Eight TVs, HD, record-while-watching.. options?

[Colmino]

I'll clarify. There's a possibility that I will have to figure out what my options are when it comes to a household that will have at least seven and possibly eight different TVs, many HD-capable (let's assume all). A friend told me about his success with such a setup, and it most decidedly did not involve redundantly paying for two separate programming accounts.

The target: DirecTivoHD for eight TVs with the ability to record one show while watching another on as many of them as possible.

I have some vague awareness of devices which accept such-and-such inputs and have a certain number of outputs, and that these may be key to any probable solution. But I'm far, far from an expert on the subject. Fortunately, there are experts on these forums. ;p

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[veryoldschool]

I'll clarify. There's a possibility that I will have to figure out what my options are when it comes to a household that will have at least seven and possibly eight different TVs, many HD-capable (let's assume all). A friend told me about his success with such a setup, and it most decidedly did not involve redundantly paying for two separate programming accounts.

The target: DirecTivoHD for eight TVs with the ability to record one show while watching another on as many of them as possible.

I have some vague awareness of devices which accept such-and-such inputs and have a certain number of outputs, and that these may be key to any probable solution. But I'm far, far from an expert on the subject. Fortunately, there are experts on these forums. ;p

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Well is won't be cheap but: the Dish has 4 outputs that you send into a Zinwell WB616 switch. This will give you 16 outputs to run to your eight plus DirecTV units for each TV.
One account with many receivers @ $5/month for each after the first.

[Colmino]

Thanks. That device is probably exactly what my friend was using. Any idea if DirecTV would require each unit to be phone-jacked, the way Dish would?

[Larry G]

The target: DirecTivoHD for eight TVs with the ability to record one show while watching another on as many of them as possible.


You won't get Tivo based DVR's from D* anymore.
D* will tell you that you need a phone line connected to each receiver but you really don't. They will work fine without it. Unless, of course, you need to order PPV events by using the receiver.