Directv R15 problems

[peacemaker]

greets all. i have searched this forum to try to find a more suitable place for this thread. admin please move this if not in the correct location.

*sigh* made the jump from comcast to directv about 8 months ago. then the hard drive failed within 3 months and had dtv replace the unit. everything had been working fine until about 5 days ago, as the hard drive, or circuitry, or whatever, is failing again. called dtv this afternoon, jumped through the hoops, and was told to reformat the hddrive. of course i lost everything, all settings and recorded programming, etc. tech says to call back if unit still not working properly and they'll "see about replacing it". don't know what to do at this point. dtv dvr units appear to me to be junk. my old vcr was far more reliable. i don't want to go back to cable, and don't know what better options are out there. I obviously need the ability to get a signal and record programming. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as i am about to tell directv to take a hike. peace out

 

[novice_geek]

First off, you are correct in your assumption of the R15. THEY ALL ARE JUNK (at least in my opinion). I have two of them, and they don't work right 90% of the time. Your best option would be to get a "DirecTivo". It's just a Tivo box with a dual-tuner satellite receiver built in. I have owned one of these for a few years, and haven't really had any problems with it.

Anyway, I would look around ebay for one. (Note: It CANNOT be a regular Tivo!) Check with DTV before buying, because they are trying to get rid of them and convert their customers to the R15's

I hope this helps you.

Also, if you have or can get an old standard receiver, you can create a "mythbox," which is a PC a TV-tuner and some software. Check it out at: http://www.mythtv.org/ (that's what I plan on doing)