Direct TV sucks compared to Comcast! I had far fewer problems in the 10 years I had Comcast than the two I have had DTV! Here in Oregon, the weather constantly.breaks up the signal with DTV. Wind , rain, snow don’t interfer with cable. And service.calls are better with Comcast.
Give me back Comcast Xfinity PLEASE! As soon as my contract expires, I’m going back to my reliable old friend.
Is your box the Genie? That’s what we got in April, and while I’ve never wanted to record 5 shows at once, I could do it. I know I’ve recorded three, on Sunday nights, and that was while we were watching football.
I’ve had to call DTV a couple times. Their tech support is quite good. They’re patient, they speak English, and they don’t make me feel stupid.
My only complaint is that while you can add programming on-line, if you want to drop something, you have to call them, and they’ll go through a spiel to try and make me change my mind. “You want to drop Showtime? We can give you a reduced price for three months.” etc etc
I definitely can only have two things at once. I have had two things set to record when I was watching a third thing before. I message pops up asking me if I want to cancel one of the two things recording or stop watching what I am watching.
I totally agree with you about DTV tech support. I have always been happy with them. I’m grandfathered into an old plan that gives me the East Coast feeds of HBO, AMC, TBS and a few others. If I change anything, I lose that. It’s nice to get to see things three hours earlier.
It’d be worth asking them if they’d upgrade your DVR to a Genie. For Sunday nights, if nothing else.
How did you know it was Sunday night? 
Football, AMC and HBO.
And PBS – Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife, Mr. Selfridge