New DirecTV Genie DVR

[Akula]

I finally got tired of our (seemingly) prehistoric HR20 DVR... it's slow, loud, and being limited to two tuners in a DVR now just seems intolerable.*

The first time I tried to call and order one, DirecTV wanted to charge $300. Yeah, don't think so. Amazing, you call back and ask when your contract is up and they start getting REALLY happy to discount things. $99 later, one was on the way. It arrived yesterday.

Installation was easy but for the lack of instructions... I'll explain that in a minute. The new HR34 (that's the model number of the "Genie" system) is roughly the same size as the HR20... a little taller, but black with the buttonless touch sensitive front panel like the H24 series boxes.

Upon installation, the thing fired up and worked great. It's much quicker and more responsive than the HR20. Problem is, I realized my whole home DVR system was no longer working and the HR34 wouldn't get on the network. Hmmm.

Turned out that the instructions they don't give you are critical, and the issue had to do with the way they kludged network capability onto the older receivers. As DirecTV implemented the whole home DVR system, they use a little black box called a DECA to insert the network onto the coax itself; the DECA plugs into your router or switch and into the SWB (the multiswitch inside the house) and backfeeds the network signal on the satellite coax to the receivers. Problem is, older units like the Hx20 and Hx21 don't have the ability to receive the network signal like that. Those had their own little inline DECA boxes that would pull the network off the coax and put it onto an ethernet cable that got plugged into the receiver. I had just plugged that thing back into the HR34.

Don't do that. That's not how it's supposed to go.

When I removed that unnecessary DECA everything started working. Turns out the HR34 will NOT take the signal off the ethernet cable from that DECA into the ethernet port. There's a reason there's a rubber plug in that RJ45 port... it isn't meant to be used.

So the morals of the story...

1) If you have an HR20 or HR21 DVR and you want a reasonably priced upgrade, start by asking when your contract ends.
2) If you do a self install of a more modern DirecTV DVR, and your older unit had one of those white DECAs in line for networking, remove it. You don't need it. There's no instructions in the box and the person on the phone at DirecTV's call center won't think to ask you about it.
3) If you have an HR20, just call and get a new DVR. That one sucks. They don't even want it back. I'm tempted to dissect mine for kicks.


*Yes, I know, First World Problems...

 

[The DirtMerchant]

Just called yesterday and the still told me $299. They did say with the length of time I have been a customer, just keep calling back and it will eventually be substantially cheaper.

 

[Akula]

Just called yesterday and the still told me $299. They did say with the length of time I have been a customer, just keep calling back and it will eventually be substantially cheaper.

That's what they told me first time I called. Then I called back and at the voice prompt I said something about finding out when my contract ended. That got me straight through to a person (I presume a customer retention person) and I explained that my cable company could save me a bunch of money since DirecTV didn't seem eager to cut me a deal on a new DVR (since mine was relatively ancient). They immediately came back with the $99 price.

If you just talk to a normal rep you aren't going to get anything right now. If they realize that they might lose you, then they get eager to do something useful.

 

[Huey]

Akula,
Just wondering about if they said anything about other things being able to play the shows, like a bluray player. The reason I ask, is my Panasonic Bluray player, if I go to the DNLA section, DirecTV shows up as a media server, and lists the shows that are on my dvr. I can't play them, but didn't know if that was the fault of the bluray, or if after networking the boxes, they would be playable.

 

[Barney]

Just wondering my friends. Why are you paying someone $99 or $299 for a STB that you don't own, have to pay rent for every month & if I remember, they want you to pay Ins to cover the STB's ?

 

[CMonster]

Just wondering my friends. Why are you paying someone $99 or $299 for a STB that you don't own, have to pay rent for every month & if I remember, they want you to pay Ins to cover the STB's ?

So we can watch ESPN...

 

[Akula]

Akula,
Just wondering about if they said anything about other things being able to play the shows, like a bluray player. The reason I ask, is my Panasonic Bluray player, if I go to the DNLA section, DirecTV shows up as a media server, and lists the shows that are on my dvr. I can't play them, but didn't know if that was the fault of the bluray, or if after networking the boxes, they would be playable.

