We’re now carrying several replacement DirecTV remotes.

First up, we have the standard Peanut style remote for all DirecTV TiVo users, except the SAT T-60. See our DirecTV TiVo Peanut Remote page. We’ve got the type that came with the original DirecTV TiVos, then the variety that came starting with the HDVR2 with more buttons, and, finally, the HR10-250 remotes.

For the non-TiVo HD DVRs, we have three options that work with any and all DirecTV equipment (even the TiVos, and even the SAT T-60):

RC23/RC32 - these two are essentially the same remote. They’re the standard one that comes with most plain-vanilla DirecTV receivers.

RC64 - These come with most HD DirecTV equipment, and have the Format button. They are also RF capable, so if your DirecTV receiver supports RF reception, this can be used with that. More info on another blog post.

RC64RB - The newest, latest, greatest, this has all of the functionality of the RC64, plus it’s backlit! Even for us TiVo peanut-partisans, this is a pretty nice remote.

See these last three on our DirecTV remotes page.

Switching an infrared (IR) remote to work via radio frequency (RF) has a pretty huge benefit: It’s not limited to line of site, but can go through walls, floors, cabinet doors, into closest, etc. So the receiver (in this case a DVR) doesn’t need to be sitting out roughly where the TV is.

For years, we’ve been selling an easy-to-use and inexpensive RF remote converter that takes an IR remote and basically makes it work through walls. It’s amazing.

But many newer DirecTV products, including the HR20, the HR21, and the HR21 Pro, come with remotes that can do RF, with just a configuration change. Here’s what you need to do:

Press Menu on the remote to bring up this screen:

Choose Parental, Fav’s & Setup.

Then, choose System Setup.

Navigate down to Remote, then over to IR/RF Setup.

Flip from IR to RF. Continue.

Now, you’ve set the DVR to receive via RF. Then you need to tell the remote to send in RF, and you’re all set.

Here are those directions:

1. Press and hold MUTE and SELECT keys until a light above the mode switch on the remote flashes twice.
2. Enter 961 using the number keys, then press CHAN UP.
3. Enter 290314 using number keys, then press SELECT.
4. Press SELECT on Done.

DirecTV does say you may need to do this more than once. It definitely works, but who thought of that command sequence?

If you’re a DirecTV DVR user, you know the value of having two satellite feeds to your DVR: you can record two shows at once. The new DirecTV SWM products make wiring this a lot easier - in many cases you can just use existing cable wiring since you can send up to eight feeds through one wire with these multiswitches.

But DirecTV is testing a product that takes this one step further: a 5LNB dish with an integrated Single Wire Multiswitch. This basically puts the two products into one, and for new DirecTV installations, it should greatly simplify matters. The one caveat is that this unit won’t support any legacy products, like DirecTV TiVos.

More on this as we learn about it!

(Note: that’s not “an” SWM, since it’s generally read as “swim,” at least, in these parts.)

A customer just purchase a SWM from us, and he plans to solve a slightly different problem than we’ve previously encountered: he couldn’t get KCET (our local PBS station) in HD, since DirecTV doesn’t carry that signal in HD, even over the 5LNB dish.

He previously had KCET in HD from his OTA antenna, but when he upgraded to MPEG4, he lost the ability to diplex the OTA signal into his satellite cables. But, with the SWM, the ability to diplex OTA (or cable, or most CCTV signals) into the stacked satellite signal is back. DirecTV made sure to keep their signals on different frequencies than the common cable and antenna frequencies.

So if you’ve been stuck with a choice between OTA and MPEG4 due to the number of cables, this box can solve that problem.

We’ve just gotten the AM21 in stock. This is a peripheral unit that will tune digital OTA signals. It works with the H21, the HR21 (all models), and the HR21 Pro. It is the same color and look (black and shiny) and footprint as the H21 and HR21, but not the HR21 Pro. [Note: This is NOT compatible with the H21]

In this picture, the AM21 is the top component, and the bottom is an HR21 that has been paired to it.

We have the AM21 on our DirecTV equipment page.

So what is OTA and why would you need it? OTA is over-the-air, as in, antenna broadcasts. These are the newer digital antenna broadcasts to which all local broadcasters are migrating. You may have read about the changes in broadcast methods that will be complete in February of 2009 (see our blog post about the digital TV transition); the older analog signals will cease to be broadcast, and only the newer digital signals will continue. It is those digital signals that the AM21 can record.

Local broadcasters will be sending digital signals out in HD (and, in some cases, SD) for free. These transmissions generally are less compressed than the HD signal put out by DirecTV. In many cases, these signals are also unavailable through DirecTV’s satellites. So adding this component will likely increase the quality of your local HD channels, and potentially it will increase the variety. You may also choose to discontinue paying DirecTV for local channels if your reception is good enough where you live.

The AM21 seamlessly integrates the OTA channels (both HD and SD) into the interface of the H21 or HR21. Unless you’re looking for it, you’ll never really know that the channel is coming from the antenna instead of the satellite. Further, these channels are fully recordable on DVRs, just the same as the signals coming from the satellite dish.

In most areas, you’ll need an antenna to get decent digital OTA reception. We sell a few OTA antennas. If you already have an old antenna on your roof, that may be perfectly fine - the technology of these new ones is similar enough that older ones often get good reception. In some cases, these new antennas can even be used indoors to get reception.

The AM21 has a power pass-through for the host DTV receiver (H21 or HR21) so that you don’t need an extra power outlet for this unit.

Finally, if you want an all-in-one solution, where the DirecTV DVR has an internal OTA tuner, we still have the HR20 DirecTV DVR in stock.