Free HD swap offered....questions

[buzzbar]

Hi!
I received an email from DirecTV offering me FREE replacement HD DVR receivers. I currently have three (3) HR10-250 HD Tivo receivers. I have a few questions:

1. Does anyone know which receiver they would give me?
2. Is the DirecTV DVR service alright? I mean, I've heard that the Tivo interface is SO much better, but I'd hate to judge it on rumor alone.
3. I get to keep my old owned receivers, right?
4. How does this effect my monthly dvr (currently tivo) fee? Does it change? If so, how?
5. Is the new equipment to be owned by me? Or is it leased? If leased, is there a monthly fee, and how much?

Lots of questions, I know. But hopefully you guys have answers.

Thanks in advance!

Andrew (buzzbar)

 

[boba]

Hi!
I received an email from DirecTV offering me FREE replacement HD DVR receivers. I currently have three (3) HR10-250 HD Tivo receivers. I have a few questions:

1. Does anyone know which receiver they would give me?
2. Is the DirecTV DVR service alright? I mean, I've heard that the Tivo interface is SO much better, but I'd hate to judge it on rumor alone.
3. I get to keep my old owned receivers, right?
4. How does this effect my monthly dvr (currently tivo) fee? Does it change? If so, how?
5. Is the new equipment to be owned by me? Or is it leased? If leased, is there a monthly fee, and how much?

Lots of questions, I know. But hopefully you guys have answers.

Thanks in advance!

Andrew (buzzbar)

1 HR 20/21/22/23 they are all DVRs directv considers them all equal so you get what is currently in inventory new or refurbished.

2 Directv DVRs are not TiVo powered so they operate differently than what you are used to, but yes they do work.

3 What terms did they provide to you? It used to be you kept owned equipment but offers change.

4 It is still one DVR fee per account no change.

5 Again it is subject to the terms offered to you usually they are leased but the fees are the same just who owns thw equipment changes.

 

[buzzbar]

I own all of my equipment, so I assume that I will keep the old receivers. If so, I'll sell them on ebay.

And since I own the equipment, I do NOT have a lease fee every month right now. If the new equipment is leased, is there a lease fee? If so, how much? Or is it just an agreement that they can recover the equipment at their discretion?

Thanks for the quick reply!

buzzbar

 

[stonecold]

I own all of my equipment, so I assume that I will keep the old receivers. If so, I'll sell them on ebay.

And since I own the equipment, I do NOT have a lease fee every month right now. If the new equipment is leased, is there a lease fee? If so, how much? Or is it just an agreement that they can recover the equipment at their discretion?

Thanks for the quick reply!

buzzbar

you pay the same per month if you own or lease it still 5 dollars per reciever past the first reciever on the account.

The equipment is leased so if you ended your service with directv they would want it back.

 

[RACJ2]

Just wanted to make sure you were aware of this. If you accept the deal, you usually will be agreeing to a new 2 year commitment. If that's a concern, be sure to ask.

 

[cfb]

My experience in going from directv tivo receivers to the HR2x series was mixed. I heard from the folks on another satellite discussion site that they were as good or better than the tivo in almost every way, and perhaps that set of expectations is why I was somewhat frustrated with the transition.

The HR2x series has some advantages, mostly closer integration with directv's active/real time features.

What you wont like:

