leaving E* and need a good DVR?

johnner1999 said:

Due to LOS issues with Dish (61.5 - HD) i'm leaving to use DirecTV and the HR20/21 DVR.

Is the current build pretty good? Or should I go back to cable and buy a TiVo (then deal with CableCards?)

Me and my wife are TV junkies during the fall/winter season on primetime locals -- and we don't want to miss any shows...

I have no real issue with LoS with dish I assume as my 110/119 Dish setup is fine?

I mean how bad can the HR series be right, I really want all of these cool HD channels

Thanks

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The HR series DVRs have been 95% flawless to me and I have had mine for well over a year now.

I love all mine... I haven't had any issues on Nationally released software in over 18 months... And they are adding more features to them all the time.+

Thats not to say a few people aren't having issues here and there... but that can be said about any and all products on the market...

ViP 622/722 is a great DVR, but I enjoy my HR20 too.

Directv is a lot better about updating the software and new features. Dish usually has to release 3 versions nationally before they figure out what they screwed up.

I've had an HR20 for 6 months and it's been great. I've never missed a recording. I've had one or two instances where it locked up coming out of standby and I had to reboot it, but I had that happen with my Tivo occasionally as well.

95% flawless?

Only problem Ive ever had out of my hr20 is one blank recording. That was during a CE sw load.

Ken S said:

95% flawless?

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If my DVR failed on 5% of my wife's shows, I'd be in some serious trouble.

whitepelican said:

If my DVR failed on 5% of my wife's shows, I'd be in some serious trouble.

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I didnt see where he said it missed 5% of the recordings? The only issues I have ever noticed are the random reboot issue of a month ago, and the occasional 771 issue. That I know of I havent missed any recodrings, which is to say there may be repeats that didnt record or shows that I record just to have something to watch (ie Seinfeld), but knock on wood none of the shows we watch religiously have missed any first runs.

johnner1999 said:

Is the current build pretty good? Or should I go back to cable and buy a TiVo (then deal with CableCards?)

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That depends somewhat on what you watch and whether or not you can get it through DIRECTV.

The HR2x is not 100% as a DVR. It works like it should for most users most of the time, but every once in awhile it will choke and the reasons are often a mystery.

Have you tried relocating your 61.5 dish?

whitepelican said:

If my DVR failed on 5% of my wife's shows, I'd be in some serious trouble.

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I AM in some serious trouble.

whitepelican said:

If my DVR failed on 5% of my wife's shows, I'd be in some serious trouble.

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I would agree with the "95%" assessment, but not to mean that it misses 5% of recordings. Instead, if I took all the time spent watching my HR20's, 95% of the time, there are no issues at all, but 5% of the time, there is "some" issue. It may be a missed recording, but more often it's just a minor annoyance like lipsync issues, an occasional audio dropout, needing a reboot, "losing" paused TV because of lack of DLB, remote not responding or general sluggish operation. My wife is about as demanding and critical as they come and she's not once suggesting tossing it (or me ).

And remember, the HR2x's do not have DLB. If my wife new that before we "upgraded", I don't think she would have agreed to it.

johnner1999 said:

Due to LOS issues with Dish (61.5 - HD) i'm leaving to use DirecTV and the HR20/21 DVR.

Is the current build pretty good? Or should I go back to cable and buy a TiVo (then deal with CableCards?)

Me and my wife are TV junkies during the fall/winter season on primetime locals -- and we don't want to miss any shows...

I have no real issue with LoS with dish I assume as my 110/119 Dish setup is fine?

I mean how bad can the HR series be right, I really want all of these cool HD channels

Thanks

Click to expand...

The 2 HR21-700's have ruined my TV experience more than once.

Let's see - slow to respond to remote controls, blank recordings of MLBEI games probably about 20 times in 2 months (from both HR21's!), lots of advertising in the GUIDE of all places, very slow to delete 2-3 hour HD shows (as long as 10 seconds sometimes). You have to do "press and hold" to advance to the "ticks" instead of just hitting a button like with Tivo.

I hate the Directv DVRs, and have been using 2 of them since December.

They are improving all the time.

Frankly the interface, layout, features, etc. are better than any other DVR IMO.

In the past there were lots of glitches, but in the last few months the software releases have been very stable. Dont participate in the CE program, just use the national releases, and you should be pretty good.

and if things are THAT important for you, you should get 2 DVRs so you have a backup. Same is with any DVR you have...nothing is perfect, even Dish and Tivo...

OK thanks for everyone who helped me make up my mind.... I'm having two installed tomorrow


what are the ods they use the new single cable connection (vs dual like the older installation calls for)...?


I would move the 61.5 dish but no real good placement that and my 110 (I think its 110) of the 110/119 dish is also an issue not this year but maybe by next fall as E* sats are really low it seems in the horizon - I hope D* is not as low? if it is no install for me :-(

I had Dish and had los with 129. I think that D sats are higher in the sky . I had no problem at all with the D install. Don't expect the HR21 to act like the 722 because it doesn't come close. The programming and picture are great with D!

rustynails said:

I had Dish and had los with 129. I think that D sats are higher in the sky . I had no problem at all with the D install. Don't expect the HR21 to act like the 722 because it doesn't come close. The programming and picture are great with D!

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thanks... so personal question - is the directv sd and hd picture same or better then with dish?

is the 722 better from a user standpoint or from a reliability factor

johnner1999 said:

OK thanks for everyone who helped me make up my mind.... I'm having two installed tomorrow
what are the ods they use the new single cable connection (vs dual like the older installation calls for)...?

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That would be either the very new SWM dish or a slimline dish += a SWM (SWM=single wire multiswitch). It's not likely at all…unless you live in a test area. I can't remember all the places, but there are a few. I seem to recall Austin, TX was one.

I would move the 61.5 dish but no real good placement that and my 110 (I think its 110) of the 110/119 dish is also an issue not this year but maybe by next fall as E* sats are really low it seems in the horizon - I hope D* is not as low? if it is no install for me :-(

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Go to http://www.dishpointer.com and put in your address. You can select the D* 5LNB dish and drag the teardrop to your dish location. Then check the box for elevation and slide up and down the LOS line to see the height of anything that would blocking the signal.

johnner1999 said:

thanks... so personal question - is the directv sd and hd picture same or better then with dish?

is the 722 better from a user standpoint or from a reliability factor

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I just left DirecTV (for Dish) a few weeks ago because of my frustration with the DirecTV HR2x series. Blank recordings since January and the last release prevented trick play from working. Well, pause would work - then freeze the box. :nono2:

IMO, HD on DirecTV is still better although Dish is pretty darn close with their MPEG4 rollout.

SD on DirecTV is marginally better than Dish. But they're pretty much both poor.

The 722 is much more mature and polished than the HR2x. Plus it has Picture in Picture, Dual Live Buffers.

The HR2x is just not reliable IMO. And the best HD in the world is worthless if I can't rely on recording it...