DirecTV "Whole Home" DVR Questions - Page 4

It can be done and how easy might depend on a few things.
It sounds like you have coax going to where you need but do you have a SWiM system [single wire] or do the HR21s have two coax?
If you have SWiM, then adding DECAs to each receiver along with another near your router, is a good way to go.
If you don't have the SWiM, then running cat5 ethernet cables might be another way to do it.

There is a lot of information about doing it here: http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=137

Thanks for the follow up.

1. My HR-21s have 2 coax. Can I use 2 Bandstop Filters at the receivers?
2. Can I use 1 DECA at the router?

Or am I missing something?

Thanks again!

What you're missing is the SWiM, so you can't use DECA.
DECA requires a SWiM & splitters to pass the DECA signal, but you're on a switched setup, which has SAT signals in the same band as DECA.
ethernet is your only option.

Like VOS said you don't have SWM so putting together your own DECA system is probably going to cost you almost as much as just having DirecTV come and do everything for you. I would call DirecTV and ask them what kind of a deal they can give you on adding Whole Home DVR with the internet connection kit. Full price is around $250 I believe, but some are able to get discounts on that. You will not have to sign a new 2 year agreement to have this added.

If you really want to do it yourself you would want a green labeled SWM8 with power inserter, a green labeled 2 way splitter, 2 DECA adapters, and one broadband DECA adapter. You can buy these from Solid Signal, or you might be able to get a bit better deal on eBay. If you decide to do it yourself let us know and we can give you more detailed information on exactly how to set it up.

Another option would be to run ethernet wire from your router to each of your HR21s. I'm not sure how easy this would be in your situation though.

A SWiM LNB works too and tends to be cheaper.

Yeah, I just figured a SWM8 would just be simpler. He would just need to replace his WB68 with the SWM8, wouldn't need to climb on the roof and replace the LNB.

Not much of a difference in price on ebay, around $50 for a SWM LNB/power inserter/splitter, around $70 for a SWM8/power inserter/splitter.

I also like the SWM8 because it's an easier upgrade to a SWM16 later on if needed.

I agree. I think going the SWiM LNB route rather than the SWM8 is what separates the men from the boys....just one boy's opinion.

Having had both, there is a slight advantage to the SWiM LNB, which is the lack of the cable loss between the LNB & the SWM8.

Hi All,

I am in the process of doing a self install of Directv whole home dvr. I have 3 receivers: an HD-DVR (HR21) and two HD (H-21 and H-23). Here's what I've got so far: I have four cables coming into my basement from the dish. They are going to go into a SWM8 (which will be powered by a 29 volt power adapter). Next, one cable will go from the SWM8 to a SWM splitter. Then, 3 cables will go from the splitter to a DECA unit behind each of the receivers. Lastly, each of the DECA units will attach to a receiver via CAT5 cable.

I also have a home network, with a DSL cable modem and a wireless router.

These are my questions: First, are the connections I've described above correct? If they are, I'd also like to hook up my recievers to the internet so that I can have access to on-demand and stuff. How do I do that? Do I simply attach one of the DECA units to my modem or router via ethernet cable? Do I have to attach each of the DECA units to their respective receiver via CAT5 and ethernet cable? If I do, then how do I attach to my home network?

Any answers would be helpful! Thanks.

Sounds like you're on the right track.
One DECA for each receiver.
To add internet into the DECA network, you'll need to connect a DECA like this: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...omponents&sku=
to your router and have a coax connect to it. This bridges the coax network from all the receivers to your home network.

I have a question.

Me and my future wife will be moving into our first place in a few weeks and we were looking into the Whole-Home DVR thing. Now, do I HAVE to have my DVR connected to the internet for it to work and should I expect any "hidden" costs to pop up when a service person gets there. I mean, through their deal right now, my installation is free and my DVR is free, but after reading through this forum, I'm wondering if there are hidden costs that I should be expecting.

You don't need to be connected to the internet for WHDVR service but if you'd also like to be able to access VOD and DirecTV apps you will need an internet connection. I suggest you point out to DirecTV that you want VOD and apps so that they'll include a broadband DECA for this purpose....if it's not on your original work order it'll be much more difficult to get them to supply one for free.

The WHDVR service is $3/month.

Vin pretty much covered your main question. No internet connection needed if you don't want it. But they will hook it up for free if you ask for it so personally I say ask fr it and then disconnect it later if you don't want to use it.

As far as hidden fees, etc. DirecTV is usually pretty up front about everything. Just in case though I will go over some of it.

There is a DVR fee of $7 per month, they only charge this fee once though. So it doesn't matter if you have 1 DVR or 10 you pay the same $7/month total.

