probably won't work for us here. If we wanted to DVR a pair of network shows in the same time slot, we would either be taking one DVR completely out of comission as far as watching live TV or we'd have one show on each of the 2 DVRs. If we wanted to record something from HGTV at the same time as those 2 network shows (this happens a lot, believe it or not), we'd just basically be screwed on one DVR. One whole TV out of comission because the DVR can't handle more than 2 streams.
Now if I came up with an alternative solution for the OTA recording that would be great except the expense of setting that up would negate any benefit of switching to D* and I'd lose the "whole house DVR" if I'm using more than one complete system of doing things.
I guess whole house DVR is still a pie in the sky (pun intended).
I would actually consider going back to cable and getting a couple of HD TiVo units if I was sure they could actually get them to work with the switched signal being used by Time Warner now. Seems to be a pain to set up and keep working reliably. And how many things can a TiVo record at the same time while watching live TV? I think it's the same limitation as D* (1) if they're using the dual tuner cable card.
Now if I came up with an alternative solution for the OTA recording that would be great except the expense of setting that up would negate any benefit of switching to D* and I'd lose the "whole house DVR" if I'm using more than one complete system of doing things.
I guess whole house DVR is still a pie in the sky (pun intended).
I would actually consider going back to cable and getting a couple of HD TiVo units if I was sure they could actually get them to work with the switched signal being used by Time Warner now. Seems to be a pain to set up and keep working reliably. And how many things can a TiVo record at the same time while watching live TV? I think it's the same limitation as D* (1) if they're using the dual tuner cable card.
There exists another option over in D* land where you could, for quite a few dollars less each month than with DISH Network, have three DVRs ($17 lease fee for two E* DVRs versus $10 for three D* DVRs). Over the course of a couple of years, the lease fee savings goes a long way towards offsetting the initial lease entry cost of the third receiver.
It certainly adds substantial credibility to the discussion to have the simplest facts right.
The HD limit is not the DVR but the DSL connection.
Uverse supports 4 TVs at once playing back/watching 4 different streams. They can even all be watching the same recorded program at different spots in the program with rewind/FF working independently.
https://uma.att.com/general/2086-UMA-X-DMA1-IFRAME.html
You of course need the receiver box at each of the 4 TVs to talk to the DVR.
The commercials show all the time 4 people watching different shows at the same time. The also love pointing out the ability to pause on one TV and go to another TV and resume.
Again the limit of the system is the DSL only providing 2 and in some areas now 3 HD streams at once.
There of course are going to be restrictions. If you are recording 4 shows at once, you will have to watch a previous recording or one of the current recordings. You cannot watch a 5th show live while the other 4 are recording.
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