[LanceZ]

Let me just give you my background before I get to my issues. I'm in the sports field and I have to have NFL Sunday Ticket for my job. I also watch basketball and baseball quite a bit. The thing that I love about my Tivo (SD) is that I can toggle between tuners and, with my pause function, watch two entire NFL games simultaneously over a 3 hour period. I LOVE that ability and use it constantly (even for movies and other network shows). Then again, I have ADD so Tivo just feeds that beast by letting me watch two shows at once.

I'm now in the market for HD and was all set to get the HR 20 (set for installation on Jan. 5th) and almost crapped my pants when I saw some of the reviews of the product and I also found out that it couldn't give me the toggle, pause, toggle, pause ability that Tivo offers.

I need an honest assessment from as many of you as I can get. Should I just go with the Tivo 10-250 and stay with what I already know (despite the fact that it is the last Direct compat. model Tivo will ever make which limits the possibilities in the future) or should I take my chances with the HR 20 and lose the ability to watch two shows at once and potentially encounter all these bugs that I'm reading about while at the same time opening the potential for greater, interactive programming?

I'm really struggling with this one and I know that many of you have already gone through these issues and/or have used both of these products. Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for your comments.

 

[Spanky_Partain]

Check this thread of tricks and tips form Milominderbinder2.

It may have something in there that you are trying to do. There has been a lot of Double Live Buffers that do not exist.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=72648

 

[VLaslow]

If this is job related, why chance it? You know what works. The HR20 "might" work with tweaks and prayers for your situation. Think it through carefully.

 

[banningview]

I, too, use the HR10-250 for NFL games. Pause, hit down, and watch, hit a commercial, pause, hit down and keep going...the HR20-700 can't do this and I think it is one of the most annoying things about his box. You can TRY all of the tricks and tips listed on those pages that people will point you too, but a lot of times when you leave one program to go to another, yes, even when you are recording both tuners, which a is another pain all unto itself, it goes back to the BEGINNING of the recording. How frickin' annoying is that??? AND there is no way to go from tick to tick on the timeline. You have to 4X it all the way back to the point you are at in the game. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I can't find a tick to tick FF or RW option. Hopefully I just missed it. Until the HR20 has DLB it will NEVER be my DVR of choice in my house. I could care less if other DVRs did or didn't have DLB. In order for the HR20 to be anything close to the HR10-250, it needs DLB.

DLB
Just DO It!

 

[CharlesSchwab]

Here is what I did -- I have both D* and TiVo (HR20 and TiVo S3). Just because they decided to split and get a divorce, I chose not to follow suit. I have basic cable and satellite.

 

[Doug Brott]

Ah, the lack of guarantees in life. The good news is that if you are only going to be watching two different games, you can probably do this with your HR20. You just MUST be recording both of the games, though. It takes a moment or two to set up and another moment or two to break it down when you are finished, but it will give you the ability to switch between two different games. The problem comes in when you want to switch to a third game. you would have to stop the recording of one and then do the setup/breakdown process again .. Definitely no where near as simple as the way TiVo does it.

Now, if HD is your big concern for Football, you may have something else to worry about. I'd say that the chance of DirecTV converting all SuperFan football games next year to MPEG4 are pretty good. If that does in fact happen, then the HR10 will NOT be able to receive any HD football games on Sunday Ticket. In other words, buying an HR10 might not be the simple solution to your problem. SD channels will continue to be in MPEG2, so a SD TiVo or the HR10 WILL receive all of the SD channels fine with no modification. It is ONLY the HD channels that might be at issue.

In addition, I have a feeling that DirecTV is going to take a long, hard look at getting Dual Live Buffers (DLB) implemented on the HR20. DLB has consistently ranked the #1 item on every Wish List that I have seen. (Check out the HR20 Wish List Survey and voice you opinion as well.) Again, while there are no guarantees, there is a good possibility that the HR20 will be exactly what you are looking for by the time NFL season rolls around next year.

 

[Dave_S]

Here is my honest assessment. If you constantly use DLB (dual live buffers), you will be disappointed in the HR20. The work around of recording both buffers is clunky at best. That being said, I believe the HR20 has more to offer than the HR10 if you are not a DLB fan. I never used DLB, and since I have received my HR20's I have used the HR10's less and less, I even have one of them powered off (it will be on eBay soon). If you go with the HR20 just realize, there are no announced plans to implement DLB, and you may never see it.

 

[Spanky_Partain]

Job wise, I would get two of everything or use what you have.

 

[Tyrod]

Wait till next year when D* comes out with their newest latest greatest maybe it'll have more buffers

 

[bwaldron]

Here is my honest assessment. If you constantly use DLB (dual live buffers), you will be disappointed in the HR20. The work around of recording both buffers is clunky at best. That being said, I believe the HR20 has more to offer than the HR10 if you are not a DLB fan. I never used DLB, and since I have received my HR20's I have used the HR10's less and less, I even have one of them powered off (it will be on eBay soon). If you go with the HR20 just realize, there are no announced plans to implement DLB, and you may never see it.

As an HR10 and HR20 owner, I tend to agree w/ your assessment. I would also note that the HR20 has much less to offer than the Tivo units if you are a heavy user of wishlists - the search function in the HR20 doesn't measure up.

 

[LanceZ]

I appreciate all of your comments. The DLB function has become a must for me. I was hoping that the "work around" would be an acceptable solution, but I'm not sure it is. I will only have HD in one room and the other two rooms are set up with my dual receiver Tivo units so I guess I could still use one of my televisions as my DLB unit, but I sure do hate for it to be the one that isn't an HD television.

I think I'll get the 10-250 off ebay and then just try and re-sell it if I decide to flip over to the HR-20 in the near future.

 

[BillyBob_jcv]

How about running extra cables from the multiswitch and then run multiple HR20s to different inputs on the TV - you can record 4 (or more) games at once, and depending on the TV you might also get PIP or split screen.