DirecTV HD TiVo HR10-250! - Page 3  

Does the receiver have a "sleep timer" function ?

I checked the manual but could not find anything about a sleep timer for the receiver.

I'm confused. Why would it need a sleep timer? It's on all the time.

I am definitely jealous of you cymro. I've emailed Robert at VE three times about my pre-order status and the guy won't even respond to tell me what place in line I am. He didn't even email me to tell me he couldn't really tell me that! And I gave the maximum $100 deposit.

What's worse is that I posted this same info over on the TiVo Community forums, and their resident "I'm better than all you" poster decided instead of trying to help he'd ridicule me and pretty much tell me I have no right as a consumer to get that information.

That will teach me for leaving the AVS. :)

I was #222 on the VE Preorder and mine just shipped yesterday. It will be here Tuesday. You will get yours for sure as soon as they get enough in. It's just been really slow in distribution for these since they are a new item and they don't seem to be making them that fast right now. Many people are waiting. I was lucky enough to order mine within a few days of seeing the announcement on the TiVo forum from VE.

-Joe

It's not that I was worried about JoesphR. That I get. I can't fault VE for not having enough product to ship out. That's not on them. But when they refuse to answer my questions and outright not even answer me at all, that is bad business practice and after three emails that angers me.

Michael, over in that thread we have to deal with a handful of people that keep coming back in as new users and posting nasty things -- people we've proven haven't even ordered from VE but are just stirring things up for whatever reason; I'm sorry you took my response as "I'm better than you" but I re-read it again, and I can't see how it would come off like that. Your comment here seems a little uncalled for.

I did try to help, trying to correct what appeared to be some frustration based on expectations you had that weren't correct, as well as to answer your question about place in line by telling you what has been mentioned regarding that info becoming available and trying to get your basic info so we can include it on the list we've been trying to maintain, so you and others can get a feel for where you are while awaiting the info from VE.

Doug- Do you or anyone have any idea when TIVO will be shipping to regular dealers, Filling the pipes so to speak, so I can walk into my dealer here in Jacksonville and pick up my order I placed with him, he placed with his supplier, back in January? I'm in no rush but I just would like to know so I can plan it out. To the nearest month would be nice.
It seems today that the HDTIVO is in as much short supply as the 921. I know the reasons for the shortages on the 921 but why is the HDTIVO in so short supply? They told me I would be able to walk in on March 31st to any dealer in the country and walk out with one. Obviously I didn't believe them and told them I'll believe that when it happens. Well, here it is May 1st and while some are getting product, we seem to be far away from the claim of walk in and walk out with HDTIVO.

Just so you know, the only reason why I got a 921 back in January is because I caught the distributor in a lie at CES, put all parties on a conference call from the show floor with my cell phone and they fought it out, apologies were given and then a week later when I returned home I had a 921 from that distributor. I think anyone, like Mullis, has a right to know what his status is as a preorder with money tied up. He has a right to get answers from his dealer. I would expect the same and if something didn't mesh as was the case with my dealer, distributor, and the 921, the guilty one needs to make restitution to Mike.

Doug, it was the last part of your post that set me off. As you can tell from my status here at AVS I am not a newbie to forums. This has been my home now for 3 years. That thread in the TiVo Community forum was the first time I posted there simply because in that thread I had nothing to post about until last night, when my frustrations came to a head and I needed somewhere to try and get my experience up on. Over here there was no such VE thread. So I finally decided to register after a couple of months of nothing but reading that forum and let people know that all is not roses. And as you can see, I didn't just willy-nilly start flaming Value Electronics. It took three emails to them to tick me off. One email I can understand. But three? Anyway, instead of anyone trying to help, or share similar frustrations so I know it's not just me, I get pegged as a troll.

Now, being as I used to manage a retail store, I am aware of the customer's rights. And my bottom line point was that I didn't care when my unit was coming. I wasn't looking for an exact ship date. I know I can't get that. But there is no reason that Robert (who I am assuming is rzohn), couldn't take five minutes to look down his list. It's that same list I would think would tell him what group I am in when the next set of Tivo's arrive. It's got to be written down somewhere.

As for my post being un-called for here, I contend your post was equally un-called for in the TC forum, and anger fueled my subsequent post here. If you had asked for my order number in the first place, and simply went about things just a little different, I would have given it to you, and probably been a little more open then being told I have no real right to know about my order. You absolutely came off as better than me whether that was your intention or not. You're telling me now that's not the way you meant it, and I will accept that on your word.

