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"Excellent, Better than Direct TV's "old" TIVO"
4.5 starson by dgoldenPros: full features including one touch recording, sort features, mutliple ways to search/record programs
Cons: no dual buffer, remote is over designed
Summary: I upgraded from Direct TV's "standard" definition service to HD, with the HR21 dvr. I am very pleased with both picture quality and DVR functionality. Previously I had one of the TIVO dvrs provided by Direct TV, and am at a loss to explain the negative reviews. The new DVR has most of the features the old TIVO had, and many features that the old TIVO unit did not have, as follows: (Note, I'm not comparing the new TIVO units that you can buy seperately. Those maybe more full featured, but they don't work with direct tv and are expensive.) These include:
* one touch record from guide
* one touch to get to guide sorted by subject
* recent searches automatically saved
* ability to record a series or upcoming episode from list of previously recorded functions
* list of last 5 channels
* ability to scroll through the guide 12 hours at a time
* 30 second advance
* set your own bookmarts to recorded shows
* ability to jump back and forward to pre-set book marks (TIVO you could only go forward).
* set up shows to record on-line.
*show pictures and play music from computer to the DVR
* several hot keys that change function depending on what your doing (watching live vs. recorded shows).
Overall, I'm very happy and don't miss my old unit at all. With over two weeks of use (at the heart of NBA playoffs), I've recorded many shows without a hitch. There are some features that are missing.
* no dual buffer (you can solve this by recording the show you'r watching but it is clunky)
* remote, while full featured, is a litte over-designed (too many clicks and options)
* no "live tv" button
- 2 replies to this review
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I'm really surprised to find someone coming from a TiVo to this thing and actually liking it. It's clear (by the vast majority of negative reviews) that this think is horrible. Doesn't it bother you that you enter a key on the remote, wait two seconds, and then see the result of that keypress? Why no sound when you enter a key? How do I know the machine "heard" my remote?
One of the most frustrating things is that lag time. You hit page down. Nothing happens, you hit again and all of the sudden it jumps down TWO pages. This is a constant daily thing. The operaton of this thing is just poorly designed. Luckily we have a TiVo for our non-HD TV, and when we use that one, it's like sheer joy compared to this thing. Again I'm just surprised. -
I respectfully disagree- this DVR is absolutely awful, and I will be getting rid of mine the very second that DirecTV comes out with their new Tivo units in 2009. I will concede that some of the improvements that you listed over the old Tivo are nice and convenient, e.g. the 12 hour guide scrolling et al- but when it comes down to actually watching t.v., toggling between shows, usuability and *reliability* there simple is no contest. My HR21 is actually the THIRD DirecTV branded DVR I've had in the last year, the first being DOA and the second dying a couple of months thereafter. This one is significantly more reliable than the first two, but it will still occaisionally freeze for no apparent reason requiring a resent and lengthy waiting period as it reboots. I can tell you how many times this happened with my DirecTV HR10-250: zero. In short, this DVR is only worth it if you have to have MPEG-4 programming and can't wait until 2009- and if you can get it for free.
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