Speaker City

A few weeks ago, I updated my DirecTV system with the new 5 LNB dish and a the new HD DVR. Now, if you know me, you know I am and have been a Tivo fanatic. Why? Tivo is simply the best user-interface ever designed. Period.

Now, that I have used the new DirecTV DVR for a few weeks here’s my review:

• Overall, I would say it’s serviceable. It has the features you would expect but the UI is at best clunky.
• Instead of the 30-second skip it has the 30-second slip. Instead of jumping ahead 30 seconds, it fast forwards 30 seconds. A blatant concession to advertisers. It works but is annoying.
• The dual tuners record two HD or regular programs at once as expected.
• It has a season pass type feature to record an entire series. It works but it’s hard to configure.
• So far I have had to reboot the box twice. It just gets into a weird state and hangs. I don’t remember ever having to reset the Tivo.
• It has an external antenna input but that feature is disabled. It is supposed to be enabled at some point.
• The HD local channels don’t seem as crisp as compared to over-the-air signals. The HD signals for ESPN, NFL Ticket, and Discovery seem great. My theory is the MPEG-4 encoding used for local channels is just not that good yet…

For the most part, the DVR is comparable to the Time Warner DVR option offered by the local cable company. Having the NFL ticket is what keeps me a DirecTV customer for now. That being said, if someone would offer a Tivo DVR in my area, it would be a tough decision between the NFL Ticket and Tivo.

A few weeks ago, I updated my DirecTV system with the new 5 LNB dish and a the new HD DVR. Now, if you know me, you know I am and have been a Tivo fanatic. Why? Tivo is simply the best user-interface ever designed. Period.

Now, that I have used the new DirecTV DVR for a few weeks here’s my review:

• Overall, I would say it’s serviceable. It has the features you would expect but the UI is at best clunky.
• Instead of the 30-second skip it has the 30-second slip. Instead of jumping ahead 30 seconds, it fast forwards 30 seconds. A blatant concession to advertisers. It works but is annoying.
• The dual tuners record two HD or regular programs at once as expected.
• It has a season pass type feature to record an entire series. It works but it’s hard to configure.
• So far I have had to reboot the box twice. It just gets into a weird state and hangs. I don’t remember ever having to reset the Tivo.
• It has an external antenna input but that feature is disabled. It is supposed to be enabled at some point.
• The HD local channels don’t seem as crisp as compared to over-the-air signals. The HD signals for ESPN, NFL Ticket, and Discovery seem great. My theory is the MPEG-4 encoding used for local channels is just not that good yet…

For the most part, the DVR is comparable to the Time Warner DVR option offered by the local cable company. Having the NFL ticket is what keeps me a DirecTV customer for now. That being said, if someone would offer a Tivo DVR in my area, it would be a tough decision between the NFL Ticket and Tivo.