Excuse the non empeg post, but wanted to offer this here before I went eBay.

Sony HD-200 High Definition DirecTV Receiver

It comes with EVERYTHING that came with it including the original, pristine box, documentation, cables, etc.

It was brand new when I bought it, I used it for maybe 5 hours, and now I'm selling it in ABSOLUTELY PERFECT, PRISTINE, BRAND NEW-ISH CONDITION.

First $550 will take it.

I can deliver it in the Bay Area if that helps...

See http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=e9DK0cDuMcLK8_8rW6fA2o_-lnmCwUyyE94=?CategoryName=hav_SatelliteReceivers%2fRecorders&ProductSKU=SATHD200&Dept=hav

- Jon

Why are you selling it?

I never watch live TV. since I'm a TiVo junkie.

- Jon

Good reason. Waiting for the HD-DirecTiVo like the rest of us?

Yep. And now to make you hate me, I'll tell you that I went to TiVo HQ and spent 3 or 4 hours with it (and the engineering/design teams), and it rocks.

- Jon

More details please!

What would you like to know? It has 4 tuners, 2 DirecTV and 2 OTA, but can only record from any 2 at a time. The code is based off of 3.1. It looks hella solid. Doesn't switch between HD resolutions - you pick the output type. You can easily switch between then, but it won't do it automajically.

I couldn't get pricing or timing info.

What else?

- Jon

Doesn't switch between HD resolutions - you pick the output type. You can easily switch between then, but it won't do it automajically.

Which is fine for me because my set will only do 1080, not 720.

Questions:

1. Are the digital satellite streams direct-to-hard-disk-with-no-recompression like the current DirecTivo units? Including the high def streams?

2. How much more data are the HD streams than the SD streams? In other words, if I have a one-hour standard def show and a one-hour highdef show on the thing, what's the difference in file size?

3. How's the menu/guide responsiveness speed?

4. Will it Tivo the OTA high def signals too?

5. Disk size?

> Which is fine for me because my set will only do 1080, not 720.

Which is why they did it the way they did. You CAN disable an output, so for you Tony, you'd disable 720 so that when you manually switched (up arrow), you won't try to output 720.

Answers:

> 1. Are the digital satellite streams direct-to-hard-disk-with-no-recompression like the current DirecTivo units? Including the high def streams?

Yes - no recompression.

> 2. How much more data are the HD streams than the SD streams? In other words, if I have a one-hour standard def show and a one-hour highdef show on the thing, what's the difference in file size?

The HD that comes with the box is a 250 GB. That's 30 hours of HD content or 200 hours of SD. Of course, these may be slightly different based on the data stream. These numbers are approximate.

> 3. How's the menu/guide responsiveness speed?

Same. They wouldn't comment on chips that they used, but speed wise, it looks identical to my series 1 and the series 2's I've seen (I personally can't see much difference between series 1 or 2 either). Yes, I believe the HD box will suffer the same problem when you have a long wishlist and/or list of season passes.

> 4. Will it Tivo the OTA high def signals too?

Yes, absolutely.

> 5. Disk size?

The one I saw had a 250 GB HD, and they implied that that would be the only one offered. It's a max of 30 hours of HD content or 200 hours of SD content - but you can mix, of course.

A few other misc things:

It has HDMI, component, s-video, and composite video outputs.
Sidebars can be selected to be gray or black.
IR remote, no RF.
Since the HD TiVo is basically an DirecTivo with HD, and it is part of DirecTV, it won't have HMO, the USB ports won't be active, and there's no easy way to off load shows digitally.
The box I saw was branded "Hughes."
The HDMI and component outs are mutually exclusive...you choose one or the other, but not both.

- Jon

the USB ports won't be active

Damn them!

Still sounds good though. Actually better than I had hoped for (aside from the USB/extraction thing).