[Sixto]

Interesting article: http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/061231/23195_id.html?.v=1

"Rumors from overseas claim that DIRECTV will replace NDS as its supplier of interactive television and Pay-TV with another company, since News Corp forced DIRECTV to bring in NDS in place of TiVo Inc."

Should be an interesting year ...

 

[marty45714]

Something to keep in mind: Liberty won't take charge of the company until Summer. This will give DirecTV six more months of sales on a DVR that they can't keep on the shelf right now because of demand. I just don't see a switch happening. His citing of sources as "Rumors from overseas..." is definitely entertaining.

 

[Sixto]

Seems like the R15 is an NDS box and the HR20 is mostly DirecTV with a little NDS involvement. Maybe it just effects the R15. Maybe a hint at CES. Agree, the reference to "rumors from overseas" is definitely intriguing.

 

[marty45714]

Seems like the R15 is an NDS box and the HR20 is mostly DirecTV with a little NDS involvement. Maybe it just effects the R15.

Now there you are onto something. I don't have an R15, but I have heard that software updates are nearly non-existent. Again, with News Corp. being in charge until Summer, who knows what will happen?

 

[Guest]

Demand is high because the HR20 is the only option available for time-shifting the locals in HD, not because people are happy with these problematic devices. The HR20 is a very buggy and unreliable product and is going to generate a ton of complaints for DirecTV at a time when they are facing intense competition from the cable companies. I've had mine for only 3 weeks and I've experienced most of the bugs documented in this forum - missed recordings, lockups, programs disappearing from the to-do list, having to reset the receiver to get features to work properly.

This is all on Murdoch for forcing DirecTV to abandon the rock-solid reliable Tivo with NDS's junk. I look forward to Liberty taking control of DirecTV. Let's hope they hook up with Tivo again. It's hard to believe they would continue to use an inferior product.

 

[bonscott87]

NDS just supplies the interactive content technology on the HR20. It has nothing to do with replacing Tivo and NDS *isn't* the DVR portion of the box. That article doesn't have it's facts straight.

 

[Guest]

NDS just supplies the interactive content technology on the HR20. It has nothing to do with replacing Tivo and NDS *isn't* the DVR portion of the box. That article doesn't have it's facts straight.

How do you know that?

 

[bonscott87]

How do you know that?

It's widely known, as someone posted already above. Full history behind these boxes can be found on AVS or DBSForums. Technical nitty gritty. Anyway, the article itself says that NDS was brought in for interactive and PPV services. That has nothing to do with Tivo which is DVR software. As posted above the R15 had NDS work on the DVR code while the HR20 did not.

In either case NDS being canned wouldn't effect DirecTV at all really other then having to take over the interactive coding themselves and perhaps the R15 as well (assuming NDS is actually supporting the code for it still). That could be bad or good depending on how you look at it.

I'd say the most likely effect is that the new DirecTV will just have to pay a higher price for NDS consulting now that dad (Rupe) won't be around anymore to make them play nice with each other and give each other good deals.

 

[wingrider01]

Demand is high because the HR20 is the only option available for time-shifting the locals in HD, not because people are happy with these problematic devices. The HR20 is a very buggy and unreliable product and is going to generate a ton of complaints for DirecTV at a time when they are facing intense competition from the cable companies. I've had mine for only 3 weeks and I've experienced most of the bugs documented in this forum - missed recordings, lockups, programs disappearing from the to-do list, having to reset the receiver to get features to work properly.

This is all on Murdoch for forcing DirecTV to abandon the rock-solid reliable Tivo with NDS's junk. I look forward to Liberty taking control of DirecTV. Let's hope they hook up with Tivo again. It's hard to believe they would continue to use an inferior product.

Sorry, the HR10 I have is more problem prone and buggy the what I have read about on the HR20. So at least in my opinion this statement does not hold water. I truely wish they would deliver a HR20 instead of the refurbished HR10 that should be here in 2 days.

 

[brewer4]

Sorry, the HR10 I have is more problem prone and buggy the what I have read about on the HR20. So at least in my opinion this statement does not hold water. I truely wish they would deliver a HR20 instead of the refurbished HR10 that should be here in 2 days.

What??!!! I've had an HR10 from Day 1 and 2 current in the house. It is a very solid and reliable DVR. There's been some issues, namely HDMI in the beginning and some audio drop outs now but overall, I would say one the best and most reliable appliance I have ever owned. I like the HR20's but the HR10 HD Tivo is by far not buggier then the HR20 even when you compare the initial release periods.

 

[Herdfan]

What??!!! I've had an HR10 from Day 1 and 2 current in the house. It is a very solid and reliable DVR. ....... but the HR10 HD Tivo is by far not buggier then the HR20 even when you compare the initial release periods.

Ditto.

I got one in week 2 of the launch back in late April 2004 and it has been a workhorse ever since. Only missed one recording and that was due to bad guide data.

Of course, it is unplugged from the phone line as I don't want 6.3x.

 

[jheda]

I actually appreciate more the GUI of the hr20 over my Directtivo; it just took a few weeks of acclamation. The advantages are documented all over this site. Yes the hr20 has obvious issues but it is improving and if they incorporate DLB's i would never mention tivo again.... my opinion of course...

