DIRECTV Group - HD DVR Review

Overall 4.09 of 5 view all 11 reviews

CloudNine
Sugarloaf, CA

It's kind of a dunce

a DirecTV subscriber, an early adopter, willing to pay for quality, Practical

Pros

Free with contract

Cons

Slow menus, clunky programming, Button placement on remote

FEB

2009

DIRECTV Group - HD DVR —

I need to preface this review by stating that I have been spoiled by Tivo. Years ago, we switched to satellite from cable, and I researched everything. We decided to go with DirecTV because the price per channel was cheaper. (I told you we did our research!)

Anyway at the time, they had just started into a deal with Tivo. So we got an actual Tivo box and remote. (My husband talked the guy into giving it to us for free! Go, Babe!) Flash forward about 4 years. The Tivo box breaks entirely. There was a power outage across the entire valley. When I got home from work, the awesomest gadget ever was no more. I tried to resurrect it. I even tried my patented method! (take it apart and vacuum the inside) My method has saved countless gizmos, but not the ill-fated Tivo box. :(

So, we call DirecTV. Having been happy customers for 4 years, 2 without a contract, we figured they'd have some sort of "you're so awesome and loyal" deals. um... no. Well, ok. Did they have any Tivo boxes? well... no, again. Their deal with Tivo was no more. O...K.... What can we get? "Well, we have a DVR that's rated better than Tivo's! You can have that. For $99. . . Unless you want to sign another membership contract. Then it's free."

Well. I was a little irked, I gotta tell you. We'd been loyal customers. Yet here we sat, totally left out in the cold. But, like I said, we were happy with DirecTV, had been happy for years, So we signed the deal, got the box for free a few days later. (I will say the shipping was pretty quick. I really don't like to be without TV. or Computers. or Video Games. or Books. but I digress.)

SO, to the point! We hooked up this DVR that was rated higher than Tivo. We wait patiently the 30 minutes it takes to initialize and setup. Then we begin trying to program it to record our shows.

I think, at this point, I would like to question who these people were who rated this DVR higher than Tivo's. I have come to believe they may have been trained circus monkeys or perhaps just rotten produce that was left on the kitchen counter.

Having owned and operated both DVR's, I believe I can judge here. This DVR is absolutely remedial. It's the most mediocre programming I've seen. Tivo had these features that were intuitive and intelligent and responsive. DirecTV's DVR feels like it was programmed by 14 year-olds. It's clunky, it's counter-intuitive, it's whacked-out in some instances. The process by which one programs a show to record involves too many steps. It's not as customizable as Tivo, it lacks that slick-ness Tivo had. The qualities that made my Tivo box indispensable are just not here in this DVR.

Even the remote stinks! It's huge, it's not ergonomic, the buttons are in weird places. Every time my husband tries to pause a show, he hits the "active" button. The "active" button takes you to a channel that was also programmed by 14 year-olds, meant to provide you with useful info. The weather forecast, your horoscope, and my favorite: what everyone else is watching! ugh. Now, this channel does no one in my house any good. I'm considering cutting the button off the remote. Why, you ask? Because when you hit the "active" button, the channel you are watching does not pause, or save, where you were. No, no. That would require 16 year-old programmers, and they're too costly to employ. When you hit the "active" button, you are taken to the "active" channel, and the channel you were watching resets to real time, AND (here's the best part) the previous time spent on said channel erases. So, it becomes as if you had just changed the channel. Because, although this DVR can record on 2 tuners, it can't utilize that aspect of its programming when one hits the "active" button.

Imagine for me a scenario. You're watching a suspense drama, not recorded. Just some show that was on, but you're terribly interested by this point. You've paused it earlier, to make popcorn or to pee or some such pressing need. So the counter at the bottom of your screen is, let's say, 8 minutes behind real time. Your husband uses his big, meaty thumb to press the "pause" button. Perhaps to comment... "I say the butler did it!", something to that effect. But his big, meaty thumb slips off the "pause" button, and lands squarely on the "active" button. again. There is a frantic several minutes here. Because the "active" channel takes time to load, and you can't. change. it. back. until. the. load. has. finished. Here now begins an epic struggle between your husband and the inanimate remote control. There's swearing. The load finishes, the "active" channel is up, in all its resplendent glory, a tribute to worthless information. Hubby hits the exit button, and you are taken back to your show. . . Only to watch the end credits. Now you will never know! "Was it the butler?!?" you scream at the inanimate television. You spend the next 5 minutes trying to find that particular episode of "Suspense Drama: NYC" in the stinking menu system written by 14 year-olds. But it's so impossible to trudge through these menus that you give up, and decide your time would be better spent arguing with your spouse, whose meaty thumb was the transgressor here in the first place. end scene.

So you get it, right? This DVR cannot do most of the things the Tivo DVR can. Because it's an analogue. It's a doppelganger of Tivo, written by people who just don't measure up. It's a rip-off, a copy. But they couldn't even copy it properly, because Tivo got wise and started suing the pants off everybody! So most of the features one had become accustomed to are not available, because it would be trademark infringement.

So, the DirecTV DVR cannot switch between tuners. My most beloved feature of the Tivo. I could be watching Mythbusters, pause at the commercial, switch to How it's Made, watch that until the commercial, then switch back to Mythbusters, skip those commercials, and watch the show. :D HA! It was truly awesome. But DirecTV's DVR doesn't do that. It doesn't show me shows I might like based on how I rated other shows. Nope. I could go on all day, in fact, it seems I have. I haven't even scratched the surface.

It just is nowhere near as good as Tivo.

Bottom Line: If you've never had Tivo, it's fine. If you have had Tivo, it's crap.

I'm sorry. I don't like to write BAD reviews, but I'm just that disappointed in this product. And Tivo is now not compatible with Satellites. Because lawsuits cut both ways. I feel as though I had the world in my palm, and now the dream has died. My hope is these court cases will be resolved ASAP, so I can have the best of both worlds again.

DIRECTV Group - HD DVR is not recommended by CloudNine

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Comments about CloudNine’s Review

Everyone I know say this about this product so it must be bad thanks for the info!

In response to JazzSinger's comment from Feb 23, 2009 at 5:07AM:

you know, they actually did do something, about 2 months after we ordered the new DVR. It was our 5 year "anniversary" with DirecTV, and they gave us 3 months of Showtime free. I know they were just trying to get me addicted to Showtime, so I would order it. But at least it was SOMETHING, you know?

I've never had Tivo, so I can't really speak to your comparison. I have a DVR through my cable company, and it's one of the most wonderful inventions in the history of entertainment. The part of your review I can really empathise with is the issue with special offers. It seems as though companies (not just DirecTV) give all of their deals to the new customers while doing nothing for those who have been loyal to them. I guess they figure they have you, so they don't need to give you anything. I've heard that you can get the special offers by calling them and threatening to cancel your service, but I just don't have the stomach to do things like that.