Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Hughes DVR2 Tivo problem

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-01-2003, 05:55 PM:

My DVR2 occasionally won't acquire information from the satelite. I'm sure it's not the dish or the multi switch becasue the other recievers work fine.

What always happens is the power goes out in the house (which seems to happen at least once a week for some reason) and then it can only acuire 25% of the information. It usually does this for about 6 hours and then it will work fine.

Anyone else have this problem?

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 10-02-2003, 09:37 AM:

Don't have one yet....
What I'm wonder though, is if you can have one without the subscription part. Can't you just run it like a VCR? Set it for a time and channel or turn it on manually? I've looked at those gizmos at Costco a couple of times but another subscription payment turns me off.

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 10-02-2003, 10:08 AM:

Direct TV has been running a special on an 80 hour unit where they waive the monthly Tivo fee if you have the service package I take. Question, though, how is the video quality of the recording?

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-02-2003, 10:14 AM:

To my knowledge, you cannot use the directv tivo without directv, but I could be wrong. I will check the owner's manual.

As far as image quality, for the Hughes DVR2 the image quality is exactly as it is broadcasted, 100% digital quality. However the stand alone units, particularly the ones with smaller hard drives will record at a lower quality to be able to save more. You can always upgrade, Mine came with a 40 gb HD that I changed out for a 120gb, which gives me about 108 hours fo recording.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-03-2003, 07:19 PM:

Did you have to carry the unit in to have the drive swapped out or are these the same drives we use in our computers? How'd you go about upgrading yours?

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-03-2003, 09:38 PM:

Honestly, I dont knwo how to change out the drives. my brother did it for me. I know that you need to have a computer that runs linux because the tivo runs linux. I will try to find more info.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-05-2003, 01:06 PM:

I found some sites about upgrading Tivos.

The tivos use standard HDs just like your PC. You generally want to put a 5400rpm in one. IF you use anythign faster it would be best to install extra cooling.

Weaknees

Upgrade

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-05-2003, 01:44 PM:

Wow! Thanks Chris.

Is this a DSS satellite system you have?

I still have an RCA DSS (DirecTv) satellite dish installed on my roof but I got rid of the receiver a long time ago. I'm hoping I can just buy a new receiver and use the same dish.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-05-2003, 09:16 PM:

The DVR2 that I have is a directv reciver and tivo in one. I liek it because it has a dual tuner so you can watch one channel while the other is recording, or you can watch something that is recorded while both tuners are recording.

You can use the DSS dish with a directv system. Hoever, rapid satelite is running a sale for new subscribers. You can get the DVR2 with dish and installation for $50. The reciever is $250 alone.

Rapid satelite

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 10-05-2003, 09:33 PM:

Greg, once you use a Tivo *with* the subscription, you'll never go back. It makes recording your favorite shows VERY convenient. Try this with a VCR: "Find and record only the *new* episodes of Primetime Glick, but do not record any reruns. If the hard drive fills up, do not delete any episodes of Glick in favor of making space for something else." Or, "Find and record all movies with Clint Eastwood" (I think you can do that). You can literally set up a "season pass" like this one time, and never have to change it again for years, regardless of whether the show changes timeslots or even moves to a different network! [thumbsup]

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 10-05-2003, 09:44 PM:

My subscription costs $600-800 per year. Do you have to pay that much again to have the tivo and another subscription? Maybe I don't understand how it works

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-05-2003, 09:54 PM:

We have two tivos here and the stand alone that has a directv reciever hooked into it costs $13 a month for the tivo service or you can pay $250 for a lifetime sunscription.

The DVR2 combined unit is $5 for the access card fee, it doesnt charge me for the tivo service.

Also, if anyone is thinking of getting a dual tuner, you will need a multi switch. You can run four recievers off of a dual LNB dish, all showing different channels. A dual tuner receiver uses two of the recievers.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 10-06-2003, 01:03 PM:

Tivo subcription fee is $12.95/mo. I'm not sure if they still do the lifetime option or not, but it was like $250 or something like that (only good on the original Tivo unit though -- can't be transferred to a newer model, if you later upgrade).

What is the $600-$800 subcription for?

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 10-06-2003, 02:26 PM:

A years worth of regular dish network plus local channels plus HBO ShowTime Cinemax etc. It adds up fast. It would probably be cheaper to buy one of those sneaky cards, once, but I don't have enough hacker knowledge to do it with out screw up or at least the fear of screw up

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-06-2003, 02:27 PM:

The TiVo part of the subscription is only like $10 a month. I also recall reading that you can buy a lifetime subscription for something like $120 and then you'd never have to worry about paying that again...unless you added another TiVo unit to your collection.

