Quote:
I'd be curious to see what you think of the non-Tivo boxes...

I've been playing with the DirecTV HR20-700 all day now and it seems to be decent. The UI and channel changing are extremely quick. It's a great deal quicker than the SD DirecTiVos with 6.2 and even the Samsung SIR-TS160 it replaced. Here's the pros and cons so far:

Pro:
  • Very fast
  • Guide is well laid-out and graphics are crisp
  • Mini-guide (viewing one 1 channel's line-up while taking up very little screen real estate)
  • Ability to view a single channel's programming while using the entire screen (can see about 5 future programs on each page). This is similar to the Tivo Live Guide, but seems more useful.
  • Software updates come over the satellite (like other non-Tivo boxes). Within the first 10 minutes of activating the receiver, it grabbed the latest software.
  • Hasn't screwed up on me yet. DirecTV doesn't appear to consider it a beta product, but it's still not widely available and software updates are being released very frequently.
  • Hard drive upgrades are as easy as dropping in a new drive. It will automatically format upon boot (I think UltimateTV worked like that)
  • 30-second fast forward. It's not a 30 skip, but it will fast forward for as many 30-second segments as you would like.
  • Can switch output resolutions to match the native resolution of the program playing. I don't use this since my TV (rear projection CRT) doesn't accept 720p, only 1080i.
  • The remote is very solid, heavy, and has a rubberized bottom part. I have a Harmony 880, but if I had to use the supplied remote, it seems very nice.

Cons:
  • It's not a Tivo
  • It will take a while to master the UI
  • No HMO-type ability yet
  • No skip-to-tick
  • No skip-to-end (or I can't figure it out)
  • No dual buffers (rumored to be coming)
  • No OTA (this will be coming in October supposedly)
  • Guide data not stored on the hard drive!!!!!!!! This is moronic for a DVR. If you lose power, your guide data will have to rebuild from scratch. If a series link (season pass) program is playing, and there's no guide data yet, the program won't be recorded (obviously).
  • Gaudy. There are at least 17 blue LEDs on the face of this thing.

Most of the cons will hopefully be fixed in software. Overall, I think it's a solid product. There's no question it was rushed, but at least the basic functionality seems to be working. It's a shame it's not running Tivo software, but I think it could be a lot worse.
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736