No idea. I know RVU-enabled (a subspec of DLNA) TVs are capable of being clients to the HR34 Genie receiver. I am not aware of being able to pull stuff from the DVR on regular DLNA devices.

 

[Akula]

Just wondering my friends. Why are you paying someone $99 or $299 for a STB that you don't own, have to pay rent for every month & if I remember, they want you to pay Ins to cover the STB's ?

Because the hardware itself is rather higher quality than the crap that passes for most cable boxes. Yeah, it doesn't thrill me that they're just leased, but you don't usually keep the gear from other providers either. And theirs often sucks.

Because DirecTV has an ounce of sense in their heads and didn't put all the HD channels up in some bizarre separate section of the guide so you have to scroll through everything twice in order to see what is actually on.

Because satellite doesn't depend on cables that have a nasty tendency to fray or split, and AT&T refuses to spend any time dealing with a trunk line that's spliced to hell and gone, making it darn near impossible to get anything close to a decent experience with their products on my street.

In other words, no, it isn't ideal, but for my money I'd rather deal with DirecTV's crap than anybody else's.

 

[Huey]

Akula,
Just wondering about if they said anything about other things being able to play the shows, like a bluray player. The reason I ask, is my Panasonic Bluray player, if I go to the DNLA section, DirecTV shows up as a media server, and lists the shows that are on my dvr. I can't play them, but didn't know if that was the fault of the bluray, or if after networking the boxes, they would be playable.

No idea. I know RVU-enabled (a subspec of DLNA) TVs are capable of being clients to the HR34 Genie receiver. I am not aware of being able to pull stuff from the DVR on regular DLNA devices.

Thanks! It just seems strange that they are even on there in the first place. How cool would it be to be able to watch DTV on a bluray player, without the need for another box.

 

[Batman]

Just wondering my friends. Why are you paying someone $99 or $299 for a STB that you don't own, have to pay rent for every month & if I remember, they want you to pay Ins to cover the STB's ?

Because the hardware itself is rather higher quality than the crap that passes for most cable boxes. Yeah, it doesn't thrill me that they're just leased, but you don't usually keep the gear from other providers either. And theirs often sucks.

Because DirecTV has an ounce of sense in their heads and didn't put all the HD channels up in some bizarre separate section of the guide so you have to scroll through everything twice in order to see what is actually on.

Because satellite doesn't depend on cables that have a nasty tendency to fray or split, and AT&T refuses to spend any time dealing with a trunk line that's spliced to hell and gone, making it darn near impossible to get anything close to a decent experience with their products on my street.

In other words, no, it isn't ideal, but for my money I'd rather deal with DirecTV's crap than anybody else's.

:text-+1: I pretty much feel the same way about being a Dish Network customer...

 

[Akula]

Akula,
Just wondering about if they said anything about other things being able to play the shows, like a bluray player. The reason I ask, is my Panasonic Bluray player, if I go to the DNLA section, DirecTV shows up as a media server, and lists the shows that are on my dvr. I can't play them, but didn't know if that was the fault of the bluray, or if after networking the boxes, they would be playable.

No idea. I know RVU-enabled (a subspec of DLNA) TVs are capable of being clients to the HR34 Genie receiver. I am not aware of being able to pull stuff from the DVR on regular DLNA devices.

Thanks! It just seems strange that they are even on there in the first place. How cool would it be to be able to watch DTV on a bluray player, without the need for another box.

Yeah, that's one of the points behind the new RVU technology. As far as I know, only a few Samsung displays currently utilize the spec, but more will likely be coming. They will incur a per-device fee (much as a separate satellite receiver or thin Genie client will), but they would be able to do without the separate set top box.

