Simple Question: Is the HR-20 discontinued and no longer manufactured? [Archive]

PennHORN

10-29-07, 03:13 PM

Solid Signal no longer has any HR-20s and they state that is discontinued. People have said that you can go online or go to a CC or BB to get one. Well, it doesn't look like it. D* needs to say once and for all whether it is discontinued.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=HR20

hdtvfan0001

10-29-07, 03:20 PM

This was answered at the top of this forum - the top thread:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=106995

Doug Brott

10-29-07, 03:40 PM

At this point, I don't believe that DIRECTV has made any announcement about discontinuing the HR20.

PennHORN

10-29-07, 03:40 PM

No it wasn't. There was talk of a solution for the HR-21. I don't care about the HR-21 as long as the HR-20 is still being made. That is my questions.

Tom Robertson

10-29-07, 03:45 PM

DarkAudit

10-29-07, 03:53 PM

BB manager here told me that they're carrying the HR21 in place of the HR20. He said that decision was made above the store level.

He knows it's a problem because there's a large customer base just south of here that doesn't receive locals from D*, and probably won't qualify for distants.

Mike728

10-29-07, 04:10 PM

Mine shows a manufacture date of 10/03/07. Maybe I was lucky and got one of the last ones. :p

hdtvfan0001

10-29-07, 04:11 PM

Perhaps the HR20-700 is stopped after being out a year, and the HR20-100 is still being manufactured.....:rolleyes:

Stuart Sweet

10-29-07, 04:14 PM

Darkaudit (and anyone else), you might try your local CostCo as they seem to have good stocks of HR20-700s still.

jtn

10-29-07, 04:18 PM

Darkaudit (and anyone else), you might try your local CostCo as they seem to have good stocks of HR20-700s still.

Wow, I had no idea Costco sold DirecTV stuff.

hombresoto

10-29-07, 04:28 PM

While I do know that they are available today, I do not know if production has been permanently stopped or even temporairly paused. My impression is that neither model of HR20 has been discontinued.

Even if the HR20 is in between production runs today, they could restart fairly quickly anytime for the several months after a previous run.

Cheers,
Tom

I posted a prediction the hr20 would be discontinued a week ago.... and after being jumped all over on by the mods and 1000+ posters insisting they would manufacture and support 2 hd dvrs and 2 hd receivers, looks like I may have been right... I guess 9 years experience installing and supporting d* really DOES mean something:lol:

Doug Brott

10-29-07, 04:29 PM

I posted a prediction the hr20 would be discontinued a week ago.... and after being jumped all over on by the mods and 1000+ posters insisting they would manufacture and support 2 hd dvrs and 2 hd receivers, looks like I may have been right... I guess 9 years experience installing and supporting d* really DOES mean something:lol:

well, the theory is still yet to be proven ;)

harsh

10-29-07, 04:29 PM

Even if the HR20 is in between production runs today, they could restart fairly quickly anytime for the several months after a previous run.The machines are so different as to be unrecognizable. They would have to be pressed awfully hard to retool for the HR20-700S. I'm guessing that the HR20 had quite a bit of human assembly involved and that's often quite expensive and perhaps less reliable.

Now we know how they planned on doing the $100 cost reduction. The question that I still have is why those ATSC tuners cost so darn much.

jtn

10-29-07, 04:30 PM

harsh

10-29-07, 04:31 PM

Wow, I had no idea Costco sold DirecTV stuff.Costco sells everything at one time or another. The trick is knowing that the next time you go there, they may be selling the competing platform.

Doug Brott

10-29-07, 04:31 PM

Now we know how they planned on doing the $100 cost reduction. The question that I still have is why those ATSC tuners cost so darn much.

Aren't the PCI cards in the $70+ range? And that's for a single tuner. I'd imagine the the ATSC tuner portion is a big chunk of that cost. But yes, there must be something more than just the hardware that's ratcheting up the cost.

bwaldron

10-29-07, 04:36 PM

Wow, I had no idea Costco sold DirecTV stuff.

Seems to vary by region. I have never seen any DirecTV stuff in any of our local Costcos.

jtn

10-29-07, 04:36 PM

Costco sells everything at one time or another. The trick is knowing that the next time you go there, they may be selling the competing platform.

I agree with you 100%. :)

hombresoto

10-29-07, 04:40 PM

well, the theory is still yet to be proven ;)

and I could be wrong, just ask my girlfriend... :lol:

John in Georgia

10-29-07, 04:45 PM

I bought an HR20-700 this week from BB (hard to find) that was manufactured on 9/24/07.

