Customer Reviews

Hughes HIRD-E25 "Gold Series" Deluxe DIRECTV Satellite Receiver

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

 

 

This is primarily a review of the Hughes HIRD-E25 receiver, not DIRECTV programming itself. I think it goes without saying that DIRECTV offers a great alternative to cable: crisp signal, lots of pay-per-view choices, and good service, all for a reasonable cost, especially if you go with service on multiple TVs. I highly recommend it over cable, which we switched from after just 6 months in our new house.

We've had satellite television for about a year and a half. Originally, we had one Hughes box (this model - HIRD-E25) in the family room and an RCA box in our bedroom. Well, not only was the RCA screen guide and remote different and less aesthetically pleasing (even though they both served up DIRECTV programming), but the RCA receiver went haywire after less than two months. Various power, reception and remote problems. So, we had it replaced with another Hughes HIRD-E25 and we haven't had one problem with either box. Hughes receivers are known for being top-of-the-line and it has lived up to its reputation.

As far as the screen guide goes, it zips through the menu, although there's a delay in calling up the programming description when you stop on a program. There's also some latency when changing channels (2 seconds), but I'm not a channel surfer so it isn't a material drawback for me. The remote is small enough to fit comfortably in your hand and the buttons have a nice, crisp feel to them when depressed. I also had no problem getting the remote to work with my TV. There's an option that allows you to set up prerecording of particular shows using the screen guide. But I never set it up and now I have a DIRECTV-TiVo combination receiver that has changed my entire viewing habits, making recording programs a simple as tying your shoelaces. Check out TiVo (and my reviews of it) before you sign on as a new DIRECTV customer.

Bottom line - if you're buying a second box, go with Hughes. If you have a choice in a new installation of DIRECTV, see if they'll install Hughes.

Purchased one and couldn't get the Caller ID feature to work. Called Hughes support at 1-800-454-2013 and was told that it was a know problem but they had a corporate policy directing them to not issue RMA's for this problem.

Otherwise, the RF remote is real nice and the receiver does work better than my older model.

I spent 4 hours on the phone with Hughes trying to get them to stop blocking incoming traffic.

Its all out of India. Its all with the dumbest people. They don't know what
RDP/Remote Desktop is. They can't comprehend "open port 3389", they don't let me
access the modem because its "security". The whole experience was just horrible.

It turned out, in the end, they gave me the wrong static IP number but the
whole experience was frustrating. They don't know a VPN from Remote Desktop
from a Web Server. The whole method is to deny that they support any
kind of incoming traffic. They are the most frustrating people to deal with.
The guy in billing doesn't want to give you support because you're
trying remote access and each person makes you repeat 100% of the
information again even though they give you a reference number, that
reference is for that one person for that one call.

Its horrible.