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joeldm

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Jun 26, 2007
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Hi!

My name's Joel I'm a newbie to the forum and I'm in Atlanta. We've been DirecTV customers for a LONG time and had a great run with their Tivo association. I have three DirecTV Tivos and one DirecTV HD20. Love the Tivos! But when I finally made the HD jump DirecTV had already moved on and ended their Tivo association, so I got an HD20. The HD20 has been a NIGHTMARE from the beginning, software issues, picture breaking up, box resetting itself for no apparent reason, weird fast forward behavior, you name it, over a series of three (or is it four) set top boxes we've had them all in the last six months. I've done the HD reformat and multiple resets and hours on the phone with DirecTV reps. The most recent box lasted all of one week in our house because it had all of the above right out of the box and in addition it also made loud popping noises during recorded programs, I mean LOUD as if you stuck a paper clip into a socket noise!

To their credit, DirecTV, in recent months at least, has not argued or made me explain beyond, "it's doing this and this and this and this . . ." they've just replaced the boxes. I just a few minutes ago put in the most recent iteration, the HD20-100S which I'm hoping will solve some problems finally. The old one is sitting in its familiar "return program" box awaiting FedEx. At least I'm not waiting on Comcast to show up . . . .

I do wish that DirecTV still sold Tivo boxes because I loved their software, however I'm not so money that I'm going to go out and do the independent Tivo thing now that I have the units I do. The Tivo/DirecTV era's over and so I want my HD20-100S to work (please god WORK!) the way Tivo intended, so I do have a couple of questions to you grizzled veterans of the skyways.

Should I preemptively do a hard drive reformat & software update before starting to add recordings immediately? Might I be cutting to the chase in doing to, possibly heading off minor erratic behavior in doing this step before I learn what horrors await me or is that a pointless exercise in just making me feel good, like I'm doing something positive for the new box? Maybe I'm overly anthropomorphizing the little silver devil in the hopes that it will like its new digs enough to not mess with me, but I realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly am tired of messin' with these set top boxes from DirecTV.

Are there any specific "tricks" or settings that ya'll have come up with to make the HD20-100 series play nice or "don'ts" I should observe that are specific to this box?

Any suggestions ya'll can offer will be happily digested and acted upon, short of seances, burning incense or alien intervention . . . unless we're talking Archer, Kirk or Picard, in which case I'll keep an eye on the horizon. I figure if their electronic devices are so reliable that they'll allow their transporters to deconstruct their bodies, organize them into an digital signal and then broadcast that signal to a SECOND device that reassembles them back into humans again, then they can probably fix a satellite receiver DVR . . . imagine if DirecTV were manufacturing transporters. Yeeech!

BTW, my impression is that in the HD DVR universe issues like mine are legion and by no means restricted to these HD20s. I've been generally very happy with DirecTV and my sense is that DirecTV HD customers might have the best situation of the lot despite the problems; though I wonder how good or bad the Tivo HD devices are by comparison?

Thanks! I've gleaned some good info Googling this forum in the past and I look forward to learning more! Sorry for the long post, I find it's easier to type than to be succinct.

Joel
Atlanta, GA
 
Hi!

Should I preemptively do a hard drive reformat & software update before starting to add recordings immediately? Might I be cutting to the chase in doing to, possibly heading off minor erratic behavior in doing this step before I learn what horrors await me or is that a pointless exercise in just making me feel good, like I'm doing something positive for the new box? Maybe I'm overly anthropomorphizing the little silver devil in the hopes that it will like its new digs enough to not mess with me, but I realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly am tired of messin' with these set top boxes from DirecTV.

Joel
Atlanta, GA

Joel,
DON'T do any reboot or reformat to the new one to get it to work .....
When the unit does it's inital set up, it will download the most current software, thus making at the same stage as it woud be if you did decide to reboot it.

It should work right out of the box once it is initially installed.
Many have said they have had better luck with the -100's, so if you get a -100 you may end up liking it very well. :)

btw, Captian Pacard says : MAKE IT SO :up

Jimbo
 
:welcome
Welcome to the forum.

I have 3 HR20-100s and they have all worked fine. Do I wish they still had Tivo's, yes I DO, but oh well.
 
Jimbos & Ramy,

Thanks for the quick responses! I'll hang with the box as is for now and see how it behaves. The last couple of DirecTV reps told me that when the HD20s came out "every other call" was about problems with them, now they say it's about 1 or 2 in 10. Still clearly issues with some but that may also be people like me trying to live and work with a device that isn't up to snuff but not entirely DOA either so they limp along until it gets to be too much.

