Quite some time ago, DIRECTV stopped including serial ports on the back of its standard definition receivers. The last receiver to include one, the D10, hasn’t been manufactured in years. No subsequent receiver (D11, D12, D13, etc.) has included the port.
Why does this matter? The serial port allows a hard-wired connection between a TiVo and a receiver. It minimizes communication problems that can sometimes occur when using IR blaster cables. Serial control also reduces the time it takes for the TiVo to change channels.
Unfortunately, DIRECTV still does not include serial ports on the back of it’s receivers. However, we have obtained a small quantity of older-model RCA receivers that have low-speed data ports that work perfectly with standard definition, standalone TiVo units. You can find those TiVo-Compatible DIRECTV receivers here. The receivers come bundled with the specialized home-control cable that you will need to connect the TiVo to the receiver.
As we indicate on the website, these units are refurbished, and they currently get all of the standard definition stations coming down from DIRECTV. However, they do not include a remote that can control the “Mix” stations that DIRECTV has launched. For TiVo owners, however, this shouldn’t matter, as TiVo units cannot control these stations even on receivers that are compatible with them.
3 replies on “DIRECTV Receivers with Serial Control Now in Stock”
I’m unable to watch ESPN Gameplan on my DRD420, as DirecTV has started broadcasting the sports subscriptions on MPEG-4. They say I have to upgrade to a newer MPEG-4 capable receiver which they’ll send me. However, the new receiver probably won’t have the low-speed data port. I was thinking of buying the DRD435 instead, but I suspect I will run into the same problem where it can’t handle MPEG-4 broadcasts. Do you know whether or not this is the case?
Right – this unit can’t handle MPEG4 broadcast, so those channels wouldn’t work here either.
Actually that’s only true for HD. For SD there is no MPEG4. However as DirecTV has added more channels the HD EPG capacity of these older models was exceeded. They had to cut back somewhere and elected to not support the Gameplan type sports packages and some PPV on these oldest models. Other channels have taken their place. How they do that without changing the number I don’t know but I do know that they can. In fact receivers that are only slightly newer are actually OK. An RCA DRD486 for example, manufactured only a year or so later that your DRD420, and even pre-HD TiVo units such as the Philips DSR708 will work just fine. It makes me unhappy but that’s how it is.