Direct DVR (whole home) vs DishNetwork DVR

[toekneeh]

I am considering moving from Dish to Direct, but I was talking to a friend yesterday and he said his Direct DVR (whole home) was slow to respond to the point of it being annoying. Sluggish interface.

I have the DVR622 Dishnetwork receivers and it is very responsive. Has anyone on this forum experience both DVR receivers from Dish and Direct and care to give a review of the trade-offs/differences? Currently love the Dish DVR interface, so I am concerned that I will be disappointed by Directv.

As far as programming/price both services seem to be similar (from the standpoint of paying "new customer" pricing which Dishnetwork has offered if I stay).

Thanks!

 

[jdspencer]

There are many threads both here and on the other forum that mention the concerns of the DirecTV DVRs. In my case I have an HR23 and HR24 connected for MRV in unsupported mode (ethernet only) and have not seen the extreme sluggishness others report. There are some minor delays at times, but I don't find them annoying.

 

[lern4483]

I have three HR24 all hooked up through mrv.
No issue at all. These are the latest Direc dvrs.
Much improved over previous models.

I have dish as well . Vip722 and 922.
While the dish receivers are still
Slightly better the gap is closing.

I love the new Direc dvrs.

 

[charper1]

I had Dish Network a while back to test it out and did not like it (the service) but the DVR was OK. I have had DirecTV for a long time and prefer the service. The DVRs I have and the MRV is great. I do not have any of the speed or other issues you mention.

 

[teachsac]

I came to Direct after 12 years with Dish and have been with Direct for a year now. I had several 622s. I currently have three HR24's and am pleased with the receivers and especially MRV. I've only had a couple minor issues that couldn't be fixed with a reset. Same thing I had to do with the 622's every once in a while. Each reciever has its own pluses and minuses. It just takes a little getting used to. Definitely beats the $17 extra receiver fee from Dish.

S~

 

[ts7]

I think that Dish Network DVRs (at least the 722) are faster and a little easier to use but we quickly adapted to the H/HR24 units from DirecTV. The overall benefit of features such as MRV, HD in every room, etc far outweigh any slight disadvantage in performance.

Despite what has been posted on other threads, I personally have found the Direct service more reliable than Dish.

 

[mini1]

The HR24 did have a recent issue with an update slowing it down, but that has been corrected with a simple reset.

 

[JerseyMatt]

I had Dish for 2 weeks (a 722 and a 222 serving 4 TV's), and I found their setup to be obnoxious..

First thing to remember, with Dish, you don't have MRV, you have 'TV2 out'. TV2 out uses the second tuner in the DVR to drive a TV in SD. So while yes, you could jerry rig it into a 'whole home' type system with a couple splitters, it isn't really MRV. Your TV2 is also at the mercy of the recording timers whether you can watch it or not. If you're watching TV2 and a recording timer goes off, you're either stuck watching what's about to record or you have to cancel the timer. And then there's the fact that there is no way to get TV2 in HD. If you want HD you need a separate box anyway. The only plus side to the system is that TV2 does get DVR features on live tv. But unless you live alone (and even then it's got potential to annoy you), it's a rotten system.

With Directv, you have a box at each TV, no matter how you slice it. This is a good thing for many reasons (and it costs the same or less than the Dish method of billing, depending on your setup). First, it keeps the DVR tuners free to do DVR things. A record timer doesn't interrupt anything. It also allows the MRV system to work (again independent of what is happening on other boxes - you're not interrupting anything), so any HD box can watch anything recorded on any DVR in the house. The only thing you don't get is DVR controls (live pause/rewind) on non-DVR TV's. There's also complaints that the Directv UI is ugly and dated (which I agree with), but dealing with it is a small price to pay for a better system. The unofficial official word is that the UI will be updated by year's end anyway, so... I have two HR24's, an H24, and an H21, and I don't have any responsiveness or sluggishness issues at all right now. There was an issue a while back but it seems to have been fixed in the current software.

Another thing to consider is how each company bills for extra boxes. Directv bills flat $6 for each additional box, regardless whether it is a DVR or standard. So if you want 4 DVR's, it's $18 total in box fees (plus the $10 DVR/MRV fee). Dish on the other hand bills by the tuner, and they charge extra for DVR's. A single tuner box is $7 (211), a dual tuner box is $14 (222), a regular DVR is $17 (622 or 722), and a Sling DVR (922) is $19. So if you want 4 DVRs with Dish, they nail you for $51 a month just in the box fees, on top of the $7 DVR service fee, which doesn't even have MRV.

