[Brent]

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:52 pm

I switched to DirecTV recently- Our 501 PVR box from Dish was acting up- I'm near-positive that they pushed down a software update that messed it up, but I had no luck with support. They offered me a few options:

Buy a refurbished 501 box ($90+ shipping).
Subscribe to their hardware warrantee ($25, plus other fees that hit $80 or so).
Buy a newer system, and pay another $5/month for a DVR fee that had not paid before, (I was grandfathered in on an old program).
Leave Dish.

Of course, that contrasted with what DirecTV offered:

HD21 HD PVR (refurbished)
SD receiver
Free installation
$25/month credit for 1 year
Cheaper monthly package

I'd been with Dish for 9 years, but it saves me over $300 this year to switch, and I get all new equipment.
The DirecTV package is cheaper, as we had to get the Dish250+ package to get the Science channel for the kids, where there is a cheaper package that has that at Direct.

After a few weeks, here is what I don't like about DirecTV:

They said I could get the HD PVR, and if I didn't like it I could disable the HD channels (saves $10/month), and keep the HD PVR (double the storage as the SD one). I confirmed that with two sales people, plus the person who took my order. I also confirmed it with the installer.

15 days after installation, I call to cancel HD and find out that The above is totally false- If I don't want to pay for HD channels, I have to return the receiver. And because it was 15 days after install, and not 14 or less, it'd cost me $180 or so to return the HD receiver and get a SD one with less features/storage.

BTW: I don't have a HD TV. I just wanted the HD receiver because I want to get an HD TV later this year, and wanted to get the free PVR that could handle that.

So after going around and around with DirecTV, a nice guy in accounts retention (third person I had to talk to) offered a $10/month rebate for six months. While not perfect, I accepted that- but I'll have to pay for HD channels after that point, or pay to return the box, both things I don't like.



Last edited by Brent on Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

[Brent]

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:54 pm

So where does MythTV come in? The HD21 receiver has a network port on it, and does UPNP. So does Myth. Turns out that the HD21 can read the existing MythTV recordings if they are stored in mpg format (HQ mode). Not much that we have is already in that mode, but we can at least change to that mode for new recordings.

That means that I may be able to retire the old notebook on the upstairs TV that does Myth frontend.

Downsides- I can't fast forward, or rewind anything coming though UPNP. Don't know why yet.

[Brent]

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:56 pm

And MediaTomb. Turns out that MythTV won't transcode, and all my recordings I want to play are in a MP4 AVI file.
MediaTomb to the rescue. With hints from http://mediatomb.cc/dokuwiki/transcoding:transcoding I was able to adjust the basic install to work with the HD21.

MediaTomb can transcode on the fly- so it takes my MP4 AVI files and translates them to Mpeg-2 video/audio stream, which the HR21 can eat just fine. It actually works very well. But I still can't fast-forward or rewind. I can pause though, but not being able to skip forward/back will really be missed.

[Brent]

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:05 pm

Another thing I hate about DirecTV- They are so paranoid about protecting "their content" that they won't let my PCs or Myth boxes have access to recordings on the HR21. In theory I can use a special program on the Windows boxes to watch what is recorded on the HR21, but in practice my video cards are too old, the program is pure crap, and is barely supported. My systems just don't support all the anti-copy crap that DirecTV requires, so I'd have to buy new hardware.

Not that it really matters in the world at large- I have no interest in posting anything I've recorded, but I know tons of other people already post everything. They are restricting my use of the equipment I own (or rent) for no overall benefit to the world. Just out of plain stupidity I guess.

So I use an analog recording card with a SD receiver on the Myth box, same as I did on Dish, and then I can watch what I record anywhere, anytime, on any machine. Zune, PC, Linux box, I could even Slingbox it if I wanted to buy that hardware.

If I wanted to bad enough, I could do the same for HD content, but without an HD TV there is no reason to buy the HD recording device that I'd need. Besides, I don't care to spend the disk space on HD recordings.

That's the way media needs to be- easy to consume anyplace, anytime. Until the big media moguls cave and enable that by default, they'll be doomed to a shrinking bottom line.


Did I mention that I watch about 1-2 hours of TV a week, and that is mostly science programs for the kids, like "Heavy Metal Taskforce"?

So why do I bother with MythTV and all the rest? I don't know... maybe I just like an impossible challenge....