Upgrade from HR21-700 receivers

DTV will want to install an HS17 Genie2 with a new 2 year contact.  It is a server tower that is not connected to any TV so you will get 2 mini clients.

You still get free upgrades regardless if you have the protection plan or not. Just has to be at least 2 years (24 months) since your last upgrade (adding a TV counts) with account in good standing.

HR21s are good models as regular HDDVRs. Though understandable to replace if you're resetting often. Have you unplugged power from the boxes for a couple minutes to allow a full clear of memory or a full reset back to factory? Just in case you can get more life out of them.

You have some options:

1. Call DirecTV and let them know the boxes have died and get them warranty replaced. If any are still available this should net HR24 (2 tuners but a larger hard drive at 500GB), the last regular HDDVR.

2. Upgrade one box to Genie. It is a 5 tuner HDDVR with 1TB recording space and allows you to share recordings between both boxes. Could still do a warranty replacement of your 2nd box.

3. Upgrade both boxes to a Genie-2 (HS17) setup. This puts a Mini Genie Client on both TVs. The HS17 sits by itself as a Headless Server tower. Does not allow anything but Clients (so no dedicated receivers), so I would only consider this if you are staying at 2 TVs. It is 7 tuners with 2TB recording space.

Upgrades come with a 24 month agreement. Any Genie setup requires Whole Home DVR which adds $3 to your monthly bill (assuming you don't already have it).

Protection plan covers delivery of replacement boxes ($19.95), service calls for repair ($99), and replacement remotes ($15). At $8.99 every month or $107.88 a year forever, you shouldn't be using it enough to make it a savings. I prefer the one time costs as needed.

In my experience, some form of external cooling often helps.

I often use a "laptop cooling pad" that runs from USB, and it has made a difference to me.

Also, my equipment is in a cabinet, and has a low speed fan exhausting the built up heat from all the components.

Placing my DTV units on top of a powerful receiver really added heat to the DTV equipment, and you can look at the internal temperatures of the new Genie 2, and the clients by the menu system. Adding low speed cooling dropped the internal hardware temperatures by 20 degrees.

Greg

I recently called DTV because my HR23-700 hard drive was going.  said it wanted replacement (per Juniper guidance).   told them I wanted a Genie HR54, no Gemini or server system or I'd go to Dish.   they said there was no problem getting me a HR54.   and they of course no longer had any HR23s.  I also have the protection plan.  the Tech that delivered the boxed receiver (as DTV had a problem w/ordering system to ship one) said they had lots of HR54s.   and my old universal remotes work well with the HR54.    multiple calls w/DTV to set up due to system issue, some said can be replacement, some say upgrade.   I guess I'll find that out later.  LOL

Just sharing what happened to me recently. 

HR23s been gone for years. Only the HR24 has chance to still be available, and that is limited supposedly only for warranty replacements until they are out of them.

Going to a Genie requires a tech. Only if you are warranty replacing a Genie is it drop shipped. In most cases it is not as simple as just swapping a box. When a Genie as an upgrade is drop shipped, that is a system error which results in customer calling and getting a tech scheduled later.

Technically all Genies are a server system, just the Genie-2 (HS17) is only as a server setup. Over the phone they cannot guarantee a HR54, as you 'might' have gotten an HR44, since they have no way to select exact model. But Genie and Genie-2 are two different lines, so one cannot be substituted for the other.