- Poor remote control layout, too many buttons too close together. I often go to hit the 'playlist' button and hit the 'record' button or the 'active button.
- Limit of 50 season passes per unit. I tended to watch different shows in summer and winter, and my wife and 4 year old have different viewing habits. I need closer to 80-85. So I'm constantly adding and removing series links to stay under the limit.
- Recording reliability simply isnt as good. With my series 1 tivo's and series 2 directivo's, I missed a show due to a failure of the box or its software maybe a few times a year. I've missed dozens of shows with no explanation with the HR2x's. After the Wife Acceptance Factor dropped below zero, I ended up building an HTPC and hooking that up to the tv so we could watch the shows it misses on Hulu or from the networks web sites.
- Some of the recording functions work differently from tivo...and every other dvr software. For example, if you tell a series link to record 5 episodes a Keep Until I Delete, the unit will record 5 and then delete the oldest one and record a new one. On tivo, I used this function to record 5 or 10 episodes of a show and then have it stop until I watched and deleted one. Since the HR2x's dont work that way, I have to lower series link priorities or remove them when I have more episodes than I want. Big problem with my 4 year olds shows, many of which record 2-4 times per day, every day.
- You cant pick the channels you want, and directvs "channels I get" is enormously unreliable and includes all the PPV channels. With tivo, you can deselect channels you wont watch, you cant do that with the HR. So when you do a search for something, the first thing you'll get is 400 pages of PPV movies and premium channels you dont subscribe to. Sometimes an autorecord wishlist on the HR will record 2 hours of "you dont get this channel" on a channel in the "channels I get" list which you dont actually get.
- Slow. Slow, slow, slow. Folks who favor the HR like to talk about how the HR doesnt give you the interminable "please wait..." messages that tivo issues when reordering series links. That'll be replaced by hitting a button on the remote and having to wait 3-8 seconds for it to react, or taking 20-30 seconds to page through 4-5 pages of guide data listings.
- PC viewing and MRV type capabilities require a powerful network. Tivo transfers the whole show and will work with almost any decent network. You'll need wireless-N, 200Mb/s powerline or better still hard wired connections with the HR's.
- Stability. I have a series 1 tivo thats been running for almost 2 years without rebooting it and it works like clockwork. My series 2 directivo's needed a reboot maybe every 2-3 months. The HR2x's I have freeze or slow down so much they need a reboot about every 2-4 weeks.
- No suggestions. I know some people consider this a plus and are freaked out that the box is "filling itself up with stuff I dont want". I found suggestions to be an invaluable source of things I didnt know about and additional interesting tv. I miss them quite a bit and end up creating more series links to catch stuff I otherwise wouldnt have recorded implicitly. Which brings you back to that 50 series link limit....
- The MPEG4 material has some issues. Due to some equipment incompatibilities and/or tuning issues between the networks, local stations and directv, you may experience video and audio dropouts, "zipper"/"Briiip" sound issues and other maladies. On most of the mpeg4 content I view, I see 3-10 video/audio glitches per hour. This may be improved or resolved over time, but its a huge logistical issue and tug of war between directv and all its programming sources, all of whom feel its "the other guys problem to fix".

Bottom line is that you'll like a handful of the things the HR 2x's do that the tivo doesnt, you'll be annoyed by a handful of things it doesnt do or does differently, and you'll curse the remote control 3-5 times a week.

Lastly, you wont get much for your HR10's on ebay. They have a fairly low value.

 

[Jimbo]

My experience in going from directv tivo receivers to the HR2x series was mixed. I heard from the folks on another satellite discussion site that they were as good or better than the tivo in almost every way, and perhaps that set of expectations is why I was somewhat frustrated with the transition.

The HR2x series has some advantages, mostly closer integration with directv's active/real time features.

What you wont like:

- Poor remote control layout, too many buttons too close together. I often go to hit the 'playlist' button and hit the 'record' button or the 'active button.
- Limit of 50 season passes per unit. I tended to watch different shows in summer and winter, and my wife and 4 year old have different viewing habits. I need closer to 80-85. So I'm constantly adding and removing series links to stay under the limit.
- Recording reliability simply isnt as good. With my series 1 tivo's and series 2 directivo's, I missed a show due to a failure of the box or its software maybe a few times a year. I've missed dozens of shows with no explanation with the HR2x's. After the Wife Acceptance Factor dropped below zero, I ended up building an HTPC and hooking that up to the tv so we could watch the shows it misses on Hulu or from the networks web sites.
- Some of the recording functions work differently from tivo...and every other dvr software. For example, if you tell a series link to record 5 episodes a Keep Until I Delete, the unit will record 5 and then delete the oldest one and record a new one. On tivo, I used this function to record 5 or 10 episodes of a show and then have it stop until I watched and deleted one. Since the HR2x's dont work that way, I have to lower series link priorities or remove them when I have more episodes than I want. Big problem with my 4 year olds shows, many of which record 2-4 times per day, every day.
- You cant pick the channels you want, and directvs "channels I get" is enormously unreliable and includes all the PPV channels. With tivo, you can deselect channels you wont watch, you cant do that with the HR. So when you do a search for something, the first thing you'll get is 400 pages of PPV movies and premium channels you dont subscribe to. Sometimes an autorecord wishlist on the HR will record 2 hours of "you dont get this channel" on a channel in the "channels I get" list which you dont actually get.
- Slow. Slow, slow, slow. Folks who favor the HR like to talk about how the HR doesnt give you the interminable "please wait..." messages that tivo issues when reordering series links. That'll be replaced by hitting a button on the remote and having to wait 3-8 seconds for it to react, or taking 20-30 seconds to page through 4-5 pages of guide data listings.
- PC viewing and MRV type capabilities require a powerful network. Tivo transfers the whole show and will work with almost any decent network. You'll need wireless-N, 200Mb/s powerline or better still hard wired connections with the HR's.
- Stability. I have a series 1 tivo thats been running for almost 2 years without rebooting it and it works like clockwork. My series 2 directivo's needed a reboot maybe every 2-3 months. The HR2x's I have freeze or slow down so much they need a reboot about every 2-4 weeks.
- No suggestions. I know some people consider this a plus and are freaked out that the box is "filling itself up with stuff I dont want". I found suggestions to be an invaluable source of things I didnt know about and additional interesting tv. I miss them quite a bit and end up creating more series links to catch stuff I otherwise wouldnt have recorded implicitly. Which brings you back to that 50 series link limit....
- The MPEG4 material has some issues. Due to some equipment incompatibilities and/or tuning issues between the networks, local stations and directv, you may experience video and audio dropouts, "zipper"/"Briiip" sound issues and other maladies. On most of the mpeg4 content I view, I see 3-10 video/audio glitches per hour. This may be improved or resolved over time, but its a huge logistical issue and tug of war between directv and all its programming sources, all of whom feel its "the other guys problem to fix".

