Ces ?

[Scott Corbett]

When is the CES, is it in January?
Any chance of seeing the HMC then?

 

[Ilya]

CES is January 5-8.

 

[Hogarth]

When is the CES, is it in January?
Any chance of seeing the HMC then?

I'd say it's better than 90% likely.

That doesn't mean you'll be able to get one any time soon, though.

Plenty of companies show products at CES that may not be out for months, or even EVER. (*cough cough* voom *cough cough*)

H

 

[mikedz4]

heh. Directv promised and showed lots of new equipment at last years ces. Like the h20, the hd dvr, the hmc, the r25, hd local in local just to name a few. Most if not all are late to market just coming out since september. Some like the HMC are rumored not to be available to around this time NEXT YEAR yet they made it sound like they would be available by NOW at last year's ces.

 

[Hogarth]

Although, mikedz -- this is pretty commonplace.
Lots of manufacturers show lots of products and technology that don't really make it to market in the given year.

TiVo's ATSC HD TiVo, for example, was demoed in 2004 at CES and you still can't buy one. (Although lots of its' technology was spliced into the HR10-250.)

So don't think it's DirecTV that sucks, in this case.. it's the consumer electronics game that sucks.

 

[LonghornXP]

heh. Directv promised and showed lots of new equipment at last years ces. Like the h20, the hd dvr, the hmc, the r25, hd local in local just to name a few. Most if not all are late to market just coming out since september. Some like the HMC are rumored not to be available to around this time NEXT YEAR yet they made it sound like they would be available by NOW at last year's ces.

You will be amazed when you can start ordering them in just a couple short little itty bitty months.

 

[herdfan]

You will be amazed when you can start ordering them in just a couple short little itty bitty months.

There can be ordering for anything. Delivery is the tricky part.

 

[LonghornXP]

There can be ordering for anything. Delivery is the tricky part.

Oh DirecTV will be delivering on this part that is for sure. Just wait and see for yourself at or shortly after CES. I've been told by a few contacts that supply will be much much much better at the start compared to both the MPEG4 HD boxes and the HD Tivo boxes. Very good supply is the key to why I'm saying what I'm saying.

 

[hdtvtechno]

Longhorn do you know the prices of the Mepg4 DVR's yet ?

 

[LonghornXP]

Longhorn do you know the prices of the Mepg4 DVR's yet ?

First this is a rumor as of now because final pricing just won't be set until release of the products but I will tell you what they are looking at.

This is just for the MPEG4 HD DVR and not the HMC.

They will offer both a rental and a purchase option. You can purchase the HD DVR with a two year agreement upfront for what seems to be 299.99. If your a new customer you will also get a 200.00 mail-in rebate at B&M and online stores while at DirecTV.com it will be a 200.00 instant rebate. If your an existing customer you cannot get this rebate and if your a new customer you can only use "one" instant or mail-in rebate offer.

You can also rent to own the box at what seems to be about 10.00/month not including the per account DVR fee. From what I hear once you start the rental option after two years you would stop paying the rental fees and you would own the box and as such you would be required to pay any costs for repairs unless you have another extended warranty or the DirecTV Protection Plan. While your renting it within that two year window DirecTV will replace the box if it goes bad as many times as need during that two year period. Even if you get a replacement it won't extend another two years. Your getting two years of rental fees and warranty coverage for the product and not the specific box itself. I hope I explained this correctly.

The Home Media Center will also be priced in the same manor but I haven't been told much of anything about its pricing. I've only heard that they are looking at an upfront purchase price of around 399.99 with a 12-13 bucks a month rental charge. The rebates above should also apply as well. Also both SD and HD client boxes from what I hear would be thrown into the mix for free as long as you keep the box active for the entire two years. This means DirecTV won't give you the client box for free unless they can get their mirror fees.

 

[CPanther95]

Let's hope the HMC is not plagued with the same "user-unfriendliness" as the MPEG4 HD STB.

 

[Tele-TV]

First this is a rumor as of now because final pricing just won't be set until release of the products but I will tell you what they are looking at.
This is just for the MPEG4 HD DVR and not the HMC.
They will offer both a rental and a purchase option. You can purchase the HD DVR with a two year agreement upfront for what seems to be 299.99. If your a new customer you will also get a 200.00 mail-in rebate at B&M and online stores while at DirecTV.com it will be a 200.00 instant rebate. If your an existing customer you cannot get this rebate and if your a new customer you can only use "one" instant or mail-in rebate offer.
You can also rent to own the box at what seems to be about 10.00/month not including the per account DVR fee. From what I hear once you start the rental option after two years you would stop paying the rental fees and you would own the box and as such you would be required to pay any costs for repairs unless you have another extended warranty or the DirecTV Protection Plan. While your renting it within that two year window DirecTV will replace the box if it goes bad as many times as need during that two year period. Even if you get a replacement it won't extend another two years. Your getting two years of rental fees and warranty coverage for the product and not the specific box itself. I hope I explained this correctly.
The Home Media Center will also be priced in the same manor but I haven't been told much of anything about its pricing. I've only heard that they are looking at an upfront purchase price of around 399.99 with a 12-13 bucks a month rental charge. The rebates above should also apply as well. Also both SD and HD client boxes from what I hear would be thrown into the mix for free as long as you keep the box active for the entire two years. This means DirecTV won't give you the client box for free unless they can get their mirror fees.

Of course, always apprciate your help Longhorn.

Guys, why would D* require a 2-year agreement even if you purchase the MPEG-4 HD-DVR? Thankfully I'm looking to get the HMC. Thanks.

