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When you say 'protected' CableCARD channels, is that the same thing as 'encrypted'? Because Plex says their DVR software definitely works with SD's CableCARD tuner. But if it can't record from encrypted channels, what's the point of using a CableCARD? Just to map the QAM frequencies for.

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The HR20-700S receiver gives you access to a host of DIRECTV programming: TV shows, sports, and movies, as well as premium channels and pay-per-view events. Best of all, it lets you tune in sharp-looking high-definition satellite broadcasts when you subscribe to DIRECTV's HD package. Find your shows with an intuitive on-screen guide DIRECTV's interactive program guide makes it easy to find out what's on.

You can scroll through a complete listing of all available programs, or search for a show by title, person, keyword, or channel. After you've found what you're after, simply highlight the title to display more information about the selected show. Another press of a button changes the HR20 to the correct channel for the show you want to watch. A built-in digital video recorder The HR20 also lets you save your shows for viewing later on. Simply select a program via the interactive guide, and the HR20 will record it to its internal hard drive. You can record up to 50 hours of high-definition content or 200 hours of standard-definition programs.

And you won't need to worry about missing an episode of your favorite show — DIRECTV's Series Link lets the HR20 automatically record an entire season of a specific program, even if the broadcast time or date changes. You can even pause 'live' TV for up to 90 minutes at a time, so you won't miss a moment when the phone rings or you have the urge to grab a snack.

Receiver Features DIRECTV Note: The HR20 package includes the HD receiver only! It does not include an LNB or dish, which must be purchased separately in order to have a complete system. A DIRECTV subscription is required in order to receive programming. The HD receiver also has a built in HD DVR for easy recording. For this feature to be fully functional you must connect the receiver to a land-based phone line and subscribe to the DVR service through DIRECTV, sold separately. DIRECTV Compatibility: This receiver is compatible with single and multi-sat DIRECTV dishes. When used with the multi-sat oval dish, this receiver can receive all programming from DIRECTV's 101°, 110°, and 119° satellites simultaneously.

It is also compatible with the new 5 LNB satellite dishes, which receives signals from the same satellites as the 3 LNB dishes, plus the 99° and 103° satellites for certain local stations transmitting in HD as they become available. The HR20 receiver is also compatible with MPEG-4. Format Compatibility: In addition to receiving all DIRECTV standard and high-definition signals, the HR20 receiver has a built-in ATSC tuner to receive and decode all over-the-air HDTV/SDTV formats. B-Band Converter: The HR20 receiver includes two SUP-2400 B-Band Converters, which must be installed on the receiver. It has a threaded male F connector, and should be connected to the Satellite In coaxial jack on the back of the receiver. The converter also has a female coaxial input to receive the signal from the satellite dish.

This converter up-converts the satellite signal transmitted in the Ka-band (250-750 MHz) into a 1650-2150 MHz useable signal. Display Formats: The HR20 receiver features multiple format modes that can be selected from the remote control and front panel to best reproduce the original broadcast on a wide variety of televisions. It decodes 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i broadcast formats and can output video to your TV in any of these. During the setup process you specify which of these resolutions your TV will accept. If your TV will display all resolutions, the Native display option is available, which shows the program in its native broadcast resolution. HDMI Equipped: The HR20 is equipped with an HDMI output which carries both digital audio and video signals to HDMI compatible TVs. The HDMI jack uses HDCP content protection to allow you to view HD programming encoded using the HDCP protection system.

George Washington High School Drivers Ed Chicago Il. You can connect the HR20 via a DVI connection when an HDMI-DVI converter is used. You will also need to connect an audio cable because DVI carries only video signals.

Shortly after I posted my and the company's horrible customer service, I was contacted by, a moderator on a popular Satellite TV forums site,. Apparently, my post and I was asked to register on the site in the hopes that the online community could help me out. Given that I was ready to smash my equipment against the wall, it seemed like a viable option, because DIRECTV itself wasn't helping one bit. They were in fact, quite content to cancel my account on my behalf and charge me a termination fee rather than resolve my issues or escalate based on the information I was giving them. Frequently, hobbyist sites and discussion forums are the best places to seek out information on sophisticated equipment such as satellite receivers. Back around 1999-2000, I briefly ran one myself, called UltimateTVtalk.com, which was dedicated to the late receivers, until Microsoft pulled the plug on the product and declared it as a dud. I eventually changed it to DVRtalk.com and at some point let the domain lapse, when someone else grabbed it.

