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R-15 a piece of @#$%!!!

3K views 48 replies 25 participants last post by  sbursik 
#1 ·
My Tivo died and DTV sent me an R15. What a piece of crap that is. I can't even get the dam optical port to work. It records ALL the shows including repeats. ( no season passes) Can't set the number of shows to keep or delete. This thing is junk as far as I'm concerned. DTV and Tivo need to kiss and make up. I'm calling DTV today and complain. :down: :mad:
 
#27 ·
SullyND said:
You're lucky. I have missed multiple recordings on both of my R15s. What's worse is it seems to know which are the shows I look forward to watching and skip those. (I've missed two episodes of 24 this season for example due to the R15s)
That stinks :( .

We really have had a good experience thus far, but can certainly understand the frustrations of those who have had problems.

Interestingly, it is our R10 that has become the unreliable machine for us. Lockups, reboots, and occasional missed recordings have us relying on the HR15 more and more.
 
#28 ·
directdvrman said:
I agree the Directv dvr is not as good as Tivo.I think the wishlist feature on Tivo makes it the best thing out there to me anyways.
Would the Direct TV DVR be good enough, in anyone's opinion, to replace a standard receiver that's lightly used? We have a standard in our bedroom, and a Hughes DVR on the main tv that's watched 90% of the time. We're just looking to get something to record some of the shows that we watch so we can watch a little TV before bed. Season passes would be nice, do the new ones do that? Or would we be better off getting a used Hughes receiver from someplace like Ebay?
 
#30 ·
jrl007 said:
Would the Direct TV DVR be good enough, in anyone's opinion, to replace a standard receiver that's lightly used? We have a standard in our bedroom, and a Hughes DVR on the main tv that's watched 90% of the time. We're just looking to get something to record some of the shows that we watch so we can watch a little TV before bed. Season passes would be nice, do the new ones do that? Or would we be better off getting a used Hughes receiver from someplace like Ebay?
The R15 is far better than the Directv Standard Receiver. And yes, the R15 has Season Pass.

If you can get one for free thru Directv then go for it!
 
#31 ·
jrl007 said:
Would the Direct TV DVR be good enough, in anyone's opinion, to replace a standard receiver that's lightly used? We have a standard in our bedroom, and a Hughes DVR on the main tv that's watched 90% of the time. We're just looking to get something to record some of the shows that we watch so we can watch a little TV before bed. Season passes would be nice, do the new ones do that? Or would we be better off getting a used Hughes receiver from someplace like Ebay?
The R15 would make a fine replacement. Use the code DVR4U2 on the DirecTV website to get the R15 for free.
 
#32 ·
jrl007 said:
Would the Direct TV DVR be good enough, in anyone's opinion, to replace a standard receiver that's lightly used? We have a standard in our bedroom, and a Hughes DVR on the main tv that's watched 90% of the time. We're just looking to get something to record some of the shows that we watch so we can watch a little TV before bed. Season passes would be nice, do the new ones do that? Or would we be better off getting a used Hughes receiver from someplace like Ebay?
I'd get a Hughes DTivo off of Ebay for no money.

Bonanza
 
#33 ·
wolflord11 said:
Remember, most people out there using the R15 probally have never heard of, nor seen a Tivo. And the R15 works just fine for them.
And they have been locked in a closet for ten years. Or they are 1.5 years old. Tivo has been everywhere(even In "Family Guy") If Alyson Hannigan Hates the r15 thats good enough for me ;)

I call for the statistics guy's. I doubt if Most people have never heard of tivo. I would say Most people never heard of the r15 ;)
 
#34 ·
Billy Bob Boy said:
I call for the statistics guy's. I doubt if Most people have never heard of tivo. I would say Most people never heard of the r15 ;)
Yes, but many people probably have never used a Xerox machine (I know I haven't) but think they have.
 
#35 ·
wolflord11 said:
The R15 is far better than the Directv Standard Receiver. And yes, the R15 has Season Pass.

If you can get one for free thru Directv then go for it!
I can also get my neighbors used kitty litter for free. EWWWWWWW!!!!!(doesnt mean I want it) You can also get a 2 year commitment for free thru Directv! :p
 
#36 ·
What amazes me is that on a TIVO forum the second someone puts down the r15 they are jumped by all the r15 lovers.(singing its praises) I think its time for this thread to be locked or moved. If you love the r15 so much go to dbs and praise it all you want. This is Tivo's HOUSE!!! GO!! Tivo Go!! Tivo!! :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
#37 ·
Boston Fan said:
That stinks :( .

We really have had a good experience thus far, but can certainly understand the frustrations of those who have had problems.

Interestingly, it is our R10 that has become the unreliable machine for us. Lockups, reboots, and occasional missed recordings have us relying on the HR15 more and more.
My Tivo has Never missed a recording and has been trouble free (except when D* screwed up for well over 3 years now) If it werent for the wish lists i would have missed knowing that star trek voyager was on again. Every tivo I have ever owned has worked 100% Right out of the box right up to the drive failure which will happen to any Hard drive based device.

