Question Regarding D* HD DVR w/Tivo

[Tom Snyder]

Can the DVR w/Tivo that you get from DirecTV be set up to simultaneously feed an HDTV AND a standard TV? Want to put a small TV in a sunroom next to the great room and would just want the same thing we're watching in the great room to be showing in the sunroom, too, with a line of site for the remote control from either room.

[murdoc]

Yes you can depending on connections.  S-Video and composite (yellow video) are always active.  However, you would have to choose between HDMI or component (red, green, blue).  These two cannot be active at the same time.  So you could feed your main TV with HDMI or component, and then feed the second or third TV's with s-video or composite.

[Tom Snyder]

No regular cable out?

[lori]

No cable out, I noticed that when I tried to hook it up to my VCR.

[Tom Snyder]

Hrm... So is there appreciable line loss over a 20 foot span of S-Video cable?

[Bebop]

Only with 480i output can picture display simultaneously on regular and HDtv. Since S-video can't receive anything higher than 480i.

Right now I have the S-video connected  to a regular tv and HDMI to a HDTV.

[waterhead]

If you go the S-Video route, don't forget to run audio cables too.

[Tom Snyder]

Does the unit have dual audio outputs that feed simultaneously? I assume for the HD stuff, there's an optical feed that sends audio to my sound system. But is there also an RCA output for audio that I can send to the other TV at the same time?

[Bebop]

The sounds works with rca and optical at the same time. Just limited to 480i, if you want to watch on both TV at the same time.

[Tom Snyder]

Hmm... I wonder if it will work that same way when the new MPEG4 ones come out.

[Stanley Kritzik]

Hmm... I wonder if it will work that same way when the new MPEG4 ones come out.

Sometime soon, D* will announce their new "Media Center", which supposedly will replace the 10-250, and shoud support one HD video plus up to four SD videos.  so, the questions as to what the unit will have and support aren't generally known.  For example, will a user be able to burn an HD or Blu-Ray high-definition program.  The present unit will only burn a 480i DVD (or VCR tape).  That's not good enough, though there are all the digital content protection issues.

Also, how big a hard drive for storage?  An un-hacked 10-250 only saves 30 hours of HD programming, and there's a need for being able to archive 10 or 100 times as much.  

Anyway, we'll know more, soon.

SK