Directv Equipment Upgrade and question about Directv App

The only thing DTV is installing now is the HS17 Genie2 that is a mini client only system so you will lose all of those stand alone receivers.

I don’t know much about recent equipment - I stopped paying attention awhile back. 

I don’t necessarily mind getting rid of the standalone receivers - I have plenty of network access (wired/wireless). Are there advantages to keeping the older stand alone units?  I’m just thinking at some point they’ll fail. 

Based on your boxes, there is one upgrade to consider.

Upgrade the non-DVR H24 to a Genie. This gets you a 5 tuner HDDVR with 1TB recording space. If you don't already have it, you get Whole Home DVR ($3) which allows each box to watch the recordings on the others. As normal an upgrade comes with a 24 month service agreement.

(being the more capable HDDVR, I would put it in the room that needs the extra tuners and recording space the most of course)

Do not get the Genie-2 (HS17) as it only allows Clients and would require replacing all your boxes. And if any agent says you must replace your HDDVRs even with the regular Genie, tell them NO.

As for your RSN situation, unless the market lines are regulated differently for the two services, then the only factor I can figure is that the billing address for DIRECTV STREAM was different from your service address with DirecTV (even if only by the county).

The HS17 has 7 tuners and a 2TB hard drive and if it fails all TVs stop working.  DTV doesn't use or need your home network, all connecting the HS17 to the internet does is allow you access to On Demand, start from beginning and paying for PPV with the remote.

The stream thing was very bizarre. I’ll spare everyone that craziness! I agree with you. It should have been the same content but it wasn’t. 

I worked through a bunch of escalations, we double, triple checked all my billing info and such. I may still have video of my satellite service showing one game on the RSN while stream didn’t show the same game on the same RSN. 

we worked with directv for about two months but never could resolve it so we dropped stream. We really wanted it but that was a killer need for us. 

back to the equipment - is it a better idea to keep our current gear? It kinda sounds like there might be reasons to keep it? 
sorry - didn’t see the other reply while typing. Ok.

so yeah if the hs17 dies knocking out everything wouldn’t be awesome. Hmm. 

thank you both for the quick responses and input. 

Each receiver/DVR can work independently. One goes down, the others still work. Each box has their own recording space, which can use an external eSATA hard drive if you want. With a Genie and 2 HDDVRs you have 9 tuners so should have no worries about recording conflicts.

Genie-2 only allows Clients. That means if main box goes down, that is ALL your TVs since Clients cannot work by themselves. Same if you have the regular Genie with Clients only. There are only 7 tuners which are shared between all TVs. One hard drive that all share so there is no possible sorting of recordings. Also as HDDVRs are replaced, you would lose all existing recordings since they are encrypted to their exact box are cannot be transferred.

I stand by the regular Genie in your setup. It allows your 3rd TV to use the full features you have, plus if you don't have it you gain Whole Home DVR which is a convenient feature. That would max out your capability, so no further upgrade to consider unless DirecTV innovates something in the future.

thank you both for the info.  i hadn't followed directv hardware much in many years, so, i had thought there had been some changes.  sounds, for the most part, like my equipment is not as far behind as i thought it might be.

i'll give this some thought.

i may give stream (or whatever its called now) another go again - maybe the RSN thing will have somehow fixed itself in the intervening years!  i had hope we were about to get rid of the RSN issue altogether recently, but it looks like they'll still be around for a bit longer given recent developments in the bankruptcy case.

anyway - i do appreciate the info and help; that was exactly the info i was looking for.

Regarding overall capability, your equipment is not far behind. Simply DirecTV was pushed to their newest generation equipment as the earlier styles weren't made any more.

The biggest issue is AT&T wanted an all-in-one setup which simplifies everything for the company but removes all the reliability and flexibility for the customer. That is the design of the Genie-2 that I am heavily against (though for some households they are fine within those limits).

Your setup is pretty decent. I would only upgrade if you want the 3rd TV to have that full recording capability like the other two and to have Whole Home DVR, also the Genie (not Genie-2) is the only box that has the Picture in Picture (PiP) feature.

You might consider upgrading to a Genie or Genie 2 with at least one Gemini client. The Gemini has other streaming apps such as Netflix or Prime so you don't have to change remotes or inputs. It also has a voice button which enables you to use it with the Google assistant. It can be installed wirelessly or wired with an adapter. My recommendation would be a Genie 2 with 3 clients with as many clients being Gemini as they would give. The Genie 2 is a headless server so doesn't connect to a TV. If not Gemini, clients could also be wireless or wired 4k. (Gemini can also do 4k) The Genie 2 has as a 2 TB hard drive vs. 1 TB for the Genie and doesn't require an external video bridge for wireless clients.