I am curious how many people have had some of the issues I am aware of with the R15.
I am on my fourth one. I was one of the first people to get the R15 when it came out a couple of years ago. My first one had a hard drive go out on it. Not a big deal, as I am a Network Engineer and have experience that anything with a hard drive has a good chance that the most likely piece of hardware to fail... is the hard drive.
The replacement Directv sent me was the second generation R15 which was a smaller box than the first gen box. Of course it was a referb. As soon as it was powered up, the fan it was obviously bad because it was so loud and vibrating the whole unit. I instantly called D* and they sent me yet another referb.
This third unit was a first gen referb. This one was going well until its death a couple of weeks ago. It lasted all of five months. The unit I got to replace it is a brand new Second gen R15 since I demanded a new one to replace the junk referbs I kept receiving.
The first three R15's I have owned have all had the same issues. The caller ID fails after a few weeks, the menu's and guide eventually respond slowly to the remote and front panel buttons, constant freezing up, and the dual tuner seems to go in and out so you can only watch one show, or record one show at a time.
I noticed that this new second gen model has different software that is much like the HR20. I like it very much, and so far after 2 weeks, the menu's and guide is still snappy to the response of the remote and panel buttons, and the tuners have never failed. I know both my parents and in-laws have the R15's, and have had the same issues I have seen. My in-laws are on their second one in a year and a half, and my parents are on their first in 6 months. My parents much prefered the RCA Tivo unit they had that lasted them four years until its death.
I am on my fourth one. I was one of the first people to get the R15 when it came out a couple of years ago. My first one had a hard drive go out on it. Not a big deal, as I am a Network Engineer and have experience that anything with a hard drive has a good chance that the most likely piece of hardware to fail... is the hard drive.
The replacement Directv sent me was the second generation R15 which was a smaller box than the first gen box. Of course it was a referb. As soon as it was powered up, the fan it was obviously bad because it was so loud and vibrating the whole unit. I instantly called D* and they sent me yet another referb.
This third unit was a first gen referb. This one was going well until its death a couple of weeks ago. It lasted all of five months. The unit I got to replace it is a brand new Second gen R15 since I demanded a new one to replace the junk referbs I kept receiving.
The first three R15's I have owned have all had the same issues. The caller ID fails after a few weeks, the menu's and guide eventually respond slowly to the remote and front panel buttons, constant freezing up, and the dual tuner seems to go in and out so you can only watch one show, or record one show at a time.
I noticed that this new second gen model has different software that is much like the HR20. I like it very much, and so far after 2 weeks, the menu's and guide is still snappy to the response of the remote and panel buttons, and the tuners have never failed. I know both my parents and in-laws have the R15's, and have had the same issues I have seen. My in-laws are on their second one in a year and a half, and my parents are on their first in 6 months. My parents much prefered the RCA Tivo unit they had that lasted them four years until its death.