HR20-700 Has Arrived in Norman, OK

[Caeboy]

Guys,

I just got DirecTV service installed yesterday. I had called DirecTV directly to order. I requested one HD-DVR and one HD box. I was expecting to get a HR10-250 since I was not in an area with HD locals, but the guy shows up with an H20 AND an HR20-700. I also got an AT-9 dish installed.

The tech said this was the first HR20 he had seen and it had just come in that day. He also did not know that the OTA tuner was disabled. He spent an hour on the phone trying to figure it out until they finally told him it was not enabled.

So far it seems to work great. I am coming from dish so it does take a little to get used to the new UI. It seems to do everything that my old 522 could do, except for PiP. The UI also seems very fast. I know I have heard that the HR10 had a slow UI but they seem to have fixed that problem in the HR20. As I start filling up the hard drive I will comment if I see the UI slowing down.

Now time for some HD Sunday Ticket FOOTBALL :

 

[asousa]

wow, thats aweomse! Was it free?

the OTA being disabled scares me because it is reported that it will be enabled on the first shipments, at least that was my understanding.

 

[charper1]

Post pics please

 

[rkr0923]

NO OTA!
what a rip off

 

[raoul5788]

NO OTA!
what a rip off

Why do you say that? It is widely known that the ota tuners are not YET enabled, but will be, probably in October, via a software upgrade. Do you feel the need to bash D*? If so, why bother?

 

[raoul5788]

Guys,

I just got DirecTV service installed yesterday. I had called DirecTV directly to order. I requested one HD-DVR and one HD box. I was expecting to get a HR10-250 since I was not in an area with HD locals, but the guy shows up with an H20 AND an HR20-700. I also got an AT-9 dish installed.

The tech said this was the first HR20 he had seen and it had just come in that day. He also did not know that the OTA tuner was disabled. He spent an hour on the phone trying to figure it out until they finally told him it was not enabled.

So far it seems to work great. I am coming from dish so it does take a little to get used to the new UI. It seems to do everything that my old 522 could do, except for PiP. The UI also seems very fast. I know I have heard that the HR10 had a slow UI but they seem to have fixed that problem in the HR20. As I start filling up the hard drive I will comment if I see the UI slowing down.

Now time for some HD Sunday Ticket FOOTBALL :

Norman OK! The home of Paige Sauer, former Uconn women's basketball great! BTW, the HR20 now shows on the BB website as HR20-700, not HR20-250, and available in CT.

 

[Caeboy]

wow, thats aweomse! Was it free?

the OTA being disabled scares me because it is reported that it will be enabled on the first shipments, at least that was my understanding.

I was a new customer so I paid 299 for both receivers. But I get a $150 credit on my bill ($10/month for 15 months) and a free portable DVD player. I also get the HD package free for 4 months.

I also got the Sunday ticket deal (free Premier Choice for 4 months)

I also am getting $5 off for a year because I have DSL. (I think this is for anyone with DSL)

 

[bobojay]

I just contacted them about the DSL thing. We have AT&T Yahoo DSL and they said we were not eligible because they don't have AT&T as a partner.
Being in OK, I bet that is what you've got.......

 

[Lynskyn]

I just contacted them about the DSL thing. We have AT&T Yahoo DSL and they said we were not eligible because they don't have AT&T as a partner.
Being in OK, I bet that is what you've got.......

I would call them back and challenge that considering this is on their site:
http://www.directv.com/imagine/pdf/26683_DSLCreditsList_4FRM_f.pdf
It clearly shows AT&T as being qualified.

 

[GB33]

yep, I just got one in Indianapolis today. Kind of pissed.

 

[bobojay]

I would call them back and challenge that considering this is on their site:
http://www.directv.com/imagine/pdf/26683_DSLCreditsList_4FRM_f.pdf
It clearly shows AT&T as being qualified.

Doin it now.....I knew better but couldn't find the proper page, Thanks!

 

[Caeboy]

Well, I played with the unit a little more on Thursday and here are some of my thoughts so far on this unit.

What is the deal with the circle of LEDs on the center of the unit. Did MTV get a hold of this box and do a Pimp-my-SatBox on it

But now on to the some real information.

One big plus to me is the buffer running even while the unit is off. To me this is a great feature. My 3 year old likes the noggin channel. What is neat is I can leave the tuner to that channel and when we turn it on if the show is one she does not like I can rewind up to 2 hours to find one she does.

I also really like the use of tabs on the system. It took me a little getting use to, but it is a very efficient UI. On the Dish DVR you had to go through 3 to 4 layers of menus to get to the form you were trying to modify. With the HR20 the use of tabs reduces the number of menus you need to go through and it is easier to move around and change the setting you want. I really like it.

The other thing I noticed is the H20 GUI and the HR20 GUI look the same. They have the same menu structures (for the common functionality) This makes it easy for me to go back and forth between the two units.

