Anyone remember Ultimate TV?

2644 Views 37 Replies 29 Participants Last post by TheRatPatrol, Jan 14, 2007

psychobabbler

Discussion Starter · Dec 30, 2006

I am about to receive a new HR20-700, and am very much looking forward to it. As I've read and read over the forums to decide to go in this direction, I keep reminiscing about my first DVR, the UltimateTV (which I believe was put out by Microsoft). It was by far the best DVR I've owned to this point. I've had a previous SD Tivo from Directv and I currently own the DTivo unit. The Ultimatetv unit was the first to have dual tuners, it had folders before Tivo did, it had some very useful shortcuts (like deleting one show or several shows at once, before or after you recorded them), on screen caller id, etc., etc., all features that were not on the SD Tivo I got to replace it (through D*). When it crapped out about two years ago, I went with the SD Tivo, which was fine and certainly had some good features. But Oh the simplicity of the Ultimate TV.
I'm definitely looking forward to the HR20-700 (to be installed on Jan 6). An unlike alot of what I've read, I'll be getting it in a little over 2 weeks after my phone call to retention.
Just thinking about the good ol' days, when times were simple...

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1 - 20 of 38 Posts

Earl Bonovich

· #2 · Dec 30, 2006

From the posts from a lot of forumer UTV people.

You will find that the GUI on the DVR+ is similar to what you had with your UTV...

UTV was a good product... too expensive at it's time, both for the unit and the service... when compared to the TiVo counter part. Then Microsoft decided to get out of the the WebTV/Set Top box business... and that was that.

mikeharden

· #3 · Dec 30, 2006

I miss my UTV dearly. I have had all (Replay TV, Tivo, D* DVR, Ultimate TV, Windows Media Center, etc...) it was my favorite out of all of them. I like the HR20, but I don't have the stability feeling I had with UTV.

mnbulldog

· #4 · Dec 30, 2006

Earl Bonovich said:
From the posts from a lot of forumer UTV people.

You will find that the GUI on the DVR+ is similar to what you had with your UTV...

UTV was a good product... too expensive at it's time, both for the unit and the service... when compared to the TiVo counter part. Then Microsoft decided to get out of the the WebTV/Set Top box business... and that was that.

I believe it was $10 for the DVR option with UTV even back then. I had 3 of them at one time.

I have had SciAtl DVR, UTV (still have two of them in box), Tivo, and now HR20. By far the UTV was the best product. Never understood the hype that surrounds Tivo (they are like IPod - no where near the best but got everyone convinced they are somehow). Tivo is good product but not the best (IMO). UTV is best, HR20 second, Tivo 3rd (at least in DTv world of DVR). Tivo product was about as slow as it gets in DTv land. Will never get the Tivo lovers on here because I used that product from almost day one ... and it was no pleasant experience in many ways.

psychobabbler

Discussion Starter · #5 · Dec 30, 2006

When I bought UTV, I got it for less than $100. Not too expensive in my book. I just leased the HR20 for $99. Just saying...Glad to see there are others who still remember a DVR that was ahead of it's time (especially with other services attempting to sell an aspect of their product like on screen caller id, a feature that I had at least 4 years ago).

Spanky_Partain

· #6 · Dec 30, 2006

Wow, I remember the UTV. That was also when Compaq, not HP then, was also dabbling in the PVR space with a PC entertainment device.

mjs31

· #7 · Dec 30, 2006

I still have my UTV sitting in a corner. We actually just quit using it about 8 months ago. I had upgraded the HD on it we just loved it. First to allow recording two shows at the same time, folders and just a very nice user interface. You will find many similarities between it and the HR20. Not saying the exact same, but not terrible.

pappasbike

· #8 · Dec 30, 2006

mjs31 said:
I still have my UTV sitting in a corner. We actually just quit using it about 8 months ago. I had upgraded the HD on it we just loved it. First to allow recording two shows at the same time, folders and just a very nice user interface. You will find many similarities between it and the HR20. Not saying the exact same, but not terrible.

I dearly loved my UTV. I still have the DTivo and now the HR20 but UTV still stands out as the easiest and most reliable unit. The only bug they were never able to get rid of was the runaway fast forward. Occasionally if you ffed through a recorded program you weren't able to stop it, you just had to wait for it to stop on it's own and then rewind to where you wanted to be. I used it for almost three years and that was the only issue I ever had. It's still amazing to me that after all this time no one has been able to put out a dvr as refined as this was.
John
I forgot one thing about the buffer. If you weren't recording anything and had left it on the same channel you could back up into the buffer for several hours. This also allowed me on several occasions to decide at the end of a show like the Today show on NBC that I wanted to record it for my wife. I just hit the record button and it would go back the entire three hours and record the whole program. I always felt the 30 minute buffer of Tivo was inadequate. The HR20 with a 90 min. buffer is far better but no where near as smooth or reliable as the UTV.

