Teacher
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16 Messages
General Questions
Hi all,
I am a very new DirecTV customer who admittedly is a bit overwhelmed by all this... First of all; my setup:
- Family Room TV (52" 1080p) on HD DVR Receiver model HR24-500
- Kitchen TV (Small SD) on SD Receiver model D12-700
- Bedroom 1 TV (small 720p) on HD Receiver model H25-500
- Bedroom 2 TV (26" 720p) not yet hooked up. Newly purchased.
- I do have the Whole-Home DVR service
- I did get the NFL Sunday Ticket
I know I can get the answers to most of my questions by reading the monstrous amount of documentation the installers left me, and I have already helped myself a lot, but it's a ton to go through. So I thought I'd go direct to the user community for help! A few questions, if I may...
There are a ton of channels, most of which I never watch and certainly don't want to have to sift through every time I "surf". And that goes for the rest of my family as well. So can I make a list of channels? "Favorites", if you will? And can a separate list be made for each family member? if so, could someone walk me through it, please?
Recording...
- It's my understanding that if I record something in the Family Room, it can be watched on any other TV. Correct? Given my setup, can movies/shows be recorded ONLY from the FR box? Or can, for example, my son record something from "Bedroom 1"? And could he then watch it anywhere?
- How big is the HDD of my HD DVR? Installer wasn't quite sure. Is there a way to check the "stats" through the remote?
- Can an external HDD be added to increase capacity? If so, what are the caveats and what is recommended?
- I asked the installer this question, and was not pleased with the answer, so I thought I'd ask here... What happens if I record, say 100 hours of stuff... The HD DVR then dies. Can my stuff be retrieved? I got a "NO". I would have thought DirecTV would have a monitor in place of some kind, but I guess not. How can I back up what I record?
- Can I record things to the HD DVR and transfer them to watch on a PC or mobile device?
- Being that these devices are internet-connected, is there a way I can send something I record to someone else in a completely different town (also a DTV user)? And vice versa? I was told this isn't possible, but it's 2011... I find that hard to believe...
- When recording something, is there a way for the device to remove commercials as it's recording?
- I know it is possible to record a whole season of a show... How does the DTV know what a season actually is?? What about something like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart? That doesn't run on a typical schedule (AFAIK), so how would I record a "season" of that?
- If I have movies on my PC, for example, can I put them on the DVR box to watch on my TV? If so, how?
Well, I think that's it for now. Sorry, I know it's a lot. Very new to all this... I appreciate it, everyone. Thanks!
Chris
litzdog911
ACE - Sage
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46.4K Messages
14 years ago
Welcome to DirecTV!
0. Yes, you can create two different custom Favorite Channel Lists under the Guide Setup Options.
1. Yes. Only DVRs can record stuff because a hard drive is required. Remote Receivers can setup and schedule recordings on the DVR, though, so your son could schedule a recording on the DVR and view it in his room as its recording or later.
2. Your HR24 has a 500GB drive.
3. Yes, you can connect an external eSATA drive to replace the internal drive's capacity with something bigger. But note that the external drive is does not ADD to the internal drive, it replaces it. So a 1TB eSATA drive would give you twice the storage capacity of the internal drive. To access any existing recordings on the internal drive you would need to disconnect the external drive and reboot the DVR. Do a search here on "eSATA" to see what drives work well and which don't. It's not really an officially supported feature, so proceed at your own risk.
4. The only way to "back up" valuable recordings is to record them to a DVD Recorder, VCR or PC with audio/video capture hardware/software.
5. Not yet. DirecTV has a new product called "Nomad" coming soon that will allow this.
6. Nope.
7. Nope. You need to manually push that FF or 30-sec skip button.
8. It's not really a "season". The DVR just lets you select "First Run", "Repeats" or "Both". If the Guide Data provided by the broadcaster is accurate, then the DVR will record only the shows you've specified. Most of us use "First Run" for typical network series broadcasts.
9. Nope. But with the "Media Share" feature, you might be able view stuff from your PC on your DirecTV DVR/Receivers. See the "Media Share Forum" here for more info.
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dcd
Expert
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20.7K Messages
14 years ago
I have a few additional thoughts.
4. The DVR is a time shift device to allow you to watch programs at your convenience rather than at broadcast time. Using it to "store" lots of programming is done by lots of folks, but when the hard drive fails, goodbye. Personally I have a busy family life. If we don't watch a program within two or three weeks of recording it, chances are we won't. With so many great channels there is always something new to watch.
5. Programs recorded on a HD DVR can be watched on a suitable networked computer via the free program Directv2PC. That feature has it's own forum.
6. You pay to watch these programs and not to share them, 2011 or not. How would you transfer a program that may contain several GB of data? Of course, you can make a Windows Media Player movie through a TV tuner card connected to a computer. Of course, a lot of email programs have file size restrictions so that may be a hurdle. Mostly I let my friends find their own programming.
8. The "daily show" is a freak. All of the episodes are coded as first run so if you set up a series recording (that's what it's called, series recording, not season recording) you'll get every episode broadcast every day, many of them duplicates. Fortunately most programs are coded correctly, but not your example.
These DVR;'s are complex, and there is a lot more that you didn't ask. Don't be afraid to experiment, and feel free to come back anytime and ask.
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worldbuilder
Teacher
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16 Messages
14 years ago
Thanks, guys! That's all great stuff! One other quick question... Just how does the DVR record? I mean, what kind of a file? MPG? AVI? 3gp?
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litzdog911
ACE - Sage
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46.4K Messages
14 years ago
Thanks, guys! That's all great stuff! One other quick question... Just how does the DVR record? I mean, what kind of a file? MPG? AVI? 3gp?
Proprietary format. Recordings are encrypted to the specific DVR, so there aren't any "files" that you can do anything with.
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