DVRs that work with DirecTV

[davidyal]

Hi:
I am new to DirecTV and have never owned a DVR before. Can someone comment whether it is more worthwhile from a $$ perspecitive to get a Directv DVR or a 3rd party like TiVo?

[rcoleman111]

Integrated DVRs are superior to standalone devices and are also cheaper. Tivo's monthly subscription fee of $12.95 per device is kind of pricey compared to what DTV charges - $5.99/month no matter how many you DVRs you have or free if you get the Premier programming package. Integrated DVRs are also superior in that there is no difference in quality between the live feed and recorded programs. Standalone DVRs reencode the programming when they record it. That's why the integrated models have no quality settings like what the standalone models offer.

All things considered, an integrated DVR is the way to go.

[davidyal]

Cool, thanks for that info.
Do you know if any of the integrated DVRs allow you to transfer recordings to a PC? Sometimes, I'd like to take the file to view while on a plane.

[Earl Bonovich]

Cool, thanks for that info.
Do you know if any of the integrated DVRs allow you to transfer recordings to a PC? Sometimes, I'd like to take the file to view while on a plane.

Not natively.

The older DTivos can be hacked to do it though.

[captain_video]

By older he means any of the series 1 and series 2 models (anything prior to the R10 DTivo and DirecTV/NDS DVRs).

[blurij]

I have been reading your forum and am greatly impressed with all the helpful and generous tech wizards here whose generosity I am about to prevail upon. I am on the verge of purchasing the Pioneer 640hs to use in conjunction, unfortunately, with a Dish satellite receiver.
This is my question for which I’m asking assistance:
I realize the Pioneer dvd recorder has one analog tuner with up to 125 channels. I also know that one can manually program the recorder to set up to 125 Dish channels. My question is can I say choose one of the upper channels on the Dish - say channel 205 and make it channel 10 for example on the Pioneer tuner? Or must the Dish and Pioneer tuner channels align in number order?
It is my thinking, and I could be wrong, that the channels that I set up on the Pioneer tuner will make it possible for me to record one of those channels while watching another. Otherwise, if I can’t make Dish channel 205 into Pioneer channel 10 then I assume that the only way to record channel 205 (since the Pioneer has an analog limit that only goes to channel 125) is to record and watch channel 205 at the same time provided I’m connected to input Line 1 on the Pioneer.
So can I set up the 125 tuner channels on my Pioneer recorder in any way I want manually? Or am I resigned to having to having to record and watch any Dish channel above number 125? I hope I am stating my problem so that it makes sense. I could also be quite wrong on some of my assumptions.

Also if I can squeeze in one more question. If I opt for the Dish receiver recorder model 622, I believe it is, instead of the Pioneer – is there any way to download the recorded programs on its hard drive and transfer them to a dvd disk? Has anyone had experience with the Pocket Dish onto which programs can be downloaded via USB? Would that be the only way to transfer programs onto dvd disks – download to the Pocket Dish and from there upload to a computer hard drive and from there copy to a dvd disk? Complicated isn’t it? When will dvr digital tuner recorders arrive and would they resolve this problem of limited tuner channel numbers?

Thank you so much in advance to those so kind as to help and assist me with this dilemma of mine.
P.S. I don’t subscribe to any Premium, Sport, or Pay channels. I assume I couldn’t record those channels anyway.