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lguvenoz

· #9 · Dec 30, 2006

I have put up a lot of posts about UTV, and I could not agree with you more. It was by far my favorite. I actually really like the Windows Media Center interface and with Vista it's pretty close to being as nice as UTV. IMO when D* releases a tuner card my HR20 is going away in favor of my Media Center unit.

Edmund

· #10 · Dec 30, 2006

If it weren't for the UTV, I probably still wouldn't be on the internet.

TheRatPatrol

· #11 · Dec 30, 2006

What are you guys talking about, I am STILL using my UTV today!

The only major issue I had with it was the tuner chips, they would stop working when they got hot, it was a manufacturing flaw. But I got both of those replaced and upgraded the hard drive to a 120 gigs about 3 years ago. Its been working fine ever since and I've never had to reset it.

The one thing I will miss most about the UTV is the PIP feature. I know, I know, many of you don't use it, or would never use it, but I think thats only because you've never had that feature on Tivo. Its great for sports! Yeah, I will miss PIP for sure, wish the HR20 had it.

Yeah, overall the UTV is a great DVR.

BeerMaker

· #12 · Dec 30, 2006

I, too, enjoy my UTV units. In fact, if it weren't for one of my UTVs tuners going dead I would not have gotten the HR20 so quickly. I fully planned on waiting about a year for the HR20 to stabilize.

I still have one of the UTV units active; but I hate paying 2 seperate DVR fees ! So I'm going to wind up replacing it as well.

HDTVsportsfan

· #13 · Dec 30, 2006

I still have my UTV as well. It's not in use though. I loved the PIP. I think my wife paid like 400.00 for it in 2000. It was a B-Day gift. It also has one bad tuner. Anyone want to buy it.

Ikari

· #14 · Dec 30, 2006

UTV was my favorite SD box by far. In my setup, it gave a much better picture than any other and the PIP feature was great for sports. I gave it up for a free Tivo box and $5 cheaper DVR rate.

RGMChicago

· #15 · Dec 31, 2006

Still using 2 boxes today with no problems, they are great I also have an HR20 that has been buggy.

ExUltimateTV

· #16 · Dec 31, 2006

Chalk up another UTV still in use today. We still use it as backup for the HR-20, and for SD commercial shows since its skip forward is instanteous and overall response time is just way faster than the HR20.

In addition to the features missing from TIVO and/or HR20 listed above is the "ask before changing channel if you're delayed" feature. This is a life-saver. If you pause a live show and then accidentially try to change the channel, the box asks for confirmation. With the HR-20, we end up recording everything so that we don't lose anything by accident.

RandCfilm

· #17 · Dec 31, 2006

Still using 5 UTV's, and I agree with BeerMaker about 2 separate DVR fees. Hands down the UTV is the best right out of the box. I still grumble sometimes while I am using my TiVo, why it could not be as simple as the UTV. I know the TiVo lovers hate to hear there unit put down, but if you've never had one you don't know how simple it could be.

mjs31

· #18 · Dec 31, 2006

I never saw the FF bug...lucky I guess. The wife and I always said we wished that DTV would get hold of a UTV box and just play with it and it's functions. As someone stated...just ahead of it's time. I am sure there are little features that I have forgotten about that I wish were on the HR-20. I just really liked the UTV setup. I wonder how it would be now had Billy G and the company stuck with it.

jayk

· #19 · Dec 31, 2006

My wife and I are finally moving away from 2 UTV boxes and a Tivo SD box. Did not like the Tivo interface or operability anywhere near as much as the UlitimateTv interface.

Like everyone is saying - easy to use, intuitive on and on and on. I really hate switching to the HR20's but we are moving and doing all HDTV upgrades for the new house so I needed a few months of lead time to make sure my HR20 replacements weren't buggy. So far, other than a few RBR it hasn't been too bad but I worry about that as my 3 HR20's will be in a basement rack so . . .

Only issue with the UTV's was the FF bug. Leave it Microsoft to stop making the one thing they actually did right!

If anyone is looking to buy 1 or 2 UTV's PM me.

Jay

ptwat

· #20 · Dec 31, 2006

I still have 3 UTVs (and a HR20) and to this day it is still comparable to anything out there and in a lot of ways better. I am most impressed that the whole time I have had them (about 5-6 years) that there has been about THREE updates. They got it right out of the box.
How many has the HR20 had this month?

1 - 20 of 38 Posts

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