This is an incredibly small box. It only works with the HR34 but it provides full DVR functionality with zero fan noise. Even pause live TV!
I'd like to thank the hard working C31 test team, who really came through on this little box.
The C31 is only available in limited areas at this time.
Please note that some DBSTalk.com testers and staff members may have received free equipment from DIRECTV or its partners for the purpose of evaluation and testing.
This device is exactly what I wanted when I switched to DirecTV. We only have 3 TV's in the house and I'd love to have On-demand/trickplay from every room. I already have the HR34. Just want to see what the price would be.
1) Is there an impact of performance with 3 or 4 devices doing trick play?
2) I hope this thing is under purchase model vs lease, being there's no access card, would be nice for guest rooms.
3) What will it cost?
4) Will you still need MRV if all you have is HR34 and C31s?
It seems to be a great start, but the "future" needs to include an HMC with a heck of alot more tuners than 5 (IMO 8-10 at a minimum) otherwise it is far too limiting to be a total replacement for a setup like mine (which isn't that extravagent of a setup -- TVs in 3 bedrooms, the office and living room).
It seems to be a great start, but the "future" needs to include an HMC with a heck of alot more tuners than 5 (IMO 8-10 at a minimum) otherwise it is far too limiting to be a total replacement for a setup like mine (which isn't that extravagent of a setup -- TVs in 3 bedrooms, the office and living room).
A lot of the folks here are not the 'normal' DIRECTV customer. I've heard that a very small percentage has more then one HD DVR so DIRECTV may feel that for the majority of them the HR34 will be just fine.
It seems to be a great start, but the "future" needs to include an HMC with a heck of alot more tuners than 5 (IMO 8-10 at a minimum) otherwise it is far too limiting to be a total replacement for a setup like mine (which isn't that extravagent of a setup -- TVs in 3 bedrooms, the office and living room).
I suspect the requirement to have more than 5 tuners does not reflect the vast majority of customers in the market....in fact, 4 rooms of support was a standard established based on market research.
Having an HR34, along with perhaps one HR24 as a unit on the WHDS/MRV network provides 7 tuners. Implementations of 8,10, or more tuners are the exception rather than the rule to overall DirecTV households. That's not to say they are important, but since they are the exception, those needs likely will not drive product strategies.
I take it TVApps, game lounge, score guide and other interactive features are also available on the C31? The HR34 CPU is driving these features though correct? So say 3 clients are all playing game lounge... How slow does that make the HR34 CPU crawl?
I would like to point out, just for accuracy, that the C31 First Look is a joint effort. A lot of people did the work. I did very little of the writing and didn't take the pictures this time. Everyone on the team deserves the credit.
I take it TVApps, game lounge, score guide and other interactive features are also available on the C31? The HR34 CPU is driving these features though correct? So say 3 clients are all playing game lounge... How slow does that make the HR34 CPU crawl?
Interesting. My first test would be a heavy stress test. Take the max number of clients connected all running interactive apps (pandora, games, etc) along with the HR34 server. Then see if there's any performance penalty.
I know the Hx2x line comes to a crawl if you run tv apps on a score guide channel and don't exit properly. It fixes when you return back to a score guide channel, hit the red button and once it's up hit exit.
If ITV apps do run locally, I wonder what universal language they are written in so they run across all RVU clients (like Samsung TV's). I would guess JAVA, as that is part of the OCAP/Tru2Way cable specification so it could be adaptable to DBS middleware as well.
I guess pricing will be clearer over the next few days, but if all that you have is a HR34 and C31's will you no longer need the $3 per month Whole Home DVR service?
The HMC has a $20 Advanced Receiver Fee connected to it. This includes HD Access ($10), DVR fee ($8), and WHDVR ($3)... which means it's $1 cheaper than what you'd get if you got the items separately.
To those on older plans with these items billed separately, it's my understanding that WHDVR is required.
I've noticed that multiple people have brought up the customizable options on the C31, but a few that I don't think have been mentioned are Closed Captioning settings, and "You Might Like" results on the My DirecTV page.
