dukefan said:
I've posted several items on my woes with the HR20. I won't rehash that here. I gave it 6 weeks as my main TV watching local before the IKD bug makes it unstable as a platform for recording shows for me. I've now been back with the HR10 for a few days and I came to the realization that the HR10/Tivo interface made watching and recording shows a more enjoyable experience.
Obviously, the ability to record and watch shows is big, but I've tried to ignore that. After a couple of days back on the HR10, I find that there are two huge differences that make it a better experience, at least for me, on the HR10. First, Dual Live Buffers - yeah you can record one and watch something else on the HR20, but I had grown accustomed to pausing something, flipping to the other tuner and "grazing" around the stations. That's nearly impossible on the HR20 unless you actually record the current show.
However, I've come to realize that for the way I watch TV, it's the guide that actually makes it a less enjoyable experience. I'm a grazer. I always want to know if there is something better on. On the HR10, the Tivo-Guide is actually fast, and I can flip through the 100 or so channels in my Favorites in a matter of seconds. On the HR20, it's a painful experience - each button press is a good three seconds. It takes almost a minute to flip through all the channels.
The conclusion I've come to, for good or bad, is that I found myself watching less TV because the UI on the HR20 didn't give me the same experience as the HR10. When I first got a DSR6000 6+ years ago, Tivo changed the way I watched TV. I have found that the interface, especially the two issues mentioned, have stepped me back in time, and I'm not happy about it. I'm hopeful that someone at DTV can come up with a guide and DLB's that make it fun again.
You see, here is a perfect example of two entirely different takes, on the same subject. The way we watch TV, is to record what we want to watch, and watch it later. It's as simple as that. Unless it's a sporting event, where I try to watch live. I could really care less about dual buffers, or even if it takes 10 seconds to switch channels. We KNOW what we want to watch, and record it.
I used to channel surf, right up to the time I bought a ReplayTV (MUCH better interface than TiVo, but I won't go into that here
) That was about the time we had our second child (our first was 3 at the time). We realized, that our TV viewing habits needed to change. So the Replay gave us much more flexability than a VCR, such as pausing live TV, and we progressed from there.
Now, my wife and I have about 1-1.5 hrs per night to watch what we want once the kids are setteled in bed. As long as the unit du jour is recording properly (HR20 now), and skips (or slips) 30sec, we're happy. We sit down, look at the playlist, and decide what we will watch. No dual live buffers, no channel surfing, none of that. It's exactly how we did with our HR10, so other than the interface itself, nothing has changed... for us.
So my wish list is simple:
1. Dual Tuners (some nights we're recording 2 shows at the same time)
2. Accurate, reliable recording
3. Reliable 30 sec slip (skip preferable) That gives us the ability to watch 2 hour long shows in 1.5 hrs.
5. Easy, navigable guide to set up recordings
4. Of course all this has to be done in both mpeg2 and mpeg4 HD.
That's just us though... we're easy.
Happy New Year!
--Mike