Mine shows a manufacture date of 10/03/07. Maybe I was lucky and got one of the last ones. :p

Ken S

10-29-07, 04:45 PM

Aren't the PCI cards in the $70+ range? And that's for a single tuner. I'd imagine the the ATSC tuner portion is a big chunk of that cost. But yes, there must be something more than just the hardware that's ratcheting up the cost.

I think there's a $5 per tuner license fee to these folks http://www.mpegla.com/atsc/

Here's a blog with a mention LINK (http://allthingsdtt.blogspot.com/2007/09/atsc-license-fees-released.html)

Mike728

10-29-07, 04:49 PM

I bought an HR20-700 this week from BB (hard to find) that was manufactured on 9/24/07.

Are you sure it's a 700 and not a 100?

John in Georgia

10-29-07, 06:37 PM

Quite sure, yes.

ngiovas

10-29-07, 07:18 PM

I just bought an HR20-700 at BB today. They had a few of them in stock, and when I checked online, it showed them in stock at all of the stores in the immediate area (southeast Michigan).

What was interesting was that the tag on the shelf had the correct description, but the part number was 250-HR20. I don't know if that was a typo, or if they have something new coming in. The part number on the box and receiver were both HR20-700.

I wanted to get one while I could to ensure that I can continue to receive OTA. I had a few times during heavy snow/rain that I could only get a signal from the antenna.

Stuart Sweet

10-29-07, 07:37 PM

You know, you could argue that if the HR20 is ordered in batches, that every time a batch order is finished, the HR20 is discontinued.

jtn

10-29-07, 07:53 PM

You know, you could argue that if the HR20 is ordered in batches, that every time a batch order is finished, the HR20 is discontinued.

The definition though in industry means the end of the line, and it's replaced by a newer product.

When you go into stores to buy electronics discontinued items are discounted, since a newer product has replaced it. Happens all the time with computers and most other goods.

21hawk

10-31-07, 06:56 PM

Solid Signal has the HR20 listed at discontinued, is this true?

Tom Robertson

10-31-07, 07:12 PM

Merged threads.

Carry on,
Tom

Ed Campbell

11-01-07, 07:24 PM

I've been through a classic D*/local installer adventure since October 12th - detailed elsewhere. Four appointments. Four failures to get installed. Several excuses involving useless hardware - which in my DMA means HR21 and, therefore, no ability to watch or record CBS-HD.

Searched here and found nothing about the HR20's being EOL - end-of-life - but, that was part of the excuse from Mastec unable to bring me an HR20-XXX [preferably 700].

Their local supervisor was on a 3-way with me and a D* supervisor, this evening. And he stated he wasn't getting any more HR20's of any flavor because the HR21 is the only HD-DVR he will be getting from D*.

True?

If it is, about a third of D* country won't be watching and recording CBS-HD in the near future.

Earl Bonovich

11-01-07, 07:53 PM

HR20 is not even remotely close to EOL

Right now, there is an influx of HR21-700's to the market, because they were being stockpiled waiting the okay to be released.

As of just a few weeks ago HR20's were still being produced.

As for the aspects of no OTA, there are dozens if not more threads about it.

Mike728

11-01-07, 08:08 PM

I went to my local Best Buy today and noticed that they had 2 HR20's, and 8 HR21's. Makes think the 20's may be close to extinction. :nono:

armophob

11-01-07, 08:23 PM

My offer still stands. Anyone who wants to trade a new 21 for one of my 20's just let me know.

ECFidler

11-01-07, 08:28 PM

Hi Ed,

I am in Santa Fe, and

I just had a HR20-700 installed today. When I booked it through the 800 # I had to repeat about three times that I must have OTA.

I was prepared to send them on their way if they showed up with a HR21.

So far everything is great. Works beautifully.

The installer that came to my house even ran mostly new cables and fixed some of the wiring I did myself a few years ago.

Later

Corey

Stuart Sweet

11-01-07, 08:41 PM

Earl is right (of course). EOL refers to a product that is no longer supported because it has been out of production so long that it is infeasible to support, for whatever reason.

HR20 is far, far from that. DIRECTV is still supporting the first DVR they ever sold.

HR20 will be with us for a long, long time to come.

Ed Campbell

11-01-07, 08:49 PM

I couldn't pass up the alliteration of EOL and SOL - and I was [mostly] certain from our discussions here - led by the superlative Earl - that I was just getting wrong info.