I can't wait to get one because I can NEVER remember when my favorite shows are coming on...and, besides, DVDs have spoiled me. I prefer to watch a few episodes in one sitting and without commercial interruptions.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 10-06-2003, 02:49 PM:

I actually bought a Dish Network receiver with a TIVO gizmo built in. I got it at Costco and took it home and hooked it up to the plasma display (Panasonic) using the s video plug. The problem was that it was stuck in one display mode (I think Zoom) and it would not let me switch out. I thought the unit was defective and called Dish Network and they had me try a bunch of stuff. They thought it was defective too and shipped my another one. It did the same thing. So I wound up taking both of them back. I guess there's some signal that is generated on the S video signal that the plasma screen just doesn't like. I tried it on composite and it worked fine that way, but what's the sense? I went back to my old unit and it works fine. That's why I was considering a stand alone Tivo gizmo. Does the TIVO hook up down stream from the dish receiver?

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 10-06-2003, 03:22 PM:

Help me understand...

What was the problem with using composite video? It worked, right?

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 10-06-2003, 05:34 PM:

If you want Tivo and a satellite receiver, definitely get a unit with both functions built into the same box. You don't want a standalone Tivo and standalone satellite receiver. The video signal will go through an extra generation of MPEG decoding/encoding and it *will* degrade the video quality. In other words, the satellite receiver has to decode the original MPEG into analog video that feeds into the separate Tivo box. Then the Tivo has to encode it again, and decode it again when you play it back. Definitely harmful to the video quality. Been there, done that, didn't like it at all.

The satellite receivers with Tivo built in (at least the current generation ones) store the data on the hard drive in its original MPEG form as received from the satellite. Then when you play it back, it decodes it, just that once. So it's in its original quality, not degraded.

A guy here at work bought a DirecTV/Tivo receiver for $99 at Circuit City this weekend. He said a couple weeks ago they had it for only $50 with rebate but he waited too long.

As far as why the signal was locked in zoom mode, wish I could help you. There has to be an explanation... [Confused]

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 10-07-2003, 09:52 AM:

Manny
Yes it worked but the signal was degraded because composit is not as good as S-video. My RGB ins were already used by the DVD player. But I don't think I could have hooked it up there anyway

Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 10-07-2003, 01:10 PM:

My cable company (Time-Warner) has a DVR that replaces the standard digital cable box. It's only $9.95 a month extra. It works like Tivo except it doesn't need a phone line connection and it can record 2 programs at once. Tivo is said to be working on recording two channels simultaneously, but hasn't done so yet. I've used that feature at least 3 times since I got the unit on Saturday. This thing is great!

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-07-2003, 02:54 PM:

the hughes DVR2 tivo records two shows at once. It jsut has two satelite tuners built in and records both signals.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 10-07-2003, 07:01 PM:

I hate you guys that have cable. I bet you have cable internet too. I tried to get cable but they wanted $3000 to bring it down my easement

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-21-2003, 03:11 PM:

For the original concern brought up by Chris, you may be experiencing the same problem as what is described here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125181

The TiVo forums are a great place for everything TiVo, highly recommended!

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 10-21-2003, 09:55 PM:

Thanks Scott. I didn't even think to look for a Tivo forum.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-22-2003, 03:13 AM:

Cable sucks Greg! You shouldn't waste your time or $ on it. Get HDTV Satellite! It's **THE** only way to fly... [beer]

I had cable before the sats could carry the local channels, but dropped it cuz it was soooooo crappy!

I've had DirecTV since it started and have been totally happy with it.

>>> Phil

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 10-22-2003, 09:24 AM:

I highly enjoy my cable DVR box. Only 6.95 above regular price (of the regular cable box)and no purchase of the recorder. The first box broke so I just walked it in to the cable company (Brighthouse, fromerly Time-Warner)office and walked out with a new one. As simple as that.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-22-2003, 11:09 AM:

Phil told me he likes mini-dish satellite because it's digital.

Personally I think it looks like [bs]

. I'll stick with C-BAND. [thumbsup]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-22-2003, 01:31 PM:

I have Time-Warner Cable in Rochester. Channels are delivered through a set-top box, with analog signals for about half the channels, and digital for the upper tier. Analog signal quality wins hands-down, due to the high level of compression being used for the digital channels:

http://www.twrochester.com/programming/lineup.cfm?area=1

(Basic and Standard Tier are analog signals, channels 2-67 )