HR24-500 or Wait for DirecTivo

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It can't, a patent is not the cause of the difference in this case.

I have used DirecTV DVRs and I have used TiVo and for my needs, either one is terrific. It is possible the differences could be material to others, so just compare features and decide. As far as stability, both are rock solid in my opinion and both are great products.

 

And even if there are TiVo patents on any of these missing features, it doesn't matter - DirecTV has licensed the TiVo patent portfolio. If they want to use any them, they just have to do the work...

 

I think that the DirecTV HD DVRs are nice, but there are definite features I miss from the Tivo.

I miss being able to hop between tuners. Each tuner buffers for 30 minutes, and I could have 2 shows running, hop between then and rewind. To me, that was a killer feature.

I can't remember if the DirectTV DVR will do conflict resolution when you schedule Series Recording the way the Tivo Season Pass Manager does.

I also miss the peanut remote.

 

You can switch between tuners now, and the buffer is 90 minutes. I find the conflict resolution better than TiVo's.

 

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1-Called "Doubleplay". Use the down arrow.

2- Does conflict resolution just fine, similar to TiVo.

Remote takes some getting used to, but has additional great features that peanut doesn't. Took me about 3 months to master it without looking.

And, if you really like the HR23, you will LOVE the HR24. For me when they were in my fleet, the 23's were the slowest out of the 20,21,22,23 and 24's.

 

Conflict resolution is way better. It lets you cancel a recording from EITHER tuner instead of just the lower priority show.

 

Totally get the HR24. I've had almost all of the HRs and they were VERY buggy early on, but now they are extremely solid. MRV is great, and I don't care about the 50 SP limit since it's really 150 between my 3 receivers.

I don't even know if I'd get the TiVo now, since I love the picture in guide, not waiting 10 minutes to sort SPs, etc...

 

Add me to the list of one-time TiVO fanatics who's very happy with the HR2x's from DirecTV. I'd recommend rcamille replace both TiVo HD's with 2 HR24's with MRV. That would provide the ability to record up to four simultaneous shows, and a total of up to 100 SP's and 200 hours of HD storage, with all shows available at both viewing locations.

 

Isn't it true that if you switch to the DirecTV DVR, there's no guarantee they'll give you the HR24 and you might be provided an HR23 or something older?

What about expandability? Can an HR unit have its disk storage increased by the user?

 

I believe right now you can replace with a drive up to 2TB. (Your original drive will not be seen.)

I added a 1.5TB drive in a MX-1 enclosure. It works great on my HR20-700. I've had it for about 8 months, and have yet to fill it over 30% capacity.

 

And you can simply drop a new drive in to the box if you are willing to open it. All my HR2x boxes are owned so I can do what I want, but having a leased box doesn't stop many people. Just save the drive and drop it back in if you ever need to return the unit.

 

It is true that if you order through DirecTV, you can't be guaranteed of a specific model, though the CSR may say otherwise. You can order through a reseller and get a particular model, but may not get the same deal.

 

There isn't much reason to open up a leased box that isn't yours and start fiddling with it when you can just plug in an eSATA drive...

 

I use my Hr10-250 for OTA sports events because I like the slow motion. Speaking of slow, that is what the Hr10-250 is compared to the HR24-500 which I use for everything else. It took the HR24-500 to finally get me to say that D* makes a good DVR. Go for it.

 

Count me as one who hates the HR24. I've been a D*Tivo user from the beginning. But, when so many great HR24 comments came out I thought I'd finally upgrade my whole system to HD (including a 60" plasma) with the HR24.

In short, I think the HR24 is trash and I rarely use it.

For me, here's the things that bugged me (in priority order):

1) Poor "trick play" makes speed-watching of sports impractical. The 1xFF is too jumpy and once you resume regular speed it jumps around. Activating slow-mo is so cumbersome as to be useless.

2) The Picture-in-List (and picture-in-guide). At all times the HR24 shows a live TV channel in the upper right. Yes, there are tricks to try and stop it but there are plenty of times, like after watching a recording and going back to the list, that this live TV show pops up again. Even ignoring the "spoiler" problem if I'm also recording that channel, it's just plain annoying. I don't like watching things I didn't specifically choose.

3) Bugs. When I was using it I encountered some odd behavior about every other day. Examples:
3a) progress bar state incorrect - sometimes jumping way back even if current
3b) system slows to crawl, requires red button reboot
3c) picture freeze, usually switching channels can fix
3d) on multi-channel sports channels (like 4-in-1 US Open Golf), cannot consistently navigate between choices
3e) a couple shows recorded but when I played them back it got 5 minutes in and said "do you want to delete?". I couldn't watch the rest of the shows.
3f) the "auto-padding" of sequential recordings can be helpful but also confusing if you watch recordings out of sequence (which I do sometimes). There is no configuration for this.

4) Remote control design poor. Buttons are close together and feel similar. Awkward to operate by feel. I bought a Harmony which helped a lot but added $150 to my cost.

I'm not sure why so many ex-Tivo people like the HR24. For me, it's like taking several giant steps back.

