DIRECTV Plus DWO2-10021 HD DVR (Lease)

by DIRECTV

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000K6EQNG
• Item model number: DWO2-10021
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,506 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 25, 2006

Product Description

DIRECTV Plus HD DVR (Lease)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Was the worst "DVR" ever, but now its just bad., February 22, 2007

By 

John Keitz "Islesfan" (Nevada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: DIRECTV Plus DWO2-10021 HD DVR (Lease) (Electronics)

I agree with most of the posts here about the garbage that is the HR20, but it has improved greatly since October. Nevertheless, it si so unreliable that I had to get DirecTV to re-connect my 5 year old TiVo (for free) to catch all the programs this thing misses. They have sent out numerous updates, but it seems that they are spending more time enabling features to make the thing appear to be better than TiVo rather than addressing basic recording (that's what a DVR is for right?). It is like a high end car with an awesome stereo, and brakes that don't work. I nearly left DirecTV over this thing, and I've been with them since 1995!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yes, it's really as frustrating as others say but getting better with time, March 23, 2007

By 

GG1 (La Mesa, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: DIRECTV Plus DWO2-10021 HD DVR (Lease) (Electronics)

Being a long-term TiVo user (including 2 D* HD TiVos) I kept my expectations low and I actually figured I could adjust to this DVR, given some positive aspects. I don't think the interface is as good as TiVo's, but it is adequate.

I've had it two months, and things keep getting worse. Sometimes recordings don't record, for no reason. About 3 weeks ago our HD locals started dropping out for a few days at a time. The first technician sent out was incapable of debugging this problem. We learned later that the satellite dish wasn't set up right to begin with and it took numerous calls, emails, and two tech visits before they did a simple 2-minute alignment to get us signals in the 90's on the HD locals, which got rid of the pixelation and frequent non-availability.

Another BIG problem is the reliability of the unit. Lots of lockups requiring unplugging or a red-button restart, both of which take perhaps 8-10 minutes to recover from.

1-800 Tech Support has been poor. If you can get through to a "specialist", they aren't bad. But the advice just seems to be "do a full reset" (i.e., a total reset including removing all of your series links & existing recordings). When we tell D* that this is unsat, they offer a replacement REFURBISHED unit! With no additional warranty - that is, I've already had my unit two months, so they would only give me one month on a refurbished unit. Who's to say that the replacement unit abused by someone else is any better than what I already have?

If you luck out and get a dependable unit, it's really not that bad. But the poor quality and customer support warrant only one star - maybe less, but I can't do less than 1 star.

*** Update June 16, 2007 *** Thankfully, this DVR is functioning much better now. I've only had to reset it once in the last month. While I prefer the TiVo interface, this has some different capabilities - when it works properly, I can live with it just fine. It's a bit ironic that the problems seemed to stop as soon as I started to pay $6 a month for the service plan. :-) If I were to rate it now, I might give it 3 stars.

*** Update Nov 27, 2008 *** With time, software updates with new features have made this a much better & more dependable unit. I STILL miss some of TiVo's features but I'm happy enough as long as I don't need to contact DIRECTV for any help. Most interactions, whether via email or phone, are quite frustrating. I'd give it a solid 3 stars now.

*** Update April 2010 *** A few weeks ago, my ENTIRE series manager was deleted, right after a software upgrade. UGH.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars garbage, February 9, 2007

By 

Edwin W. Garrison "ED" (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DIRECTV Plus DWO2-10021 HD DVR (Lease) (Electronics)

Don't waste your time and money with this unit or Direct TV go with what ever cable company is in your area. They lied to me and stole my money and time. I had to send the DVR back to them 4 times, 4 and it still doesn't work. I have to reset it daily, the HD picture is not that great, and the record function doesn't work most of the time. So I called Direct TV and ask them if they were coming out with a better version anytime soon and they said they were still trying to fix the problems with the current one. I told them I had returned mine 4 times and had been very patiant but was tired of wasting all my time calling them up and returning DVR only to have to do it over and over. Please give me my money back and let me out of my contract, they said no. They told me if I didn't want my DVR I should return it to who ever sold it to me 2 months earlier. This product should not be on the market.