 

[mikewolf13]

Something to keep in mind: Liberty won't take charge of the company until Summer. This will give DirecTV six more months of sales on a DVR that they can't keep on the shelf right now because of demand. I just don't see a switch happening. His citing of sources as "Rumors from overseas..." is definitely entertaining.

Also one has to wonder what impact returns has had on the supply.

While we know the bugs are software related...many CSRs send out replacement boxes like they grow on trees.

 

[wingrider01]

What??!!! I've had an HR10 from Day 1 and 2 current in the house. It is a very solid and reliable DVR. There's been some issues, namely HDMI in the beginning and some audio drop outs now but overall, I would say one the best and most reliable appliance I have ever owned. I like the HR20's but the HR10 HD Tivo is by far not buggier then the HR20 even when you compare the initial release periods.

Read the TYivo boards, you will see all the issues that are ocurring with the infamous 6.3A(B) software drops. This one being shipped to me is the 5th one in two years. Before you say anything, the unit is installed in a custom cabinent with more then sufficient air flow, it is attached to a APC S10BLK 1KVA line conditioner with battery backup.

Reported issues are

Hard Locks requiring a power off restart
Audio dropouts on channels
Short recordings
Missed season pass recordings
Missed normal recordings

Have expierenced all of these issue even with 6.3B of the software. Unfortunately D* is shipping a refurbished HR10 to me again, as I mentioned this is number 5. Plenty of people are expierencing these same issue in one form or the other, read the board over there.

 

[eengert]

Read the TYivo boards, you will see all the issues that are ocurring with the infamous 6.3A(B) software drops. This one being shipped to me is the 5th one in two years. Before you say anything, the unit is installed in a custom cabinent with more then sufficient air flow, it is attached to a APC S10BLK 1KVA line conditioner with battery backup.

Reported issues are

Hard Locks requiring a power off restart
Audio dropouts on channels
Short recordings
Missed season pass recordings
Missed normal recordings

Have expierenced all of these issue even with 6.3B of the software. Unfortunately D* is shipping a refurbished HR10 to me again, as I mentioned this is number 5. Plenty of people are expierencing these same issue in one form or the other, read the board over there.

Agreed. On v3.1.5, the Tivo was rock solid (though extremely slow and no pic-in-guide/menu). Now that I'm stuck on 6.3a, it's a crapshoot as to what it will do. And apparently 6.3b didn't fix all the issues because they've pulled it from the download stream. With 6.3a, my HR10 now has rebooted twice in two weeks and missed several recordings. In the past year on v3.1.5 I have never had a missed recording or reboot. This forced me to finally switch the HR20 to be my primary receiver and the HR10 is just a backup now (though I'm not sure how reliable it is even as a backup now). Please don't tell me how I can pull the HDD and hack it to revert back to v3.1.5. You shouldn't have to do that and I choose not to get into that hassle. Since there is no supported or easy way to rollback, the HR10 is now significantly buggier than my HR20, which to my knowledge has never missed a recording in the 3 months I've had it.

 

[w6fxj]

Interesting article: http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/061231/23195_id.html?.v=1

"Rumors from overseas claim that DIRECTV will replace NDS as its supplier of interactive television and Pay-TV with another company, since News Corp forced DIRECTV to bring in NDS in place of TiVo Inc."

Should be an interesting year ...

Everyone should keep in mind that NDS is DirecTV's provider of the encryption system used for at least 10 years. To my knowledge they do NOT make DirecTV receivers or DVR's. NDS was started by Rupert Murdoch back in the days before DirecTV even went on the air. (The UK's Sky Channel in the 1980's Ibelieve).

 

[Wolffpack]

And apparently 6.3b didn't fix all the issues because they've pulled it from the download stream.

My units have been on 6.3b a couple of weeks now and I haven't run into any audio dropouts (which was the only problem I saw with 6.3a) since the upgrade.

Earl, Can you verify with your folks why 6.3b isn't in the stream? Have they found problems or are there just too many updates being rolled out at this point?

 

[eengert]

My units have been on 6.3b a couple of weeks now and I haven't run into any audio dropouts (which was the only problem I saw with 6.3a) since the upgrade.

I wish I, and others, were as fortunate as you have been. It certainly is quite a role reversal for me to be promoting the HR20 due to the instability of the Tivo!

 

[Wolffpack]

I never did have the reboot and partial recording problems other reported under 6.3a. But then again before I upgraded to 6.3a I did a C&DE on both units. I don't know if that had anything to do with it.

 

[wingrider01]

I never did have the reboot and partial recording problems other reported under 6.3a. But then again before I upgraded to 6.3a I did a C&DE on both units. I don't know if that had anything to do with it.

So did I much to my dismay as to the affect on my home life from my wife and kids. they lost all their recorded programs, christmas specials, old episode of Dora the Explorer, Wow, Wow, Wasby, Handy Mannie to name a few. Ironicly 20 minutes after a full C&DE finished, the HR10 did a hard lockup and had to have th power plug pulled to reboot.