Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great DirecTV/Tivo combo, but not without glitches, April 21, 2005
On a good HDTV monitor with an HDMI connection, the video from this receiver is just stunning.
There are several things you should know:
1 - '30 hour' refers to HDTV recording capacity. For normal, non-HDTV programming, you'll get much, much more than 30 hours.
2 - For some reason, DirecTV has not upgraded the software to Tivo Series 2. That means no folders grouping together saved programs, no support for the USB ports (no broadband connection, you MUST use a modem), no Home Media Option or video sharing.
3 - There's a bug in the digital audio output which causes digital audio to fail with some amplifiers. Fortunately, my amp was firmware-upgradeable to be more forgiving about the audio format. From what I've read, the receiver fails to send proper headers on the audio and sometimes (when you're changing channels, going forward or backward) this causes audio to cut out completely. I found that I needed to restart my amp to get audio back. DirecTV does not acknowledge this problem.
4 - Over time we've seen more little audio and video glitches than I've ever seen with any other model Tivo or DirecTV receiver. Nothing serious, but kind of annoying.
5 - There is very little HDTV programming available on DirecTV at the moment. Unless you live in LA or NY or you're rural enough to qualify to receive distant stations, you're unlikely to be allowed to get the LA or NY HDTV feeds of local channels. This is a government restriction, not DirecTV's fault. There's one PPV channel in HD format, and there are HD feeds of HBO and Showtime plus a few other things. Definitely check with DirecTV to see what you'll be able to receive before jumping on this.
6 - DirecTV is working on bringing out lot more HDTV programming, including local network stations, but the rumor is that in order to do this they're going to switch to a new compression format that this receiver won't support. It's too early to say whether they'll provide a graceful upgrade path or will stick you with a thousand dollar receiver/recorder that can't receive the bulk of their programming, but consider yourself warned.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Integrated receiver/tivo simplifies viewing!, July 4, 2005
I have had TiVO for several years now. With separate TiVO/receiver units, channels can occasionally not change properly (like getting channel 8 instead of 80 -- this used to happen with a separate unit we had.) The integrated units solve this plus the picture is wonderful because it hasn't been reinterpreted (the picture is the same after recording as it would have been watching it live.)
We use ours with DirecTV plus an indoor antenna which we mounted in our attic. This totally surprised me -- the indoor antenna works great and gets additional HD channels! To our delight, the Hdvr handles this beautifully (even with duplicate channels!)
Be sure to activate the 30 second skip feature (so you can skip commercials) and give yourself some time to get used to a TiVO -- our first one really changed the way we watch TV. We never worry about missing our favorite shows -- we just sit down when we feel like watching a show and select a show we actually *want* to watch instead of channel-surfing. When we are excited to watch a new episode we'll just start watching it 20 minutes or so into the episode so that we can skip commercials -- you can record *while* you are watching the same program.
If you have multiple HD DirecTV inputs, you can record two shows at once while you are watching a third previously-recorded show.
For the kids, we keep a selection of their favorite shows (non-HD) and there is no need to mess with a VCR or DVD player! They never even watch live TV, which means they can skip the commrecials which I'd rather they not see anyway!
The one improvement I would like to see is for "series 2" TiVO, which would allow groupings into folders, but I think it's worth it to have the TiVO integrated!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ultimate item to go with your HDTV, April 24, 2005
Like many, I had an HDTV that I watched little HDTV on. Not because of lack of programming available, but because having to watch commercials or watch TV on the network's schedule prevented me from watching LIVE HDTV (we owned three low definition Tivos prior to this purchase).
Yes, DirecTV doesn't office some of the home media options or folders on their Tivo boxes, but those are mostly peripheral offerings. Nothing does what this unit does as well as this unit does it period. This unit takes Tivo and HDTV to the next level! Two recording sources. Real-time conversion to all TV formats. Same Tivo interface we all love plus a more traditional satellite box guide view. Off-air and satellite reception. There's a reason why this unit won best of show at CES. And something I wasn't aware of, you don't have to purchase the $300 lifetime subscription with DirecTV DVRS.
When I first purchased this unit, I thought I would have trouble justifying a $1000 spend. Now that I have it, even my frugal wife understands why I bought it and the HDTV I purchased last year.
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