Category: DirecTV

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DirecTV Product Information WeaKnees News

2 TB Upgrades for DirecTV HD DVRs AvailableAs

Following on Monday’s news of full HD DVRs with 2 TB of internal storage, we’re now shipping upgrades for DirecTV HD DVRs with 2 TB also.

We offer this upgrade two ways:

  • As an internal upgrade: you send us your DVR and we upgrade it and return it.
  • As an external upgrade: we send you a plug-and-play drive for your DVR.

Both of these options are available with our copy service, where we move your content from your current drive to the new 2 TB drive. Of course, if you want that with the external drive, you still have to send in your unit.

More information and pricing is on our DirecTV HD DVR Upgrade page.

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DirecTV Product Information WeaKnees News

HR20, HR21 Pro, and HR22 with 2 TB Internal Drives

Starting today, we’re now shipping DirecTV’s HD DVRs with up to 2 TB of internal storage. We’re using the Western Digital Green Power series of drives in these units, the same series of drives we use at the Terabyte size.

As with other Green Power drives, these run cool and they really make surprisingly little noise for a hard drive at all, much less for a huge hard drive.

 

DirecTV HD DVR HR22
DirecTV HD DVR HR22

The 2 TB drive gives you up to 480 hours of HD storage, depending on compression and format. See our whole line of DirecTV HD DVRs.

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DirecTV Product Information

DirecTV and Off-Air HD: The AM21 Shortage Continues

If you have a DirecTV HD DVR HR21 or later, and you want to get your OTA HD signals into your unit, you need the DirecTV AM21 (or, “antenna module”). This unit basically just adds off-air capability to your DVR.

But the AM21 has been out of stock pretty much everywhere for many weeks now. And our distributors don’t even know when they’ll be getting these units.

So what can you do? The answer is the HR20 DirecTV HD DVR. This was the first of the MPEG-4 capable DirecTV HD DVRs, and it has an off-air module built-in. DirecTV later removed this capability, likely to lower manufacturing costs, plus to force customers to get their local HD channels from DirecTV – at $5/month.

DirecTV HD DVR HR20

We still have a good supply of the HR20 in stock, shipping every day from our warehouse in Los Angeles. If you’re looking for a new DVR with OTA capability, this is a great machine, and, currently, the only way to get OTA into an MPEG-4 DirecTV DVR.

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DirecTV Product Information

DirecTV Dish Info: When is a 3LNB not a 3LNB?

Once upon a time, there was only one 3LNB dish in the DirecTV world. But that’s no longer the case, and it’s generating some confusion.

DirecTV has used several dishes over the years, to reach signals from many different satellites. But, for the most mainstream programming, there has been a simple progression from a single LNB dish, to a dual LNB dish, to a triple, and then to the five LNB dish. Each dish saw everything the preceding dish saw. Until now.

Now, there’s a new 3LNB dish that sees different satellites than the 3LNB from years ago. The original 3LNB dish added the ability to see a new satellite that sent out HD signals from the 110 and 119 satellites. But this new 3LNB dish can’t see either of those orbital slots – it sees the main DirecTV satellite (101) plus the newer 99 and 103 satellites.

And, this dish comes in two varieties – regular, and SWM. SWM is Single Wire Multiswitch, meaning that out of the one cable from the SWM version, you can run up to eight tuners, just using SWM splitters. The 5LNB dish is also available in both configurations. Further, the 3LNB and 5LNB non-SWM dishes will also work with a standalone SWM for more configuration and expansion.

Down to the details: It’s not the pricing that would necessarily lead you to this dish (although, since it is a bit less expensive, it will be included on general DirecTV installs where the 5LNB isn’t necessary). It’s the ease of installation. Yes, it’s still the same sized reflector, but since you’re aiming at fewer satellites, the fine tuning is easier.

For ordering info, see our DirecTV Dish page.

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Customer Contacts DirecTV miscFAQ Troubleshooting Help

DirecTV TiVos and Dialing In

We often get asked a question about whether DirecTV TiVos really need to dial in. Sometimes, it’s because the modem is broken. Other times, it’s because the phone line isn’t anywhere near the TiVo.

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And the answer is: most DirecTV TiVos do not need to dial in. We’d love to sell you a TiVo external modem kit to fix your broken modem or to make your TiVo work with VoIP or digital phone lines, but in many cases, you just don’t need to have the TiVo dial in. Series 1 DirecTV TiVos DO need to dial in – the rest of this does not apply to these units (Sony SAT T-60, Philips DSR6000, or Hughes GXCEBOT). But Series 2 and the HR10-250 units get their guide data and everything else they need from the satellite.

If you don’t let your TiVo dial in, you’ll get the “nag” screen, once per day. Here’s a nag screen of a TiVo that hasn’t dialed in in quite some time.

My TiVo is crying for help!
My TiVo is crying for help!

So what is your TiVo missing out on if it can’t dial in? The main things it misses are:

  • Pay Per View: Once you fill up your unit’s limit,  you won’t be able to do more Pay Per View until your unit dials in and unloads the info.
  • System OS Updates: While the update itself generally comes down from the satellite stream, it’s the phone call that authorizes the installation of the update. So if you don’t have a phone line connected, the update won’t install.
  • Uploading your data: TiVo uses information from viewing habits to aggregate and sell to advertisers and other interested parties. If your unit can’t connect back, it can’t send this data.
  • The “nag” screen: dialing in gives you relief from this once-per-day message for 30 days.

If those issues don’t bother you or don’t apply to you, then you can happily just leave your Series 2 or HD DirecTV TiVo disconnected from the phone line, and you shouldn’t have problems.