[BrucePadgett]

Per an email I just received from DirecTV, all pre-2004 SD receivers will become obsolete soon. They're offering me a more current one, no contract required. They want to swap out my old one, which will be a problem, as it is a first-gen Sony which I purchased way back in 1994 for a lot of money.

Before I phone them, I have a technical question for this forum, the members of which will probably be more informed to answer than DTV staff. (No disrespect intended to the CSRs.)

I purchased an H20 outright from a big-box dealer several years ago. While originally intended for use primarily as an MPEG-2 high-def receiver, it can also deliver standard def signals. Would it serve as an adequate replacement for my old Sony under the new DirecTV SD standards? I'd rather not play equipment roulette with DTV.

Thank you for any help, and I apologize to the moderators if this technical post seems misplaced. In a way, it's the end of an era.

 

[spartanstew]

You realized the H20 is leased, right?

 

[dpeters11]

I wonder what the reasoning is. They used RIDs for part of the time before this didn't they

To the OP, you sure you don't mean an H10? H20 is mpeg4 for HD.

 

[kevinwmsn]

The H20 doesn't do MRV if that matters to you.

I hope them by ending the life of the really old boxes, they could fix the guide data for Channels I Get being that was one of the old excuses.

 

[peds48]

Per an email I just received from DirecTV, all pre-2004 SD receivers will become obsolete soon. .

I wonder what is DirecTV up to if this is true....

 

[longrider]

You realized the H20 is leased, right?

Actually an H20 could be owned, I know I bought my first H20 before leasing took effect (thanks to this forum) even before I had an HDTV in the bedroom just so I could own it. Of course now I dont care

 

[bobnielsen]

I wonder what is DirecTV up to if this is true....

Possibly they won't support non-SWM anymore. Now if they said that non-MPEG4 receivers were going to be obsolete, that would open up some interesting possibilities....

No, that's not it--SWM was more like 2006/7.

 

[carl6]

I think the receivers prior to the D11 have challenges with the current guide data, and that is an ongoing and worsening problem. I suspect that is the motivation (as opposed to SWM) for obsoleting older units.

 

[P Smith]

Possibly they won't support non-SWM anymore. Now if they said that non-MPEG4 receivers were going to be obsolete, that would open up some interesting possibilities....

No, that's not it--SWM was more like 2006/7.

Irrelevant if we discuss signals, modulations, sats, APG, etc.

SWiM is in-house delivery short leg.

 

[P Smith]

You realized the H20 is leased, right?

Absolutely untrue. Had in past three owned H20 and HR20.

 

[tigerwillow1]

When my Toshiba HD receiver was replaced by an H21 a few years ago, they told me to keep the Toshiba box and the H21 was registered as owned. YMMV, of course.

 

[spartanstew]

Absolutely untrue. Had in past three owned H20 and HR20.

Absolutely untrue? Really?

How does equipment you have had have anything to do with it?

Is it possible it's owned? Sure. Is it likely? No.

Either way, it's not "absolutely untrue". But based on your other posts, I'm assuming you don't really know what that means anyway. English is tricky.

 

[P Smith]

You better use your native language after thinking ...a little at least. Instead of blind acquisitions.

 

[RunnerFL]

You better use your native language after thinking ...a little at least. Instead of blind acquisitions.

And you may want to look up the word acquisition...

Your accusation was pretty blind too.

 

[doctrsnoop]

Per an email I just received from DirecTV, all pre-2004 SD receivers will become obsolete soon. They're offering me a more current one, no contract required. They want to swap out my old one, which will be a problem, as it is a first-gen Sony which I purchased way back in 1994 for a lot of money.

I purchased an H20 outright from a big-box dealer several years ago. While originally intended for use primarily as an MPEG-2 high-def receiver, it can also deliver standard def signals. Would it serve as an adequate replacement for my old Sony under the new DirecTV SD standards? I'd rather not play equipment roulette with DTV.
.

I don't understand your fears here.

You may have spent a lot of money back then on that receiver, but now it's worth near zero.

The H20 will certainly serve just fine as an SD receiver.

