robricc carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
Quote: I'd be curious to see what you think of the non-Tivo boxes...
I've been playing with the DirecTV HR20-700 all day now and it seems to be decent. The UI and channel changing are extremely quick. It's a great deal quicker than the SD DirecTiVos with 6.2 and even the Samsung SIR-TS160 it replaced. Here's the pros and cons so far:
Pro:
Very fast
Guide is well laid-out and graphics are crisp
Mini-guide (viewing one 1 channel's line-up while taking up very little screen real estate)
Ability to view a single channel's programming while using the entire screen (can see about 5 future programs on each page). This is similar to the Tivo Live Guide, but seems more useful.
Software updates come over the satellite (like other non-Tivo boxes). Within the first 10 minutes of activating the receiver, it grabbed the latest software.
Hasn't screwed up on me yet. DirecTV doesn't appear to consider it a beta product, but it's still not widely available and software updates are being released very frequently.
Hard drive upgrades are as easy as dropping in a new drive. It will automatically format upon boot (I think UltimateTV worked like that)
30-second fast forward. It's not a 30 skip, but it will fast forward for as many 30-second segments as you would like.
Can switch output resolutions to match the native resolution of the program playing. I don't use this since my TV (rear projection CRT) doesn't accept 720p, only 1080i.
The remote is very solid, heavy, and has a rubberized bottom part. I have a Harmony 880, but if I had to use the supplied remote, it seems very nice.
Cons:
It's not a Tivo
It will take a while to master the UI
No HMO-type ability yet
No skip-to-tick
No skip-to-end (or I can't figure it out)
No dual buffers (rumored to be coming)
No OTA (this will be coming in October supposedly)
Guide data not stored on the hard drive!!!!!!!! This is moronic for a DVR. If you lose power, your guide data will have to rebuild from scratch. If a series link (season pass) program is playing, and there's no guide data yet, the program won't be recorded (obviously).
Gaudy. There are at least 17 blue LEDs on the face of this thing.
Most of the cons will hopefully be fixed in software. Overall, I think it's a solid product. There's no question it was rushed, but at least the basic functionality seems to be working. It's a shame it's not running Tivo software, but I think it could be a lot worse.
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