Series3 Tivo vs Directv HR20-700

[Yo1]

I had a HR20-700 from Directv for 4 months I finally saw the light and switched over to Time Warner cable and a Tivo Series3 with 2 cable cards installed.I had nothing but problems with the HR20-700 and the Series 3 is nice and steady. I hooked it up on my broadband WI-FI.Has anyone else switched over to a series 3 from a HR20-700 and are you glad you switched or not?

[jbrasure]

I switched from the HR20-700 to the Tivo Series 3 about a month ago. I am still VERY happy with my decision.

[bizzy]

I also dumped DirecTV and their craptacular HR20 for Comcast and a Series 3.
Not a single regret.

[slimoli]

The beauty of moving from the HR2--700 to the S3 is that you also get rid of the crappy overcompressed Directv picture that looks like an old VHS tape. I believe the worst cable is better than Directv.

Sergio

[ashu]

I pity the poor HR20 users who're stuck in 2-year contracts - the threads over on dbstalk (which is HEAVILY moderated to avoid excessive negativity) are appalling!

Any updates on liberty (the new non-Murdoch owners of DirecTV) reconsidering making nice with TiVo and dumping NDS (the HR20 maker)? :)

[bizzy]

I managed to get DirecTV to let me out of the 2 year obligation I agreed to in order to get the HR20- ironic since DirecTV has no other option besides the HR20 for customers who need an HD DVR. All it took was several letters to the president, and a website documenting their lack of interest in me as a customer. I documented the process at dearchase.com (http://dearchase.com).

As for the DBSTalk HR20 forum- I was personally banned from the forum for the simple sin of pointing out the emperor's lack of clothes. The only opinion allowed over there is blind praise for a defective device and the greedy company who forces it on customers.

[tach32000]

This makes me feel even better as my S3 is being delivered on Friday and D* will be dumped after 9 years with them.

I was going to get the HR20-700, but they lied about the details and when the installer came I sent him packing.

Can't wait to get the S3 and TWC setup.

[CraigHB]

I had DTiVo and thought about going with their NDS PoS for almost a second. Sure glad I switched back to cable. My S3 is wonderful. Down with DirecTV.

[swizzlest]

If I could get out of my commitment with D*, I'd dump them in a heartbeat.

I did get ahold of an HR10-250 (it's great to have some sort of Tivo back), but the lack of advanced features and the random reboot issue it seems to be developing (grrr) are souring that pretty quick.

SDV and the S3 is also kind of shying me away from that lane....

[Justin Thyme]

I pity the poor HR20 users who're stuck in 2-year contracts - the threads over on dbstalk (which is HEAVILY moderated to avoid excessive negativity) are appalling!

Any updates on liberty (the new non-Murdoch owners of DirecTV) reconsidering making nice with TiVo and dumping NDS (the HR20 maker)? :)

And really, they don't need to dump them, just allow customers to choose an updated Tivo model or the NDS model. No sweat, maybe they have a contract with NDS for certain N units for N years...

I can't believe that DirecTv is loath come up with a million or so to pay for an MPG4 upgrade to the HD DTivo. They could up the rental price to defray the miniscule cost if that were the issue.

Not that they would agree to TivoCast or any of the other goodies available on the S3. They have ample business reason to block the distribution competitor features.

I just don't see why it is in their interest not to return to a winning formula.

[BrianCT]

I actually went the other way, after a month or two of constant CableCard issues with Comcast, I called D* and got the HR20-700 installed. I ran the S3 against the HR20 for about a month. I could see no difference in picture quality on my Sammy 5687W, and I actually grew to like the HR20. Call me crazy, but I just unloaded the S3 (w/lifetime) on Ebay. If the CableCards worked I would have kept it, I just grew tired of calling Comcast every day.

[ashu]

BrianCT, you're crazy :)

Although it is remotely likely you're in one of the few/rare areas where Comcast has an aging wired cable network and severly downconvert & reshape their HD transmissions to well nigh the D* broadcasts' abyssmal lows. Time Warner is occasionally guilty of the same as well - but this isn't the norm.

[BrianCT]

I am on an old Adelphia system, which was Tele-Media before that, so trust me it is old and aged!
Honest, I liked the S3, and my TV was even calibrated by Gregg Loewen, there just wasnt a difference between the S3 and the HR20. There are even some features I like better about the HR20, crazy huh :)

[CraigHB]

I did get ahold of an HR10-250 (it's great to have some sort of Tivo back), but the lack of advanced features and the random reboot issue it seems to be developing (grrr) are souring that pretty quick.My R10's started doing that (random reboots). I had my doubts that DirecTV would ever lift a finger to resolve the issue. I thought about staying with them and using an HR10, but the fact that TiVo units are no longer officially supported steered me away from that route. In any case, I'm happy I did what I did.

That butthead Murdoch screwed up DirecTV in no time flat. He came in, hiked the rates, added rental fees, dropped TiVo for his lousy NDS, then left. He negated every reason I switched to them in the first place. Hopefully, Liberty will bring back the old DirecTV, or at least TiVo.

