No OTA locals with HD12-250

[Rick Sass]

I just installed a HR10-250 HD TIVO box and I cannot get OTA local channels like 4,6,10,12,58 off my antenna. Actually the only stations I am getting are the digital from the antenna. All my locals are coming from the sat. I did the scanning and no luck. I do have the local channel package from DTV. Prior to this unit I had a UTV and a Sammy 360 HD STB and both of those boxes received locals OTA and locals from DTV.

What am I missing here?

Rick

[Gregg Lengling]

Found these comments on a review...did you put your zip code in???


"Installation of the HR10-250 was straightforward and pretty much follows the same routine as the SD Tivo.  My only advice is to be absolutely sure that you enter your ZIP code.  This allows the system to figure out where you live so the proper local guide data can get downloaded.  This becomes very important especially for local OTA digital."
End of quote.

[Rick Sass]

Yep and before you ask, my area code. Next please

[Gregg Lengling]

The link below is where I found one review...maybe there is some more information for you as I didn't read the whole review.


http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=27366

[Rick Sass]

Thanx Greg -

I found this quote from the review: " The HR10-250 has two OTA tuners but the single input is internally split to accommodate the two tuners.  The tuners only receive digital broadcasts,  NOT analog."

I guess that's my answer.

What I still don't understand is with the new technology and a MUCH higher price, why can't this unit receive analog and digital OTA as well as output simultaneous outputs from the composite and S-Video jacks while in any of the enhanced or high definition modes.  The Sammy 360 could do both for less money. I don't get it. Any reasoning besides "that's the way they desinged it."

Rick

[borghe]

allow me to explain. Their is only a digital tuner on board.. no NTSC analog tuner? Why? Because by only receiving digital signals they don't need an additional MPEG2 compression chip on board. If they received analog signals to be able to Tivo those it would need to be able to do high quality realtime MPEG2 compression. Now granted many boxes out there do this already (standalone Tivos, cable DVRs including HD, etc), but the fact of the matter is that the Tivo costs what it costs. Undoubtedly to add in internal MPEG2 compressor would cost more. I don't know about you but $1000 was right near the top of what I would have been able to pay for my box.

As for outputting SD and HD simulatneously, again it comes back to only supporting one video path on the unit. The unit doesn't have multiple internal scalers meaning it can only output one resolution at a time. You mention the Sammy as a comparison, but instead look at many of the first and second generation boxes also. They too could not output multiple resolutions at the same time.

DirecTV and Tivo had to decide what to include and what to leave out to hit that $1000 price point. Personally I would take dual OTA tuners or a 250GB HD any day over simultaneous resolutions or an analog OTA tuner.

Besides, if you get Milwaukee locals over D*, I don't see what the problem is..

[Rick Sass]

Originally posted by borghe
allow me to explain. Their is only a digital tuner on board.. no NTSC analog tuner? Why? Because by only receiving digital signals they don't need an additional MPEG2 compression chip on board. If they received analog signals to be able to Tivo those it would need to be able to do high quality realtime MPEG2 compression. Now granted many boxes out there do this already (standalone Tivos, cable DVRs including HD, etc), but the fact of the matter is that the Tivo costs what it costs. Undoubtedly to add in internal MPEG2 compressor would cost more. I don't know about you but $1000 was right near the top of what I would have been able to pay for my box.

As for outputting SD and HD simulatneously, again it comes back to only supporting one video path on the unit. The unit doesn't have multiple internal scalers meaning it can only output one resolution at a time. You mention the Sammy as a comparison, but instead look at many of the first and second generation boxes also. They too could not output multiple resolutions at the same time.

DirecTV and Tivo had to decide what to include and what to leave out to hit that $1000 price point. Personally I would take dual OTA tuners or a 250GB HD any day over simultaneous resolutions or an analog OTA tuner.

Besides, if you get Milwaukee locals over D*, I don't see what the problem is..

The problem is for $1000 a pop, why does the Sammy 160/360 able to output simultaneously AND show analog OTA for less that $100.00? If your telling me that these two features would add an additonal $100.00 to the cost of the HR10-250 (which I doubt) then at this point what's the deal adding another $100.00 to the cost of the HD TIVO box. They definately could have included both analog and digital tuners and simultaneous output for $1000.00.

Plus I could save the $10.00 charge for receiving local OTA from DTV.

Simulatenous resolutions are great for us that have multiple monitors that are SD and HD and PJ's. When modulating the signal to multiple sources it not means you have to have multiply TIVO's - one to handle 480i and one to handle 480P, 720P and 1080i. So really what you're saying is that DTV wants me to buy multiple $1000 boxes if I have multiple monitors with diff rez. I guess they learned from Sammy what NOT to do.

Rick

[borghe]

Originally posted by Rick Sass
The problem is for $1000 a pop, why does the Sammy 160/360 able to output simultaneously AND show analog OTA for less that $100.00? If your telling me that these two features would add an additonal $100.00 to the cost of the HR10-250 (which I doubt) then at this point what's the deal adding another $100.00 to the cost of the HD TIVO box. They definately could have included both analog and digital tuners and simultaneous output for $1000.00.

Plus I could save the $10.00 charge for receiving local OTA from DTV.

Simulatenous resolutions are great for us that have multiple monitors that are SD and HD and PJ's. When modulating the signal to multiple sources it not means you have to have multiply TIVO's - one to handle 480i and one to handle 480P, 720P and 1080i. So really what you're saying is that DTV wants me to buy multiple $1000 boxes if I have multiple monitors with diff rez. I guess they learned from Sammy what NOT to do.

Rick

I am not discounting either feature, I am asking which you would rather have in the box.

As far as Samsung being able to do it for under $100, this isn't at all true. D* heavily subsidizes all of their boxes, especially HD boxes. Last I checked with my contact at the cable company cable co's are still paying between $400-600 per HD box.. an HD DVR runs the cable co about $1200.

And even still your comparison to the Samsung is still apples to oranges. The samsung is only running two tuners, no DVR capabilities, no hard drive, etc. It's like asking why a Civic Si can't come with an automatic transmission while the much cheaper Civic DX can... they are two completely different cars.

Again, I'm not saying that the features are unimportant, and to you they obviously are very important. But you have to recognize that it is very difficult to pack everything in and still maintain cost.