[John1220]

I have 2 Ultimate TV units that need repairing, but before I do the repair I must consider my options, What I have read in these forums, DTV may replace the units for free and I would like to know which unit should I ask for if I had a choice, and I hope you all can help.

How would you rate the picture quality of the recordings, of the Standard and HD units. I would give my UTV a and excellent in standard recordings. I saw 2 units working at a Circiut City, but the quality on both were pixelized, even on the new HD unit, so it makes me think, they had a bad feed.

And a really important question what units can you program the 30 second skip, are they all the DTV/TIVO units? ( I have not watched a commercial in years unless I choose to, I love it!!!!~).

THank You
John

 

[John1220]

Please explain in more detail the difference between 30sec skip and 30slip?

Thanks !

I suspect that the units you saw at Circuit City had a bad satellite feed. I've never had an Ultimate TV DVR, but I own several SD DirecTivos, and HR10-250 HD DirecTivo, and the new HR20 non-Tivo DirecTV DVR. All of them produce equivalent SD video quality. The HR20 produces a very slightly better HiDef video than my HR10-250.

Since the DirecTivo's are no longer manufactured, it's unlikely that DirecTV can offer you those anymore. Most likely you would be offered the current R15 SD DVR, or perhaps the new HR20 HD DVR.

As far as 30-sec skip goes, the DirecTivo's have a "backdoor" command that changes the skip button to an instantaneous 30-sec skip button. The DirecTV non-Tivo DVRs have a standard "30-sec slip" feature that quickly FF's ahead 30-seconds, but it's not instantaneous.