The suckitude of my new DirecTV DVR

Cafe Society
1

Just posting fair warning to possible buyers out there: the DVR receiver offered by DirecTV really blows. We’ve had an old Hughes DirecTV/Tivo receiver from when they were in business together, and it was very well designed. Unfortunately the hard drive is dying. So we called DirecTV and they offered us a new receiver/dvr for free. (Due to us being “A-List” customers, evidently.)

Now, it does have some nice features that our old one didn’t, like being able to keep watching a show (minimized) while looking at the playlist or doing menu actions. Also, it seems to have some nice options for jumping ahead in the guide by large chunks of time.

However, the nuts & bolts stuff, the actions we use constantly, are infuriatingly unfriendly. There is a several second lag between remote commands and actions performed, it’s hard to tell when you’ve pressed a button sufficiently hard, and the remote has to be at just the right angle to the TV. So no matter what I want to do - change the channel, look at the guide, fast forward, I wind up mashing the button with all the force I can muster, then waiting for about five seconds to see if it “took.”

This brings us to the worst problem: fast forwarding through commercials. All the problems noted above interfere, and then there’s the damnable lack of a few-second jump-back when you press play again. Instead, the speed kind of winds down at a leisurely pace, so you get to start watching about 20-30 seconds after the show resumes. So I’m either stopping several times during commercials, thinking they might be over, or I stop when the program comes on, then have to rewind (again, with all the lag and attendant problems). Bottom line is we wind up watching a lot more bits of commercials, or missing large chunks of show.

Add to that the inability to flip between the dual signals, and the total inability to jump to the end or back to the beginning, of a program, and I’ve had it.

Thank goodness this thing was free, because I just put in an order for a refurbished model just like our old one (plus a new hard drive for the old one, so now we have a DVR in our room too). Thank goodness my husband found the dealer for me.

So, I thought this all called for a little vent/heads up here.

2

Thanks for the heads up. I won’t be so anxious to get the updated equipment. How long did your Hughes unit last? I’ve had mine for about two years.

3

Yep, I’m not too fond of our new DirectTV HD DVR either. I really hate that they couldn’t do the jump back thing during commercials as well. The only reasoning I could come up with was that all my other DVR’s are the DirectTivo model. So when DirectTV decided to make their own, they couldn’t make all the functionality exactly like the Tivo units. So I’m guessing that’s why they left a lot of stuff out. Still, I don’t have much choice in the HD DVR department, so I’m adjusting.

4

Oh, and another kicker. I don’t know if you noticed or not, but any of the new equipment you don’t buy…you only lease it from them. So there goes any options of hacking them to increase functionality.

5

You think those are bad you should see the Comcast Motorola HD-DVR units. What a piece-o-junk. Has the same remote to action lag that yours has. It also lacks a “30-second jump ahead” button (you can however program the remote to do so by digging up codes on-line). And it also has a tendency to randomly decide that the drive is 100% full even when you only have 2 episodes of LOST recorded and then won’t recored any more scheduled shows. You have to reset the unit every damn time by unplugging it.
I took my original unit to the Comcast office to exchange it. They just tossed it on a huge pile of “defective” units and grabbed one off the huge stack of “refurbished” units. Same problems.

I don’t remember who builds the units for Dish Network but I do remember they worked fairly flawlessly.

6

I also have the Motorola-Comcast unit. You’ve almost got to stand up and point the stupid remote DIRECTLY at the thing to make it work, THEN whenever it feels the need to mess with you, it does that ‘delay’ thing so that you keep pressing buttons not knowing if it even heard you or not, then out of the FUCKING CLEAR BLUE SKY it will decide to rapidly act on the last 15 or so button actions.

Oh, and yeah, I hate how it doesn’t do that little quick rewind two-step at the end of FF’ing through commercials. The button delay doesn’t help that either, you might THINK you were pretty handy in stopping the FF, but you fool, you think the DVR is accepting any commands from you right now?