BTW, Order ID: 13727, Time of Order: 3/5/2004 2:56:56 PM. Ask me nicely and I would have given it to you in the first place. :)

I am very sorry, Michael. I guess I can't excuse the way I wrote it, only explain why I wrote it like I did. It's been so frustrating at times with the number of people that go on the attack over in that thread over the months, and unfortunately the past week it's practically been a nightly thing... so it really was hard to not think you might have been the latest incarnation of whoever that troublemaker is. I'll make the effort to do better the next time someone new comes in so it doesn't happen again.

While I'm not associated with Value Electronics, I sort of inserted myself into a position where I end up talking regularly to them, and have gotten some sense for how this whole thing has overwhelmed them. I really don't think they have that info but are trying to sort it out themselves, perhaps by taking a bunch of pieces of paper and sorting them... as odd/unautomated as that sounds. And the "important" thing has always been dealing with those that'll be in the next batch or two. I could picture them grabbing the orders by dates and sorting them and figuring it out by hand, even. And all those further out just aren't really organized well.

Personally I wish they'd just spend the time to do it and let everyone know. Even if it can't be accurate over time since undoubtedly people will get units elsewhere, and cancel, thus moving everyone below up the list. But it would be something. It's by far the most common complaint anyone makes. And it really could be so easy to deal with.

I don't know if it will make a difference (and it certainly shouldn't require it) but I did drop another email to Robert asking him to look at your request and try to get a response to you. Most all of us there really are just trying to help each other. And keeping our own self-reported list was the way that started.

Now based on your order, I would've been guessing you're around #1150-1200. But now that other retailers have been shipping, I'm sure there's going to be cancellations so you should move up. I don't know if it'll be enough to make the 5/28 shipment, which I'd guess you're about 250-300 units after, at least if no one were to cancel. Supposedly by end of May units should be shipping in larger quantities, so you'd probably be part of his first June allocation. But we can always hope things start speeding up a bit.

I was about to try to visit all the pre-order threads and see if I can figure anything out from the seemingly-more-accurate accounts of how many units really got distributed this last week. Almost every dealer is saying end-of-May now when asked when their units are coming in. And everything till then is just a trickle it would appear. So I don't know if I can believe all of the sudden a spigot gets turned on at the end of May.

We've been trying to track manufacture dates too, and the first 168-unit VE allocations was made from 5-Apri to 15-Apr. And the units other retailers are shipping out have mostly been made just 4-6 days ago, though one person just reported a 16-Apr manufacture date on a Good Guys delivery.

By all appearances, they're speeding up over time, but a lot slower than they probably anticipated. It looks like it may have taken them as many as 10 days to make about 200 units. And then maybe about 1,000 units were made over the next 10 days. I'd heard the expectation was they could make about 180-200 a day where they're made now, and come sometime around August would begin manufacturing them in Mexico on the production line currently making SD DVR's for DirecTV. All that info is about a month old. I can't believe DirecTV isn't trying to deal with this as quickly as they can. But apparently there's either some problems, or just lack of production line access right now so they're making do as best they can.

Compounding all this are how many people are putting in orders everywhere, intending to take the first they can get then cancel the other orders. That's artifically inflating demand and artifically making it look like you couldn't get one soon. And I hope that by June that will disappear.

If you're in the NY/NJ/PA area, PC Richard supposedly still has a dozen or so units available now, but they also require a $100 installation and won't budge at all on that. But it seems there's places, probably mostly little regional chains who don't get much national attention, who probably have access to a few units now.

I appreciate your reply Doug, and I consider that matter dropped and in the queue for "moving on". :) Apology accepted and return apology offered for taking your original post too hard. I can understand that with 360+ pages of a thread it could be a little tough to keep up. I know I have had a hard time with it. If you're not hitting refresh every 5 seconds you're going to miss a lot.

What you're saying though is my point. I'm not in a rush. In reality if I have to wait an extra month before having to part with another $800, my wife isn't going to complain. I just want to know where I stand. And I don't need to know every week, I just wanted to know one time. And if it wasn't for the fact that I spent three times with no reply I wouldn't think about spending the energy to look elsewhere. It was more the business aspect of this problem that is the reason I am looking to spend my money elsewhere. Again, I am not expecting to pull a magical unit out of his hat just to send to me. I would just like to know whether or not I'm getting one before the next model comes out. :)

While we were waiting for any to ship to anyone, I was getting into looking at the chipsets available now that could very well be in a "next generation" model. The BroadCom BCM7038 (in conjunction with some other BroadCom support chips) looks like a neat one. THe BCM7037 is used in the HR10-250, but there's nothing on their site about it other than a press release about the HD DVR using it. The BCM7038 appears to support everything -- provides the capability for PIP in addition to everything else, and offers simultaneous multiple resolution outputs, ethernet, USB 2.0, Firewire and SATA hard drive support, even supports QAM and 8VSB and both DBS and DVB formats (meaning potentially Dish Network and DirecTV compatible). It'll be interesting to see if someone's developing a product with it.