Edit: In fact the only time i ever missed recordings was 1. Because of a power failure that went on longer than my ups could last and 2. when i first got tivo in 99 S/A and used the ir blaster. Since i switched to directivos they have worked spectacularly for like 7 years for me. I wont use an r15 if they coat it in gold and send it to me with hookers(Ok Ill take it with the hookers, but would use it as a paperweight :D )
 
#38 ·
Boston Fan said:
The R15 would make a fine replacement. Use the code DVR4U2 on the DirecTV website to get the R15 for free.
Dont forget the code ULLBSORRY After you get the free r15. It sounds like 90% u r using a Directivo. There are still plenty of them out there. In fact i have read here somplace that they got a directivo from D*. Yes the r15 would make a fine replacement for the standard reciever but a piss poor replacement for a TIVO!! No wish lists ,no dual tuner live buffer. Its your choice. The most fragile part of a dvr ,The Hard drive is easily replaced on a directivo or even bumping up the storage to even a terrabyte of space but not the r15. Once its full your done. Forget the 30 sec skip its not there(if you like that feature).My hdvr40 got full so i bumped it to 447 hours.

Btw you wont own the r15 but if you get a used directivo its yours for life. Its your choice.
 
#41 ·
Stanley Rohner said:
My HR20 works fine.
I'm not sure what you're so p*ssed off about.
It's not a TiVo but it gets the job done once you get used to the different menu structure.
They keep on improving the software.
Mine has worked just awesome for months now.
What causes all the anger and frustration trying to watch TV with the HR20-700 ?
The anger and frustration is due to the multiple times my HR20 has recorded a black screen rather than the scheduled program. This is a known bug that the software designers have beenworking to fix. It's getting better but I can't trust the HR20 to record my shows consistantly.

That is THE primary function of a DVR and if it can't do that it's worthless!

So until this POS is fixed I have to duplicate my recording on my old series 1 SD DTiVo to make sure I don't miss anything.
 
#42 ·
Billy Bob Boy said:
I can also get my neighbors used kitty litter for free. EWWWWWWW!!!!!(doesnt mean I want it) You can also get a 2 year commitment for free thru Directv! :p
Thanks! I laughed for more than a few minutes when I read that...then in my mind I pictured an R15 in the neighbors used kitty litter and laughed even longer.

I still say get a DTivo on Ebay.

Bonanza (still chuckling)
 
#43 ·
I had a Hughes DTivo for quite some time (5 years?) and it's worked perfectly well -- until it died last week. Stuttered to a stop and now won't power up. I just received my R15 and while I find it a difficult transition I am willing to give it a chance, although at first glance it seems to be less desirable.

My question is -- what can I do with my Hughes? When I first got it, I got the kit from Weaknees to bump capacity to 140 hours -- is there a place that repairs DTivo's (I don't see a repair option at Weaknees)? My goal is to fix the Hughes unit (and, if possible salvage the recorded material) put it back in service in the den and move the R15 up to the bedroom as a secondary unit.
 
#44 ·
parapraxis said:
My question is -- what can I do with my Hughes? When I first got it, I got the kit from Weaknees to bump capacity to 140 hours -- is there a place that repairs DTivo's (I don't see a repair option at Weaknees)? My goal is to fix the Hughes unit (and, if possible salvage the recorded material) put it back in service in the den and move the R15 up to the bedroom as a secondary unit.
You can always replace the drive yourself. Any IDE hard drive will work, and there are tools posted all over that will run you step-by-step through the copy/upgrade process.
 
#45 ·
Dkerr24 said:
You can always replace the drive yourself. Any IDE hard drive will work, and there are tools posted all over that will run you step-by-step through the copy/upgrade process.
So it sounds like it is a hard drive issue, right? After being unplugged for a while it does attempt to boot up, but then shuts down after a few seconds. I wasn't sure of that was it or if it was some other electrical issue.

Thanks. I'll look into it. My set up retained the original HD and then added a second one to expand capacity. Maybe all I need do is replace the primary HD.
 
#46 ·
Billy Bob Boy said:
What amazes me is that on a TIVO forum the second someone puts down the r15 they are jumped by all the r15 lovers.(singing its praises) I think its time for this thread to be locked or moved. If you love the r15 so much go to dbs and praise it all you want. This is Tivo's HOUSE!!! GO!! Tivo Go!! Tivo!! :cool: :cool: :cool:
This place gives them something to do while they wait for their R-15's to reboot, whether it be from their awesome reliability or the software upgrade of the day. ;)
 
#47 ·
parapraxis said:
So it sounds like it is a hard drive issue, right? After being unplugged for a while it does attempt to boot up, but then shuts down after a few seconds. I wasn't sure of that was it or if it was some other electrical issue.

Thanks. I'll look into it. My set up retained the original HD and then added a second one to expand capacity. Maybe all I need do is replace the primary HD.
If the unit actually shuts itself off, that does NOT sound like a hard drive problem. Most hard drive malfunctions will stutter as you say or won't boot at all (they stick at 'Welcome...Powering Up'. Your unit does indeed sound as if it has somesort of electrical problem.
 
#49 ·
The R15 was great! For harvesting the hard drive to put in my DVR-40 to give it more recording time. I was so unhappy with the R15. It wasn't intuitive at all, it messed up all the time and the remote was even poorly designed.

The Dish DVR is a POS too. Lets just admit that TiVo did something right and the others just cant come close.

Its like comparing an iPod to a Zune. The Zune is okay, but its no iPod.

Scott
 
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