New DIRECTV customer came from DISH

1. DVRs are required if you want to pause, FFW, REW Live TV.  But even a remote HD Receiver connected to the Whole Home DVR network will FFW, REW and pause a recording being viewed from a remote DVR.

2. Your HR24 should certainly let you record two different channels simultaneously, unless the second tuner is disabled for some reason.

3. True.  Each TV needs its own Receiver or DVR.

4. SD video looks cruddy on most any HDTV.  Proper adjustment of the TV's video settings can help.  

5. What's not working with the "Active stuff"?

6. That's true.  You have to set up Favorites on each DVR/Receiver.

7. Yes, each DVR/Receiver has its own Parental Settings.  

You'll get used to the differences. 

Idle curiosity, why did you leave Dish?

@litzdog911:

• Yep, of course it makes sense I can manipulate a recording but why not live TV? DISH let me do it. I understand as well that I need a receiver to get HD in each TV which is something DISH does not have without a full HD DVR in each room. Just a minor frustration.

• So, I am still figuring it out but it seems I can record two shows at once but if I am watching a show while a recording is playing but if a second recording starts I lose the live show. LIke a said, still experimenting so let's table this one for now.

• For HD I understand having the receiver for each TV but not the DVR. DISH allowed me to share the DVR between 2 TVs allowing FFW,REW,PAU, etc on both TVs with different shows simultaneously. Now of course you have with DISH only two tuners so each recording takes up a channel BUT, I could record one show and choose which tuner to use allowing me the ability to watch live TV (with manipulation) in either room.

• "SD video looks cruddy on most any HDTV"- Fair enough but it's worse now with DIRECT than it was with DISH. Not sure why but it's the kids TV so...too bad. ;o)

• Active shows nothing but that silly looping commercial. I cannot load any apps or do anything with it. Seems a bit useless at this point.

• Setting up Favorites and/or Parentals on each DVR/Receiver is a major inconvenience. I would like the ability to push setup across all receivers. THis is one of the issues I had with DISH but I;'ll explain that in a minutes below for @bep.

So why did I leave DISH. Well, every 6 months or so the DISH box would go haywire. If you were lucky you could wait few hours and it may come back however, if it does not then you get a new box form DISH. Sounds fair since they own the box and make it easy to ship back and forth but here is my thorn...I do not care about the hardware. Just like on my home computer. That is why I backup my files, photos, musics and all the stuff I care about. What do I care about on my DVR??? How about the files, AND the configuration, I have saved, just like on my computer. It is, after all, just a hard drive with a modified linux kernel running right?

The config includes all the time I spent setting up the recordings for my DVR. I typically do not watch live TV unless it a game so when I settle down and want to watch my recordings they better be there and especially the schedule. With a new box I lose everything.

I recently needed a new box so if I gotta start from scratch it's the perfect opportunity for the competition to come in and displace them.

As well, DISH has a new box that would get around the currently limitations of only 2 tuners but to upgrade they want to bilk me for $200. So, this tells me they have no true customer appreciation. I'd pay some upgrade fee but not the total cost of the box. How about treating your current customers as well as the new ones?

I know I'll have similar issues with DIRECT but I am coming up with a plan to design and write my own tool that will sit on a USB attached drive that will capture and decode what I need which will then truly commoditize the hardware. I'll not patent infringe or do anything that would break the warranty, just open up and give you access to YOUR data.

I am frustrated because I know all these vendors could do so much better based on the technology that has been available for the past 10 years.

(oh, and the remote control layout is horrible. DISH is better in this area)

Thanks for reading...

Yep, of course it makes sense I can manipulate a recording but why not live TV? DISH let me do it. I understand as well that I need a receiver to get HD in each TV which is something DISH does not have without a full HD DVR in each room. Just a minor frustration.
DirecTV's approach requires a DVR to manipulate "Live TV" because a hard drive is required.  Networked non-DVR Receivers can only manipulate recorded shows being viewed via Whole Home DVR networking.

So, I am still figuring it out but it seems I can record two shows at once but if I am watching a show while a recording is playing but if a second recording starts I lose the live show. LIke a said, still experimenting so let's table this one for now.

That's correct.  The DVRs have two tuners, so they can record two different channels simultaneously.  Or you can view one channel Live while the DVR records a second different channel.  You can't be recording on two channels and watch a third Live channel.

For HD I understand having the receiver for each TV but not the DVR. DISH allowed me to share the DVR between 2 TVs allowing FFW,REW,PAU, etc on both TVs with different shows simultaneously. Now of course you have with DISH only two tuners so each recording takes up a channel BUT, I could record one show and choose which tuner to use allowing me the ability to watch live TV (with manipulation) in either room.

Yep. Dish's approach is different because that remote TV is actually fed the audio/video directly from the DVR.  Also, the remote TV does not get HiDef video. 

Active shows nothing but that silly looping commercial. I cannot load any apps or do anything with it. Seems a bit useless at this point.

You can also access stuff like weather forecasts for your zip code.  But I don't hardly ever use Active either.

That's pretty funny as well.  I hope you get used to your Directv system and eventually appreciate it as it stands.

I had Dish network for 8 years before switching to Direct Tv what a HUGE difference. May take you a little time to get it where you want it but WELL worth it. Almost all channels are in HD on DTV very few with Dish network.

We have alot less satellite interruption with DTV. One of my biggest complaints with Dish was if you canceled a service like HBO they charged you to do it. Good luck getting it set up you will be happy once you get there.

On this forum DCD is the man for all your problems he has helped me more times. He's your man or women I'm not sure. Sorry DCD.

Thanks, nice compliment, a man as shown in the descriptions. 

http://forums.directv.com/pe/index.jsp?portalPageId=10483746&channelID=1

So I talked to support and they said, and sent me, a Band Stop Filter, a DECA 1Mr0-01 and the whole Cinema Connection Kit.

However, after reading what little info provided, I have no idea what I need this stuff for or where to install it. The problem they said this would fix is our current inability to pause, few or few live tv from the second room, even with our whole home setup.

Any help would be appreciated.

As litzdog posted, you can't pause etc live TV from a second room with just a receiver, whatever your setup. The receiver does not have a disk drive on which to store the live datastream from the receiver's own tuner.  You can do this if you are watching a recording from the DVR, because there the program is already on disk.  Goodness knows why a DirecTV CSR thought that sending you the addidional equipment would help. The CCK will be useful if you don't already have internet access (although they should have installed this for you already).

With Dish you have a different situation. There a single DVR has two tuners and each can be displayed in a different room (even though the second room is only SD). So in the second room you are controlling a DVR tuner, which is why you can do pause etc on live TV.  In the DirecTV situation a two-room system has at least three tuners (two in the DVR and one in the receiver).

On some channels, you are correct that Dish SD quality is better than the quality you get from DirecTV.  DirecTV limits the resolution slightly to conserve bandwidth. On the other hand, Dish does that with many HD channels.

We would all like the WHDVR system to be enhanced so you can set up and control the  recording setups on multiple DVRs from a single location, maybe it will happen....