I'm looking to switch to Vz fios and am trying to find out the best setup for me. I will have 2 hdtv's. Is there much difference in having 2 separate dvr's or 1 mrdvr being used by 2 tv's? It costs slightly more ($24/year) for the 2 dvr setup. What are the benefits of 2 drv's versus the mrdvr?
@pwilly wrote:I'm looking to switch to Vz fios and am trying to find out the best setup for me. I will have 2 hdtv's. Is there much difference in having 2 separate dvr's or 1 mrdvr being used by 2 tv's? It costs slightly more ($24/year) for the 2 dvr setup. What are the benefits of 2 drv's versus the mrdvr?
Main differnece, is that you will be able to record 4 shows at the same time with 2 DVR's and only 2 with a single MRDVR.
2 DVR's -- each TV records and watches it's own shows. No ability presently to share shows between DVR's. So, if you record on TV1, you must watch on TV1. Four tuners of recording capability (2x2), so you could be recording/watching up to four different shows at the same time. Ability to set recording on either TV (subject to the playback limitations described).
1 MRDVR -- one TV is where you do all the programming from. Can only watch from the other. Three tuners (2 in DVR, 1 in HD STB) so you can record two shows simultaneous while watch a different show on the other TV. Playback on either TV. Slightly cheaper.
Supposedly the ability to watch shows from one DVR (designated as the MRDVR) on another DVR box is coming. Haven't heard about the ability to have two MRDVR's. If you don't envision having to record more than two shows simultaneously, the MRDVR is probably a better deal.
Thanks for the replies. Couple of other questions...with the mrdvr setup can 2 different recorded show be viewed on 2 tv's at the same time? Can the stb pause live tv utilizing the hard drive of the mrdvr? I assume if the mrdvr is recording a program and pausing live tv then the stb cannot utilize any of the dvr functions.
Sorry for all the "what ifs", just trying to get all the facts before taking the plunge.
Depending on the number of TVs (for example we have 3 HDTVs), a combination might work best. We have a MRDVR in our den, and a 2nd DVR in my bedroom, with a standard HD box in another bedroom. The HD box can see the MRDVR, the 2nd DVR currently can't, but the ability for DVRs to see the MRDVR should be coming in 1.9 supposedly in a few months.
To pause live TV, the tv must have it's own DVR, the MRDVR can not pause tv on another tv, it can only stream content on it's HDD, I think its 2 HD or 3 SD programs at a time but I might be wrong on that.
You can record a show on the MRDVR, watch live TV and pause it, and be watching a recording on another TV all at the same time. The pause live TV was a good catch -- as the previous poster indicates, only the DVR itself can pause TV, regular STB's can not.
The DVR itself is actually always recording the two tuners to the hard drive buffer (kind of neat in that if you are watching a channel and hit record and haven't changed the channel for a while, the recording ends up having all of the show which was in the buffer as part of it as well, not just from the point in time when you pressed record).
When you start recording a show, it basically requires one of the tuners to lock on that channel and marks the recording to keep instead of being just buffered.
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