New HD TiVo for DirecTV
Well, we were at the point where we were pretty sure it would never happen. And, happily, we were wrong!
TiVo today issued a press release about a new HD TiVo for DirecTV that should be ready by the end of 2009. See the full information in TiVo’s press release.
We’ve had customers complain about DirecTV DVRs for years now, preferring the TiVo interface. And it looks like the day will come again when DirecTV and TiVo work together to make a DVR that has the best interface, and access to all of DirecTV’s programming.
DirecTV and TiVo ceased manufacture of the HR10-250 years ago now. That unit, still very popular among our customers (and still the main unit in my house) was the first mainstream HD DVR at all, and the only HD TiVo for several years, as well as the only DirecTV HD DVR for many years. Many TiVo fans even joined DirecTV just to get to use this hardware.
But as DirecTV decided to move to MPEG4 for new HD channels to conserve bandwidth, they needed to produce new equipment to deal with the MPEG4 signals. So they produced newer DVRs without TiVo - the HR20 and HR21. These units can read the older MPEG2 signals and the newer MPEG4 signals. The TiVo-based HR10-250 can only read the MPEG2 signals, and is therefore unable to get the new channels DirecTV releases in HD - and some even in SD.
During the DirecTV reign of Rupert Murdoch, we guessed that new hardware with TiVo would never be developed, because one of News Corp’s other companies was NDS, an engineer of DVRs in Europe and Israel. NDS engineered DVRs for DirecTV.
But now that Murdoch’s News Corp. isn’t in control any more, it seems that TiVo was able to start work with DirecTV all over again.
For years now, we’ve been helping customers navigate the split between TiVo and DirecTV. It looks like, at last, those days may be coming to an end, and customers who love both DirecTV and TiVo won’t have to decide between them any longer. It may be a long year of waiting . . .
9 comments 
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September 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Huzzah! Congratulations to both companies for working out a deal.
Here’s hoping the new DirecTV TiVo will work as well and last as long as the (Weaknees upgraded) Sony SAT-T60 which I’ve used since becoming a DirecTV subscriber.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Thank god! I so HATE DirecTV’s DVR.
September 10th, 2008 at 6:39 am
In readung the article, there is a note that TIVO upgraded the existing boxes to allow “remote booking.” I kow there was an upgrade to the “delete” and “undelete” features, but what remote booking are they talking about?? I can set my dvr’s to record over the internet, but not my tivos– can the DTIVOs somehow be networked now???? that would be something great. Can’t wait for the new HD Directivos! I have one HR10-250 left working– the others died and have been replaced with H21s
September 10th, 2008 at 6:41 am
please fix my email address– I mis-typed it above
September 10th, 2008 at 11:24 am
This is news of the year for me (until Obama get elected, anyway.) My current directivos are aging badly, and I was on the cusp of converting to cable so I could continue to use Tivo. Now I can stick with Directv. I just hope they have some good upgrade deals when they roll out. Who am I kidding? They always screw existing customers with their deals, why would this be any different?
September 10th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
“remote booking” on your DirecTV TiVo (or your non-TiVo DirecTV DVR for that matter) can be done from directv.com even if your DVR is not networked. Just log in, navigate to the program listings, and click on the show you want to record. The listing expands and offers a Record to Receiver link. When you click there, you’ll get a choice of any DVR (TiVo or not) to record the show to.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:44 am
[...] sent down a message to TiVo users this week about the announcement of a new DirecTV HD TiVo coming in 2009. The screenshots are posted here if you want to see them, but the interesting [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
[...] have actually heard news that DirecTV and TiVo are going to make up and start selling a TiVo version for DirecTV again. I cannot tell you how excited I am about [...]
October 24th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I have 2 Tivos and 2 DTV dvr’s one HD. The one Tivo I have left I LOVE, but the other 2 DTV dvr and hd are sorry excuses for technology, and I hope that Directv does not make the mistake again to not include Tivo with their Dvr’s and Hd’s. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.