Buy a used HD DirectTV Tivo or buy an S3?

[oysterhead]

So, I'm looking through all these posts about partial recording and inability to pick up certain blocks of channels....all the while thinking...$800? I mean, what my wife wants, my wife gets, but geeeez.

And it makes we wonder if we should just buy a used DirectTV HD Tivo, and go the dish (on Comcast currently). Looks like one can buy such a unit for about $200. I would have to mount a dish and buy a contract, but that certainly seems worth $600.

So, I ask you, what are the big performance differences between the DirectTV HD Tivo and the S3?

Is picture quality MUCH better on the S3?

Sound quality?

Most of the other features are identical, right?

And seems to me that the older units have less bugs?

Thanks in advance.

[hookbill]

So, I'm looking through all these posts about partial recording and inability to pick up certain blocks of channels....all the while thinking...$800? I mean, what my wife wants, my wife gets, but geeeez.

And it makes we wonder if we should just buy a used DirectTV HD Tivo, and go the dish (on Comcast currently). Looks like one can buy such a unit for about $200. I would have to mount a dish and buy a contract, but that certainly seems worth $600.

So, I ask you, what are the big performance differences between the DirectTV HD Tivo and the S3?

Is picture quality MUCH better on the S3?

Sound quality?

Most of the other features are identical, right?

And seems to me that the older units have less bugs?

Thanks in advance.

I don't think D* will hook up a used D-Tivo, they have gone to a strictly lease policy. That means an HR 20 for you.

As far as the problems you read, most of us who bought the S3 are quite happy and not experiencing the problems you see people talking about. Most of these problems seem to be related to bad cable card installs. Remember, people who are not having problems don't usually come on line and say, "hi - everything is working fine" (although there are some threads like that).

PQ will be much better on the S3. It is the only THX certified DVR and has better encoders. That means not only better HD, better SD. Specially with analog channels, IMHO.

I personally am not experiences any sound bugs, picture drop offs or missed recordings, which is a far cry from what I experienced with my SA 8300.

[tase2]

The HR10-250 will not pick up any local HD off the satellite or any future HD channels that D* adds.

This is because the HR10-250 can only receive MPEG2 signal and D* is turning everything over to MPEG4.

[btwyx]

They're broadly similar. I'm switching because of the no more HD problems with the HR10-250. The main difference for me is the S3 has a better OTA tuner.

Picture quality is up to your provider, D* is bad, my local Comcast is worse. Sounds should be the same, its digital.

The HR10-250 does have less bugs, which would be expected. The most annoying thing about the S3 is the flakyness of fast forward and skip back. That may have more to do with Comcast's cruddy encoding than a difference in the units.

[davezatz]

The most annoying thing about the S3 is the flakyness of fast forward and skip back. That may have more to do with Comcast's cruddy encoding than a difference in the units.

What are you seeing? Mine seems to shift around fine.

[old7]

I don't think D* will hook up a used D-Tivo, they have gone to a strictly lease policy. That means an HR 20 for you.

Sure they will. In fact, you will own it, if you tell them that you purchased it used. If you forget to tell them that you want it listed as owned the default will be to list it as "leased."

I installed one last week for my sister-in-law.

[btwyx]

What are you seeing? Mine seems to shift around fine.Fast forward overshoots too far, up to 8 skip backs is the worst so far. The skip back doesn't work too well, I have to pause to let it catch up or I don't see or hear where its skipped back to, and I hit it too many times. All in all it doesn't work well. That's on Comcast's over compressed channels, I suspect its an artifact of the way they compress, not enough I-frames or something. If I do that on an HD channel its fine.

How does it work on your most overcompressed artifacted channel? Who's your provider?

Also while fast forwarding, the picture will quite often break up like its lost sync, the picture "leans over" into a bunch of diagonal lines. This is a TiVo problem, I've managed to pause it while it was doing that, and end up with that as a freeze frame.

[davezatz]

How does it work on your most overcompressed artifacted channel? Who's your provider?

Also while fast forwarding, the picture will quite often break up like its lost sync, the picture "leans over" into a bunch of diagonal lines. This is a TiVo problem, I've managed to pause it while it was doing that, and end up with that as a freeze frame.

Hmm... maybe I'm just not overly observant because it seems fine on my HD channels (Comcast) - no sync issues and no lines. We did have the occasional audio drop out though. I probably haven't recorded/watched any SD on the S3 - we watch that in the other room on the SDTV and SD TiVo.

[HiDefGator]

I'm switching because of the no more HD problems with the HR10-250.

Maybe I'm just tired, but I don't understand what you mean by this sentence.

[btwyx]

Maybe I'm just tired, but I don't understand what you mean by this sentence.D* is obsoleting the HR10-250 for HD, there will be no more HD channels available to it, it already can't receive some channels, the ones it already have may go away.

[ashu]

Maybe I'm just tired, but I don't understand what you mean by this sentence.

He's switching because of the "no-more-HD" problem that will manifest itself the longer you use the MPEG-2-only HR10-250.

Not to mention DirecTV down-rezes their HD so heavily (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD-Lite), it's like you don't have HD at all ... but that's a different story :p

[HiDefGator]

D* is obsoleting the HR10-250 for HD, there will be no more HD channels available to it, it already can't receive some channels, the ones it already have may go away.

OK. That's makes sense. But if that is your big reason why not wait 6 months to switch until the price on the S3 drops some, more of the the bugs are ironed out, the cable card install issues settle down, and DirecTV actually offers an HD channel the HR10 can't get?

Eventually I'll have to switch to the HR20 or S3, but today they both appear to be far more buggy than my HR10's. My current plan is to stall until there's something I'm actually not getting then switch.

[btwyx]

OK. That's makes sense. But if that is your big reason why not wait 6 months to switch until the price on the S3 drops some, more of the the bugs are ironed out, the cable card install issues settle down, and DirecTV actually offers an HD channel the HR10 can't get?Because that would be no fun. Also I can't get lifetime past the end of the year. The monthly fee is more of a discouragement to me than the upfront cost.

[oysterhead]

So the HR20 will not have the "no more HD" issue?

Therefore, if we were to buy an HD D* Tivo, instead of an S3 then we should definitely get the HR20?

edit: the HR20 is not a Tivo, right? With our motorola, we're fed up with Tivo ripoffs, so sounds like the DirectTV is not a viable option.

OK. That's makes sense. But if that is your big reason why not wait 6 months to switch until the price on the S3 drops some, more of the the bugs are ironed out, the cable card install issues settle down, and DirecTV actually offers an HD channel the HR10 can't get?

Eventually I'll have to switch to the HR20 or S3, but today they both appear to be far more buggy than my HR10's. My current plan is to stall until there's something I'm actually not getting then switch.

[hookbill]

If you want the best possible HD dual recorder you can get then get an S3.

If you want something now and don't want to pay the money for an S3 then probably your best bet would be get a HR 20 from D*. I believe the cost is 299.00 but you will not own it.

If you buy a HR 10-250 you will have to get your locals OTA and I still think D* will make you switch out, if not now later.

Or you can put up with you have for now and hope the S3 price goes down.