The Mastec dude is supposed to call back over the weekend and let me know if he tracked down an HR20. Sadly, the D* supervisor didn't know any better - and didn't contradict him when he talked about the HR20 being "over".

I have a couple other squirrelly options in play, as well. I just really wanted to get an HR20 into the guest house and surprise my father-in-law when he lands here, this weekend. He doesn't know I got a new HDTV for our living room and he's inheriting the old one.

Corey - special thanks for your info about our enchanted installers. And welcome to this crew.

Earl - as usual - thanks for being a horse's mouth instead of the alternative anatomy presented by Mastec.

waynenm

11-01-07, 08:57 PM

I also had a negative experience with Mastec in the last month down here in Albuquerque, trying to get my 103b signal tweaked. I advise dealing with D* directly.

ECFidler

11-01-07, 08:59 PM

Hi Ed,

There used to be a guy named Ed Campbell in SF that had a bike shop, same guy?

I have my old HR10-250 if you need to borrow it for weekend.

If you need it email me.

Later

Corey

Groundhog45

11-01-07, 09:39 PM

Solid Signal also says the H20 is discontinued. ??? Here. (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=H20)

Tom Robertson

11-01-07, 09:46 PM

Merge again.

Ken S

11-01-07, 09:48 PM

Mine shows a manufacture date of 10/03/07. Maybe I was lucky and got one of the last ones. :p

Or...you may remember that in many parts of the world they put the day before the month ;)

Sharkie_Fan

11-01-07, 10:00 PM

FWIW... the Pace 2007 Annual Report states that they are delivering "an MPEG4 PVR" to DirecTV and have order visibility through mid-2008.

The fact that it mentions only a single MPEG4 DVR seems to me to mean one of two things - and I don't purport to know which one it is.

Either they have, in fact, stopped manufacturing the HR20 and are delivering ONLY the HR21.

OR, the Annual Report information was compiled either before the HR21 manufacturing began OR before the HR21 was announced by DirecTV and so they opted not to mention a second model.

It's much too late for me to do my homework, so I'm not sure the timing of the announcement of the HR21 relative to the annual report, but I'm sure someone here can figure out those dates...

I know there's nothing definative there, but I thought it was at least worth mentioning.... And all of you who are smarter than I am can decide if there's anything to my thought process one way or the other.. :)

And, BTW, the Pace Annual Report can be found here:
http://www.pacemicro.com/media/corporate/PDF/ra_2007.pdf

Earl Bonovich

11-01-07, 10:11 PM

Solid Signal also says the H20 is discontinued. ??? Here. (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=H20)

The H20... that is a very high probability that they have stopped production on those...

As it is nearly a 3 year old design... and the H21 is now available...

Solid Signal also just a few weeks ago said the D12 was discontinued, which I know for a fact it was not... and is still the primary SD receiver for DirecTV.

allenn

11-01-07, 10:18 PM

D* has sent me two HR21's that were suppose to be an HR20. They credited my account and suggested I purchase an HR20 from BB or CC in Atlanta. Well, neither retailer has any HR20's and said they had none on order. Also, BB said that the HR21 would be replacing the HR20.

Tom Robertson

11-01-07, 10:27 PM

At one point this summer, BB told me DIRECTV wouldn't even be sold out of the stores anymore. :) Don't believe them anymore than the average CSR.

Cheers,
Tom

Ed Campbell

11-02-07, 07:03 AM

Hi Ed,

There used to be a guy named Ed Campbell in SF that had a bike shop, same guy?

I have my old HR10-250 if you need to borrow it for weekend.

Corey

Got me! Retired old fart, now.

Gave away my last HR10 - and don't need one for myself. Happy with my own HR20. But, I bought a new HDTV for the living room and part of getting full WAF was moving the older set to the guest house for my father-in-law. He returns to SF couple times a year.

He's due here, this weekend, and we wanted to surprise him. Which is why I odered back on October 12th.

Looks like the surprise will be an HDTV - run by an R15. :nono2:

Milominderbinder2

11-02-07, 05:41 PM

Solidsignal has the HR20 back in stock (http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=HR20)!

- Craig

Ken S

11-02-07, 06:39 PM

Crutchfield (http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=11500&i=637HR20&tp=175)says they have them too. They took great care of me when I purchased mine. No questions asked about returns on any problems I had.
Their tech support is also fantastic.