There is a mirroring fee of $6/month for every receiver (either DVR or non-dvr) on your account after your first receiver. Usually they charge the $6 for the first receiver too, and then credit it back later on in the bill (they do this for tax reasons if they have to tax it in your area). So if you have 2 receivers you will pay $6/month in mirroring fees, if you have 5 receivers you pay $24/month in mirroring fees.

There is a $10/month HD access fee. You have to have HD access if you get HD receivers, or want Whole Home DVR. Most new customers can get this fee waived for the life of the account if they keep a certain programming package and agree to sign up for auto-billpay.

Whole Home DVR service costs $3/month and will allow all of your compatible receivers to share recordings over the coax cable in your home. Remember that a DVR can only stream the recording to one other remote receiver at a time. So if you are streaming a recording from the living room to the kitchen, someone else will not be able to watch a different recording off the same living room DVR in a bedroom. They will however be able to watch anything they want in the living room iteself. Also remember each DVR can only record 2 things at the same time. If you think there is any chance that you might need to record more than 2 programs at one time I highly recommend getting at least 2 DVRs (I personally have 3 DVRs and one receiver so I can record 6 shows at the same time and watch any of them in all 4 rooms).

They try to sign you up for their protection plan at $6/month. The protection plan covers your receivers, wiring, remotes, and dish. Everything will be fixed/replaced at no cost if you have this plan. Without this plan if one of your leased receivers fails you will have to pay $20 in shipping for them to send you a new one. If something else happens and you have to have a tech come out to work on your system they will charge a $50 fee for the tech to come. If you are comfortable troubleshooting and working on your system yourself I would recommend that you skip the protection plan, but if not then it really isn't a bad deal.

That is pretty much

Tonight, we were watching a recorded show on the den TV (the show was recorded on the living room DVR). Suddenly the picture froze - I thought it was just a playback/satellite availability glitch, so I tried rewinding a few seconds. The system seemed to stay frozen. After maybe 8-10 seconds, we got a small box in the lower right that said something like no packets were received then another one with something about losing the connection to the other DVR. I've never had a WHDVR problem anything like this (we've had service for about 5 months) so I wasn't looking for the error messages and may not have them exactly or complete.

Both DVRs are HR24D-500s, and we do have the DECA box attached. When the problem happened, the living room box was powered off. I tried an off/on 'reboot' on the den machine - the living room machine is still not visible. We did watch the remaining 20 minutes of the recording in the living room and it played fine.

Any ideas on what I can do to troubleshoot this?

++++++++++++++++++++++++

After I posted the above, I happened to think that maybe there way a way to resetup the WHDVR. When looking through the options there, I noticed that it said that there was no networked DVRs present. As it happens, the first thing I looked under was network settings. After trying the WHDVR settings, I went back to network page. When I did the system test, I got two errors - first, no phone line connection found, and, second, it said that I appeared to be having network connections and gave me an error code to report. I did a web search and found zero results for it.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

I'd suggest looking at the AVS sister site here: http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=137

This might have come from a router/IP problem, or perhaps a reduced coax networking performance.

Thanks so much for that suggestion. I was composing that post and thinking through what I had done so far. After trying various default restores, resets, etc, the only thing I hadn't tried was a red button reset of the living room DVR. I decided that the WHDVR feature was worth more to me than the recordings that were in progress, so I killed them both, reset the LR DVR and everything was back to normal with all previously recorded programs now available again from both DVRs.

I wanted to post this so future readers who might search for this problem would think to try a complete rest of all DVRs before throwing in the towel.

Glad you got it working again, but I want to double check something you posted. You said you have HR24 HD-DVRs, are you sure about that? You also said you had DECA boxes hooked up tot he back of them, is that correct? Do they have the ethernet cable connected to the HR24s as well?

If this is the case, then your tech didn't really know what he was doing. You can remove the DECA adapters and just run the coax cable directly into the HR24s. H24, H25, and HR24s all have DECA built into them and they don't need the external DECA box hooked up to them.

FYI: the 24s don't power the DECAs

In my haste to try and find a solution, I realize I wasn't crystal clear in my description. I do have 2 HR24-500s. The DECA box is in another room by the router. The way it's set up is as follows: From the former cable box on the exterior of the house, the signal runs to each box via coax. A third coax line runs to the DECA broadband adapter and it is, in turn, connected to the router via ethernet. There's nothing connected to either DVR via ethernet.

I have been extremely pleased with the changeover from TWC to D* so far. We have had some signal losses due to heavy thunderstorms on recent afternoons and there has been a slight increase in the occasional pixelation, but, at just 5 months in, I don't know what, if any, seasonal fluctuations might be normal.

The WHDVR service had been bulletproof so far. That's why this glitch seemed so odd. And, due to my lack of familiarity with the equipment, my first thought wasn't that a complete reboot would fix everything.

