HR20/HR21/HR22: Report Card 0x254/0x255

I grade it a C...might even give it a C+ if that was an option. This is up from a year ago. The high number of patches continued during the last year...some causing significant issues. From the outside looking in the QA at DirecTV is still lacking. I believe the quality of the HR2X series is the weak link in a customer's DirecTV experience....they can do much better.

Pros:

1. Audio/Video Sync Issues are better than they were in the past.

2. DoD is a reasonable video delivery service. It's not "On Demand", but it does work. UI could be a lot better and much faster.

3. Machine is more stable than a year ago not rebooting as often.

4. Game Search works and helps.

5. Addition of 30 second skip was a nice improvement.

6. Remote scheduling works well.

Cons:

1. It still is undependable when it comes to the Blue's Clues/daily shows issues...but on weekly shows it has been better.

2. The UI and response to remote is just slow. Is it horrible? No...but it is far slower than any other consumer device we have.

3. Mediashare is inconsistent at best...it's so bad we have given up on using it for videos, the software lacks the functionality to make it useful for viewing pictures (rotation/zoom, etc). This feature borders on being an embarrassment on a device such as this.

4. Channels I Receive after yet another year still does not work.

5. The Parental Controls still don't work well enough that you could let a young child have access to the box on their own.

6. Search still pulls up channels that can't be watched and presents show titles from stations that should be blocked.

7. No MRV yet.

8. Showcase still shows content from a year back (NFL highlights) and Movies Now appears to be shoe-horned in to the UI.

9. The remote command that require Push to Hold (slow motion, skip to tick) are poorly implemented and very difficult to use.

10. Guide Data is still poor when compared to other DVR systems.