DIRECTV Group - HR20-700S DVR Review

If you have never had any type of DVR before, you will love this device and it will completely change the way you watch TV.  This review is not for you.  You can't miss what you have never had.  But for those of us that have been using Tivo for the past several years, DirecTV is forcing us to choose between giving up our Tivo and accepting this inferior DVR, or remaining in the Standard Definition world.  DirecTV's latest satellite cannot be received on the Tivo integrated DirecTV receivers.  A large portion of the High-Def programming is broadcast on this new satellite, so if you don't upgrade your receivier, you will not be able to get this programming.  Since DirecTV no longer has a relationship with Tivo and produces their own DVR, your ONLY choice if you want access to all the HD channels is this box.

First, my top 10 things that are just not possible with this box that are possible with Tivo:

1) Home Networking;  Tivo owners have been able to network their boxes together for years now.  If you recorded something in the liviing room, but wanted to watch it in the bedroom, you could do it.  Even DirecTivo owners could do this with a 3rd party or self-modification of the box.  But even though it has an Ethernet interface, it provides no such functionality or option.

2)  Elimination of phone line; You still must have a phone line connected to this box; especially if you wnat pay per view/on demand services.  I understand the need for outbound communication from the box for this.  But if you have already connected the box to the Internet via the Ethernet interface, why does DirecTV FORCE us to have a phone line.  I don't have a phone jack anywhere near the media niche in my living room and think it is stupid to have to run a new line or purchase a phone over electrical outlet device for this box.  Somebody please tell DirecTV that it is 2008, dial-up Internet access is only a method of last resort these days, they need to drop this requirement.

3)  List Guide; Tivo gives you a list guide in addition to the grid guide.  This is a great view for quickly seeing what is going to be on a certain channel for the next few hours or even days.  The GRID guide only gives you a couple hour window without doing a LOT of scrolling.

4)  Folders/Organization.  Tivo can put shows in folders if they are part of a wishlist or season pass.  No such option with this box.  You also can't modify the sort order.

5)  Suggestions and auto-record of suggestions.  Tivo learns what you watch and can make suggestions or even auto-record programs when space is available.  No such function with this device.

6)  Now playing button.  With Tivo, the "big" button on the remote gives you instant access to your list of recorded programs.  With this device, you must press the list button which is off-center in the middle of the remote and difficult to find by "touch".

7)  Recording dates in the list of recorded programs.  Tivo shows you not just the name of the program, but the date recorded.  This is useful when you have multiple episodes of a show.   No dates in the list on this device.

8)  Toggle back and forth between tuners.  With Tivo, with one button you could toggle back and forth between tuners.  This made it easy to watch two things at once, without missing a minute of either, even if you weren't recording them.  You could pause live tv on one tuner and switch to the other one, watch for a bit, pause it, and switch back to the other and pick right back up where you left off.  Especially for sports, when you could fast forward over commercials and "boring" parts, you could easily watch 2 shows in the same time you could watch 1.  On this box, the second tuner is for recording only.  You cannot toggle back and forth.

9)  Resume watching a recorded program.  With Tivo, when you are watching a previously recorded show and you switch to live TV, you could easily go back to your "Now Playing" list, reselect the show and it would pick right back where you had stopped watching.  With this box, it doesn't remember where you were watching so you have to start over from the beginning.  SO FRUSTRATING... 

10)  Slow-motion.  Tivo has a slow-motion button; this remote does not.

#1, #8, & #9 have really made it a difficult choice for me.  It is give up high-def or give up these features.  I have ultimately decided to have two receivers so I can still use my Tivo, but for those occasions when I really want to watch something in high-def, I can switch over to this box.  It is an extra $60 per year to do this however, maybe that is part of DirecTV's strategy for additional revenue..

 In addition, I have found this HR20 box to be sluggish, it goes out to lunch a lot; you use the reset button it has on the front very often.  Frustrating when you are right in the middle of recording a show.  The Tivo is much more stable.

Now, in fairness, the box isn't all bad.  It has some features that were not available Tivo:

1)  30 second skip button; there is a button that allows you to skip ahead 30 seconds.  It is not an "instant" skip, it just fast forwards for you (takes a few seconds still).  With Tivo, this was only a secret feature, not available unless you knew how to set your remote to do it.

2)  Viewing window when in program guide.  With this box, when you are in the guide, it shows what is playing on the channel you are currently watching in a small window in the upper right hand corner.  Kind of nice.

3)   On-demand capabilities; I have not used this yet because it requires a phone line, but apparently, you can get some on-demand pay-per view content if you have the device connected to the Internet (why it still requires a phone line, I completely fail to understand).

4)  On-Off button that simultaneously turns on/off both your TV and this box.  That is neat.  The Tivo doesn't really have an "off" function so this feature was not really needed.  I do like the perceived "off" capability of this box, although I think it really just means to turn off the lights on the front because it can't really mean off or else how else would it auto-record programs when you aren't there.

5)  Aesthetics.  I think this device looks more modern that the Tivo boxes.  I think it just in general looks better.

 Still, even with these advantages, it is a completely inferior alternative to the Tivo.  If you want to stay with DirecTV, however, it is your only option unless you give up HD. 

I certainly understand why DirecTV went away from Tivo.  They wanted to capture ALL the revenue from the use of these devices, not share it with Tivo.  I get it.  Simple business decision.  But my personally feeling is that DirecTV should have made a better effort to more closely match the feature set available and not force customers to give up functionality by ~upgrading~ to this box.