POS

7

DirecTV didn’t want to pay the Tivo license, and thought they could make just as good a DVR themselves. They were wrong – the Tivo units are much, much better. Actually, a lot of the cool features that you’re missing from Tivo are protected by patents, so DirecTV can’t put them into their machines. I wish they had just paid the license, and kept up the relationship with Tivo. My new box makes me wish for the Tivo everyday.

8

Wow, this exact same thing happened to me last week; my Hughes DirecTV/TIVO harddrive died, I called DTV, and they sent me their DirecTV+ receiver as a replacement.

I wholeheartedly agree with the OP; what a complete disappointment. One feature we used all the time on the Hughes unit was to keep one tuner poised on channel A, the other tuner on channel B. We’d watch two different baseball games on A and B. When A went to commercial, we’d pause and go to B. When B then went to commercial, we’d pause and go back to A, fast-forward thru commercials to game action, and pick up the next inning (maybe catchup a little between each pitch; that 30-second skip is almost exactly how long it is between pitches in a leisurely game). You can’t do this on the DirecTV+ unless you set up some recording options. In any event, I liked the simple Hughes design; there are two tuners, you can control each separately, and that’s all the concept you need to master some truly stunning and complex TV surfing.

To the OP: You say you found someone who would sell you a refurbished Hughes unit; care to post the details? I’d definitely be interested…

9

Ours lasted for at least three years, maybe longer. (I can’t remember if we had this one in the old house or not.) It still mostly works, we’re just getting some weird pixellation, even when the weather’s clear, and it reboots itself on occasion. So I’m not willing to trust, say, the BSG season finale to it.

Hee! This one does the same. I can see it really wreaking havoc with the “press once to record, twice to record series, thrice to cancel recording” function

And yes, I called DirecTV and they told me that some of the functions are patented by TiVo. Oh well, it sounds like it could have been worse, I could have experienced the Comcast DVR!

Oh and speaking of Battlestar Galactica, my husband is also freaked out by what he calls “the Cylon eye” on the front of the receiver, which throbs disturbingly when a show is paused, and does that back-and-forth lights thing when FF or RWing. (Actually, I know we can turn that off, I just think it’s funny.)

The place we ordered our refurbished stuff is DIRECTV TiVo DVRs - SD-DVR40, DSR704, DSR708, R10 and HDVR2

10

It amazes me a product can be put on the market with so many known issues. I could echo pretty much everthing said about the DirecTV DVR. From what i’ve read - it sounds like DVR’s in general have issues. But hey, what do you want for, ahem, free. :dubious:

For help and or work-arounds go to…
Discussions on the DirecTV R15 here.
Discussions on the DirecTV HR20 here.
Discussions on more other stuff plus stuff and more here.

11

Hmm. I wonder if it’s really the hardware on the Comcast units. I’ve had my Comcast DVR since 2004. Worked flawlessly until…Comcast uploaded new software in January. While the new software is more TiVo like (series recordings, yay) I too, am now experiencing the same lag with the remote. Also, previously, you could shut the receiver off and it would still record scheduled shows. Now if you leave it off, it will turn on, tune in the channel to record, but then stop recording so you don’t get your show on disc. Now I have to remember to leave the receiver on and just shut off the TV set.

12

Fair warning: I’ve had my Tivo for 3 1/2 years, and you can’t even have it if you pry it outta my cold dead hands. I love it. I baby it. I signed up for the lifetime subscription, so I’ve now paid my dues and it’s free from here on out. Yes, good little Tivo, Mama loves you… Um, sorry. I’m actually terrified to be posting this, but let’s hope I don’t jinx things.

My parents have Dish Network, though, and like I said, I’m used to Tivo’s system, but Jesus Christ, that’s a pain in the ass. Maybe if I had to use it all the time, I’d get used to it. Thankfully I don’t. They had DirecTV until the guy who came to set up my aunt’s tv convinced my dad to switch. He can be a very gullible man sometimes.
-Lil