 

[LonghornXP]

Let's hope the HMC is not plagued with the same "user-unfriendliness" as the MPEG4 HD STB.

We can only hope but don't get your hopes up.

 

[LonghornXP]

Of course, always apprciate your help Longhorn.
Guys, why would D* require a 2-year agreement even if you purchase the MPEG-4 HD-DVR? Thankfully I'm looking to get the HMC. Thanks.

When you pay full price for the box upfront do you ever consider that your not paying full price. Any box you buy from DirecTV is discounted even when you purchase it upfront which is why you must agree to any total choice package for two years. Without this agreement the boxes would cost you between 500-750 bucks at the least. Your getting at least 200 bucks off their cost for these boxe s with that two year agreement. For those of you who buy three HD DVR boxes for example at 300 bucks are getting a great deal because your "two" year agreement must cover DirecTVs costs for not one box but for three. Its part of doing business and they feel its best to offer customers more than one box and hope they stay than to limit what customers can get because that would most likely drive that customer to cable who can offer the customer those extra boxes with no upfront costs.

This is all a balance and its not easy that is for sure. Just remember just because your paying for it upfront doesn't mean your paying the full cost. DirecTV did some heavy research and felt it was best to make all advanced products require a two year agreement so they can greatly lower the upfront prices of these boxes to better compete. They felt the drawback of this system was less than the future gains of this system which is getting another subgroup of customers from the lower prices. This system would also work the same as they will give customers with good credit the option of renting to own the hardware. So they plan to get the price down to about 300 bucks if your payed for it upfront without renting it. So if they rent the box for say 10 bucks a month that would total itself up over that two year period to 240 bucks of that 300 bucks. They are banking that as volume increases their costs would drop to around 250 bucks a box. So it breaks down like this below.

They have a level of profit they make every month from even a total choice customer. That profit over the two year period must get very close to covering what they paid out to get you as a customer and to cover the hardware they either provided for you or subsidized for you.

I don't know what the figures are for this but rest assured that they have worked the numbers like crazy. Now customers who order products that provide them with further profits are much more likely to get extra discounts of higher end hardware as they can make up this cost quite a bit quicker.

I know everything I said above isn't pretty and again I don't have the exact numbers but I'm just giving you an overview of how things work. This should give you enough of an overview to fill everything else in for yourselves.

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks for your input LonghornXP,

Always look forward to any info you can supply.

Jimbo

 

[NestOfRobins]

First this is a rumor as of now because final pricing just won't be set until release of the products but I will tell you what they are looking at.
This is just for the MPEG4 HD DVR and not the HMC.
They will offer both a rental and a purchase option.

Any information on cost of an upgrade, e.g., trade in of HR10-250?

 

[LonghornXP]

Any information on cost of an upgrade, e.g., trade in of HR10-250?

If you have an HR10-250 you can upgrade to the DirecTV branded HD DVR for free. If you wanted to wait for the HMC and take your upgrade offer for the HMC instead of the HD DVR you would end up paying less than 200 bucks upfront and final cost at worst. You would just pay the difference in price between the HD DVR and HMC products. So if the HD DVR is priced at 300 bucks for purchase and the HMC is priced at 400 bucks for purchase you would get a 300 dollar credit towards the upgrade to the HMC product. That means you would still need to pay that one hundred bucks extra. That is how it will be done from what I've been told.

As with anything this might change at anytime so don't hold any staff member to these figures but I'm sure you won't.

 

[sdlevi27]

If you have an HR10-250 you can upgrade to the DirecTV branded HD DVR for free. If you wanted to wait for the HMC and take your upgrade offer for the HMC instead of the HD DVR you would end up paying less than 200 bucks upfront and final cost at worst. You would just pay the difference in price between the HD DVR and HMC products. So if the HD DVR is priced at 300 bucks for purchase and the HMC is priced at 400 bucks for purchase you would get a 300 dollar credit towards the upgrade to the HMC product. That means you would still need to pay that one hundred bucks extra. That is how it will be done from what I've been told.
As with anything this might change at anytime so don't hold any staff member to these figures but I'm sure you won't.

Longhorn, you've said in the past that both the HMC and HD DVR will have multi-room viewing capabilities. So what are the other major differences between the HMC and the HD DVR?

Thanks!

 

[LonghornXP]

Longhorn, you've said in the past that both the HMC and HD DVR will have multi-room viewing capabilities. So what are the other major differences between the HMC and the HD DVR?
Thanks!

The main difference is the customer who will buy them.

First the HMC will be "one" server box with cheap client boxes with "one" rental charge. This system would be for those households who have two or more HDTV sets even though it will work with most sets being SDTV sets. I've also been told that the client boxes might also have a memory card that can store a buffer to allow you to pause live TV on the one single tuner inside the client box itself but you just can't record it on that client box but you can record it via one of the six tuners in the server. In simple terms the HMC is being built for the future homes that have three HDTV sets like mine that would rather pay 15 bucks a month rental fees for one server box plus two client HD boxes compared to having to pay 10-15 bucks a month times three for three HD DVR boxes.

Now if you only have one HD DVR but you have two SD DVR boxes you might only want to buy one HD DVR box and have multiroom SD viewing between all your SD and HD DVR boxes. We just have to understand that these products are going towards different customers now and into the future as more and more homes add their first and/or additional HDTV sets. Price becomes a big factor when you add two or more HDTV sets so the HMC would be a great trade off for features compared to price.

 

[herdfan]

Will the HD client be available at launch? And how will the clients be connected to the server? Coax, CAT5, other?

I think I want to buy a ticket to Vegas next week.