Basically it looks like a kitchen-sink collection of everything to date that has been done.

Are you impying that there is no "power" button whatsoever ??

Doesn't this receiver have an "ON" state AND a "STANDBY" state ??? (like most electronics)

STANDY being a state of less power consumption than fully on.

Does anyone else understand what I mean by "sleep timer" ?

The standby mode is entered via a menu on the unit. It does two things: turns off video output and stops recording the 30-minute buffers on each tuner, power consumption probably drops 3 or 4 watts.

By sleep timer, I presume you want a way to have the unit enter a standby mode automatically after a given period of time (30 minutes/an hour, etc), right? Nothing exist like that.

I apologize... I never use the Standby feature and forgot it existed. :o

Is VE a small chain?
I am asking because Rapidsatellite is a big dealer (top 10 list and the CSR at Directv heard of them) and when I just ordered tonight, I was told 2 weeks for the HD TIVO to be delivered.

Seems like RS has a bigger supply chain that VE. I see you quoting dates of 5/28 and into June but I expect mine around May 15.

Just curious what reality really is.


Joe

Read through this... there's a lot of stories to sort through: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...hreadid=172668

There was a lot of confusion about RapidSatellite orders in the TivoCommunity thread.....it went something like:
They have them is stock.
No they don't.
Yes they do.
No they don't.
Yes, no, yes, yes, no, yes, no, no, no.....
Shipped a few.
Shipped none.
Should get some soon.
Will ship next week.
And on and on.....

It certainly looks as if the RapidSatellite folks were terribly confused with the phone reps saying something different than the internet folks.

The one thing I have found out is that it is impossible to determine who has how many and when. Vendors are not getting good shipping info from Hughes and what shipments vendors are getting appear to be significantly less than they expected. Almost everyone is now reporting end of May before significant quantities arrive.

So far all the units that have been delivered have been mfgr'd in the USA. I suspect that DirecTv is trying to get the production of these units shifted to Mexico and that it will take awhile before they can get that line going. Perhaps that will be towards the end of May.

Doug,

Don't suppose you've heard any rumors along those lines? Along with that, along with the upcoming (ongoing?) branding change, is the HD DirecTivo going to stay the same when moved to the new assembly location, or will it be re-named, cosmetics changed, etc. Has D* made any news available about what any of this new line will be like (not just the TiVo, but the regular HD receivers)? I will probably be switching from E* to D* sometime this summer, and if any changes are going to happening in the immediate future I may wait; for example I HATE the styling of the current box, if they were to put a more "normal looking" faceplate on the thing I would be much happier. Other than that I like what I've read so far.

enigma

FWIW,

I asked the sales guy exactly that question and he said "we just got a big shipment yesterday and there was a lot of confusion at our store trying to sort this out. That is why the CSR you talked to this morning did not even know we sold just the receiver. We are finally getting our act together this afternoon"

I haven't heard anything about changes; all I expect to change will be (1) the rear will now say "Made in Mexcio" and (2) you'll be able to find them on shelves. :)

THat strange front panel design is what Hughes has been doing for awhile. I wouldn't anticipate a change there since Hughes is just DirecTV, it's not like DirecTV is "taking over" someone else's product.

We can all hope that the person responsible for this front panel design will get fired, transferred, or otherwise reprimanded for it, but I don't see it changing on this model and I don't see any subsequent new model coming out for awhile.

Thanks Doug,

I guess the only good news about the looks is that all of the other satellite and cable guys seem to have the same strange taste; the Dish 6000 that i have is almost as bad (plastic, etc), the VOOM box looks even weirder, and most of the cable boxes look pretty strange as well. You would think these guys would think there was an advantage to making something look like it actually cost 1K, like ALL other consumer electronics products, from a $50 DVD player on up.

enigma

Hi All

Got mine today..a few initial comments. Setup was a breeze. Works just like a D* Tivo. Both sat tuners and OTA work well. Still has that Tivo sluggishness when changing channels or giving guide/record commands. Recorded HD material appears same PQ as live. Set a few season passes, will see how that works out, sure it will be fine.

A few notes, pardon if these have been noted elsewhere.

1. In settings menu, there is an option to choose 4 different screen resolutions that you can use the "up" button on your remote to cycle through. So you don't have to use the button on the front of the box.

