HR20-700 in Baltimore?

[Flockhart11]

Hi folks,

Any word on when the HR20-700 will be available in Baltimore?

I recently ordered the previous version, unaware that I had to wait in order to get a DVR compatible with a 5-LNB dish.

Anyway, after discussing things with a CSR, and telling him that I would have waited a month or two for installation if I knew I were getting soon-to-be-surpassed equipment, he credited my account $250 towards installation/upgrade to new equipment, saying I was one of their A-level customers. (10 years, many many sports subscriptions, etc.)

But, football and hockey seasons await, and I GOTS ta' have my local-channel football in HD!

Thanks all for your help!

[captain_video]

DTV tells almost all of their customers they're on the A-list so don't get too excited about it. AFAIK the mpeg4 locals are available in Baltimore (all whopping 4 of them). The HR20-700 is now available through online dealers and ebay so you can get one anytime you want. My question is, why would you want to? The only channel I can see that would be of interest would be Comcast SportsNet in HD. You can get way more locals in HD from Baltimore and DC via OTA antenna than DTV will ever be able to offer you. I'm in Ellicott City and I currently get 14 channels in HD via my UHF antennas. The ATSC tuners on the HR20 won't be activated until at least October, just in time to miss most of the Fall season premieres.

I barely watch or record any of the DTV channels anymore with but a few exceptions. DTV will have to seriously enhance their HD lineup before I'd even consider getting the HR20. Do yourself a favor and stick with the HR10-250. You won't regret it, I promise you. If you feel you'd like to switch to mpeg4 at a later date, such as when DTV launches their new satellites in the next year or two, get the HR10-250 on the lease plan and get a free upgrade to the HR20 when you actually have some HD channels to watch.

FWIW, you can already get Channel 13 in HD OTA for the Ravens games, as well as Fox, ABC, NBC, MPT and the rest of the independents. Don't expect to see that many Ravens games in HD unless you have the the NFL Season Ticket (still available with the HR10-250, BTW). You won't see them on any of the mpeg4 channels right now. The Caps games should be on CSN, but not for several months when the season starts up. I think the Terps are on Jefferson Sports Channel, or something like that, which is aired on channel 45, IIRC.

[jakencam]

My reason for wanting the HR20 is that I can't get HD channels OTA very well. I live in Columbia, our TV is in the basement, and we have a lot of trees around our area. I suppose I could try to hook something up in the attic, but it would be a lot easier to get the locals through the satellite.

[SockMonkey]

Hey guys, I'm in the Baltimore area too (Glen Burnie) and I have a question regarding OTA.

I only got my HR10-250 2 weeks ago. I got it sooner rather than later because I too wanted to watch Football in HD this season. I also got the OTA antenna installed with it. However... my reception on the OTA sucks. :nono2: I can barely sit through an episode of "The Office" because the signal breaks up so frequently. Antennaweb.org tells me I'm less than 12 miles from the tower, so why am I getting such crappy reception? Is it just a bad install job? :mad:

I need to know before I call up the installers and have them come back to fix it.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

[Flockhart11]

Thanks for the info, Captainvideo and Sockmonkey. Perhaps the OTA antenna is the way to go for me at this time, as it sounds like the HR20-700 won't really add much in my case. I'm in Federal Hill, so there won't be any issues with trees or buildings interfering. I've got the football and hockey packages no matter what to see my out-of-town teams, so that probably covers the bulk of the available HD sports broadcasts.

[TimGoodwin]

Hey guys, I'm in the Baltimore area too (Glen Burnie) and I have a question regarding OTA.

I only got my HR10-250 2 weeks ago. I got it sooner rather than later because I too wanted to watch Football in HD this season. I also got the OTA antenna installed with it. However... my reception on the OTA sucks. :nono2: I can barely sit through an episode of "The Office" because the signal breaks up so frequently. Antennaweb.org tells me I'm less than 12 miles from the tower, so why am I getting such crappy reception? Is it just a bad install job? :mad:

I need to know before I call up the installers and have them come back to fix it.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Did you get the antenna from Directv? If you did it sucks big time. Go out and get one on your own, I live in Glen Burnie also and have a UHF/ VHF rooftop antenna and I pick up all the Baltimore and DC stations out there.

[uvamack]

With regards to it being available in the Baltimore area, I think it depends on if the local installer has it in stock. I was scheduled for an install on 9/16 for an HR-10 250 then a free upgrade when the HR20-700 is out. I received an email from DirecTV this morning stating it was available. I called DirecTV retention told her I got an email stating it was available and she had no clue, what a surprise. She said if the local installer has it in stock, the HR20 will be installed. I called my Mastec Communications, the local installer, and was told that the HR20-700 is available. So it looks like the DC area might be good to go!!!

[captain_video]

I'm in Ellicott City, which is just slightly north of Columbia. I hear what you're saying about all the trees since Columbia likes to maintain a certain ambience in their neighborhoos. It just makes using an outdoor antenna almost impossible for decent reception. I'm surprised you were even able to put up a satellite dish where you could clear the trees.

The installation in Glen Burnie should be able to get OTA locals quite well. It sounds like your installer skimped on your antenna or didn't aim it very well. If he put up an omni-directional antenna then that could be your problem. The Baltimore and DC OTA locals are all in UHF for the digital channels and most UHF antennas are highly directional. If they're not aimed correctly you'll get poor reception or no reception at all on those channels.

I'm using a pair of Channel Master 4228 8-bay bowtie antennas on my roof. One of them is pointed at the towers on Television Hill in Baltimore and the other is aimed at Bethesda, where most of the DC channels are broadcast from. I combined the outputs of both antennas to a single cable using a standard UHF/VHF splitter/combiner.