[Cosine]

I have been wanting to get set up with the Whole Home DVR option but do not want to have to pay to have an installer come out as I already have my DVRs hard wired into my home network. After reading lots of posts and information online, I am getting confused.
Currently I have:
1 – HR21
2 – R22 (one is not connected to satellite, more on that later)
I called Directv and they said it required an install that was going to cost me $348 to upgrade ($199 for HD receiver and $149 for the install). This is out of the question for me. The big question I have is why do I need the new receiver and the guy just said “because”? For the TVs that I am going to be having these setup on, they are not HD TVs so it’s a waste of money plus I lose the DVR feature.
So my question here is will these 3 receivers work with WHDVR if they are all hard wired to Ethernet? If not, why?

On to the second question. I have a 2nd R22 that is still on my account but not connected to the satellite because I haven’t gotten around to it since upgrading to the HR21. My dish has 4 lines coming from it, I don’t know the model because I haven’t had a chance to get on the roof since running these options through my head. My understanding is that a Zinwell 4x8 multiswitch will allow me to hook up 3 DVRs to the dish and have 2 spare lines. Is this correct?
Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide!

 

[MysteryMan]

Using your HR21 press and hold the info button on your remote. When the menu comes up select More System Info. When that menu appears scroll down to find your dish type.

 

[Cosine]

OK looks like its a slimline 5.

 

[The Merg]

Well, you have two issues with your setup and getting MRV.

1. In order to have Whole Home turned on, you need 2 HD receivers/DVRs. You only have the HR21. Even though the R22 can be enabled for HD content, the DirecTV system still considers it to be a SD-DVR. You will need another HD receiver or HD-DVR.

2. To have a supported Whole Home setup, you will need to be upgraded to a SWM system to take advantage of DECA, which is used to allow the Whole Home functions over the coax network in your home. You could possibly go with an unsupported Whole Home setup and use Etherent to each of your receivers, but you still need to to meet the criteria as outlined in number 1.

- Merg