I saw this announcement on DBS Talk this morning and I was interested
but not overjoyed like some people. TiVo, DirecTV to offer new
HD DVR to customers
Shares of TiVo jumped Wednesday after the San Jose company said it will
launch a new high-definition digital video recorder under an extended
agreement with DirecTV Group, reigniting a once-cooling relationship.
-snip-
The new development deal extends the companies’ agreement by five years
to Feb. 15, 2015 and helps TiVo gain access to DirecTV’s HD market. El
Segundo-based DirecTV said it will still offer its own set-top boxes to
customers, but the new TiVo box will be an additional option. This could
boost TiVo, whose subscriber base has been dropping steadily due to
increased competition from generic recorders from cable and satellite
operators.
That’s nice and I wish they had done this last year so we’d have a TiVo.
However I’m pretty satisfied with my HR-21 HD DVR and have had few
problems with it. That reminds me; I need to call and have the dish
re-aligned so I get better signal strengths on the new 99(c) satellite.
What I’d really like to see is a video server of some kind that can
record and playback up to (say) 5 different channels. Here’s the
situation: There are shows like Dr. Who that I record and watch
that Mrs. Salad Is Slaughter doesn’t care for. There are shows she
likes such as Extreme Makeover Home Edition that I can’t stand
to be in the same room if it’s on.
My solution would be a centralized video server that can feed several
TVs their own recorded show so she could watch her stuff in one room
while I watch my shows in a different room. Would it be that hard to
set up a server that could record and play back 5 different signals to 5
different sets using a wireless connection?
Or I could just get a second DVR for my shows.






Are you sure your DVR can’t do that? Tivo had an option similar to that years ago that would allow multiple Tivo’s to play nice together so you could watch something on one Tivo that was recorded on another.
Unfortunately, I don’t know the details on what hardware or wiring is required.
I did a quick google and it looks like tivo has multi-room viewing (MRV). The DirecTV DVR currently doesn’t have that feature although the DBS talk board occasionally mentions it as a rumored feature to come. MRV may be a reason to switch.