mjm76 wrote:Don,
On your 10-250 is the signal meter easy to access? On my Sony HD 300 I only have to press one button to get a signal meter on the screen. Before with my RCA DTC I had to go into a menu to select the signal meter option and it was a pain.
On the HR 10-250 you DO have to go to a menu function to measure signal strength. There are a couple of reasons.
First you set a primary market to search for local OTA statons with the option for a second distant market TV stations. This tells the unit which stations should be available, so if it finds one it can provide Tivo listings for setting recordings of local OTA channels up to two weeks in advance and searching for programs by multiple methods( channel, time, program title, keyword in program description, actor or director name etc. For example maybe you heard a promo about a sports event coming, but don't remember the channel or time. Enter the teams name and search. It will list every broadcast on all channels, including the HD channels for that team for the next two weeks. Click on the ones you want and the Tivo is set to record. For example our Seattle Mariners show up on several channels and there are about 40 games this year occasionally on channels 94-95 in HD. I search on "Mariners" and discover the occasional games on the HD channels well in advance.
Second the 10-250 has to disconnect the two OTA tuners from the recording function in order to measure their signals. It is ALWAYS recording the last 30 minutes of the channel you last watched(BTW this is neat if you tune in a bit late and miss the start- there is the last 30 minutes of that channel always there). In addition you may have set up to two simultaneous recording jobs and the 10-250 asks permission to discontinue these recordings before going to the meters. Sometimes I have forgotten I had a movie set to record and wait until the movie is recorded before going to measurements.
Once in the meters there are two- one for each OTA digital tuner. And yes, there are NO NTSC tuners, just two DirecTV HD tuners and two digital HD OTA tuners. Since the local NTSC channels are mostly now available on the DirecTV locals package they want you to subscribe to that- always after your bucks!
You then manually use the remote to click an arrow to move up the channels from 2 to 69. These are the actual broadcast channels NOT the virtual ones, i.e. My Fox analog station is on channel 11 and it shows up in the listings as KFFX-DT channel 11-1, but is actually broadcasting their digital signal on channel 8 where you both measure strength and verify both OTA tuners are working and picking it up by setting it to channel 8. THE readings are always almost identical on both tuners. There is an Auto search function on setup that scans from channels 2 to 69 and dings when it finds a OTA station and then lists them (and their sub channels ) in your "channels received list). I found doing this scan twice was useful- sometimes it found the main station the first scan and then added sub channels on the second scan.
There is also a tone that goes up in pitch with the signal strength. I was able to set this loud enough to hear outside through an open window when I was on the ladder rotating the antenna for maximums.
Yes, it not as quick as the Sony, but much more complete data. If I remember correctly you use a rotor, so this would be an inconvenience if you had to use it every time you tune a channel. In my case I found one antenna setting that pulled in the distant station, and there was enough off axis signals for the near by stations that alignment there was less critical. I found that once I had any signal over 68-70 it was very stable with only rare dropouts. This is the nature of digital- Once you get enough signal strength it is perfect and more does not make it better.
Similar measurements are available for sat signals. It measures each of the three sat locations A,B and C, and you can check each transponder. You have probably seen the posts here where sometimes a problem develops with only one Sat location- these meters help align the dish to optimize all three and tell you if one is not working. On rare occasions a strong thunderstorm will block one Sat only for a short while and these meters are useful( the sat signal is absorbed by water). They also got me a free Dish replacement under the service contact when the C sat LNB went flaky- the data clearly showed DirecTV rep there was a problem just on the C sat transponders.
On the whole the HR-10-250 has been a remarkable receiver.
My only complaint is the TIVO service ( which costs an extra $4.99/mo) lists my local OTA digital stations, but does not have correct listings. ( It does a great job on the DirecTV channels including HD channels)
For example, my local PBS station now has PBS-HD 24-7 on channel 31-1 and regular PBS on 31-2 , but multiple contacts with D* have failed to get them to put these HD programs into the Tivo listings for that channel local PBS channel here- they show the same listings on both sub channels, which are the same data they provide for that station on the DirecTV local package. They give preference to their own DirecTV PBS local in my Tivo listings, which are not the HD programs. I found a work around. I set my secondary market as Spokane WA which is about 120 miles and I can't get the stations, but the PBS station their has PBS HD listed correctly in Spokane locals. If I see a program I want I can set the Tivo manually to record that time slot, but with my local 31-1 channel selected and it works! I get the local PBS HD programs recorded.