 

[treiher]

I had Dish for 10 years and always ruled out Direct TV because of what I experienced and friends and neigbors homes who had Direct. I always thought the Direct receivers were sluggish, had fewer features, and were not as intuitive as the Dish Receivers. The HR24 however, was a game changer. I made the switch a year ago and love these receivers. Yes, they do get a little sluggish sometimes. Not sure what the cause is, but a system reboot always brings it back to a pretty snappy response. I probably wind up doing this once every 2 weeks or so. No big deal at all. And I'll tell yah, one thing I really like is that they don't seem to break! I've had two HR24's and two H24's all linked together for whole house DVR for more than a year with no issues at all. I went through one period with Dish were I had three 722 receivers replaced inside of a year. That got very old.

 

[wacat]

I was in the exact same situation a month ago you are in, had Dish with a 622 but switched to Direct. Love my two HR24's which I find just as responsive as the 622. The only slight delay is watching a program recorded on another receiver but it a 3-5 second wait and then it plays. Not a big deal. I also prefer the Direct DVR interface, but I seem to be in the minority with that one.

I am considering moving from Dish to Direct, but I was talking to a friend yesterday and he said his Direct DVR (whole home) was slow to respond to the point of it being annoying. Sluggish interface.

I have the DVR622 Dishnetwork receivers and it is very responsive. Has anyone on this forum experience both DVR receivers from Dish and Direct and care to give a review of the trade-offs/differences? Currently love the Dish DVR interface, so I am concerned that I will be disappointed by Directv.

As far as programming/price both services seem to be similar (from the standpoint of paying "new customer" pricing which Dishnetwork has offered if I stay).

Thanks!

 

[Claude Greiner]

Personally, best way to go is with (2) HR24's with Multi-Room Viewing.

 

[ts7]

Not sure what the cause is, but a system reboot always brings it back to a pretty snappy response. I probably wind up doing this once every 2 weeks or so.

Considering the Dish receivers do a daily reboot at 3:00am, only once every couple weeks for Direct receivers is pretty good!

 

[huskerpat]

I just switched this weekend. The Dish dvr's seem a little more responsive. there have been a couple of times I hit ok, but it didn't register. Channel changes seem a little slower too. Overall, though, I'm really digging the extra features on the hr-24 over the vip722. the 9 channel quick menu is absolutely killer. The sidebar is pretty slick too. I don't have much use for it yet other than temperature and weather radar, but color me impressed.

I do wish the guide on D* would show more than an hour and a half.

 

[mdram]

the hr24 is not as fast as the 622
BUT it does so many things the 622(or any dish receiver) doesnt do
1. the 9 channel quick menu
2. the autohide of hd/sd duplicate channels
3. view upcoming
4. view cast and thier other movies/shows
5. the search blows the dish recievers away

im very happy with the hr24 over the 622, even if its a little slower
it takes a while to get used to the diff layout of the remote and stuff, but well worth it imho

 

[lparsons21]

Your #2 is out of date, or at least it is as of the last update.

 

[mdram]

aaahh, thats a good thing, i havent had one in 8 months

 

[teachsac]

#2 Auto Hide is a feature for as long as I can remember on the 622s.

S~

 

[lparsons21]

the hr24 is not as fast as the 622
BUT it does so many things the 622(or any dish receiver) doesnt do
1. the 9 channel quick menu
2. the autohide of hd/sd duplicate channels
3. view upcoming
4. view cast and thier other movies/shows
5. the search blows the dish recievers away

im very happy with the hr24 over the 622, even if its a little slower
it takes a while to get used to the diff layout of the remote and stuff, but well worth it imho

If you could be assured that when you sign up you get the HR24, I would think that would be a big plus. Alas, you are not assured of that since D* thinks all HRs are the same for ordering purposes. Second thing might be what D* can do to keep the software writers from pigging the code as it seems they did on the HRs previous to the 24.

#3 - I'm not sure what that is. When I do a google search on 'directv view upcoming' the links show me the same thing is done with Dish.

#4 - view cast ????

#5 - yes, D* has a very nice search function builtin.

 

[mdram]

If you could be assured that when you sign up you get the HR24, I would think that would be a big plus. Alas, you are not assured of that since D* thinks all HRs are the same for ordering purposes. Second thing might be what D* can do to keep the software writers from pigging the code as it seems they did on the HRs previous to the 24.

state you want hr24 and will refuse anything else, get it on the ticket

#3 - I'm not sure what that is. When I do a google search on 'directv view upcoming' the links show me the same thing is done with Dish.
you see a whow on the guide you want to watch, but its already started. the button view upcoming shows when and where the show will appear again, and any other episodes of it

#4 - view cast ????
detailed info of the cast members with other shows they are in and if/when those shows are on

#5 - yes, D* has a very nice search function builtin.

see red comments

 

[lparsons21]

#3 - AHA!! I had forgotten that from back when I had D*

#4 - meh...