Hr21

[gadgtfreek]

So how long before this thing hits full force and everyone who sends in their broken HR20 gets a black brick that wont pull in OTA?

I really love Directv right now and the hd adds, but still to this day 80% of the HD programs I record weekly are on the local networks. A box without OTA would force me back to Dish.

 

[dishrich]

Totally agree - since I saw last week that our local Best Buy ALREADY has both the HR21 & H21 on their shelves, I finally broke down & ordered a new HR20, since NOT having a DVR w/out OTA is TOTALLY unacceptable for me!

But OTOH, I still do have my HD Tivo, which will work just fine on the OTA HD's for the foreseeable furture, worse comes to worse...

 

[pixel41]

I just had a D* technician over working on something unrelated, and he was saying the HR21 is having A LOT of issues right now, it's giving him headaches. He definitely suggested not getting one yet.

Still never ceases to amaze me how you can push out a product that has so many issues. Just bad business if you ask me.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

The HR21's firmware is lagging the HR20 (no DOD yet) but mine is working fine.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Im just really amazed how soon they gave up on OTA. Most of us right now are OTA dependant

 

[gadgtfreek]

Any more comments on the LACK of OTA with D*'s new HDDVR.

 

[paulman182]

I saw in the newspaper yesterday that there are only 22 million OTA viewers in the US now, and the article said most of them are elderly and minorities.

I hate to see D* give up on OTA (if that is indeed what they are doing) but it won't affect most of us.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I feel they should have finished their HD local rollout before dropping tuners.

 

[goober22]

I feel they should have finished their HD local rollout before dropping tuners.

Here, hear. I have no HD or SD locals in my area yet. That's why I ordered 2 HR20s and made sure they WERE HR20s so I could get my locals. It would be too much to keep cable (digital tier, HD/DVR package, $80?) to have HD locals and be able to DVR them.

 

[dishrich]

I feel they should have finished their HD local rollout before dropping tuners.

Agree, and when you say rollout, you should qualify that with ALL the HD locals in a given market - NOT just the "big 4", which is all they are rolling out in the majority of HD LIL markets. (CW in a few & NO PBS AT ALL! )

Actually, considering that D* will probably NEVER roll out all of the added subchannels on digital locals, there is NO excuse they should have been dropping OTA tuners - PERIOD!

 

[311Man]

HR21 Issues

I upgraded with Directv after I told them I would only upgrade if I received an HR-20. They said they would place on order specifing HR-20. Tech arrives today and I asked him if he has HR-20. His response "That's all I have been putting in. I don't think we have HR-21 yet. So he installs dish and wiring goes into truck and comes out with an HR-21. I said your suppose to give me an HR-20. I call customer service and they said that is what they supply now. I talked to supervisor and now awaiting call back for them to obtain an HR-20. They installed HR-21 in the interim. We will see where that goes.

To make matters worse... the "Active" menu does not functions...it shows that its going to load then after 10 or 15 seconds it jumps back to standard channel. Channel changes are sssssslooooooooooowwwwwww.

Folks if OTA is of high importance. Stay away from Directv!!

 

[gadgtfreek]

This sucks. Ill just hopemy damn HR20 doesnt die I guess. :down

 

[311Man]

HR21 Hunk of Junk

I upgraded with Directv after I told them I would only upgrade if I received an HR-20. They said they would place on order specifing HR-20. Tech arrives today and I asked him if he has HR-20. His response "That's all I have been putting in. I don't think we have HR-21 yet. So he installs dish and wiring goes into truck and comes out with an HR-21. I said your suppose to give me an HR-20. I call customer service and they said that is what they supply now. I talked to supervisor and now awaiting call back for them to obtain an HR-20. They installed HR-21 in the interim. We will see where that goes.

To make matters worse... the "Active" menu does not functions...it shows that its going to load then after 10 or 15 seconds it jumps back to standard channel. Channel changes are sssssslooooooooooowwwwwww.

Folks if OTA is of high importance. Stay away from Directv!!