[Wolffpack]

As for the DBSTalk HR20 forum- I was personally banned from the forum for the simple sin of pointing out the emperor's lack of clothes. The only opinion allowed over there is blind praise for a defective device and the greedy company who forces it on customers.
Seems to be SOP over there. I'm sure D*s public beta test program over there is getting them more hits which results in better and higher ad placement. It's not too hard to see the pattern, just make sure you don't ask about it. :eek:

[HiDefGator]

There seems to be some confusion. The HR20 is not made by NDS. The software for it is written in house by DTV in California. The non-HD R15 is made by NDS.

[ashu]

Is the R15 any good?

And who makes the hardware for the HR20?

[HiDefGator]

Is the R15 any good?

I couldn't answer that. I've never owned one. My understanding is they suck pretty bad.

And who makes the hardware for the HR20?

I don't know. No doubt Earl knows. Probably the same Mexican factory that makes the S3.

[BrianCT]

Unit was manufactured by PACE
The Official Model Number: HR20-700

[tividiot]

As for the DBSTalk HR20 forum- I was personally banned from the forum for the simple sin of pointing out the emperor's lack of clothes. The only opinion allowed over there is blind praise for a defective device and the greedy company who forces it on customers.

Tell me about it. I was banned today for including the following paragraph in an extremely fair review of the HR20 to a potential new customer who felt that the number of people reporting problems with the HR20 had decreased (I'd guess partly because people reporting problems are getting banned left and right):

"Please be aware that this forum also receives proprietary information from DTV and its connections with DTV may not be fully transparent to the new customer, so some (definitely not all) of the positive comments you read here should be taken with a grain of salt."

That got me banned from the forum. Meanwhile, one of the mods' favorite people posted today that some of the people reporting problems should be killed with a gun. Those comments were quickly sanitized by the mods, but that person wasn't banned.

They have every right to run the forum as they see fit, but if you want a trully honest, open debate about Series3 vs. the HR20, steer clear of *bstalk.com.

[joed32]

I'm glad to hear that you are so open minded about this subject.

[tividiot]

Actually, since we're comparing Series3 to the HR20 on this thread, I'll post exactly what I posted on *bstalk.com, as it's applicable here as well. This was in an answer to whether problems with the HR20 have dissipated yet:

------


Welcome to the forum! There are many helpful people on this forum who love their HR20s and report few, if any, problems. If you get an HR20 and suffer any problem, they are here to help.

But, please be aware that this forum also receives proprietary information from DTV and its connections with DTV may not be fully transparent to the new customer, so some (definitely not all) of the positive comments you read here should be taken with a grain of salt.

The truth is, the HR20 works well for some undetermined number of people, while fails in various ways for an undetermined number of others. No one knows how many are in each camp, as DTV does not publicly reveal that information.

To gain a fuller assessment of the HR20, you definitely should read customer reviews on sites such as amazon.com, cnet.com, eopinions.com, crutchfield.com, circuitcity.com, etc. These sites also include recent reviews from customers who have the most up-to-date HR20 software from DTV.

Also, various sites post their own reviews. When CNet recently lowered its rating of the HR20 (due to worsening bugs it experienced on a test box), it noted that the many customer reviews on its site actually rated the HR20 even lower. They added an editor's note about that. Here are some excerpts:

"The bottom line is that more users have suffered more serious complaints with the HR20 than we've seen on any other HD DVR we've reviewed in the past."

"I also think, given the range and consistency of user complaints on our site and other places online, that prospective HR20 buyers need to think twice about upgrading."

"If you do decide to upgrade, you might get a unit that functions well, or one that does not."

"The more complaints the company receives from actual subscribers, the more likely it is to address the issues in future software updates."

http://help.cnet.com/9602-12576_39-0.html?messageID=2509294

Yes, the CNet review was posted some time ago. However, some undetermined number of customers continue to report the same HR20 problems to this day, despite installing the latest DTV HR20 software. Some say that number is few. Some say it's many. No one really knows for sure.

If you do lease an HR20, please let us know how yours works for you. Good luck.

[samo]

"Please be aware that this forum also receives proprietary information from DTV and its connections with DTV may not be fully transparent to the new customer, so some (definitely not all) of the positive comments you read here should be taken with a grain of salt."
Statement like this about connection of TCF with TiVo would ban you from TCF as well. You imply in your statement that dbstalk forum owners get paid by DirecTV to post positive comments. They don't. You posted the lie. You should have been banned.

[tividiot]

Statement like this about connection of TCF with TiVo would ban you from TCF as well. You imply in your statement that dbstalk forum owners get paid by DirecTV to post positive comments. They don't. You posted the lie. You should have been banned.

Your opinion. There is nothing in the dbstalk.com rules for posting that says you can't question whether the forum's ties to a vendor are impacting the posts of its moderators. Also, the statement isn't a lie and does not imply they receive payment for their comments. The English is clear: The site does receive proprietary information from DTV and this connection may not be transparent to new customers. Say what you will, but that is totally true. I'm a professional journalist at a major metro daily newspaper. Trust me. This statement about dbstalk.com is fully accurate and publishable in any newspaper. There would be no correction run the next day.

