DirecTV - Tivo DVR

[ko03581]

Noticed DirecTv is marketing their DVR without reference to TIVO.  Do I have reasons to be concerned with my DirecTV w/TIVO receiver?  

Can that receiver work as a generic DVR using a Dish Network or OTA feed?

Thanks in advance,

Tim

[murdoc]

The new D* DVR will only work with D*.  D* and Tivo have parted ways and D* is releasing their own DVR with their own lame software.  I may jump ship from D* if someone else picks up TIVO.  There are alot of complaints on the new D* DVR software on tivocommunity.com.

[mrmike]

Noticed DirecTv is marketing their DVR without reference to TIVO.  Do I have reasons to be concerned with my DirecTV w/TIVO receiver?

It will likely continue to work for some time.  Once the newer DVR is well entrenched you might see them drop support but they almost always have a migration plan when they do that sort of thing.

Can that receiver work as a generic DVR using a Dish Network or OTA feed?

Sadly, no.  The D*w/TiVo boxen are D* only and do not have MPEG encoders for generic use or tuners capable of decoding Dish transmissions.

-MM

[sp44again]

There are alot of complaints on the new D* DVR software on tivocommunity.com.

So you are saying Tivo was perfect out of the box? It has some flaws but it also has some positives. 90 minute buffer is awesome. Tells how much space is left. I like the interactive features like weather.

[Tom Snyder]

So the new D* DVR Mpeg4 unit that will be out next year for HD locals won't have Tivo?

[Stanley Kritzik]

So the new D* DVR Mpeg4 unit that will be out next year for HD locals won't have Tivo?

It may be more accurate to say that it won't BE Tivo.  The question is: will it have Tivo-like capabilities?  Or, will THEY have Tivo-like capabilities, since there will be multiple units to choose from -- one being a so-called media center for multiple receivers.  My personal, but uninformed opinion is that they will have to have facilities functionally equivalent to Tivo -- recording, scheduling, storing, with pause, fast forward, skip, etc.  Present owners of Tivo devices, who happen to be D*s leading edge customers simply won't accept a non-Tivo equivalent solution.  I assume D* knows this, and when they decided to go forward without Tivo, they had a solution in hand.

Speaking personally, it is amazing how fast the Tivo way has grown on our household (having it for about a year), and if D* wants me to go forward with them, there better be a good-sized hard drive plus some great software and functions in the new boxes.

SK

[Steve Mann]

...My personal, but uninformed opinion is that they will have to have facilities functionally equivalent to Tivo -- recording, scheduling, storing, with pause, fast forward, skip, etc.  

Pretty much all DVRs have those features. The TiVo features that will be missed will be all the search capabilities such as Wishlists. Finding a show by genre or actor or director. Those and others are what set Tivo apart. Plus, the simple user interface.

[sp44again]

here is the manual for the D* DVR, check what it has

Link

[Stanley Kritzik]

Pretty much all DVRs have those features. The TiVo features that will be missed will be all the search capabilities such as Wishlists. Finding a show by genre or actor or director. Those and others are what set Tivo apart. Plus, the simple user interface.

The HR10-250 has just about everything good.  The bad items, in my opinion, are:

limited storage for HD programs (30 hours, unhacked)

poor time/date navigation from the menu (going forward only 1/2 hour at a time, with no skip or "go to" facilities

sometimes a forever wait (10 to 30 seconds, or more) when a "record" instruction is given

dvd create capability limited to 480i

New equipment with faster processors and bigger disk drives can do it.  The question is whether they have licensed Tivo's patented features, or whether they think they can "engineer" around those items.  It makes little sense to come out with an inferior product, when they're investing a gazillion dollars in new stuff -- including, by the way, a satellite launch scheduled for this evening.

SK

[murdoc]

poor time/date navigation from the menu (going forward only 1/2 hour at a time, with no skip or "go to" facilities

Are you talking about a 30 second skip function?  It was "hidden" out of the box.  If you are watching a recorded program (or just rewind a few minutes), you can press SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-3-0-SELECT.  Your Tivo should bong 3 times if you did it right.  Now your go-to button will be a 30 second skip instead of jumping to the end of a program.  It your are fast-forwarding, you can still press this to jump to the next tick mark.

dvd create capability limited to 480i

It has to be limited to this.  DVD players can't recoginize anything higher than 480i.  If you have an upconvert DVD player like I do, the player uses some smoke and mirrors to give the appearance of HD DVD's.  It is a noticable difference from my old progressive scan DVD player.

[murdoc]

So you are saying Tivo was perfect out of the box? It has some flaws but it also has some positives. 90 minute buffer is awesome. Tells how much space is left. I like the interactive features like weather.

By no means did I say this.  I will say the interactive weather and the storage info would be nice on the Tivo.  90 minute buffer is better than 30 minutes, but I don't see the need for that long of a buffer.

The remote that comes with the D* DVR seems ackward from the pictures.  How do you feel it campares to the peanut remote?  Also has D* sped up the guide on this DVR?  The HR10-250 is painstakingly slow in "DirectTV guide" but speeds up if you select "List guide".  It would be nice to have a faster D* guide.  Now that D* has dumped Tivo, I would not expect any more software updates to fix this issue.  

[sp44again]

The remote is taking time to get use to, been using the peanut for so long. Might just program the universal. Guide is quicker. Definitely better than the HR10-250. One thing I like is the updates they have sent down already. One thing with Tivo and D* is the updates were just about nil. Now they have sent two already. I'm all for it if it makes it better. One thing they have to work on is FFW. Definitely not like Tivo.

[Stanley Kritzik]

Are you talking about a 30 second skip function?  It was "hidden" out of the box.  If you are watching a recorded program (or just rewind a few minutes), you can press SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-3-0-SELECT.  Your Tivo should bong 3 times if you did it right.  Now your go-to button will be a 30 second skip instead of jumping to the end of a program.  It your are fast-forwarding, you can still press this to jump to the next tick mark.






It has to be limited to this.  DVD players can't recoginize anything higher than 480i.  If you have an upconvert DVD player like I do, the player uses some smoke and mirrors to give the appearance of HD DVD's.  It is a noticable difference from my old progressive scan DVD player.

For skip, I was referring to skipping thru the menu, which goes 1/2 hour per click.  So, to get to Sunday via the menu, for example, is tough.  A "go to" menu function would be nice.  Also, the 30 second skip is great, but it has to be re-entered if Tivo has a power failure.

As for DVD, I'm thinking ahead to HD-DVD and Blu Ray.  Will D*'s new box record an HD program as HD -- assuming the recorder is up to it, so you can back up programs from the hard drive, or will there be some equivalent archiving capability, such as a PC's hard drive, so older stuff can be stored away, but brought back when needed?

SK

[murdoc]

For skip, I was referring to skipping thru the menu, which goes 1/2 hour per click.  So, to get to Sunday via the menu, for example, is tough.  A "go to" menu function would be nice.

If you press the INFO button while surfing the guide, you can jump to any day/time you wish.

[Stanley Kritzik]

If you press the INFO button while surfing the guide, you can jump to any day/time you wish.

You learn something new every day -- and thanks.  That kind of navigation is a help.  If I could have it all, I'd also like an alternate high-speed skip; say, 4 or 6 hours at a time.

SK