Any chance to get more technical info: CPU, RAM, etc ? At least a big picture when all that info could be read ?
What about running temperature ? - I see internal heat-sink of enormous design(!).
Its counterpart XiP100 is badly overheating and heat-sink is small against this one ...
That's a nice little unit. I think I would rather just have a HR24 since I would be paying the same price per month. Plus you get 2 extra tuners and more DVR storage space. Now if it was around $2 per month and not require whole home for even more $$ it would be worth it. That's just me though.
I am sure it would. I have used one of mine in my office and when we are outside I can easily take the C31 outside and hook it up very quickly. It does not take a long time to boot up like the DVR's do.
Congratulations to the team on a great First Look and follow up info.
I have my own questions from the first look page 5:
-Can't take a foreground tuner from another client but can take a background tuner that is being used for double play. Ques: What happens if anything when the HR34 user swaps the double play tuners, anything?
-For live tv, you can tie up all 3 tuners with any 3 clients. leaving one client (even the HR34) with only being able to view previously recorded content. Ques: This seems to indicate that with 3 clients, the HR34 viewer cannot watch live TV? What does the HR34 viewer see when trying to tune a live channel? And can the HR34 still record 2 other channels thereby putting 5 tuners to use?
That's a nice little unit. I think I would rather just have a HR24 since I would be paying the same price per month. Plus you get 2 extra tuners and more DVR storage space. Now if it was around $2 per month and not require whole home for even more $$ it would be worth it. That's just me though.
It all depends on use. These are great for where you want something quiet, like in a bedroom, want an extra set but don't want to have to redo your setup because your SWM slots are full etc.
Congratulations to the team on a great First Look and follow up info.
I have my own questions from the first look page 5:
-Can't take a foreground tuner from another client but can take a background tuner that is being used for double play. Ques: What happens if anything when the HR34 user swaps the double play tuners, anything?
That's a good question; I've never tried it myself.
-For live tv, you can tie up all 3 tuners with any 3 clients. leaving one client (even the HR34) with only being able to view previously recorded content. Ques: This seems to indicate that with 3 clients, the HR34 viewer cannot watch live TV?
No; unless the clients are using DoublePlay, they use one tuner each. So if none of the three is using DoublePlay, all three clients can be on, and the HR34 still has access to 2 tuners for its own use.
Looking to make my switch back to Directv, and would love to get my hands on this for the bedroom, does anyone think these might be available soon? I was thinking 1 HR34, 1 HR2?, and another HD box. Maybe I should hold off on the 3rd box for now and wait for this little box to be available.
Congratulations to the team on a great First Look and follow up info.
I have my own questions from the first look page 5:
-Can't take a foreground tuner from another client but can take a background tuner that is being used for double play. Ques: What happens if anything when the HR34 user swaps the double play tuners, anything?
-For live tv, you can tie up all 3 tuners with any 3 clients. leaving one client (even the HR34) with only being able to view previously recorded content. Ques: This seems to indicate that with 3 clients, the HR34 viewer cannot watch live TV? What does the HR34 viewer see when trying to tune a live channel? And can the HR34 still record 2 other channels thereby putting 5 tuners to use?
1. If the HR34 has a background tuner taken for double play by another client and you try and flip back with the HR34 the HR34 acts as though you don't have double play active and asks you if you want to start double play. If you say yes, it pops up the conflict screen and let's you choose which tuner to steal from another clients background tuner, or possibly cancel a recording depending on how the other tuners are tied up at that point.
2. No, what was indicated was If all 5 tuners are taken up by other clients (two of them could/would be tied up by actively using double play on two of the clients), then there is no live tuner immediately available for the hr34. So then if you try and tune to a live channel on the hr34 in that scenario you get a conflict screen asking which background tuner you want to take, or you can go to the playlist and view something that has been recorded.
You can watch a channel being recorded from any one client at a time. But no two clients can use the same tuner at the same time regardless if that tuner is recording or not as well.
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