I was more interested in forming food discussion sites at the time. Ah well, 20-20 hindsight and all that. Cool Edit Pro Portable Windows 7 more. So after explaining my problems to the folks over at, we went through the process of 'Peeling back the onion' where we went through a number of diagnostic procedures. One of things that immediately jumped out was that during the signal tests for, also known as was that on my bedroom receiver, I was getting weak or zero transponder reception on one of the dual tuners. 103(c) carries virtually all of the high-definition content, so this explained why some of my HD recordings that were not related to over-the-air broadcasts were coming up as 'black screens'.

Click on the 'Read the rest of this entry' link below for more. 'Hey, can you launch us a satellite? It's gonna cost us how much money to engineer us a new Ku-band design for Hi-Def transmission and put it into an optimal orbital slot?

How bout dis. Can you give us one o 'dem that you made for the Internet thingamabob, and launch it into the same orbit, but can you jigger 'dem software so it uses up all its bandwidth for one-way transmission instead of bi-directional? Oh, yeah, we know all about our current HD receiver and DBS dish design and the 500mhz frequency block issue. We'll just give the customers this dongle whatchamacallit that does a signal conversion from to. Yeah, we know it's a major kludge.

When can you launch it? 'Hey Clyde, call up them fellers in China, we gonna need a couple million dongle thingies real quick!' So with the information gleaned from DBSTalk.com and transponder diagnostic outputs as ammunition, I call up DIRECTV customer service again. This time I ask for an immediate escalation. This time, I actually got a tech that knew what the hell he was talking about and could understand my issue. After talking him through my problem and being as informed as possible, we determined that the BBC -might- be bad, but they were going to send over a technician Saturday morning anyway.

Late Saturday morning, the technician gets here. He swaps out the BBC's on the upstairs DVR that is causing issues. We then scratch our heads and run diagnostics on my other DVR and watch the transponders on 103(c) for about an hour. It seems the second DVR is also having issues.

We look at the cabling on both units, everything looks fine. So then, it's the multiswitch, right?

Well, as it turns out, the is actually embedded in the newer DIRECTV 'slimline' dishes themselves. So the entire had to be ripped out and replaced.

After that was done, I was happy to see we got 95 percent plus signal on all the active 101 and 103(c) transponders on all the tuners on both HD DVRs. The LNB assembly 'just went bad', it seems.

No sign of lightning damage or anything like that. Just plain died. What is the lesson learned here and what is at fault?

I think it can be boiled down to a number of separate issues. DIRECTV had a customer base that was happy with the TiVo platform, and when the company moved to HD technology, they chose to develop their own software and hardware in-house in the hopes of bringing down the cost of the platform rather than continue to partner with TiVo on HD units. Unfortunately, this means had to re-invent the wheel with the HR series of DVRs, which was naturally going to introduce problems.

When the original standalone SD TiVo's first came out, they were problematic -- I beta tested some of the original ones, didn't like them, and used ReplayTV units for a few years until the Microsoft UltimateTVs came out, then eventually migrated to. With the the software was pretty much mature and stable. That being said, at the very same time the DirecTivos were as stable as they could be for a Standard Def DVR, DIRECTV rolled out HD service. So when you go from a very stable platform to an unstable one, the natural customer reaction is going to be negative. The software is under constant development and an end-user can even enter program if they learn about it on sites like DBSTalk, but most people aren't going to go through all this trouble to get a consumer electronics product working.

These aren't computers where it is supposed to require a certain minimum level of end-user expertise -- they are supposed to just work, period. The BBCs introduce an unnecessary layer of complexity. This problem should have been solved by having the LNBs engineered with the necessary Ka to Ku conversion circuitry embedded from day one. All HR-20 and HR-21 customers that are currently using BBCs should be given new LNBs with the signal conversion electronics embedded to correct the issue. Apparently, BBCs will not be required with future generations of DIRECTV HD DVR equipment and the newest dish models such as the, but that leaves the early adopter and current loyal customers in the lurch and having to deal with flaky dongles that burn out. As it happened, it wasn't my specific problem, but it's a huge pain in the ass for a lot of people.

The customer service representatives are poorly trained, have terrible bedside manner, and do not know how to escalate issues properly to technical support. They didn't take my first requests seriously. 'Oh, it's a known issue, here's 10 bucks a month until we resolve it' -- and they should have sent a tech out there immediately. Not offer to disconnect my service after 8 years of customer loyalty after I got annoyed with them on the phone and make me incur a $250 fee for the privilege of severing my relationship with them. When you do get escalated, the quality of technical support representative you get at any one time is also completely random. It's taken us a number of calls and being milled thru the system a few times to get a technician out to the house and perform diagnostics and make the necessary repairs.

This should not be happening. DIRECTV is apparently on its new installs to mitigate some of the typical headaches that happen to HD customers. This is a step in the right direction, but at the end of the day, it was the customer service experience overall that nearly put me over the edge and calling up my local Cable TV company. Do you have your own DIRECTV horror story?

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