Bottom line is that you'll like a handful of the things the HR 2x's do that the tivo doesnt, you'll be annoyed by a handful of things it doesnt do or does differently, and you'll curse the remote control 3-5 times a week.

Lastly, you wont get much for your HR10's on ebay. They have a fairly low value.

Ok ......
Now about all these issues you seem to have that I DON'T with MY Hr series DVR.

Poor remote layout ? Once I got use to it, No Problem.

Limit of 50 Season Passes ? Many have mentioned wanting more than this, personally, I use 12. I don't record every new show on TV, just the ones I like.

- Recording reliability simply isnt as good. With my series 1 tivo's and series 2 directivo's, I missed a show due to a failure of the box or its software maybe a few times a year. I've missed dozens of shows with no explanation with the HR2x's. After the Wife Acceptance Factor dropped below zero, I ended up building an HTPC and hooking that up to the tv so we could watch the shows it misses on Hulu or from the networks web sites.

I'm not sure if I have EVER missed recording a show, outside of operator error, this happens hardly ever.

- Some of the recording functions work differently from tivo...and every other dvr software.

Of course it does, it's developed by someone other than TIVO, Thank you.

if you tell a series link to record 5 episodes a Keep Until I Delete, the unit will record 5 and then delete the oldest one and record a new one. On tivo, I used this function to record 5 or 10 episodes of a show and then have it stop until I watched and deleted one. Since the HR2x's dont work that way, I have to lower series link priorities or remove them when I have more episodes than I want.
Simple solution, tell it to Keep it till disk is full, then it won't record over others, delete them when you don't want them.

- You cant pick the channels you want, and directvs "channels I get" is enormously unreliable and includes all the PPV channels. With tivo, you can deselect channels you wont watch, you cant do that with the HR.

All you need to do is make a Custom list up in the Favorites section.
I've never used the AutoRecord, so, no comment.

- Slow. Slow, slow, slow.
Not as S L O W as the old HR250's

- PC viewing and MRV type capabilities require a powerful network. Tivo transfers the whole show and will work with almost any decent network. You'll need wireless-N, 200Mb/s powerline or better still hard wired connections with the HR's.
This is a work in progress, give it time.

- Stability. I have a series 1 tivo thats been running for almost 2 years without rebooting it and it works like clockwork. My series 2 directivo's needed a reboot maybe every 2-3 months. The HR2x's I have freeze or slow down so much they need a reboot about every 2-4 weeks.
I have been using HR series DVR's since they came out and are very reliable and stable, only time I reboot mine is when I decide (CE).

- No suggestions.
Remember this is NOT SUPPOSE to be a TIVO. as for the Suggestions,If I had the feature, I'd turn it OFF immediately.

- The MPEG4 material has some issues. Due to some equipment incompatibilities and/or tuning issues between the networks, local stations and directv, you may experience video and audio dropouts, "zipper"/"Briiip" sound issues and other maladies. On most of the mpeg4 content I view, I see 3-10 video/audio glitches per hour. This may be improved or resolved over time, but its a huge logistical issue and tug of war between directv and all its programming sources, all of whom feel its "the other guys problem to fix".
And I bet the TIVO's are perfect, fwiw, I have never had a zipper or Briiiip experience.

Lastly, you wont get much for your HR10's on ebay. They have a fairly low value.
Yup, very low value on any OLDER units as they do not work with NEW technology, at least not everything does.

