R15 units rolling out now

[RedHat39]

The long awaited R15 units, the first Non-Tivo unit from D*TV, are being delivered now. Earl over on the Tivo Community board has a general review posted. Maybe Scott or some other SatGuys staffer can get a hold of one and do review here as well.

For now here is a link to Earl's review of the R15

 

[joedekock]

From what I can tell the directv software does the same thing as the current Directivo units. The "look" is different than than the directivo units, but its almost 100% identical to the H10 unit I just got. I have to give directv their props on that. If my wife can know how to use both receivers in my house because they have the same software and functionality between the HD and DVR units, she will love that!

 

[RedHat39]

The R15 is not an HD-DVR receiver. It is DirecTV's first replacement unit for the DirecTivo. It has a lot of similarities to a Tivo unit but it runs a linux based DirecTV OS. The two biggest differences, and one of them is not present as yet, is the R15 has a 160GB HD with a 100 hour recording capacity. The other is that D*TV says that they will implement some sort of MRV and Home Media Options sometime in 2006. The current DirecTivo units will never get MRV or HMO as it stands now from Tivo OS.

 

[RicS]

Actually, the software sounds a lot like the UTV - one button sets up recordings or season passes, able to resolve conflicts, system manages tuners. Even some of the screen shots, although using DTV graphics seem to come from UTV structure.

 

[Neutron]

Makes me wonder if I should replace our R10?

 

[peterl1365]

Makes me wonder if I should replace our R10?

Do you have any TV's without a DVR? If so, why replace the R10. Just get an R15 and use them both.

 

[Neutron]

We have 2 TVs, one with the HD-DTivo and the other with an R10.

 

[Hogarth]

Makes me wonder if I should replace our R10?

I'd wait a few months until D* reveals their plans for MRV to the public and have done a few software patches for the R15.

If it's good now, it will be -great- then.

 

[RedHat39]

I agree with Hogarth. As much as I'd love to have one of these I think I'll wait a while to let others get the bugs worked out and D*TV to add some more features. For me no MRV is a show stopper anyway. I love my Tivo and E* 522 for this feature so not having it on a pair of R15s would be a pain to live without right now.

On the positive side though D*TV is already planning a new firmware that will add the dual tuner buffers. So at least they are going to be actively pursueing making it a better DVR.

 

[Brewer4]

I'm waiting for the HD version. But if the R15 has good reviews, thats gonna be great for the HD version. I cant imagine the unit will be different at all except for digital local channels and the ability to record HD. The interface and features I would imagine would be nearly identical.

 

[kbohip]

We have 2 TVs, one with the HD-DTivo and the other with an R10.

Why replace an R-10 with the R-15 right now? The differences I see between both are very minor, like free space indicator, 90 minute buffer, etc. If you throw $100 at an R-15 you're also locked into Directv for another 2 years as well. I have the same setup as you and will be holding onto both until the R-20 comes out and I'm forced to ditch the HR10. I may get the R-15 then as well if it has MRV.

 

[JosephB]

the real question is, do I replace my DVR80 hacked to 160 gigs with this? I have all the bells and whistles on my tivo (telnet, tivoweb, mfsftp for backup to PC, etc) but I haven't really used them since I installed them. I LOVED my ultimate TV when I had it, and if this is anything like UTV, then maybe its worth dumping the Tivo. I only watch TV in one room so MRV isn't a big deal for me either.

 

[Tonedeaf]

the real question is, do I replace my DVR80 hacked to 160 gigs with this? I have all the bells and whistles on my tivo (telnet, tivoweb, mfsftp for backup to PC, etc) but I haven't really used them since I installed them. I LOVED my ultimate TV when I had it, and if this is anything like UTV, then maybe its worth dumping the Tivo. I only watch TV in one room so MRV isn't a big deal for me either.

That's just crazy talk. Why go through the hassle and not use the hacks you have? Send it me, I can use them. j/k of course.

Seems like D* is gonna sell a lot of these R15's.

 

[JosephB]

That's just crazy talk. Why go through the hassle and not use the hacks you have? Send it me, I can use them. j/k of course.

Seems like D* is gonna sell a lot of these R15's.

I might sell the Tivo if I do decide to get an R15. I thought it'd be cool to have all these hacks and I'd use them every day, but I don't do extraction because I really don't watch the shows after the first time and my fileserver at home would quickly fill if I archived everything. I don't use Tivoweb because once I got all my season passes setup and prioritized then there was no need. I really only did it because I didn't want to wait 3 hours for my passes to reprioritize when I do so. I don't use tivoweb for remote scheduling because I have dialup and can't leave a permanent connection to the internet. And I'm running 3.0 but I don't have another tivo so MRV isn't really useful and I don't listen to MP3s on my non-stereo TV so other HMO options really don't peak my interest either. Also, after reading the R15 review over at the tivo community, its like they took the good parts of tivo and good parts of ultimate TV and combined them together. Looks like they learned from both their previous DVR partners. Only thing I might miss is suggestions (and I have turned those off lately because Tivo has stopped suggesting things, I guess nothing new is really coming out these days)

 

[Tonedeaf]

I might sell the Tivo if I do decide to get an R15. I thought it'd be cool to have all these hacks and I'd use them every day, but I don't do extraction because I really don't watch the shows after the first time and my fileserver at home would quickly fill if I archived everything. I don't use Tivoweb because once I got all my season passes setup and prioritized then there was no need. I really only did it because I didn't want to wait 3 hours for my passes to reprioritize when I do so. I don't use tivoweb for remote scheduling because I have dialup and can't leave a permanent connection to the internet. And I'm running 3.0 but I don't have another tivo so MRV isn't really useful and I don't listen to MP3s on my non-stereo TV so other HMO options really don't peak my interest either. Also, after reading the R15 review over at the tivo community, its like they took the good parts of tivo and good parts of ultimate TV and combined them together. Looks like they learned from both their previous DVR partners. Only thing I might miss is suggestions (and I have turned those off lately because Tivo has stopped suggesting things, I guess nothing new is really coming out these days)

That's cool. When I looked into hacking my Tivo's I felt wasn't worth my frustration to go through the threads and try to figure out what the heck I had to do. And like you mentioned, didn't really use the hacks anyhow.

The R15 does look very intriguing.

 

[video62]

Extensive review/tour of R15

Screenshots, pictures of front, back, insides, comments on various functions: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=270214

 

[hancox]

yup - Earl is also a user here, and does a great job.

 

[ebonovic]

Thanks for the comments....

I am not a "regular" user here... but I will try to start hanging out more, as since products are coming out that are not TiVo based.... I need to spread my wings a bit more.

 

[kbohip]

Yea Earl, especially since it sounds like Tivocommunity doesn't want any talk of improvements, bugs, and suggestions about the R15. I can't say I blame them, as the R15's not a Tivo. I was kind of surprised you put your review up over there anyway. I thought it would be here at Satguys.

BTW, Excellent review Earl! :up

 

[alexandrepsf]

I'm waiting for the HD version. But if the R15 has good reviews, thats gonna be great for the HD version. I cant imagine the unit will be different at all except for digital local channels and the ability to record HD. The interface and features I would imagine would be nearly identical.

That was first my intention to wait for the HD version, but then I thought that to have the HD version perfect we should have this one and find all the bugs and communicate it to DirecTV, hoping they will sort them all out.

By the way, does anybody know how we can communicate DirecTV the bugs of R15? I already found few one.

Cheers,
Alex