What to do now that I don't have cable?

[summerfun]

I have now moved to INDY where the cable provider (Insight) really sucks. They just came out with a two tuner DVR, which is a big improvement over the one tuner, but the software still stinks. The online guide is terrible and you cannot program to record by show. I think TIVO calls it Season Pass.


What are my choices?

I want DVR/TIVO.

I want two tuners (i.e. watch one show while recording another).

I want one box (i.e. I don't want multiple boxes, one for SAT, one for TIVO/DVR etc.)

I want a good clean interface, ease of use, one remote.

I want to go to five TV sets, Only two are HD. Only care about digital and DVR on the two HD sets. Others can be just analog.

I want to get locals.

In short, I want to have what I had with TWC/DVR, but I no longer have that option.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[GBK]

I'm not aware of any 2 tuner boxes for either Sat or OTA.

[Chinatown]

They have a 2 tuner Hd/Tivo/Pip reciever.  It comes with 2 remotes, which can take care of both HD sets. Then you can get their base Tivo which again comes with 2 remotes. The 5th set can be a base reciever. They are hungry for business, as they were hounding me to switch for D. It really is a sweet set up, and will cost you a lot less then cable. Oh, yeah, it will also include locals. Go to their website for the details...

[kevbeck122]

Dish 942 is a two tuner sat DVR.

[borghe]

If you were previously a DirecTV customer, someone in the DVR forum just got the $299 HD Tivo deal through customer retention to come back. don't know if you can get more than one from that. You can also get a second unit for $599 before $100 MIR and have that split up on your bill over three months by buying it online through your account management page.

After MIRs you are looking at $700 for two HD Tivos. All accounts also indicate that these will be upgraded for free once local MPEG4 channels rollout in your market.

[GBK]

personally I would wait for D* mpeg 4 units to make sure they're dual tuners if you are leaning that way.

[jkane]

They all (DirecTV and Dish) offer two tuner packages.  I can only speak about Dish.  A 942 was mentioned.  It is the HD version.  I don't have one, but want one.     If you can live without HD, a 625 is what you are looking for.

[kevbeck122]

If you go with Dish, you should probably wait for the MPEG 4 962 DVR.  Multiple tuners, multiple HD output, QAM decoder (don't know what it's for yet..)...

[summerfun]

I had a guy call me on the phone today from Dish. (Timing is everything).

I told him I WAS interested, could he please explain all the options I have to get what I want. This guy was so busy with fast talk and trying to SELL me, he would not shut up long enough to listen what I wanted.

I told him I had two HD sets and wanted a DVR with two tuners on both so I could record on one channel while watching another on both sets. He told me his DVR had two tuners and two outputs so I could run both TV's off the one box. I asked how that could work. It seems to me that if you have two tuners, only one channel could be going per TV at a time. I wanted two channels per TV. I think that would mean two boxes giving me ultimately four tuners. I don't even know if the Dish can do that.

He argued with me that one box could do that, but could not explain how. THEN HE HUNG UP ON ME.        WTF..... I told him I wanted to buy and he hung up. I guess I was not the easy quick sale he wanted, move onto the next guy.

I thought it was strange that they asked if I owned my own home and had a valid credit card before they started talking to me. In hind sight, maybe the guy was not even from DISH. It might have been a scam to get people to give them information and a credit card over the phone. (Don't worry, I would never have done that.)

[Chinatown]

....record 2 programs from 2 different sets. It comes with 2 remotes. The receiver less set is able to interact, as it has an IR feature. The shortcoming is if you have a surround system on the receiver less set. Obviously, there is no way of using it. Thats why I opted to stay with D.  If this still interests you, I would call E directly or go to the website to get a tutorial of their different products.

[summerfun]

....record 2 programs from 2 different sets.

OK, but can I be watching two DIFFERENT programs on those two sets while recording the first two programs. Effectively having four channels at once, two being watched and two more being recorded?

I would think a two tuner box could only do two channels at once whether they are being recorded or watched and from which TV is irrelevant. Still limiting me to only two at once.

Understand my situation. I may be in the first room with one HDTV watching a program and recording another. My wife may be in another room on the other HDTV and she will be watching a program and recording another all at once. I don't see how a single two tuner box can make that happen.

If I am right, I would need a two tuner box on each HDTV (Which is fine with me, that is what I have with TWC now.) If that is the case, can the satellite dish handle this? Also, what about the other 3 analog TV sets in the house, how do they hook up? How many boxes can a dish handle?

[Chinatown]

.........as I said earlier, that you call E or go to the website to get clarifications...on the features of this HD/Tivo Reciever....

[murdoc]

Sounds like you would need 4 recievers.  1 each for the 2 HDTV's.  E* has a dual tuner HD-DVR.  Then you could get a SD dual-tuner DVR to power 2 analog sets.  Another single tuner would handle the last TV.  At that point you would have 7 tuners.  At that point you would need a "superdish".  It's similar to a D* triple LNB dish.  I'm not sure how many lines you can hook-up to this dish, but my friend has a huge signal distribution box hanging off the dish.  (This looks like crap and a hack install job IMHO.)  I know my D* triple LNB dish has 4 SAT lines and I currently use 3 of them.  I have 2 running to the dual-tuner HD-TIVO and 1 running to the SD single tuner box.

[bradsmainsite]

Yes  you DO NEED 2 Dish 942 DVR's to do what you want and yes dish can do
more than four tv's with one dish, but this is where the FREE part ends rather
quickly!  Each 942 will cost you around $600.00 each plus an additional multi switch
and if you want the 10 original voom channels with this package plan on another
$199.00 for that plus $5.00 per month extra over your original package.  I am
a Dish retailor in WI and can tell you what your up against if you will e-mail me
I will give you my 877 number and explain all your possibilities because if you
have the bucks it would be a killer setup if you can find someone local down
their who knows what they are doing and are actual techs not just some 800
go nowhere number that hires a fulfillment company with a bunch of yahoos
that don't know the dif between RG59 and RG6.

[Mark Strube]

It really is a sweet set up, and will cost you a lot less then cable.

Try matching the prices to the services and then get back to me on that.

(I priced out DirecTV a few weeks ago... for the same exact services I have now [minus INHD and on-Demand, since they don't have it], it would cost about $2 less monthly... and that's not counting having to buy all the equipment and the service contract.)

I am
a Dish retailor in WI and can tell you what your up against if you will e-mail me
I will give you my 877 number and explain all your possibilities because if you
have the bucks it would be a killer setup if you can find someone local down
their who knows what they are doing and are actual techs not just some 800
go nowhere number that hires a fulfillment company with a bunch of yahoos
that don't know the dif between RG59 and RG6.

It's the sentence that never ends... yes it goes on and on my friend... :rofl: