DirecTV R-15 DVR

[madpoet]

Whywould we have to pay another fee? It's listed as a DVR fee, not a Tivo fee. Should cover ANY DVRs we have.

 

[Alan Gordon]

I had pretty much made my mind up already, but I never thought about different DVR fees... I'd hate to see them stick that to us, especially once the tivo boxes are no longer available for purchase. Looks like I'll be heading out this week to pick the box up.
Thanks for the input guys.

I've been thinking a lot about DVR fees lately, ever since we found out that the NDS R15 was announced to have a DVR fee.

Basically, it means that I'm going to have a lot of questions regarding DirecTV's HD future.

I want an HD-DVR.
I plan to wait until I can get an MPEG4 HD-DVR.
The only announced MPEG4 HD-DVR is the HMC.
The only MPEG4 HD-DVR that Dan Collins has heard of is the HMC.
Everyone, myself included suspects there will be an NDS HD-DVR.

Should I decide to get an NDS HD-DVR, if there is one... I'd pay for the unit, and continue paying the $5.00 mirror fee that I pay now... but I'd also have the DirecTV Plus fee (however much that is).

Should I decide to wait until the HMC comes out, I'll have a lease fee of $10-$15 along with the mirror fee that I have now, and more than likely, a DirecTV Plus fee to go along with it, bringing my grand total to (probably) somewhere around $20-$25 a month just for an HD-DVR, when if there were an MPEG4 TiVo, I'd only have to pay for it once, and then just pay the $5.00 mirror fee a month. If DirecTV doesn't do something to impress me with their upcoming hardware, I might just go ahead and get an HD-TiVo on the cheap next year and rely solely on DirecTV SD and rely solely on OTA HD (and HOPE that DirecTV doesn't switch over the HD DNS feeds until July 1, 2006 when I can pick up ABC and CBS HD OTA).

~Alan

 

[Alan Gordon]

Whywould we have to pay another fee? It's listed as a DVR fee, not a Tivo fee. Should cover ANY DVRs we have.

DirecTV subsidizes the TiVo fee of $12.95 a month, and while I forget the details, I do believe the TiVo fee will be separate of the DirecTV Plus fee...

~Alan

 

[madpoet]

Ahhh, thanks for the info. They might want to change the wording then . Someone will inevitably challenge them on a DVR fee that they claim doesn't apply to all DVRs.

-MP

 

[Alan Gordon]

Ahhh, thanks for the info. They might want to change the wording then . Someone will inevitably challenge them on a DVR fee that they claim doesn't apply to all DVRs.

I don't know for sure, it's possible they will change things, and a DVR fee will cover the whole house (maybe they will go up in price?!), or maybe they don't think people will care (still cheaper than cable, or Dish Network's fee per DVR). I'm just stating my opinion...

~Alan

 

[cr0mag]

Ehh... I guess I'm just going to take the lesser of all evils... I'm going to be running two SD DVR units and one HD STB until they get this mess straightened out. Heck, I may even put in another two SD STBs as well. I'm not going to put up much of a fit about things that I have no control over.
I'd love to have the crystal ball that tells me what D*'s next move is, but if I had that crystal ball, I'd be buying lotto tickets with it...lol
For now, I'll stick to what I know and if I have to change out some boxes in the next year or so, so be it.

 

[Alan Gordon]

Ehh... I guess I'm just going to take the lesser of all evils... I'm going to be running two SD DVR units and one HD STB until they get this mess straightened out.

I've thought about just getting an H20 (the rumored name for the Humax MPEG4 HD box) when the time comes, but I hardly ever watch anything on the the HD package since whenever it's something I want to watch, it's always on at a time when I'm doing something else, and now that all the network shows are repeats, I haven't been watching anything in HD, but this Fall and next Spring is going to be rough trying to watch my shows, and I'm probably going to have to TiVo some of the shows in SD if I want to watch them...

~Alan

 

[kbohip]

TiVo gives you WishLists, something that I'd hate to lose... among the fact that most people know how well the TiVo works, but no one knows how well the R15 will work.

Plus, if you don't subscribe to Total Choice Premium, already have a TiVo and pay a TiVo fee, odds are that if you get an R15, you'll have to pay the DirecTV Plus fee, where if you'd buy another TiVo, like the R10, you won't have an additional DVR fee.

~Alan

Ya, I'd really hate to lose Wishlists. I use them a lot. My old Dish DVR never had that feature either, and I definitely don't want to lose it again. It looks like the R-15 can search by keywords though, which is all the Wishlist really does anyway so maybe we'll get lucky after all.

I was thinking of replacing one of my two Directivo's in the house with one of these new R-15's when they come out, but I don't want to be paying the $5 a month Tivo fee plus the $5 a month whatever Directv wants to call it fee for the R-15, assuming this is how they will work it.

The funny thing is that even with one Directivo and one R-15 adding up to $10 a month in DVR fees, it's still the exact same price you'd pay with Dish for two of their 522 DVR's.

 

[Hogarth]

DirecTV subsidizes the TiVo fee of $12.95 a month

Not even. DirecTV pays TiVo $1 per DirecTiVo household per month.
It's in the contract, and both have mentioned it in shareholder briefings numerous times.

 

[ad301]

Ya, I'd really hate to lose Wishlists. I use them a lot. My old Dish DVR never had that feature either, and I definitely don't want to lose it again. It looks like the R-15 can search by keywords though, which is all the Wishlist really does anyway so maybe we'll get lucky after all.

If the upcoming DirecTV DVRs can't do batch searches, like TiVo wishlists, then they will be useless to me. I have over a hundred WishLists watching for movies or subjects I might be interested in, which I check every couple of days. If the new DVR's can't do the same type of global search then the find function becomes virtually useless to me. Am I supposed to check 100+ recent finds manually? And how many recent finds will it save? I can't believe they'd be stupid enough to take such a step backwards, but the manual at the posted link sure makes it look that way.

 

[Alan Gordon]

Not even. DirecTV pays TiVo $1 per DirecTiVo household per month.
It's in the contract, and both have mentioned it in shareholder briefings numerous times.

Thank you! After I posted that, I was thinking I remembered that only a small portion of the $4.95 actually went to TiVo (and $1 actually came to mind), but I couldn't say for sure.

Could DirecTV then offer a DVR charge for $5.95 that would combine the DirecTV Plus service and the TiVo fee, or will they choose to do it seperately since it would still be cheaper than Dish Network's $4.95 per DVR, and Cable's DVR lease/charge?!

I'm not impressed with the R15, since I care very little for Interactive Services, and I don't particularly care for the way it works compared to a TiVo, but as someone who has no plans to get rid of their SD-TiVo's anytime soon, I'd be skeptical of the R15 until we find out how DirecTV plans to charge their blended DVR families...

~Alan

 

[Loric]

I want an HD-DVR.
I plan to wait until I can get an MPEG4 HD-DVR.

Then plan to wait for a bit.

I've thought about just getting an H20 (the rumored name for the Humax MPEG4 HD box) when the time comes,

H20 won't be a DVR. Try and guess what the code name of the HD DVR will be.
By the way, the code names for DTV's products are not manufacturer specific, other manufacturers will also provide the H20 to DTV.


The R15 does use the same remotes as the D10's.
The R15 is not MPEG4 capable.

 

[kbohip]

If the upcoming DirecTV DVRs can't do batch searches, like TiVo wishlists, then they will be useless to me. I have over a hundred WishLists watching for movies or subjects I might be interested in, which I check every couple of days. If the new DVR's can't do the same type of global search then the find function becomes virtually useless to me. Am I supposed to check 100+ recent finds manually? And how many recent finds will it save? I can't believe they'd be stupid enough to take such a step backwards, but the manual at the posted link sure makes it look that way.

Ugh. You're right. I forgot that even if it did search by keyword you'd have to do it manually EVERY time. I really hope Directv hasn't pulled an E* and screwed up the DVR's with this new one. I guess I'm just a lot more nervous about Directv making their own DVR's than most of you guys here. Coming from the nightmare that was Dish Network and their craptacular line of DVR's I'm really hoping Directv doesn't make the same mistake.

If the new line of R-15's do in fact do less and have less features than TiVo, I'll be upset with Directv keeping the $5 a month DVR fee.

 

[kbohip]

The R15 is not MPEG4 capable.

If this is true then the R15 is completely useless imho. I'll hold onto my R-10's until MPEG4 DVR's are here. The R15 will be a nice way for Directv to get the bugs worked out though and I won't have to be a part of that .

 

[hahler2]

The one thing I'm curious to know is will you still have to do a daily call in like the Tivo's do. If they could get rid of that I think that would be really nice. Since it's a long distance call for me.

 

[charper1]

Man, in this day and age if it doesn't have an ethernet connection to D/L its updates and EPG or to off-load your programs to a PC for archiving, then it will truly be a worthless paperweight.

 

[CWS_kahuna]

The one thing I'm curious to know is will you still have to do a daily call in like the Tivo's do. If they could get rid of that I think that would be really nice. Since it's a long distance call for me.

I have not made a daily call in forever. It reminds me too but that's it. I know others here have said before they don't do the daily calls either.

 

[lee78221]

If the upcoming DirecTV DVRs can't do batch searches, like TiVo wishlists, then they will be useless to me. I have over a hundred WishLists watching for movies or subjects I might be interested in, which I check every couple of days. If the new DVR's can't do the same type of global search then the find function becomes virtually useless to me. Am I supposed to check 100+ recent finds manually? And how many recent finds will it save? I can't believe they'd be stupid enough to take such a step backwards, but the manual at the posted link sure makes it look that way.

yes they can look on page 36 and 33

 

[lee78221]

The one thing I'm curious to know is will you still have to do a daily call in like the Tivo's do. If they could get rid of that I think that would be really nice. Since it's a long distance call for me.

the R15 will do its updates my phoneline

 

[lee78221]

this unit's interface looks a lot like the the D10's