And what sort of equipment did you fear receiving? You would probably get an H21 which is fine. And possibly an H24, even better.

 

[Mark Holtz]

Per an email I just received from DirecTV, all pre-2004 SD receivers will become obsolete soon. They're offering me a more current one, no contract required. They want to swap out my old one, which will be a problem, as it is a first-gen Sony which I purchased way back in 1994 for a lot of money.

You do realize that a lot has changed since 1994....

• If you were running a computer, you were either running MS-DOS with Windows 3.1 or System 7
• Connecting up to a computer meant using a dial-up modem
• A fairly new computer ran a 80486 processor
• A hard drive was around 500 MB, with some having 1 GB
• "File portability" meant you carried files on a floppy disc instead of a USB or storing it on Dropbox
• If you talked about Warcraft, you were talking about the NEW Warcraft game from Blizzard. There was no "World Of"
• My computer monitor was a 14" CRT instead of the 24.6" widescreen LCD
• Spike TV was known as The Nashville Network
• AMC really meant American Movie Classics
• "Timeshifting" a program required a VCR instead of a DVR

Considering all of the technological improvements, why are you complaining?

 

[SamC]

all pre-2004 SD receivers will become obsolete soon. They're offering me a more current one, no contract required. They want to swap out my old one, which will be a problem, as it is a first-gen Sony which I purchased way back in 1994 for a lot of money.

I will join the piling on here. Like most early adopters, you and I paid a lot of money for receivers that they no longer support. That is life. That is part of being an early adopter of any technology. 1994 model most things no longer work and it really doesn't matter what you paid for them. You have gotten your value.

As to "equipment roulete", I guarentee that what ever you get will be light years superior to a 1st Gen SD. Its all good stuff.

 

[fleckrj]

Per an email I just received from DirecTV, all pre-2004 SD receivers will become obsolete soon. They're offering me a more current one, no contract required. They want to swap out my old one, which will be a problem, as it is a first-gen Sony which I purchased way back in 1994 for a lot of money.

Before I phone them, I have a technical question for this forum, the members of which will probably be more informed to answer than DTV staff. (No disrespect intended to the CSRs.)

I purchased an H20 outright from a big-box dealer several years ago. While originally intended for use primarily as an MPEG-2 high-def receiver, it can also deliver standard def signals. Would it serve as an adequate replacement for my old Sony under the new DirecTV SD standards? I'd rather not play equipment roulette with DTV.

Thank you for any help, and I apologize to the moderators if this technical post seems misplaced. In a way, it's the end of an era.

Possibly they won't support non-SWM anymore. Now if they said that non-MPEG4 receivers were going to be obsolete, that would open up some interesting possibilities....

No, that's not it--SWM was more like 2006/7.

I will join the piling on here. Like most early adopters, you and I paid a lot of money for receivers that they no longer support. That is life. That is part of being an early adopter of any technology. 1994 model most things no longer work and it really doesn't matter what you paid for them. You have gotten your value.

As to "equipment roulete", I guarentee that what ever you get will be light years superior to a 1st Gen SD. Its all good stuff.

On one hand, the RCA receivers I had circa 1999 were the best receivers I ever had. On the other hand, it is time that DirecTV retire all obsolite receivers. After all of the MPEG2 receivers are retired, DirecTV can shut down the MPEG2 transmition and focus on providing only HD. For those who still have an SD TV, the HD receivers will deliver a composit SD signal, but think of the bandwith that can be saved by eliminating all of the SD duplicate channels.

 

[Shades228]

I bought my first 1GB HD for $290 I'm betting that if I tried to give it away no one would take it.

The older tech just isn't worth supporting anymore because it's stopping progress.

 

[carl6]

I bought my first 1GB HD for $290 I'm betting that if I tried to give it away no one would take it.

I can remember a 5MB hard drive costing $2000. Really wanted it but no way I could afford it. That would have been around 1980. A year or two later they offered a 15MB drive for $2495.

So yes, technology certainly does evolve.

But obsoleting pre 2004 receivers is not even close to the start of getting rid of mpeg2. That will be around for years to come.