Well, I'm taking the jump!

[Ronnie-]

Well, the installer came yesterday and did a bang-up job. New sat dish on the roof, added cables and cleaned up the ones I had installed myself, everything went great. Kudos to Connect Television of Los Angeles - they know their stuff.

Picture quality looks outstanding to me, so that part is good.

I even discovered my A/V receiver has a third digital audio in, so I have digital audio for *both* DVRs and my DVD player. Sweet!

The HR21 is another matter. It freezes up a lot. I'm VERY glad I kept my HR10-250 as my primary DVR, otherwise I'd be majorly torqued off instead of only mildly annoyed. I'll browse the forums to see what I can learn about that.

Id get a replacement ASAP

 

[FitzAusTex]

and insist they replace it with an HR20.

 

[bimplebean]

and insist they replace it with an HR20.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll get good luck with that.

Ah, what the heck, I'll give it a try. Are you saying this is a symptom of a serious problem waiting to happen?

 

[ONUOsFan]

Yeah, I'm sure I'll get good luck with that.

Ah, what the heck, I'll give it a try. Are you saying this is a symptom of a serious problem waiting to happen?

I think what they're saying is that you need to call right now and get it fixed/replaced, otherwise they'll charge you $70 (at least) to do it later... and if you can get a -20 in the process, so much the better.

 

[bimplebean]

Ah. Thanks for the sage advice.

 

[Slick Vic]

Chances are likely theyll send u a 20, but it will be refurbished. have you considered using the tuner on your tv if it has one?

 

[bimplebean]

Don't need to. I kept my HR10-250 as my primary DVR. I have OTA on that one working exceptionally well, thank you, and in LA I get all the majors in HD. I just added the HR21 in order to get the HD content the HR10 can't reach.

 

[bimplebean]

Well, initial impressions of the HR21-700: (Just my opinions, YMMV)

Good:
- The prioritizer- fast and easy. Nice!
- The Record Button - very nice, you can toggle between record once, record series and cancel recording with a single button click
- List of recorded programs - if there's a folder with multiple episodes you can expand/contract that folder and see the individual episodes while still in the list. Very nice.
- Picture quality is great
- After a reset (and possibly a software upgrade) no problems with freezing or locking.
- Saves your recent searches
- Picture in Picture - lets you view current content while using the guide, searching, etc. You can press pause to pause that at any time if you want to browse or search in silence.
- Very cool blue light. Kids love that.

Not So Great:
- Complex UI, not as simple as TiVo
- Hard to find the 'To Do' list.
- There's no 'Season Pass Manager' equivalent that I can find
- Navigating through everything requires a lot of extra button clicks that could easily be eliminated
- Many buttons on the remote are function specific, labeled with text, hard to see with my older eyes in the dark and hard to memorize. (Backlit remote would be nice)
- Remote is, long, awkward.
- Having trouble programming the remote to control my AV system. My Tivo remote does it without having to switch switches. Suggestions welcome.
- No OTA (which has been hashed out over many life times in this and other forums, I'm sure.)
- No cute mascot like the Tivo. (Hey, the kids' opinions count too!)

As a supplemental DVR it's been stellar, but I'm still not giving up my Tivo (HR10-250) as the primary DVR. It's simple enough for da kids and my wife and it has OTA, which I just like, darnit. Subjective, yeah, but there you go.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

The closest thing to a "season pass manager" is the "prioritzer", which is accessible from the TO DO menu.

You can get a RC64RB backlit remote from Directv for $25.

I was able to do most of what I wanted with the Directv remote, but am glad I switched to a Harmony 880.

It took me a while to get used to the HR20/HR21 interface, but I like it better now (although it looks like it will be changing more soon--latest HR20 CE is different).