[lparsons21]

I'm interested in adding a room or two to my current setup. I got a small 3D display that will either stay in the tech room (most likely), or move to my bedroom.

My current setup is 2 HR24s in the front room on the big screen which gives me the ability to set 4 recordings at once which is important to me with the upcoming broadcast season starting. The 3rd HR24 is upstairs and solely used by my adult son.

I had thought to move one of the HR24s to the tech room since that would be both simple and would leave my cost the same as it is now. But that leads to questions to see if that is the best approach.

1. If I put a Hxx receiver in the tech room, I know that I can set a recording to whichever HR I would want to. BUT, does that receiver have the ability to look at the to-do list on those DVRs or just the playlist?

2. Assuming that isn't the case, I suppose I could do an additional HR. But what is the total tuner count on the SWM LNB allowed?

Assume that I can get either of them for no cost, just the additional time extension on my contract, I suppose the HR would make more sense if I don't have to upgrade a bunch of other stuff too.

Actually it wouldn't matter which I got if D* would allow for some way to look at the todo list remotely, but that's a complaint for a different thread!

 

[RAD]

A HXX receiver can look at the playlist for all HRXX's that are visable on the network. You can also schedule a recording from the HXX on any of the HRXX's it can see but you can't manage the playlist on any of them.

The SWiM LNB maxes out at 8 tuners (DECA adapters don't figure into that count so if you have a DECA-BB/CCK don't count it). You might check but IIRC if you order another STB that would push you over the 8 tuner limit then DIRECTV would replace the LNB and install a SWiM16, don't know if they do that for free or not though.

Any chance you can wait until October and see if DIRECTV can upgrade you to a HR34 and one or more C31 clients? I know you're always mentioning centralized playlist management and the HR34/C31 combo would solve that (except for anyother HR2X's you would still have).

 

[lparsons21]

I can always wait! It isn't like this is a must do kind of thing because frankly I don't watch much video in the tech room, but it would be nice to do.

But in a perfect world, I would find the combo of HR34 with some C31s a great way to accomplish what I forsee as my endgame. That would be 1 HR24 in my son's room, the HR34 in the front room, (1) C31 in the tech room, and maybe a C31 in my bedroom.

Assuming that I wouldn't do the bedroom now, which is most likely, that wouldn't even raise my monthly lease cost as it would be 3 units. I'll have to give that strong consideration and I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself. Thanks for pointing out what I've been saying!!

Right now in the tech room, I have this little PS3 3D display connected to my PS3 and to my Acer laptop. I'm watching a recording from one of the HR24s via Direct2PC which works just fine. And it is reminding me that I watch almost nothing live, all recorded and delayed by some period of time. I may very well decide that it is just as good as expanding the system.

Sometimes I just hate fiddling with tech!!

 

[lparsons21]

Now that a week has gone by since I started thinking about my expansion, I've come to the conclusion that doing anything is really a waste of time and/or money. I just do not watch TV much at all in the tech room, so the use of DirecTV2PC is more than good enough.

The only benefit I would gain if I moved or added a unit in the tech room is the ability to watch 3D channels.

So I started a little log to monitor useage, and I also looked at what was on the 3D channels with D* for the past week. The log showed less than an hour a day average watching anything at all. The 3D channels didn't have anything that was interesting enough to make me care about not seeing them.

In the tech room I have my big ass iMac, a laptop and that behemoth of an organ you see in my avatar. Between fiddling with them and other things, the TV just isn't important in that room.