MY R15 review!

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01ds650

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Nov 4, 2005
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Got my R15 up & going about 5:30 today.
Thanks VE!

It took about 2 hours. I unpacked everything & started to get it going. It gave me an error, no 2nd tuner. (I have to run the 2nd line this week-end). Then it shut off & rebooted & inmstalled new software already. Then I had to get it activated. I live in an area that still has local providers & mine is terrible!!!!! (Anyone know how I can change that???!!!) Anyway I finally got it up. All channels OK. The channel banners look better too than the D10 FYI. I go to pause TV & it gives me a contact Direct to start DVR service? What? I've had Tivo for months.
I call my local provider they have no idea what an R15 is. I'm not kidding. They say Tivo, you have that. I say yes I do, plus now I have this. It's YOUR DVR! She couldn't figure it out. They close early. She says can you call tommorrow? WTF! I pay the same as every other Direct customer why do I not have the benefit of 24 hour service!!!
So then I call Direct. He says he can't help me really because of my local provider, but he says maybe the R15 is bad, I should return it.
So I call VE. Very nice & helpful. They suggested I call Direct & hope for a better tech guy basically. So this time I get one. At first he can't fingure it out, then he says it's not Tivo software so it will not work with Tivo service fees. You need to pay a Direct DVR fee for it. YOU MUST BE KIDDING, I say. So he says let me check. I'm thinking well I'll just get an R10 then.... He says lets try this.... Anyway whatever he did got me up & running OK. THANK YOU tech guy! Plus he said my bill still shows only $4.99.
The screen icons are colored & more attractive. That's a big plus to me. The D10 was sooooo Dish Network in that respect. The DVR makes a "Bong" sound when you catch up to live TV ala TiVo, but no other sounds. The TiVo is very quick when you jump ahead or back, the R15 is not as fast. Not bad but sometimes when you say jump back 10 seconds it pauses a split second then plays. The bar graph on the bottom is alot like Tivo but more see through. It also contains a mini guide on the bottom of the screen like Dish Network has. You push the blue button to start it.
The stop button is nice. When you hit stop while recording it prompts you
1. keep recording
2 stop but save
3. stop & delete
This feature I like.
Caller id is a big plus too.
I also like how it will show other showings of that show if you hit info, this allows you to not type it in to look it up.
Something I DO NOT like. About 5 minutes before it needs to change channels to record a show it says it needs to change the channel at say 7pm. I say OK, it will then change it then at 6:55pm !!!!! This is not good. What about what I'm watching! That certainly needs to be addressed.
I haven't had much time to play. I'll post more later

ps> The Damn neon blue light has my bedroom all light up! I feel like I'm at the gentlemans club.
 
Yes I saw that too. I was just going to link it & then didn't. I thought I'll just write my own & give VE the props they deserve.

His review has good pics. Me I'm too pissed at my local provider to take pics :mad:
 
I want to turn the light ring on the front panel on or off, or dim them.

Press and hold the LEFT and RIGHT arrows to adjust the brightness of the blue lights in the light ring on the front panel. You can dim the lights until they turn off completely. To turn the lights on, press and hold the LEFT and RIGHT arrows again.

Two points:
1) You have to do this from the FRONT panel... Trying it via remote, doesn't seem to work (probably because the remote can only send one signal at a time)
2) You have to hit BOTH of them at the same time... Upon my first read, I thought I would hold LEFT to DIM and RIGHT to LIGHT... Nope... Hold them both, and it will cycle through. There are 4 levels, and off.

Note though... Even though you turn the RING off... The blue light for the POWER stays on.
 
I still am looking for a receiver with Channel icons like the Sony boxes have, heck I had a old RCA box that had this, It just makes for better channel surfing.
If anyone had this feature you would know what I mean.
If by chance the R15 has this please let me know.
 
Thanks for the light ring tip.
Yes the Icons look more like the ones from say the RACE recievers (what I had before the D10). Those were the best receivers & remotes. Directs stuff seems to be going backwards in terms of goodies.
 
What happens when you are recording two things. Is it different if you have two manual recordings vs two season passes?
 
Watching what is being recorded

I have pretty much the same question as ADent. Can you watch something while it's being recorded? Can you switch between two shows that are being recorded, and watch either one?
 
ADent said:
What happens when you are recording two things. Is it different if you have two manual recordings vs two season passes?

Yes there is a difference...

When you record two MANUAL TIME recordings, you get a blank screen, with a message on it..... This is when you are setting up two thinks like: Channel 2, at 4:50 for 5 minutes; and Channel 3 at 4:50 for 10 minutes.

When you record two MANUAL programs, via picking two shows from the guide. Aka... surf the guide, and select two programs.

Workds fine.

When you Auto-Record (AR) ...This is the name for Season Passes...
It works the same as two MANUAL guide selections.

BTW: Nice findings, and good review so far... STuff I didn't get to check... (Single tuner)
 
gunn55 said:
I still am looking for a receiver with Channel icons like the Sony boxes have, heck I had a old RCA box that had this, It just makes for better channel surfing.
If anyone had this feature you would know what I mean.
If by chance the R15 has this please let me know.

What I really mean is not icons but logo's, where you can toggle through pages of logo's and highlight that channel logo and go directly to that channel.
So if someone know's either way please let me know.
 
What I want to know is: Will it automatically make a "recieved channels" list for you? My Current HD40 RCA (second gen, I think?) makes you create that list manually... drives me crazy, because it loses it all the time! :(
 
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