DIRECTV Multi-Room DVR Setup

We just had DIRECTV's multi-room DVR -- officially known as "Whole-Home DVR" -- installed. With a new install, I'd imagine that setup might be fairly straight-forward, but with an existing setup, for some (per the message boards), it can be challenging. After attempts by three different installers at getting it to work in our home, I ended up researching the issues and getting it to work on my own. The installers were very dedicated and really worked hard to get things working, but the technical issues and the newness of the technology seemed to be the difficult barrier. I'm documenting the issues we ran into as much for my own benefit (in case I have to do it again!) as to share this experience with others in a similar situation.

We have been a DIRECTV customer for several years, with two high definition DVRs. We bought a new 60" LED high definition TV (awesome!) and decided to replace one of the TVs on an existing DVR and add a high definition receiver for the old TV and move it to the bedroom. It seemed like a good time to add multi-room viewing to our package, allowing us to view any recordings from any of the three TVs. Now that it's working, it's very cool.

Here are some of the salient points to keep in mind when setting up multi-room DVRs:

• Multi-room requires both a coax connection for video and an Ethernet connection between all receivers/DVRs-- plugged into the Ethernet port on "older" receivers/DVRs. Note: the newest models (H24 and HR24) can piggyback Ethernet on the coax connection (see below) and do not require anything plugged into the Ethernet port.
• Video is shared on the existing coax cable that is always part of any DIRECTV setup. The new setup uses a single coax to each DVR rather than the two that was previously required.
• DIRECTV has two options for the Ethernet connection: a standard home Ethernet network or an Ethernet connection running on top of the video coax connection!
• Multi-room does not require an Internet connection, but DIRECTV provides some additional features if you do have high-speed Internet available in your home. Unfortunately, our neighborhood does not have high-speed and we have successfully networked our TV's without it.
• The hardware, of course, must be setup correctly. Multi-room requires (I believe) a "blue label" LMB in the satellite dish. DIRECTV is pretty good about the hardware, if you get it from them. They know what you have and will make sure the installer replaces the older LMB if necessary. You also seem to need a single powered SWM to amplify the video coax connection.See http://www.highdefforum.com/directv-forum/92691-what-swm-how-install-request.html for more information.
• Reboots are the bane of DIRECTV setups. It seems as though you need to reboot after almost any configuration change and you may need to do it for all of your receivers/DVRs. Reboots take several minutes. When in doubt, reboot :-(.

There are two key DIRECTV menus that you need to be familiar with when setting up multi-room. Each of these is off the Menu/Setup/System Setup screen ("Setup" has some alternate names, but you'll figure it out!).

• Whole Home. If you have a "vanilla" setup, this may where you need to make all of your changes. I'm not sure of that since my setup was not "vanilla."
• Network Setup. This is where my installation went South. I had "dabbled" in here during the DIRECTV multi-room beta program where the only option for the Ethernet connection was through the home network as opposed to the coax cable.

From the Whole Home menu page, you need to use all three menus:

• Name Location. Our three receivers are "BM," "FR," and "MBR." You must provide a name each receiver/DVR and they are blank by default.
• Share Playlist. (Only available on the DVRs).  You must set "Yes" to Share Playlist (No by default) and decide whether you Allow Deletion from "all rooms" or just the local DVR.
• Status. This is where you go to find out if you have done everything else correctly. It must say "Whole-Home DVR: Authorized" and list at least one Networked DVR. If you only have a single networked DVR (plus one or more receiver), you won't see any networked DVRs from the DVR itself because it doesn't consider itself networked.

I can't speak definitely whether or not you need to do anything with the Network Setup if you're a "vanilla" installation since mine wasn't but the following information will still be useful.

Finally, here are some web sites that might be helpful for you if you're having problems.

• http://www.weaknees.com/directv-deca-networking-mrv.php has good info on the hardware, whether you want to try this on your own or just understand what DIRECTV provides. In particular they have a very nice network diagram of how everything flows, from the dish to the receiver/DVRs.
• http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaythread?rootPostID=10797671&channelID=1&portalPageId=1002 is DIRECTV's forum site. There's good information on the Whole-Home DVR forum.