I've already bought my first Tivo HD XL which I use for Comcast. That's working great. I'd certainly look at any D*Tivo. But, otherwise I can't wait until my 2-year commitment is over. I've already cut my programming down to bare bones but still...

 

As I said earlier, there is a lot of disinformation out there. And as you can see, you don't have to travel far from this forum to be graced with it.

But I don't think we are that much in disagreement. Of course, any company's objective is to make money. You're not exactly dealin' with a chimp here, and I don't need to be lectured on the obvious. But no company makes money by pissing off customers or providing them with horror stories to repeat to everyone else. They are a long-standing successful company and know that they must act reasonably to a reasonable customer issue or they will lose in the end. Thats what successful companies do. Those that don't are already out of business. DTV has no one over a barrel; there are plenty of other places to get your programming, and they realize they are in competition, and must give to get. No one has a gun to anyone's head.

And obviously, there is a reason for a commitment in many cases. As a new customer you have no track record with them; you are an unknown quantity. If they do a free install (which costs them $100 and up just in overhead), and on top of that give you a free dish, free DVR, a couple of free receivers, free pay channels for 3 months, etc., well, that kinda F'-ing deserves a commitment, don't you think? Consider what they have committed up front to you. If you look at the real cost of a DVR, which can be 3 or 4 times the subsidized "list" price of $199, they have invested a great deal in a new customer and will not see a ROI for some time. The margins on reselling programming are pretty thin. And if you are a reasonable subscriber with a track record of being just that, new equipment and the like rarely resets the commitment clock, unless you simply act a fool and talk crazy to the CSR (good luck with that).

The subscription services business model is analagous to the repeat business model. You can't just cream a customer one time and make a profit. You also can't lock someone into a deal that is one-sided and expect that to work as a business model. There is no low-hanging fruit here. A company that makes its money by getting monthly fees from customers over a long period of time can not afford to piss people off, and they will work with you if you have an issue. That is pretty much guaranteed.

But there is a limit. If you are not an established customer you are not in a position to make demands, and unreasonable ones won't be honored to any customer. If you expect the unreasonable they will hold your feet to the fire rather than let you just bone them. And they should. Someone has to pay for that free install and all of that bookkeeping and overhead, and I don't want it to be the rest of us. If you change your mind 2 weeks in, well there will be no sympathy from me or anyone else that it might cost you a few bucks to get out.

One of the reasons for the threat of committment is simply so you will understand that you need to make that committment, which keeps the flighty from risking DTV's potential investment in them. There has to be a certain leap of faith on the new customer's part; that they will understand what they are getting before they get it and will honestly try to accept that service as it stands.

And that is the way it should be; while I don't want to see them take unfair advantage of any customers (because they could try that sort of monkey business with me) I also don't want to see other customers taking unfair advantage of any company I have a symbiotic relationship with, because that threatens that relationship and violates fair play to me and every other customer. It really could not be any more simple than that.

The "committment" is only something to be "worried about" if you are being unreasonable. There is also the worst-case scenario (and a rare one) that you as a new customer may be expecting something exceptionally different from what you are getting. I think that is rarely the fault of DTV, as they pretty much deliver what people expect; what they say they are going to deliver to you. They are up front about what they are selling you. And there are 17 million folks who vote with their wallets in agreement with me every month.

The other rare but possible scenario is that you just have incredibly bad luck with the install, the equipment, etc., right off the bat. But this is not what happens to 99.999% of subscribers, meaning that DTV has the power to eventually make it right for you, and they will just as soon as you stop screaming at them. This is also characteristically accompanied by years of pay channels for free, lots of free PPVs, free service for a number of months, or whatever it takes to make you happy. If they just can't make you happy, there is either something dreadfully wrong with you or you did not honor the responsibility you have of understanding what you are getting into in the first place. Translation: you are getting exactly what you deserve.

 

Of course that's true. They can't just stack perfectly good older units up in a warehouse because every customer wants the new one. But other than a bump in GUI speed and storage there is nothing significantly different between the HR24 and any of the other models; they have identical PQ and comparable features, so it really isn't an issue. If you just have to have a HR24, there are plenty of places that will sell you one direct for about $165.

There is also another way to guarantee the HR24, which is to subscribe to the "whole house DVR" service. It costs a bit more, but you can make the HR24 your preference and have them insure that you will get it rather than earlier models. This service interconnects all boxes for viewing of any recording at any location over a LAN, so it makes sense for a family.

Expandability is easy. Either replace the HDD internally, or connect an eSATA externally. A 2 TB drive can hold close to 500 hours of MPEG4 HD (or up to nearly 2000 hours of SD).

 

I would be interested in one for that price! Where are these "plenty of places"? Searched fleabay but only found one for over $400.
Thanks

 

sell is not quite accurate - they are quoting a reduced lease acquistition cost, if you want to own you are looking at the 400+ and even then there is no promise that what you pay 400 for is truely a "owned" unit unless you do the due diligence and verify the rid of the unit. Only unit that is easy to verify is the HR21-Pro - those are owned units when you pay the cost of them

 

Frustrating is a major understatement. Someone mentioned this was due to Patent. Please help elaborate for more understanding.

Thanks.