Does this REALLY work with DirecTV?

[sicilian68]

I have been looking for a DirecTV recording solution for my pc for a LONG time. Have tried many applications but none will record one channel while I watch another. I have:

One DirecTV set top box
3 GHz Intel cpu, 4 GB RAM, two 500 GB hdd, one ATI single tuner card, one Hauppauge dual tuner card.
One dual port usb IR Blaster, and/or the two IR Blasters that came with the Hauppauge tuner.

I have successfully set up several different applications but none of them will record one channel while watching/recording another. It will ONLY record the channel being viewed. DOES NPVR HAVE THE ABILITY TO WATCH AND RECORD SEPARATE CHANNLES SIMULTANEOUSLY USING JUST ONE DIRECTV SET TOP BOX? Or does all solutions require 2 or more set top boxes? If that's the case, should I just ditch the entire idea? I wanted to use my htpc as a dvr with just the one set top box to avoid the extra cost of an additional set top box and/or dvr service. Please advise and thanks in advance.

[sub]

Does this REALLY work with DirecTV?

Yes.

DOES NPVR HAVE THE ABILITY TO WATCH AND RECORD SEPARATE CHANNLES SIMULTANEOUSLY USING JUST ONE DIRECTV SET TOP BOX?

Of course not - if you've got a setup that requires you to use set top boxes to receive tv, then you've got to already know that your set top box only outputs a single channel at a time, so you'd need one set top box per channel you'd want to record simultaneously. NextPVR isn't going to magically pull an extra channel source out of thin air.

Or does all solutions require 2 or more set top boxes?

Yes.

[johnsonx42]

One thing you might consider is to connect your DirecTV receiver to one of your tuners, and then connect an antenna to your other tuners (assuming you can get a decent TV signal where you are; consult http://www.antennaweb.org if you don't know). That way you can record/watch a single DirecTV channel while watching/recording multiple over-the-air channels. Since many shows on cable/satellite channels are repeated multiple times per day and over multiple days, you can set recurring recordings for the shows you want and let NPVR sort out the recording schedule, and when the DirecTV box is busy you'll almost always have at least the major networks and local channels available.