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It was two years ago (9/21/2006) when I had my first HR20 installed. It was a brand new, in-the-box HR20-700. The HSP (Bruister) delivered it along with a new AT-9 dish. I paid about $350 for the upgrade ($299 + S&H + tax). Everything went very well. Bruister sent two techs and then a supervisor came by, too, because it was one of the first HR20’s they had handled. They did a great job with the install, adding a pair of WB68’s to feed all the outlets in my house.
The HR20 was great. My only DVR experience was with UTV (I had 6 of them at one time). I found the menus and guide to be similar. Of course I was enjoying the HDTV and the ability to record it. I did have some problems, though. First, lipsync issues were rampant. My wife and I quickly learned to try things like pause and then resuming or changing channels to fix it. Sometimes that worked, but sometimes not. We experienced horrible MPEG artifacts on our local CBS affiliate making football games unwatchable because the field looked like a psychedelic checkerboard. Our local NBC affiliate suffered the cyclical stuttering problems inherent with a bad MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion. Audio dropouts were also common. I was using my Denon A/V receiver for all switching, and it supported component only, so I never had any of the early problems with HDMI compatibility.
One of the things we really missed about the UTV was the 30-second skip. We especially hated the “slip” and the fact that it only lasted 10 seconds. We started skipping commercials using FF, but since there was no “resume correction”, we’d end up having to backup. We eventually got used to pressing FF three times, then pressing PLAY when we saw the show resume, then the “skip back” button twice and that would just about do it.
One thing that always annoyed us with UTV was that when a scheduled recording started, the live display would always switch to that tuner, no matter what it was doing beforehand, even of there was not a conflict. We liked the fact that on the HR20, non-conflicting recordings on the other tuner happened quietly in the background. Also, the prompt to select which recording to stop when both tuners were busy was a nice feature not on the UTV’s.
Within a few months, I added an H20 for the kitchen and another HR20 for the bedroom. Earlier this year, I added another HR20 for the guest room, and finally a 4th HR20 to replace the H20 in the kitchen. The H20 is now just a spare tuner for the living HT system that servers both the living room and patio. As luck would have it, all of my HD-DVR’s are HR20-700’s– two new, two refurbs. Three delivered by “professional installers” and the last one via FedEx for self install.
All in all, we are happy with the HR20’s. They have added many great features like Media Share and VOD (and 30SKIP and SUPERSKIPTOTICK). I continue to look forward to future enhancements like MRV. This is no big deal because we had similar issues with the UTV’s, too. Even my wife who has little patience likes them and can put up with the occasional problem. I think it’s a “keeper”. While I might have a hard time recommending D* to a friend, I would not hesitate to recommend an upgrade to the HR2x for existing customers already used to D*’s “business model”.
The HR20 was great. My only DVR experience was with UTV (I had 6 of them at one time). I found the menus and guide to be similar. Of course I was enjoying the HDTV and the ability to record it. I did have some problems, though. First, lipsync issues were rampant. My wife and I quickly learned to try things like pause and then resuming or changing channels to fix it. Sometimes that worked, but sometimes not. We experienced horrible MPEG artifacts on our local CBS affiliate making football games unwatchable because the field looked like a psychedelic checkerboard. Our local NBC affiliate suffered the cyclical stuttering problems inherent with a bad MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion. Audio dropouts were also common. I was using my Denon A/V receiver for all switching, and it supported component only, so I never had any of the early problems with HDMI compatibility.
One of the things we really missed about the UTV was the 30-second skip. We especially hated the “slip” and the fact that it only lasted 10 seconds. We started skipping commercials using FF, but since there was no “resume correction”, we’d end up having to backup. We eventually got used to pressing FF three times, then pressing PLAY when we saw the show resume, then the “skip back” button twice and that would just about do it.
One thing that always annoyed us with UTV was that when a scheduled recording started, the live display would always switch to that tuner, no matter what it was doing beforehand, even of there was not a conflict. We liked the fact that on the HR20, non-conflicting recordings on the other tuner happened quietly in the background. Also, the prompt to select which recording to stop when both tuners were busy was a nice feature not on the UTV’s.
Within a few months, I added an H20 for the kitchen and another HR20 for the bedroom. Earlier this year, I added another HR20 for the guest room, and finally a 4th HR20 to replace the H20 in the kitchen. The H20 is now just a spare tuner for the living HT system that servers both the living room and patio. As luck would have it, all of my HD-DVR’s are HR20-700’s– two new, two refurbs. Three delivered by “professional installers” and the last one via FedEx for self install.
All in all, we are happy with the HR20’s. They have added many great features like Media Share and VOD (and 30SKIP and SUPERSKIPTOTICK). I continue to look forward to future enhancements like MRV. This is no big deal because we had similar issues with the UTV’s, too. Even my wife who has little patience likes them and can put up with the occasional problem. I think it’s a “keeper”. While I might have a hard time recommending D* to a friend, I would not hesitate to recommend an upgrade to the HR2x for existing customers already used to D*’s “business model”.
Considering the fact that you could have had a Tivo Based DVR for that 1st year and not missed a single channel and had a much more reliable with the Tivo, that in itself shows you are a super dedicated HR20 pioneer. 
