I thought I read somewhere that our HD Tivos won't work with the new channels/satellites for some technical reason. Any truth to that?

Apparently DirecTV is putting up a couple of new satellites this year (2007) which will carry a BUNCH more HD.

the new programing for hd will be transmitted in mpeg4 and from a fleet of satellites transmitting at a different frequency band.

if the receiver/dvr (hr10 for example) is not capable of receiving this method you will need to upgrade to one that will.

Well that's just great.

So is there a current replacement for the HR10-250? I need about 5 of them.

That's the HR20-700 DVR. It is not a Tivo and the software is having teething problems.

That's the HR20-700 DVR. It is not a Tivo and the software is having teething problems.

And so is the latest version of the TiVo software (from what I can tell from message traffic.)

My name is TiVo, it's been 107 days since I last phoned home ... is it safe yet? ;)

That's the HR20-700 DVR. It is not a Tivo and the software is having teething problems.

So if it isn't a Tivo per se, does it have programming information from DirecTV? In other words, does it work LIKE a Tivo?

It's a DVR. It records shows that you tell it to. Is it as slick as Tivo? No. Tivo has had a lot of time to work on its interface. Is it as accurate as Tivo? No. Tivo has had a lot of time to work on the engine that determines if the program is to record.

The HD DVR section below this one has some discussion of the bugs HR20-700. The link above that goes to DBS Talk has a LOT of info on the HR20-700. The Link below to the Tivo Community has details on the MPEG4 roll-out and what existing HR10-250 users are doing.

We've been discussing the MPEG4 transition for at least a year now. I'm surprised that you are just hearing about it.

-Robert

Thanks for the info. I just don't keep up with the details of every link in the home theater chain. I've focused on my display and don't stry too far away, and these issues haven't come up in my circle. I stumbled accross it somewhere else entirely, and it got my attention. It never crossed my mind that the HD channels on DirecTV would change their decoding scheme and make existing HD boxes obsolete. I got blind-sided on this one.

I called DTV yesterday b/c I am entitled to a free up grade to the new mpeg 4 receiver, I currently have the hr10-250, the technition told me to hold off for now, that currently the hr10-250 is a better unit

Yes, and I just called them and discovered that for all of 2007, the only new channels in HD are going to be local. He said that was their focus because 40 percent of the country can't get local channels in HD. Since I already get more than they offer with my OTA antenna and probably better quality, I have a year to wait before it matters. Just hope these things hold up for another year. That would have been some good info to know. The promise of "hundreds of new HD channels" didn't mention they were all locals, and therefore their aren't any "new" coversions of existing channels to HD. So on one hand I got excited about nothing. Don't need new equipment, but ain't gonna have any better signal quality for a long long time.

The new national HD channels will not be active until 3Q 2007 because the sat that is to have them hasn't launched yet. It will launch this summer.

Yes, and I just called them and discovered that for all of 2007, the only new channels in HD are going to be local. He said that was their focus because 40 percent of the country can't get local channels in HD. Since I already get more than they offer with my OTA antenna and probably better quality, I have a year to wait before it matters. Just hope these things hold up for another year. That would have been some good info to know. The promise of "hundreds of new HD channels" didn't mention they were all locals, and therefore their aren't any "new" coversions of existing channels to HD. So on one hand I got excited about nothing. Don't need new equipment, but ain't gonna have any better signal quality for a long long time.

The last two press releases they put out say otherwise, the two new sats going up this summer are supposed to add room for 150 national HD channels and Directv is stating they should have 100 national HD channel online sometime later in 2007.

I'd take anything you hear from a CSR with a grain of salt, they tend to be very misinformed.