This makes the lack of a "native" rez setting far more tolerable to me

2. The channel guide is a major upgrade from the nightmare guide on the Hughes HTL-HD/LG/Sony boxes. Very customizable when it comes to adding OTA channels.

3. The 30-second skip trick works on this box/remote

4. Will not record live TV when you are using OTA signal strength meter...kind of a bummer, but minor. Also, the meter appears to only be accesible via the menu, no direct button that I could find as yet.

5. Also appears to be no direct way of turning on/off closed captioning...anybody else confirm this? seems you have to go through the menu to do it.....

Overall, I'm pretty happy . That's it for now.

daniel

Thanks for the info. I hope they're being forthright. I remain skeptical but I do hope they're able to ship.

Don,

FWIW: Back on 3/29, I attended the CEA's HD Summit show here in Washington, DC. I had the opportunity to speak with Doug Eichler from DirecTV at the show. He indicated to me that they've presold many, many more of these HD Tivos than they ever anticipated. Doug seemed to think that it would take many months -- perhaps the fall timeframe -- before they have enough supply for them to be in "regular" stock at local stores.

So it's probably good that you placed your order in advance!

Brett

I got mine today as well. I was upstairs and saw the UPS truck coming down the street. I sprinted down the stairs scaring the crap out of my fiance. I threw open the door and greeted the Sat delivery man by snatching my new toy and running upstairs to hook it right up (ok, I signed and said thanks - but then I ran upstairs).

One thing I'm not seeing alot of fan fair about is the digital signal meeter for OTA stations. I don't know if other receivers have this as well but this was the first time I could measure my signal other than just testing if stations came in or not. Of course I had to buy a new antena. I picked up a Winegard SqureShooter and attached it to my roof carefully pointing it based on Doug Swallow's cool tool (http://www.2150.com/broadcast). I'm getting great signals on ABC (85), CBS(95), NBC(92), and FOX(85) in NJ but WPIX is still weak (22). Seeing the guide data for those stations totally blows my mind! Anyway, the point is that the HD Tivo has inspired and helped me dramatically improve my OTA reception. Comcast may be getting cancelled real soon (I have it for HD Locals)!

I do have two minor issues that are a bit anoying.

1) I wish that I could leave my old Tivo set to it's factory remote code and just change the HD Tivo remote code. In order to have two Tivos in the same room not conflict you have to set the id on both units from 0 to a unique one. The default is a universal code that controls all Tivos regardless of the code its set to. Now I have a lot of work to do on my universal remote.

2) I wish I could go directly to the station I want to test OTA signal strenght on. Right now you have to use right and left arrows to get there.

The bottom line is that I have been completely hooked on Tivo since I left Dish a couple of years ago due to their DishPlayer erasing all my recordings one too many times (they actually had text on my account saying "customer believes his DishPlayer is evil..."). I've been dreaming of the day that I could have the same Tivo greatness handle HD and today it arrived. It is a great day!!!

-Greg

I ordered mine from Good Guys a while back (#413) and talked to them last week. They said that they would be getting their first order 4/28 and sending them out to stores and that guy told me the first order should be completely filled. I went in today and it seems that he was mistaken. My local store (Lynnwood, WA) said they did get some, but that Good Guys only got 167 of their order of 1000. So, the first guy just had it wrong. Anyway, they said that their next shipment is scheduled for 5/15, but they don't know how many they will get that time either. Just wanted to let people know how the supply is going for one chain. I think they've sold out the entire 1000 at this point.

--Darin

I answered you someplace else tonight too, but for the sake of anyone lurking here...

on the front panel, press the INFO and RIGHT buttons at the same time. The system diagnostic menu will display. On the bottom of the first page are signal strength levels from all 4 tuners.

This won't interrupt recording in progress or the 30-minute buffers.

Good Guys said today May 1 the preorders to arrive May 14.....

Thanks Doug, that was my similar post on TivoCommForum. I have an important question. I have this Tivo connected to my Sammy DLP in an armoire (WAF). Anyways, I have never had a Tivo in a cabinet before. She likes the doors closed when the TV is not in use, but I was a bit afraid of the heat factor, so I slipped down when she wasn't looking and opened the door as well as put the unit in standby mode. One, I don't want to fry the unit, and more importantly, I don't want to burn my house down. Do you think there may be a safety issue here? Would an extra ratshack fan and perhaps cutting out the back of the armoire behind the Tivo be indicated? I already removed the TV cut-out portion, but that doesn't really do anything as far as ventilating the Tivo. Also, do you think standby mode lowers the heat factor at all?

thanks

daniel the cross-poster:eek: