- Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 40 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
0.5 stars
"Horrific! Guaranteed to frustrate anyone with minimal expectations"
Pros: Recording Capacity Meter; Able to program while still listening to programming & watching p.i.p.
Cons: Tons of Bugs or as DTV calls them "Known Issues"; Constantly being tested; Using paying customers as guinea pigs (no joke)
Summary: On paper this is a great unit, however after roughly 4 years as a DTV Tivo user, I decided to take DTV up on their offer to upgrade to the HR21 series. Wow, what a huge mistake!
This machine was so horrific, I honestly don't know where to begin. In theory outside of it's inability to perform wishlist autorecords (only tivo users know what I'm talking about), it should be a slight improvement to the sd tivo units, however it doesn't do what a DVR is supposed to do. What am I referring to?
1) Scheduled recordings were frequently blank. Yes, the program is in the "now playing" list, but there is nothing behind door # 1. You have no idea how much this disrupted our "Tivo spoiled" household.
2) We worked with DTV to the fullest, and after 7 units, we finally gave up and hooked up the old Tivo again. We were eventually told by DTV that we were far from alone.
3) The unit locked up constantly, and resets take 10 minutes or more to recover.
4) DVR's allow one to fast forward and rewind or even pause programming right? Well, not these.... DTV had a known issue for literally months while we had these units. During playback, we'd often fast forward through a commercial, only to lose control of it. Yes, it took over on its own, and didn't allow us to resume play. We'd sit there for minutes waiting for the fast forward wheels to stop rolling, look at one another and try to decide if we should throw it out the window, wait, or reset it.
4) Don't fall for the On Demand hype. Granted it's in Beta, but holy moly it's far from complete, and the install alone was a near logistical nightmare. Nobody in our area was even remotely familiar how to install the connection for this feature.
***I could go on and on, but my guess is you likely get the point.***
In all, I convinced my family for multiple months it would be worth it to tough it out while DTV worked out the known issues, and continued to update their software. Well, a few months later, I've got the proverbial egg on my face, and would like to help prevent anyone out there from making the same mistake.
For what it's worth, we were assured by the DTV sales folks that all the "known issues" were worked out and fully resolved prior to signing up, so we felt even more misled after going through what we experienced.
In a nutshell, don't do it!
- 1 reply to this review
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This reviewer is 100% correct. As for the On Demand- it is slow, it is not in HD, and the offerings are pretty sad. I still use mine as it is the only way for me to record MPEG-4 in HD. Hopefully the new Tivo will arrive in less than a year.
Where to buy
DIRECTV HR21 (DIRECTV Plus HD DVR):
$167.50
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$167.50 | See Site |
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