That's really the promise of the HR34 Genie... the tuners are contained in the main DVR box (5 of them), and it can stream that video to other displays in the home. In my case I don't have the thin client boxes or RVU TVs, so my other two satellite receivers work as normal. They handle their own regular live TV, but will stream recorded TV off the Genie. I basically get two more tuners in play (I can record five things on the DVR and watch one more on each of the other receivers), but I can't pause live TV on the other receivers (as one can if you use a thin client box).

It's an interesting capability, and if I were starting from scratch I'd probably use that thin client for at least the TV in the great room (where pausing/rewinding might be nice... but heck, if I wanted that I could just put a DVR in there too).

 

[Doghart]

I just added the HR34 a couple of weeks ago... it was $50.

D

 

[Barney]

Just wondering my friends. Why are you paying someone $99 or $299 for a STB that you don't own, have to pay rent for every month & if I remember, they want you to pay Ins to cover the STB's ?

So we can watch ESPN...

Ouch ! Still, I don't understand though......kinda like leasing a truck, you make down payment, you buy tags & registeration (for something you don't own & not in your name), make monthly rent payments, pay for maintance, & the lease is 3 yrs....then you have to give it back to the owner... What a waste of your funds, like renting an apt & not owning a home.
ESPN isn't worth thousands of $$$$$$$ every year.

 

[Akula]

Ouch ! Still, I don't understand though......kinda like leasing a truck, you make down payment, you buy tags & registeration (for something you don't own & not in your name), make monthly rent payments, pay for maintance, & the lease is 3 yrs....then you have to give it back to the owner... What a waste of your funds, like renting an apt & not owning a home.
ESPN isn't worth thousands of $$$$$$$ every year.

Thing is though, if you had a truck, you could drive it on the road. If you have a DirecTV box, you can do nothing with it but watch DirecTV. You can't use it for Dish or cable. That HR20 I pulled out they do not want back... they aren't giving them out anymore, so for them to cover shipping would be a waste. It's essentially junk. So yeah, I did keep a box I didn't really fully pay for (it was something like $100, if I even had to pay that, when I signed up). And it's useless if you aren't going to watch DirecTV with it.

And as for costs, my actual DirecTV bill, with 3 receivers, advanced DVR service, protection plan, HD channels, and pretty much everything except for Showtime, is about $150/month. Not cheap by any means, but well should of "thousands" of dollars a year. I could save money by going to cable, but that's with crappy hardware, insane channel assignments, and the added benefit of losing TV along with everything else if the trunk goes down (which it can do and has done).

Given everything else, I don't see the equipment upgrade fee to be that significant a bother.

 

[Akula]

I just added the HR34 a couple of weeks ago... it was $50.

D

bscene-buttred: bscene-birdiedoublered:

 

[Barney]

Sorry Akula....you only pay $1800 a year plus the costs of the STB's. Thats pretty close to thousands of dollars a year. :teasing-tease:

 

[Akula]

Sorry Akula....you only pay $1800 a year plus the costs of the STB's. Thats pretty close to thousands of dollars a year. :teasing-tease:

Yeah, but it's hardly 4-5 thousand.

If I went to cable I could probably save maybe $30-40 per month (if that, I kinda doubt that). I don't buy the STBs every year... I don't even think I ever paid a dime for the two HD non-DVRs we have. The $99 for the DVR is a one time fee, and IMO, I'd rather pay $99 for a decent and responsive piece of hardware than get the cable DVR for free and have half the Guide page taken up by ads while I have to scroll through everything twice to see what all is on.

 

[Towen7]

Just wondering my friends. Why are you paying someone $99 or $299 for a STB that you don't own, have to pay rent for every month & if I remember, they want you to pay Ins to cover the STB's ?

So we can watch ESPN...

Ouch ! Still, I don't understand though......
ESPN isn't worth thousands of $$$$$$$ every year.

Everyone has their sense of value. My friends pay close to $2,000 a year to have someone else maintain their yards. To them the time spent with family and not working is worth that. With regard to TV it's clearly not just ESPN but also all of the other premium news, sports, and movie channels. It's also the ability to easily record, view and manage your recordings from anywhere in the house.