I had a good old HDVR2 that I was completely happy with. It never dropped a show, it worked as advertised since the day I bought it. Then the hard drive croaked.
So I called DirecTV, and they said they'd send me their wonderful new R-15. They let me keep my dead DTivo. The R-15 worked fine for about 3 weeks, and there were even some things about it that I liked (like Caller ID). Then it started dropping recordings. Sometimes it records, sometimes it doesn't. The best you can hope for is that "maybe" your program will record.
Called DirecTV back, and I was going to go ahead and get a HR-20. Retention nicely credited me almost the whole cost, but I got stuck on the fact that they wanted a year committment to the HD package. I don't give a whit about the HD package. All I wanted was HD HBO and HD locals, and I don't even really care that much about them. I just wanted the "latest" DVR. So I said forget it.
I went back and dug out my dead DTivo. Bought a new 160 M drive on sale for about $50 and downloaded InstantCake for $20. Voila. I now have a functioning 147+ hour Tivo again. I moved the R-15 to the bedroom in place of the old Hughes non-DVR receiver. That way it can serve as a pausable, rewindable, etc. receiver, and maybe occasionally record something my wife wants to watch in bed.
It took a bit of CSR angst on the phone trying to get both receivers working with two different types of DVR service, and having to swith the old non-DVR access card to my "new" Tivo, but eventually I got a second level support gal from OK who knew what she was doing and fixed me right up.
IMHO, the R-15 software is just not ready for prime time as a dependable DVR. Likely it never will be, since it's probably intended as a stopgap device anyway.
Lee
So I called DirecTV, and they said they'd send me their wonderful new R-15. They let me keep my dead DTivo. The R-15 worked fine for about 3 weeks, and there were even some things about it that I liked (like Caller ID). Then it started dropping recordings. Sometimes it records, sometimes it doesn't. The best you can hope for is that "maybe" your program will record.
Called DirecTV back, and I was going to go ahead and get a HR-20. Retention nicely credited me almost the whole cost, but I got stuck on the fact that they wanted a year committment to the HD package. I don't give a whit about the HD package. All I wanted was HD HBO and HD locals, and I don't even really care that much about them. I just wanted the "latest" DVR. So I said forget it.
I went back and dug out my dead DTivo. Bought a new 160 M drive on sale for about $50 and downloaded InstantCake for $20. Voila. I now have a functioning 147+ hour Tivo again. I moved the R-15 to the bedroom in place of the old Hughes non-DVR receiver. That way it can serve as a pausable, rewindable, etc. receiver, and maybe occasionally record something my wife wants to watch in bed.
It took a bit of CSR angst on the phone trying to get both receivers working with two different types of DVR service, and having to swith the old non-DVR access card to my "new" Tivo, but eventually I got a second level support gal from OK who knew what she was doing and fixed me right up.
IMHO, the R-15 software is just not ready for prime time as a dependable DVR. Likely it never will be, since it's probably intended as a stopgap device anyway.
Lee