Thankfully I got a call from D* this afternoon and they are sending an HR20 via FEDEX!!! This was to suppose to be for providing the HR21 to me in error.

When they called back I indicated that it was a good thing because the HR21 does not work!! When you hit the "ACTIVE" button it goes to the page for about 15 seconds while it shows "Loading...." then screen flickers a few times and then it returns to previous channel.

Later this evening was watching program and hit "pause" went to return to programming by hitting "PLAY" and the screen was frozen. No DVR buttons would work other than changing channel to unfreeze screen. Essentially the "pause live tv" function is unoperable.

I have only had this unit for 9 hours and its a hunk of junk. For D* sake lets hope this is an isolated bad receiver. Not sure how others with this unit are making out but for the sake of future users of the HR21 lets hope this is not the norm!!!

 

[311Man]

Thankfully I got a call from D* this afternoon and they are sending an HR20 via FEDEX!!! This was to suppose to be for providing the HR21 to me in error.

When they called back I indicated that it was a good thing because the HR21 does not work!! When you hit the "ACTIVE" button it goes to the page for about 15 seconds while it shows "Loading...." then screen flickers a few times and then it returns to previous channel.

Later this evening was watching program and hit "pause" went to return to programming by hitting "PLAY" and the screen was frozen. No DVR buttons would work other than changing channel to unfreeze screen. Essentially the "pause live tv" function is unoperable.

I have only had this unit for 9 hours and its a hunk of junk. For D* sake lets hope this is an isolated bad receiver. Not sure how others with this unit are making out but for the sake of future users of the HR21 lets hope this is not the norm!!!

Received my replacement HR20 today. It actually works and now I have OTA. Few guide features that are different from HR21.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

I have both. The HR20 is further ahead in firmware development, but the HR21 is catching up (it is much better than the HR20 was when it originally came out).

 

[Fgsilva]

My install was today and they also brought the HR21. I decided to just keep it even though I don't have OTA. I get all six networks anyway with my locals so why bother with messing around with a roof top antenna, etc. so far the receiver has been working fine for me.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I have no doubt its a good receiver, I just dont want it in my house because I don't have HD locals via sat.

 

[ifnotuthenwho]

I just signed up for the D* and received an HR21. I wish they would have told me ahead of time that the DVR I would be receiving didn't do OTA because I spent a lot of time getting an antenna run to that location.

I do get my locals over satellite, but my PBS station is not in HDTV.

 

[Fgsilva]

so far so good!

well, it's been only a day but it is working fine. I actually have been using the tricks and all from the HR20 and they seem to work with this unit also. Can't say I noticed a big change in picture quality from Dish. At this point I don't have it connected to phone line or internet so can't say much about caller id and DOD yet.

 

[Montezuma58]

Thankfully I got a call from D* this afternoon and they are sending an HR20 via FEDEX!!! This was to suppose to be for providing the HR21 to me in error.

When they called back I indicated that it was a good thing because the HR21 does not work!! When you hit the "ACTIVE" button it goes to the page for about 15 seconds while it shows "Loading...." then screen flickers a few times and then it returns to previous channel.

Later this evening was watching program and hit "pause" went to return to programming by hitting "PLAY" and the screen was frozen. No DVR buttons would work other than changing channel to unfreeze screen. Essentially the "pause live tv" function is unoperable.

I have only had this unit for 9 hours and its a hunk of junk. For D* sake lets hope this is an isolated bad receiver. Not sure how others with this unit are making out but for the sake of future users of the HR21 lets hope this is not the norm!!!

Wish I could get them to send me an HR20. I "upgraded" my HD Tivo last week and got the HR21. I tried several CSRs and customer retention a couple of times. The only thing I was told was you get what you get, we have no way of ordering a specific model for you. If it don't met your needs tough luck.

I spent all of my day off waiting for the upgrade and I'm no better off than before. I moved the Tivo back to my projector and have the HR21 on a secondary TV. DirecTV doesn't have my HD locals yet. And there's too much stuff on the major networks I don't want to miss in the mean time. If I had known I would have been trading the major networks for the new mpeg4 channels I wouldn't have bothered.