We really put up with the box before this one for too long before we decided that the idiosyncrasies were something more than just personality quirks and got DirecTV to take it back. Now we're on the 2nd of these newer generation boxes and I'm hoping the previous box was an anomaly and we're in for a more reliable experience.

TV shouldn't occupy more time than it takes to watch it and having a set-top box misbehave is one of those experiences in life that we were never meant to endure! It's funny that once you go Tivo/DVR and HD you're kind of stuck because I just can't imagine watching TV without being able to pause or playback. I often find myself, while listening to the radio and wanting to pause or back up to hear what the guy said again. I've been terminally Tivo'd!

When I'm in the kitchen on one of our Tivos I'm always amazed at how much better designed that OS is than the one on these new boxes. There are some nice features of the HD 20's however, so I'm willing to endure some growing pains while DirecTV figures out how to do what Tivo seems to have learned long ago.

Thanks for your help!
JoeL
 
You got to remember that the HR20's are new boxes and unlike the Tivo, which has had several itterations to get the software tweaked over the years, is going to take some time.
 
You got to remember that the HR20's are new boxes and unlike the Tivo, which has had several itterations to get the software tweaked over the years, is going to take some time.

Good point Ramy,
Most people think that the TIVO's just rolled off the shelves "Perfect" with no flaws at all, this is mainly because most did not buy them until well after the bugs had been worked out of them.

Jimbo
 
I had a Series 1 Tivo back in 1999. Its been real interesting to watch it over the years get better and better. So they've had almost 10 years to get to where they are today. But I will say this I am a huge Tivo fan and DVR fan in general. And dont take this statement lightly. Tivo is the best consumer electronics device to date. Given that statement, I actually like my HR20 MORE than the HR10-250 HD Tivo now that I am used to it and most major bugs gone. Thats a powerful statement since I still love Tivo.
 
Given that statement, I actually like my HR20 MORE than the HR10-250 HD Tivo now that I am used to it and most major bugs gone. Thats a powerful statement since I still love Tivo.

I still can't say that right now and as much as I want to, I don't see that in the future either. I really miss the step back after FF and the dual live buffers.
 
I still can't say that right now and as much as I want to, I don't see that in the future either. I really miss the step back after FF and the dual live buffers.

The step back is in the latest CE for the HR20-700. Its not bad. Trick Play still not as good as Tivo but I am used to it now. As for Dual Live Buffers, I never used them so I dont miss them. I am a picture in picture guy or a dual record pause/watch. I would actually like the HR20 to do PIP just like the Dish 622 over DLB. Just my opinion.
 
Good point Ramy,
Most people think that the TIVO's just rolled off the shelves "Perfect" with no flaws at all, this is mainly because most did not buy them until well after the bugs had been worked out of them.

Jimbo


I'd like to know if Tivo is so good why haven't they come out with picture in the guide.How about 90 minute dual buffers or hard drive space remaining meter?If Tivo is so good why do they stay the same.It's like we don't have to improve we have a name.:rolleyes:
 
I'd like to know if Tivo is so good why haven't they come out with picture in the guide.How about 90 minute dual buffers or hard drive space remaining meter?If Tivo is so good why do they stay the same.It's like we don't have to improve we have a name.:rolleyes:

Jhone,
I never said TIVO was anything, I've never owned a TIVO.... Therefore it's easier for me to get use to the new D* units, I don't have anything to say, wheres this or that ?

That said, are you saying that the TIVO's never had a meter telling you how much space was left on the hard drive ?

Jimbo
 
I am with Direct My hr20 will be installed on saturday.I love my hr 10 250 but they say the new chanels wont come through Ihave been talking with Dish ,I have a sweet deal .Their Dvrs are state of the art. It does as much as tivo and more . This is Directs last chance .
 
Jhone,
I never said TIVO was anything, I've never owned a TIVO.... Therefore it's easier for me to get use to the new D* units, I don't have anything to say, wheres this or that ?

That said, are you saying that the TIVO's never had a meter telling you how much space was left on the hard drive ?

Jimbo

Never had one.
 
I still can't say that right now and as much as I want to, I don't see that in the future either. I really miss the step back after FF and the dual live buffers.

:up:up:up.

I love my Tivo, hate my R-15's, only reason I have them is that 2 were free and the other was $99.

I use them for backups and to record shows that conflict others on my Tivo.

Dual live buffers are so important, especially for football.

This is still my all time favorite DTivo remote.

http://www.weaknees.com/images/tivo_remote/sony_sat.jpg
 
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