DIRECTV Plus DWO2-10021 HD DVR (Lease)

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!

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.

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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.

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I have used Directtv for over 10 years and have been satisfied for the most part. But with this new HR-20 HD DVR Receiver, I find that I have a piece of JUNK. I am on my third receiver and I still have the same problems of LOCK UP and have to push the red button. This causes a complete reboot and then have to wait for all the programming to download again. JUNK!

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I have had no picture problems... but a buggy, buggy, incomplete piece of equipment so far:

freezing with the FWD/RWD/Pause while switching back and forth from the 2nd tuner to a recording program on the first tuner

Unit needs regular reboots (weekly, I'm thinking) to function at its best (which is still flaky)

I am definitely experiencing a "cutting in-and-out" of digital sound on (some) recorded HD programs (like the Orange Bowl recorded earlier tonight)

I've come back to my 'List' to watch an HD recording of an NFL game that NEVER would display to the screen... 3.5 hours of HD recording... all black screen (used 9% of the drive, so was using HD-type disk space)

"Pluses":

setup menu and product manual encourages me to think that connection to the unit from home network possible/easy

the Disk Space bar with '% full' didn't exist on my prior Series 2 TiVo (also through DirecTV) but I would have rated that (non-HD) box manufactured by Hughes at least 4 stars

Maybe firmware upgrades will make this non-BETA in the not-to-distant future and provide (promised) support for recording off-air local HD programming, not from the satellite, to the DVR... but I won't be holding my breath (this hope for firmware upgrades is the only reason for 2 stars over 1 stars).

NOTE: This is not TiVo like some of the older/prior non-DirecTV brand units available in past years (Series 2 TiVos)... losing TiVo ratings/suggestions/functionality does suck.

Frustrated and stuck with the only provider of the NFL Sunday Ticket... there is NO other reason I'm still with DirecTV (even though I have little/no complaints with customer service I've received from them).

2007-01-02

Update #1 (definitely upgraded to (at least) 3 stars):

There are a number of firmware upgrades that have been showing up on this DVR Plus in the past month... most importantly to me are stability enhancements and the ATSC tuners were activated (ability to record over-the-air HD programming via an HD antennae). The over-the-air channels (i.e., 3-1, 3-2) integrate right into to the Guide very nicely... HD PBS DVR recordings! Woo-hoo!!

To track these firmware upgrades I'd like to point out a great forum which discusses each update and when they have been made available to the techie geeks (forcible downloading firmware updates) as well as to the everyman via nation-wide, automatic downloading and installation of these updates. Amazon discourages links... but there is an incredibly helpful dot-com forum called dbstalk, with a forum specifically about the HR20 (#112):

DirecTV(tm) HR20 Q&A

And another about DirecTV software updates (#110) that is currently HEAVY with information about HR20 software updates:

DirecTV(tm) Software Release Notes Forum

2007-01-12