DirecTV's New HD-DVR

Earl Bonovich writes to tell us that he recently had a chance to take a look at DirecTV's new HD-DVR, the HR20-700. His results are posted over at DBSTalk including several pictures and videos. Some of the features include high definition output, dual SAT tuners, dual ATSC tuners, wired RJ-45 ethernet port, external SATA connection, and a 300GB SATA internal hard drive that can hold 30 hours of MPEG-2 HD, 50 hours of MPEG-4 HD, or 200 hours of standard definition video.

TiVo'ed?

[ZPWeeks]

This isn't EchoStar, but could they nab DirecTV, too? It'd be a shame to launch something just to have it shot down. (that said, the EchoStar case *did* take EONS before a ruling.... and it's already been temporarily suspended...)

Re:it's a good start,

[phorest]

I have the HR15 recorder and like it a lot. Never had TiVo so I can't answer your questions. The reviewer does give some encouragement about the UI and the lag-time improvement and some of the other UI features/improvements.

There's no reason to be overly critical of new hardware like... TiVo is the best... Myth TV is DaBomb, etc. I'll admit it's my first DVR but what that thing can do is outstanding. I'll never watch broadcsat TV the same again! Put me down in the I like what it does category PERIOD.

I want to find out more about the eSATA and ethernet connections. My HR15 has ethernet but is disabled with no eSATA anywhere to be found. Does TiVo have anything similar?

Re:it's a good start,

[Cutriss]

how ergonomic? (TiVo's a hard act to follow on this one)

I guess you haven't gotten the TiVo KidZone update yet. I have a branded Series 2 unit that got updated like a week ago. Response time has been thoroughly shot to hell after this update. It has taken as long as five seconds to pull up the program guide. Sometimes hitting the TiVo button with hang the unit for about 30 seconds before I'll finally get a "action could not be completed" error. At least the TV pass-through still works, so it's not like it freezes up the display. I've also had two spontaneous reboots since the update.

I've also noticed a variety of small bugs. For example, if a show has been previously unrated, the first Thumbs Up works, but instead of the normal Thumbs Up sound, it sounds a "Not Allowed" sound.

I'm just hoping they roll out fixes soon.

Tivo or DirecTV

[turb]

Now that this box is out is seems that many a DirecTV customer (including myself) is weighing their options and it seems to be coming down to two things:

1) Switch to cable and *HAVE* a choice of series 3 Tivo / build a Myth, etc....

or

2) Stick with DirecTV on hardware that's dictated to the customer, offered by a company with a less than stellar reputation for customer satisfaction.

Hmm is it any surprise that #1 seems to be the popular choice?

Looking at it deeper, when customers of DirecTV who have Tivo systems have been utilizing the programming, Tivo is effectively the interface to the TV for them now. It is well put together. It works. It's intuitive. Universally they like the interface. Even my non-technical wife is the same, and way back when we sunset our series 1 tivo I was told spot on, the only acceptable upgrade was something with Tivo, so getting an HR10-250 was a no brainer. (o darn!)

But as time went forward and the features of the series 2 Tivo have been kept out of DirecTV Tivo offerings, my displeasure with DirecTV has risen. I've always found it amazing that direcTV never enabled any of the home media capabilities even tho the Tivo hardware in our direcTV box could have done it. Customers begging for it, begging to pay for it even ... and they say no?

When it comes down to it, one can get the same programming as DirecTV over cable. The cable companies on account of the FCC and the cable card standard effectively have to play nice with the Series 3 Tivo or other hardware. The cable card standard has enabled choice.

DirecTV ... well if they are effectively going to force folks away from the well loved Tivo enabled hardware and only allow people to use the "one true hardware" that comes down to them from DirecTV, then they are going to force me and many others away as customers. As with many things it's about choice. The world of cable has choice, DirecTV does not. No Tivo choice, then it really starts to add up to a great big 'screw'em' sort of result for DirecTV as they switch over to MPEG4 and sunset their older hardware.

Companies that take this sort of brutal approach and ignore their customers like that just don't survive for long in today's world. It's another great example of open vs closed, and yet again, open wins.

DirectTV just lost my business because of this

[FatherOfONe]

I just moved and was evaluating between the big three and I was a DirectTV customer for 8 years and a DirectTV (low def) Tivo customer for 3 years.

I would LOVE to have stayed with DirectTV, but the fact that they severed their deal with TIVO and will NEVER upgrade their current HD/TIVO box killed the deal. I honestly don't care what this guys says in his review, the difference is significant and it is like comparing a Honda to a BMW. Yes they both have similar features, but you are either a Honda guy or not. The Honda guys will say all day long that their car is feature for feature as good, but they don't own a BMW.

So that left me with Cable and their DVR; in hopes that the Series 3 will be out soon. After working with this giant piece of crap for a month now, I can say that I am counting the days until the new Tivo series 3 comes out.

Now as far a cable VS sat goes, I can say that even Digital cable isn't near the quality of signal that my DirectTV signal was. The cable "fans" seem to disagree saying that "digital is digital" but that isn't the case for me. In my opinion, and I am willing to show just about anyone this; the quality kind of breaks down like this. (10 being the best).
1080P signal with BluRay input = 10
1080i or 720p signal input = 7
HD station on cable in standard format, normal DirectTV signal or good DVD (LOTR) = 6
Digital Cable = 4
Standard Cable = 3

Again, this is my opinion, but EVERYONE I have had over to look at this tends to agree. I still have my old TIVO and some stuff on it to compare so it makes it somewhat easy to compare the signals. What would have made me happy and I would have paid far more money for it would have been if DirectTV would not have killed their deal with TIVO. Also, it would have been great if they would have started to offer more HD content. But for some reason they decided to partner with Microsoft... I hope that works out for them as well as it has for every other company that has partnered with Microsoft...

Lastly, I don't want to hear how this "new" device is "just like or better" than a TIVO. That is your opinion, and if so then that is great for you. DirectTV just lost me as a customer for it, and everyone I can influence will never use them for service again.

Re:Ethernet port?

[PoitNarf]

From what I have been reading in the forums, they are planning on doing some interesting stuff with the ethernet connectivity.

* VOD via Internet (handy since it's pretty hard to implement through Sats)
* There is PC integration planned with Windows Media Center and Vista
* There is a content sharing schema in the works. It's called the HMC (Home Media Center). It will consist of a server device which is connected to the phone line. All of the receiver nodes will communicate with the server to access stored content. All the receivers will also only need 1 coax connection to the server.