Customer Reviews

DirectTV Plus R22-100 HD Reviver / Box with DVR and DirectTV Remote

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Directv will not activate this unit since it was previously activated. They will not issue a new data card. They inform me that the unit is useless and worthless and that the seller could have known this. I believe that the seller should have known this. We'll now see how the refund policy works.

It's not the box that I thought it was, but it's still a good box. I could only wish that I had purchased the one that I thought (HR22) not the R22. Oh well...

I've had this 3 months
No problems to note in official features or functions
The officially unsupported media share feature is great but a bit glitchy but that's why it is unsupported.
I'm thinking about getting a second unit this one can record on demand, and 2 other sat channels at the same time. I want even more during news hour.

I bought this unit over a year ago because where we live we can't get an HD signal. We've had DirecTv techs out numerous times looking at our property, we have a large tree in the way. Every other device on my system is HD and I wanted a unit I could use the HD cable even though we don't have HD service from DirecTV. DirecTV refused to send us this unit, they ONLY provide this unit for customers paying for HD service. So I bought a used unit on Amazon. I didn't have any problems with DirecTv, they sent me a new card so I could activate it, I do still pay $5/mo for the unit even though I own it. The $5 is for service to the 2nd unit. I noticed right away the picture was much better than on the unit without the HD connection. I'm thinking that must be why DirecTv refused to offer these units to customers who don't pay for HD! The bad picture encourages you to want HD, the picture quality I get w/this unit doesn't really inspire me to pay more for HD. I know this unit isn't available new anymore, but it is available used. I'm thinking about getting a second used unit for another room in my home.

I received a different model VCR than the one advertised. Seller says that SOMEWHERE in the small print he listed the VCR he sent. Very argumentative. The box came rattling. Haven't opened it...will cost me half as much to send it back. Probably the only bad Amazon transaction I've made. Just beware of this seller.

I bought this unit thinking that I could do away with my $5/mo lease fee. It turns out, the lease is for the card that goes in the box, not the box itself. It gets worse... much worse! I have had DirecTV for 4.5 years now, and I have had nothing but problems. I paid for HD for over 2 years, had people out here trying to fix things, and never really got my HD channels. They always lost signal. Since I am very busy, I just kept paying for the service for far too long. Finally, I figured, I'll get rid of the HD, since it doesn't work, and I'll get a DVR. What a mistake! I called and put on the DVR service back in April, and they never told me that by activating the box, I was agreeing to a 2 YEAR CONTRACT! I called today after many years of disappointing service from DirecTV to cancel my service, and they told me that I am under contract until April 2011. I told them that I never signed anything and was never told about this, and they said that it would be in my purchase agreement from Amazon. Look around... I don't see anything! On top of that, they said that I will have to send them the receiver I just purchased. They said that it is theirs, and that all I paid for was a lease agreement. So, if you buy this thing, you are purchasing the right to a two year contract with DirecTV, and after your two years are up (and hopefully you are smarter than me and cancel your service) you can give your receiver to them, or pay a $200 recover fee. What a racket!

STAY AWAY FROM DIRECTV!!!

I switched from cable to DTV with DVR (not HD, though). At first it wasn't too bad. Nothing great, but nothing awful. The signal would go out during big rains, big snows, or big winds. Then you have to go through setting up your satellite configuration and waiting while it re-downloads all the information (assuming you can remember what all the settings are supposed to be set to).

We also noticed that when items sat in the recorder for a couple months they begin to degrade. When you watch them they are glitchy and skip forward. Eventually we had a new box put in. That one got worse than the first. Now items that had been in the recorder for just a week or two are already degrading.

The fast-forward and rewind freeze up. You have to hit FF or RW again to speed up, then it leaps forward (or backward) past where you want to go. And the pop-up bar that shows your progress has stopped working along with the FF/RW. It says you're at the beginning of a show even as you're FF'ding, right up until the end of the show when it leaps ahead.

The absolute worst is that shows we've set to record inexplicably stop recording even though they display the (R) icon meaning "set to record." One day you realize you missed last night's episode of Lost or something because the box stopped recording it even though it's telling you it's still set to record. Then you have to go into the menu and un-record then re-record each show to get them recording again -- and you have to do this every few weeks for every show or series you have set to record.

But here's the real kicker. My girlfriend finally got fed up enough to call customer service and ask for a new box, and the guy said (actually SAID), "Yeah, we know about all of these problems. Everyone has these same issues. Our engineers are working on it, but we don't have an ETA for when it's going to be resolved." His resolution was first to offer a month of free Showtime, then to offer $5 off our bill for three months. Wow. Here's an idea: how about you stop putting fliers in every Sunday newspaper on the planet and use the money you save to create a product that does what you say it will do.

It has become obvious why DTV locks you into a 2-year contract -- who would stay with a service like this? A coworker managed to get out of his 2-year contract, but he had to spend hours and hours on the phone with DTV working his way up the chain of command, and had to document EVERYTHING that was going wrong. (Not sure how you do that unless you have an exec come out to your house and watch TV with you.) My contract is up in less than a year and I hate dealing with customer service, so I'll stick it out till then. But I am definitely switching back to cable with DVR or TiVo. I wouldn't even trust another satellite company after dealing with DTV.

I would STRONGLY recommend that you look elsewhere for other satellite or cable options. I can't recommend any aspect of DTV. To be fair, our main issues have revolved around the DVR (though resetting the box after every thunderstorm or big wind IS a pain, especially in the Midwest). And the man who installed it was very nice. But even so, I feel DTV is misleading in its claims and should in no way be allowed to hold you to a 2-year contract when the service they provide does not live up to the agreement.