Controlling satellite box?

[Captain315]

Thinking of purchasing a standalone video recorder but I can't seem to find information on IF and HOW to control a DirecTV box for unattended recordings.

Is there anywhere I can find this information? Am interested in the Liteon 5045 unit with the 160 gb hard drive.

[wwaag]

I have a Pioneer 210-S and directTV. In my setup, I only have to do the programming on my Direct TV receiver (an older Sony which allows me to add programs from the guide directly to the DSS timer). I then set the Pioneer to its "auto-record" function so that it begins recording whenever there is a signal from the DSS and "stops" once the program ends; i.e. no more signal. Works very well for me since I only have to set the DSS timer and it will then control the recorder. Only one caveat for this setup. You have to make sure that when your DSS is "off", it is truly "off" and no video signal is being sent. Apparentlly some units continue to output a "video signal" even when the DSS is "off". In such cases, the auto-record function does not work. In my cases, however, it's not a problem.

One other thing I like about the Pionner is that you can manually control the length of the recording (e.g. 95 min) rather than just a few opions like SP, LP, EP, etc. In this way you can maximize the bit rate for each recording.

wwaag

[lordsmurf]

Two steps:

1. Program satellite receiver
2. Program DVD recorder

Easy.

[Captain315]

Thanks for the info wwaag! I'll have to check into my receiver and see if there truly is a signal.

A little easier said than done lordsmurf. I'd rather have the satellite receiver control the recorder or the other way around. Your input is appreciated though.