HD DTivo for OTA only without DirecTV

[paul_deal]

Due to the DirecTV accouncements about MPEG4 at CES last week we probably only have about 12-24 months of usable life left for our HD DirecTivos before they are obsolete in the DirecTV world.

Is there any chance we could get a hack to allow our future boat anchors to at least be a dumb dual tuner OTA HD DVR (ie manual records of particular OTA HD channels at a particular time for a particular number of minutes)???
Even better would be a hack to use a service like TitanTV to allow use of OTA only without DirecTV.

Currently without being hooked to an active account we can't even record Over the air (Which is free programming).

[AlphaWolf]

It is possible that directv will replace the HDtivo units with replacement HDTV DVR's.

[alldeadhomiez]

Due to the DirecTV accouncements about MPEG4 at CES last week we probably only have about 12-24 months of usable life left for our HD DirecTivos before they are obsolete in the DirecTV world.

Is there any chance we could get a hack to allow our future boat anchors to at least be a dumb dual tuner OTA HD DVR (ie manual records of particular OTA HD channels at a particular time for a particular number of minutes)???
Even better would be a hack to use a service like TitanTV to allow use of OTA only without DirecTV.

Currently without being hooked to an active account we can't even record Over the air (Which is free programming).

12-24 months is a long way off...

When the time comes, keep your sub and avoid tuning to the MPEG4 channels.

Or, trade in your box for the new HD DVR (whatever that turns out to be).

[paul_deal]

My problem is I don't expect DirecTV to do a swap out early in the MPEG4 rollout when they can charge the most for new boxes -- I expect them to keep our existing service level and add new services needing the new boxes to try and get us to pay another premium to them (on top of our HDTivo premium). Maybe by then competition will force them to give us the boxes -- I just don't trust a Murdoch owned organization.

[fixn278]

The sky is not falling.

Nobody knows for sure what DTV will do (probably not even them) so there's no reason to wory about it now. Spend your time making the most out of what you have now.

[ds2ktj]

I don't know what DirecTV will do but they sent me a $300+ retail HD reciever for free a little while back (plus a new dish!) (about a year ago - that means they made only about $120 off my subscription so far). I'm quite sure that they won't let that investment fall throught he cracks in another 12-24 mos. Since HD came out they wouldn't even be able to recoup a portion of the costs of the equipment that they gave away. I doubt that they would force a cold-turkey switch requiring them to replace hardware (I'd dout the current HD stuff supports MPEG-4) or loose customers. Heck one incentive that they might have in "switching" to the new NDS system is there wouldnt be a TiVo fee and you still get the same capabilities. The "thin" clients at each TV would further reduce their hardware rollout costs.

In terms of OTA my samsung HD reciever (non-tivo) supports OTA ASTC without a DirecTV subscription (one nice thing about it). The ASTC Local feeds (BOSTON - Via a $50 UHF antenna mounted int he attic) look better than the DTV feeds 95% of the time. I was glad that this worked as is. As for the HD DirecTV Tivo that's a question that someone who owns one needs to answer.

Herea are some interesting links on when we can expect stuff and MPEG-4:

DirecTV's HD Future is MPEG-4 (PC Magazine) (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1748991,00.asp) - mentions final satalite launch for MPEG4 will be in 2007.


DirecTV Launches it's own branded DVR (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1748954,00.asp) A little more detail than the CES "press release"

[AlphaWolf]

Hmm...I wonder if this means that ALL directv hardware will get swapped out, and not just the HDTV units? I suppose its about time, hopefully they can provide improved picture quality for their SD content (namely 720x480 video instead of 480x480.) I guess they would finally throw out the aging DSS standard as well.

Then again I would rather not get rid of my directivos, unless they replace it with something better of course, which I somehow doubt.

[ds2ktj]

Hmm...I wonder if this means that ALL directv hardware will get swapped out, and not just the HDTV units? I suppose its about time, hopefully they can provide improved picture quality for their SD content (namely 720x480 video instead of 480x480.) I guess they would finally throw out the aging DSS standard as well.

Then again I would rather not get rid of my directivos, unless they replace it with something better of course, which I somehow doubt.


I completely agree with you. Although even with the current system 720p looks real nice on a big screen. I think inorder to be competive with sear's VOOM in the HD department they may have to replace all the equipment in the future (Current hardware running MPEG2 just doesn't have the bandwidth do do what they want...and so far their proposed future looks tivoless :(

On the other hand I have been happy with the hardware that they have "upgraded" me with over the years including my HD Samsung reciever. I just got my Tivo (DSR-708 for $50) and haven't hacked it yet (waiting for a shiny new 80GB HD to come from dell for $55 shipped - yeah I should have gone bigger...but hey for $55 it's cheap security. Once I get this one hacked I'll likely get another Tivo. They are fun and the kids love having sesame street available whenever.

[captain_video]

In response to the OP, the Tivo features won't work on any DTivo model unless the DVR tier has been activated on your access card. From that one might surmise that you could activate the HDTivo on your account for a short while and then disconnect the sat input and call DTV to deactivate the HDTivo from your account. You would probably end up getting nag messages unless you installed the fakecall hack but that's no guarantee that the messages wouldn't keep from being displayed. You should then be able to use the Tivo features for recording OTA programming from the antenna inputs. I realize this would border, if not cross over the line, with regards to theft of service so I would recommend you at least pay for the DVR service. If you have another DTivo on your account then you're already covered by the blanket fee so you'd be legit if that were the case.