Now, my only problem is the extra space taken up as a result of the freeview weekend we just had. A couple of nights of watching should give me enough breathing room and get me back to above 10% free on each box.

For whole home, do you need an Ethernet port at each receiver?

Thanks.

No, it uses the existing coax cable's going to your DirecTv receivers. You bridge the ethernet and coax together with a single DECA device.

"Depends"
The H/HR 24/5 have internal DECA for using coax, while the earlier models need an external DECA for coax networking, which does connect the the receiver via the ethernet port.
The H20s don't have ethernet, so they don't work with Whole Home.

Not quite true.

Probably true but you don't need to run ethernet between receivers, so don't have to have a structured wiring installation with ethernet jacks at each receiver location, you use the coax to network the receivers - wasn't that the question or did I miss something.

Guess it was merely "perspective", as you're right, there doesn't need to be an ethernet jack on the wall for the receiver, but one may need to use the ethernet jack on the receiver for DECA.

Then we have it all covered - that's what's great about forums.

For people that try to call and get "unsupported" WHDVR activated, do you ask for "technical support", "Customer support" "Retentions" ?

I sent an email about 48 hours ago, no response yet.

Currently have 3 HR24-500's. I plan on increasing the capacity by adding an external HD on each receiver. Any recommendations on what External HD works well with these receivers? Also, will this affect my Whole home set up? Please advise and thanks for your time.

So many issues and so many different answers. Here's something I posted at another thread, which I believe is unique to my situation. The thread was locked and said I needed to do it here so here it is again.


Now with two HD tv's in the house, one with HD DVR, the other with HD reciever, Direct TV becomes a better value over TWC. Next weekend, I will be making two upgrades. I'm upgrading from DSL 6 mbps, to Uverse Internet (no tv) 12 mbps. Doing a self install.

I'm also switching to Direct tv with whole home DVR with free installation and no equipment to buy. One HD DVR, one HD receiver, and one non HD receiver. Apparently, recorded shows can be seen on both HD tv's from the same HD dvr. Here are my questions for anyone who has any knowledge or experience with this setup.

1. Not that I will, but once Direct TV is installed, how difficult will it be to go back to TWC after the contract is up? I Like to keep my options open.

2. Will they need to hookup or use my broadband connection, hard wired, or wifi in any way, other than for the free wireless kit for Direct TV cinema? Right now with DSL 5mpbs, I stream Netflix with my wireless Sony Blue Ray Player. Sometimes Netflix will stop to buffer in the middle of a movie, that's why I decided to upgrade to 12mbps.

The change to Direct TV, will depend on how the tech wants to do the installation, or if there will be any extra charges. I already have coax cables going into the three rooms.


Here is the answer I got from ROYGBIV before the thread was locked:

I don't know about returning to cable, but I can give you some info about DirecTV's internet connection.

MRV works through the same cables that connect your DVR or receiver to the satellite. Therefore, the only connection to the internet is either wired or wireless to your router, and it is only used for video on demand, which they call DirecTV Cinema. You can also stream videos from YouTube now. You should also know how this works. Unlike cable, you don't watch something on VOD immediately. It will have to be downloaded from the internet. How long this takes, and when you can start watching, then depends on how fast your broadband connection is. I have 15mbs FIOS, and it usually takes at least 10 minutes to buffer a 60 minute show so I can start watching it without interruption.

As to the charge, there should not be any "hidden charges" with the install. You should negotiate your best price, and as a new subscriber, you can usually get most things for free. If the installer has to do "extra" work such as fishing cables through walls, that is separate and not covered. You would negotiate that price with the installer. Most people believe that if you can run cable to the places you want your receivers, you just maker it easier for the installer all around.

SMK

It appears that non of the equipment needs to be connected to my Gateway/Router for MVR. Any other responses will be appreciated.

While it's not necessary for an internet connection to have WHDVR (MRV) function if you don't connect it to your router then you won't have access to the On Demand channels, TVapps, DIRECTV2PC, the iPad app and MediaShare. DIRECTV should as part of the install run a coax line to your router and install a broadband DECA adapter or the can install the wireless braodband DECA, either way it should be part of the normal installation.

Also, strongly recommend that you get as many HD DVR's as part of the inital install that you can afford. If you want addional ones later they're $199, unless you're out of your contract then they might deal. This will add two additional tuners you can use for recording to help eliminate conflicts. Also recommend getting a HD receiver vs. the SD receiver. After the initial cost the monthly charges would be the same and then you'll be able to view recordings from the HD DVR(s) which the SD receiver can't. Plus the HD versions of channel will look better on a SD set, just make sure that TV has at leaset composite video and analog audio outputs since the HD recivers don't have RF outputs.