Buzzbar,
Welcome to the site !
You'll find plenty of people with opinions one way or the other.
Gotta love the guys with a TIVO love fest and a D* dislike, you'd think they would move on to something else, but I guess not.

fwiw, like I mentioned, I have been using HR series DVR's for many years now, since they came out and they have come a long ways from the beginning .... adding new features, trying to cover things others like, (Dual turner buffering) also something new that is a work in progress.
Multi Room Viewing being the other thing they are working on at the moment.

Just because others had/have it, doesn't mean D* NEEDS it.
D* now has a nice little feature called "ScoreGuide" something that I user all the time and am happy to see, I don't know if any other provider does that or not.

They have interactive channels ( I don't use them much, but they are there).
As for the Remote, you'll get use to it, just like any other one.

Give it a go, you'll be fine

 

[buzzbar]

Poor remote layout ? Once I got use to it, No Problem.

I use a Harmony remote, so not an issue for me.

Limit of 50 Season Passes ? Many have mentioned wanting more than this, personally, I use 12. I don't record every new show on TV, just the ones I like.

This part would suck for me, since we have (67). But I'm sure I can manage.

- Recording reliability simply isnt as good. With my series 1 tivo's and series 2 directivo's, I missed a show due to a failure of the box or its software maybe a few times a year. I've missed dozens of shows with no explanation with the HR2x's. After the Wife Acceptance Factor dropped below zero, I ended up building an HTPC and hooking that up to the tv so we could watch the shows it misses on Hulu or from the networks web sites.


I'm not sure if I have EVER missed recording a show, outside of operator error, this happens hardly ever.

I can only hope that the truth is somewhere in the middle here. My Tivo dvr (HR10-250) has been a real workhouse. Recording quality is EXCELLENT, and very reliable. I do have to reboot about once a month I'd say.

- Some of the recording functions work differently from tivo...and every other dvr software.

Of course it does, it's developed by someone other than TIVO, Thank you.

What recording functions work differently? What exactly? I just want to be able to record my shows, and watch it later, scan through the commercials, etc...

if you tell a series link to record 5 episodes a Keep Until I Delete, the unit will record 5 and then delete the oldest one and record a new one. On tivo, I used this function to record 5 or 10 episodes of a show and then have it stop until I watched and deleted one. Since the HR2x's dont work that way, I have to lower series link priorities or remove them when I have more episodes than I want.
Simple solution, tell it to Keep it till disk is full, then it won't record over others, delete them when you don't want them.

Sounds fine. I usually don't keep episodes that long anyway.

- You cant pick the channels you want, and directvs "channels I get" is enormously unreliable and includes all the PPV channels. With tivo, you can deselect channels you wont watch, you cant do that with the HR.

All you need to do is make a Custom list up in the Favorites section.
I've never used the AutoRecord, so, no comment.

I seldom use the channel guide anyway. Most of the type I search for my programs to be honest.

- Slow. Slow, slow, slow.
Not as S L O W as the old HR250's

My old HR250 is fast. What do you mean when you say, 'slow. slow, slow, slow'? The reaction of the remote? The clicking between guides? Please explain.

- PC viewing and MRV type capabilities require a powerful network. Tivo transfers the whole show and will work with almost any decent network. You'll need wireless-N, 200Mb/s powerline or better still hard wired connections with the HR's.
This is a work in progress, give it time.

Are you referring to networking recording to a computer? Or sharing among other TVs?

- Stability. I have a series 1 tivo thats been running for almost 2 years without rebooting it and it works like clockwork. My series 2 directivo's needed a reboot maybe every 2-3 months. The HR2x's I have freeze or slow down so much they need a reboot about every 2-4 weeks.
I have been using HR series DVR's since they came out and are very reliable and stable, only time I reboot mine is when I decide (CE).

Again, hopefully the truth is somewhere in the middle.

- No suggestions.
Remember this is NOT SUPPOSE to be a TIVO. as for the Suggestions,If I had the feature, I'd turn it OFF immediately.

I don't use suggestions either, so no big deal.

- The MPEG4 material has some issues. Due to some equipment incompatibilities and/or tuning issues between the networks, local stations and directv, you may experience video and audio dropouts, "zipper"/"Briiip" sound issues and other maladies. On most of the mpeg4 content I view, I see 3-10 video/audio glitches per hour. This may be improved or resolved over time, but its a huge logistical issue and tug of war between directv and all its programming sources, all of whom feel its "the other guys problem to fix".
And I bet the TIVO's are perfect, fwiw, I have never had a zipper or Briiiip experience.