[Wolffpack]

Statement like this about connection of TCF with TiVo would ban you from TCF as well. You imply in your statement that dbstalk forum owners get paid by DirecTV to post positive comments. They don't. You posted the lie. You should have been banned.
Even if he mentioned payment, which he didn't, one of the mods on DBSTalk fully admitted at least getting one HR20 free from DTV. Any member (especially a moderator) of any forum should be up front with their connections to and freebies from any vendor that is a topic in that forum. I don't believe it's out of line to expect full disclosure, especially given the turn that DBSTalk has taken. Regardless, if they choose to run their forum in that manner, it's their decision. But other members of the forum should be aware of what's taking place.

But then again this is a thread about the S3 vs HR20, not about DBSTalk.

[bizzy]

Statement like this about connection of TCF with TiVo would ban you from TCF as well. You imply in your statement that dbstalk forum owners get paid by DirecTV to post positive comments. They don't. You posted the lie. You should have been banned.

Earl has confirmed in his own words that he recieves free service and hardware, as well as pre-release products, software and inside information about upcoming software releases in consideration for his "unofficial" representation of DirecTV on the BSTalk forums.

You play fast and loose with your accusations, which isn't very polite.

[samo]

Earl has confirmed in his own words that he recieves free service and hardware, as well as pre-release products, software and inside information about upcoming software releases in consideration for his "unofficial" representation of DirecTV on the BSTalk forums.

You play fast and loose with your accusations, which isn't very polite.
Dave Bott gets paid by TiVo. TiVo has been major sponsor of this forum since 1999. It doesn't mean that this forum's owner has ulterior motives to make this forum biased toward TiVo. Had you accused David in a similar manner as you accuse DBStalk, you would have been banned from TCF. And that would be right thing to do. And for your information, dbstalk while not a sister site to TCF is officially linked from here as source of non-TiVo DirecTV information.

[bizzy]

Dave Bott gets paid by TiVo. TiVo has been major sponsor of this forum since 1999. It doesn't mean that this forum's owner has ulterior motives to make this forum biased toward TiVo. Had you accused David in a similar manner as you accuse DBStalk, you would have been banned from TCF. And that would be right thing to do. And for your information, dbstalk while not a sister site to TCF is officially linked from here as source of non-TiVo DirecTV information.

Why do you keep changing the subject? Nobody's talking about TC but you.

We're talking about BSTalk, and Earl's refusal to disclose the compensation he directly receives from DirecTV in consideration for his "unofficial" representation.

[GoHokies!]

Dave Bott gets paid by TiVo. TiVo has been major sponsor of this forum since 1999. It doesn't mean that this forum's owner has ulterior motives to make this forum biased toward TiVo. Had you accused David in a similar manner as you accuse DBStalk, you would have been banned from TCF. And that would be right thing to do. And for your information, dbstalk while not a sister site to TCF is officially linked from here as source of non-TiVo DirecTV information.
The difference is that David doesn't ban people for posting anti-Tivo information (even if it is completely false).

I was also under the impression that TCF doesn't receive money from Tivo anymore (but did in the site's early days). I seem to remember that from the discussions that abounded during the establishment of the TC Store.

I wandered over to BSTalk (as a result of this thread) on Saturday - they had a text message at the top of the screens much like we did here and at AVSForum that said something to the effect of "The DNS Server IP stuff that is going on over at TCF and AVS isn't going to affect this forum", leading me to believe that the sites are more closely linked than just referring to each other.

[gigi26]

I pity the poor HR20 users who're stuck in 2-year contracts - the threads over on dbstalk (which is HEAVILY moderated to avoid excessive negativity) are appalling!

Any updates on liberty (the new non-Murdoch owners of DirecTV) reconsidering making nice with TiVo and dumping NDS (the HR20 maker)?

[ashu]

I pity the poor HR20 users who're stuck in 2-year contracts - the threads over on dbstalk (which is HEAVILY moderated to avoid excessive negativity) are appalling!

Any updates on liberty (the new non-Murdoch owners of DirecTV) reconsidering making nice with TiVo and dumping NDS (the HR20 maker)?


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[nolanski]

HR20 for only 24 hours.
I like it a lot so far.
Better Picture.
Better sound.
And the ONLY thing I don't like is pressing the guide button twice to get to the meat and potatoes.
AND even my tech challenged wife like the guides better and has had no issues with navigation!!

This unit does not suck ......so far and a bit early to really tell but I am impressed and it only cost me $100 with the dish upgrade.

Tivo is so very fine....and this unit like I said before is far from crap.

[Quake97]

HR20 for only 24 hours.
I like it a lot so far.
Better Picture.
Better sound.
And the ONLY thing I don't like is pressing the guide button twice to get to the meat and potatoes.
AND even my tech challenged wife like the guides better and has had no issues with navigation!!

This unit does not suck ......so far and a bit early to really tell but I am impressed and it only cost me $100 with the dish upgrade.

Tivo is so very fine....and this unit like I said before is far from crap.

You can get rid of that double button press to get to the guide. I don't have the actual thread handy, but there is a way to do it over at dbstalk.com.

Joe