One comment I do have is on the aesthetics of the GUI. I think DirecTV could use some help here. The Dish 522 and the ReplayTV had very good looking GUI's. The way they used colors and shading was pleasant and appealing to the eye. The HR20 GUI looks "flat" and a little dated. I think a good graphics artist could really help it out.

I have played with the "series pass" feature and it seems to work well. One thing to be aware of here. When you set up a series it takes a while for the to do list to populate and the guide to update. This bit me when I was setting up a show that was a Week out. It took a couple of minutes for the box to find all of the instances of that series and mark them for recording. I got concerned that it had missed one of the shows for some reason and tried to set up another "series pass" for an instance of the show that had not been marked for recording. The good news is the HR20 saw the duplicates and did not try to make a second one. It just sent me to the modify menu.

Well that is all I have for now. I will post more as I investigate

 

[PoitNarf]

What is the deal with the circle of LEDs on the center of the unit. Did MTV get a hold of this box and do a Pimp-my-SatBox on it

You can dim those LEDs or even shut them off completely if you want. Instructions on how to do it should be in the manual (they escape me at the moment).

 

[Caeboy]

One quick comment about the box is the stability. I got a DVR 501 early on and went through 3 units to get one that worked, and even then it would lock up at least once a week for about 7 month. Then the software got better. The ReplayTV 5000 unit had similar issues but was stable after about the 4th software upgrade. The last DVR unit I had was a Dish 522. This one worked well right out of the box. I had no problems with that unit.

The HR20-700 has that same feel to it. I am a software programmer so I know how to break code and so far the HR20 has done very well with my tests. As my HardDrive starts to fill I will get a better picture but right now I would sat this unit is more reliable than the DVR 501 and ReplayTV 5000 when they came out.

 

[Jimbo]

One quick comment about the box is the stability. I got a DVR 501 early on and went through 3 units to get one that worked, and even then it would lock up at least once a week for about 7 month. Then the software got better. The ReplayTV 5000 unit had similar issues but was stable after about the 4th software upgrade. The last DVR unit I had was a Dish 522. This one worked well right out of the box. I had no problems with that unit.

The HR20-700 has that same feel to it. I am a software programmer so I know how to break code and so far the HR20 has done very well with my tests. As my HardDrive starts to fill I will get a better picture but right now I would sat this unit is more reliable than the DVR 501 and ReplayTV 5000 when they came out.

You are a software programmer ?
Perfect !!!
Can you get ahold of D*'s software developers and help them with software to activate the OTA tuner ???
Thanks, much appreciated !!!
I sthis DVR set up with folrders ? So all your like programs show up in alike folder ?
My current DVR (not D*) does not have folders ability and I keep hearing others talk about them and I think it would be a very worthwhile idea.....

Jimbo

 

[Caeboy]

The HR20-700 does have folders. Here is how they work.

The List button brings up a the MyVod list of programs that have been recorded. When you create a series link recording, all of the shows recorded from that series appear as one entry in the MyVod list. You can then select that entry and the individual episodes will be shown as an indented list below. Very similar to how windows file tree widget works. The series name also indicates the total number of shows in the and the number that are "New" (ones you have not played yet)

 

[Jimbo]

The HR20-700 does have folders. Here is how they work.

The List button brings up a the MyVod list of programs that have been recorded. When you create a series link recording, all of the shows recorded from that series appear as one entry in the MyVod list. You can then select that entry and the individual episodes will be shown as an indented list below. Very similar to how windows file tree widget works. The series name also indicates the total number of shows in the and the number that are "New" (ones you have not played yet)

Thanks :

Jimbo

 

[rkr0923]

but no OTA
still useless to me

 

[mike_augie]

mangum,ok and hr20

Well after about a week of playing the csr game I finally got one for 19.99 and 6 months free hd, and 10.00 credit a month for 9 months due to be here on wed the 20 between 8-12 ,this was my 4th call all others told me to go to bust buy and get it could not sell them but got a email today and called agian and said this email was from you and siad it was ready and the csr was very nice and placed me on hold and came back and said she could do it...anyway thanks to this site all is well and good...looking foward to wed...

 

[Jimbo]

Well after about a week of playing the csr game I finally got one for 19.99 and 6 months free hd, and 10.00 credit a month for 9 months due to be here on wed the 20 between 8-12 ,this was my 4th call all others told me to go to bust buy and get it could not sell them but got a email today and called agian and said this email was from you and siad it was ready and the csr was very nice and placed me on hold and came back and said she could do it...anyway thanks to this site all is well and good...looking foward to wed...

D* was not allowed to sell them till last Monday, due to an agreement with BB for exclusiity... so on Tuesday they were allowed to talk to you about them.

Jimbo