I'm a bit worried about this. My Tivo picture is, in fact, perfect. Sorry. So hopefully it's not as bad as you say.

Lastly, you wont get much for your HR10's on ebay. They have a fairly low value.
Yup, very low value on any OLDER units as they do not work with NEW technology, at least not everything does.

That's probably true. But they're bought and paid for, so anything I get is pure profit at this point (sort of).

Buzzbar,
Welcome to the site !
You'll find plenty of people with opinions one way or the other.
Gotta love the guys with a TIVO love fest and a D* dislike, you'd think they would move on to something else, but I guess not.

fwiw, like I mentioned, I have been using HR series DVR's for many years now, since they came out and they have come a long ways from the beginning .... adding new features, trying to cover things others like, (Dual turner buffering) also something new that is a work in progress.
Multi Room Viewing being the other thing they are working on at the moment.

Just because others had/have it, doesn't mean D* NEEDS it.
D* now has a nice little feature called "ScoreGuide" something that I user all the time and am happy to see, I don't know if any other provider does that or not.

They have interactive channels ( I don't use them much, but they are there).
As for the Remote, you'll get use to it, just like any other one.

Give it a go, you'll be fine

Thanks! I appreciate it.

 

[cfb]

Buzzbear -

As you can see, there are a lot of factors at play and user perception along with the product progression has a lot to do with it.

Since I think I just got painted as a tivo fanboy and directv hater, I should probably mention that I've been a subscriber to both products almost since their inception. I like many things about both products/services but realize there are things that can be annoying about them as well. In point of fact, I've had plenty of harsh criticism for tivo over the years while being generally quite favorable of directv's products and services.

I read your post in the context of someone thinking of migrating from a tivo product to the current directv product. If you were a directv non-dvr user looking to pick up a dvr, or a new prospective directv customer coming over from cable who had never had a dvr, I'd think you would find the HR2x series to be a very fine product with some quirks. But the ability to record shows when you'd never been able to do that before would be so terrific you'd probably never notice those quirks.

Where I've experienced issues and seen others become frustrated is in the directv-tivo or cable based tivos to directv HR2x migration. Tivo users tend to be heavy dvr users and have gotten used to how the product works. The HR2x series, while far better than it was two years ago, or even a year ago, is still a work in progress. There have been a half dozen times in the last year that I'd have willingly given these boxes back to directv and was only held back by the high cancellation fee and existing investment in directv hardware.

As far as the legitimacy of the problems I've mentioned, each and every one has been acknowledged by Directv as a known issue that they are currently working on, and there are many threads in many discussion groups regarding them.

For example, heres a thread with 809 current responses regarding the audio zipper/briiip issue, directv's acknowledgement of the issue, and some of the things done/still to be done to resolve it.

Brrrrriiiiip getting worse? - DBSTalk.Com

In my opinion, unless you've lost or will soon lose an important capability from your existing receivers, you might be better served to wait until the new directv tivo product is released and appears stable, which might be 8-10 months. If you just cant wait that long, then you will probably be able to make due with the HR2x boxes, but be advised you will have some significant migration issues and perhaps a good bit of frustration with the products from time to time.

 

[KSbugeater]

As someone who has an open mind and a neutral stance (I've been using the HR10 and HR20 side-by-side since the HR20 came out) let me reassure you that HR20 is a fine machine. I will admit that reliability is slightly on the HR10's side, but only because of full disk issues, usually. The HR20 has missed a handful of shows in the last year. You will love the convenience of not having to stop everything to do maintenance such as checking the To-Do List or searching for shows. You can set up series links without blocking the screen as in the case of the TiVo guide. The other bells and whistles make the HR20 a total entertainment center.

If your TVs support Picture-in-Picture, I would encourage you to keep your HR10s on-line next to the HR20. You will be able to record network programming over the air, and you can keep an eye on a 2nd show with the PIP. Unless you can't stand distractions in the big picture, you'll thank me for it.

 

[buzzbar]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input.

I just got off the phone with Directv. I made the plunge. They said since I've been a loyal customer since 2001 I qualified for the free upgrade. So they're coming out on Thursday to upgrade my dish and the three receivers.

I just can't wait for Tivo and Directv to get their act together. The Tivo/Directv receiver is still probably a year away. My old HR10-250 is slowly sinking into obsolescence.

I'll report back with my opinions after the switchover.

Thanks again!

buzzbar