DIRECTV Grants Endless Wishes

[Scott Greczkowski]

[h=2]DIRECTV Grants Endless Wishes with the Industry's Most Advanced HD DVR[/h]


The New DIRECTV Genie™ Records Five Shows at Once, Eliminates Need for Receivers in Every Room, Automatically Recommends Shows Matching Viewers' Tastes and
So Much MoreEL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DIRECTV is granting TV viewers their ultimate wish - the industry's most advanced and intuitive HD DVR, the new DIRECTV Genie™ - enabling a whole new suite of magical TV viewing capabilities.

The DIRECTV Genie delivers an innovative set of features that include the ability to record five shows in HD at one time; up to three times more HD recording capacity than cable HD DVRs; a full HD DVR experience on every TV in the home without seeing a box in each and every room; and a new opt-in feature that will automatically recommend shows based on the viewer's taste.
DIRECTV Genie™ is now the entertainment hub for the entire home and shares content seamlessly with additional TVs that are connected to small DIRECTV clients or other connected devices (such as
RVU-enabled TVs, gaming consoles and Blu-ray players) from a single HD DVR.


"We simply asked consumers what they wished for in the perfect television experience and then set out to develop as many of those features as possible in our new flagship HD DVR. Given all that Genie can do, we expect our customers to be extremely impressed with this next generation experience," said
Romulo Pontual, executive vice president and CTO of DIRECTV. "Gone are the days of scheduling conflicts, channel surfing, messy wires and boxes, missed shows and family fights over the remote. DIRECTV Genie's massive hard drive, five tuners and its sophisticated, intuitive search and discovery functionality creates a simple and magical television experience without the need for receivers in every room."
Benefits and features of the DIRECTV Genie™ include:

• Five Tuners
  • Record five programs at the same time with one Genie HD DVR.
• Full HD DVR Functionality - in every connected room
  • Pause and rewind live TV in every room
  • Record and delete shows in every room
  • Watch the same recorded show on multiple TV's simultaneously (up to four at a time)
  • View and record DIRECTV On Demand programs in every room
• Genie[SUP]TM[/SUP] Recommends
  • DIRECTV customers can opt-in and have their DIRECTV Genie recommend and store new shows that match their TV preferences
• RVU Technology
  • One receiver serves the entire home, so DVR service can be enjoyed on every TV, without the need for a DVR at each TV
  • Connect up to eight RVU-enabled TVs to a single Genie
• Advanced Search
  • Search and schedule recordings up to two weeks in advance
• Picture-in-picture
• Double play
  • Watch, pause, rewind, fast-forward on two channels at the same time
• Start Over
  • Start programs at the beginning if you tune in late
• Past Episodes
  • Catch up on past episodes, as far back as five weeks
• DIRECTV TV Apps
  • Access DIRECTV TV Apps on the Genie including Pandora, ScoreGuide, Facebook, Twitter and other general apps such as news, sports and weather
• One terabyte of storage
  • Store up to 200 hours of HD programming
  • With 800 hours of SD storage, you can record more than 1,500 shows

Beginning today, new qualified customers can get a free upgrade to Genie, as well as connect up to four rooms. In addition, new customers who order the CHOICE™ Package and above will get 2012 NFL SUNDAY TICKET included at no extra charge and three free months of premium channels. For more information on DIRECTV Genie™, please visit DIRECTV.com/Genie.

 

[mdram]

i have the same issues with these clients i have with the joeys, they use a tuner from the main unit, i do not like that

 

[aaronwt6]

Sounds like a pretty nice setup. I'm surprised they didn't go with a 2TB drive though to match the Hopper. Of course they have it beat in other aspects.

 

[mdram]

Sounds like a pretty nice setup. I'm surprised they didn't go with a 2TB drive though to match the Hopper. Of course they have it beat in other aspects.

its not about the total drive size, but what they give users access too, remember the hopper has the ptat area you cant touch. thats 3 hours a night on 4 channels for 8 days, or 96 hours of hd

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

its not about the total drive size, but what they give users access too, remember the hopper has the ptat area you cant touch. thats 3 hours a night on 4 channels for 8 days, or 96 hours of hd

Thats not true at all. Prime Time Anytime is now stored in the user partition.

 

[aaronwt6]

Well, I can certainly say that the Hopper can hold much more than the 'up to' 200 hours of HD they have listed above on the user partition. We have well over 100 hours on ours right now and the usage is at 28%.

 

[mdram]

Thats not true at all. Prime Time Anytime is now stored in the user partition.

my mistake i missed when it was moved

 

[jgags6]

Im excited about getting my Genie!

 

[Ganthet]

Looks like a pretty slick setup. I'm interested as to how they execute the previous episodes features. I also notice that you can connect up to 8 RVU boxes/TV's. Looks like DirecTV is also OK with overextending the TV/Tuner ration like the Joey.

Looking at the Genie Promo site I see how they're already demonstrating the feature Genie does that Hopper/Cable can't. I personally think the claim of that it "eliminates inconvenient boxes" to be a bit of a stretch. That assumes all TV's are RVU enabled. Otherwise you need one of the inconvenient RVU clients, right?

Overall it seems to be a great whole-house solution and certainly on the same level as the Hopper to allow an apples-to-apple comparison. I'm sure the War Zone will be quite busy with debate.

 

[mdram]

existing customers still getting the shaft. its still 299

 

[ashutto20]

how does this compare and contrast w the hopper???

 

[mdram]

5 tuners 24/7

 

[Ramy]

Do you still have to pay for each connected device even though you already have the RVU device yourself?

 

[digiblur]

i have the same issues with these clients i have with the joeys, they use a tuner from the main unit, i do not like that

Yep! So glad I have a setup with H25's instead of the dumb little C31 boxes. H25's gives the best of both worlds for our household. The sharing tuner garbage is one of the main reasons I didn't get the hopper system. I'm spoiled with the 5 tuners and like to record 5 things at a time without having to battle people in the house. I don't want it recording later that night, want it recording then as I may want to watch it in 30-60 minutes. It's been very nice having the 5 tuners not shared the kids have their own tuners to watch live tv on. Not once I have heard the wife or the kids ask if they an skip a show or have a show skipped without being asked. That was a daily occurrence with Dish and drove me insane. The non-shared tuners with 5 for recording is nice, and its the way it should be for what is paid every month. If that kid told me he was going to install a 5 tuner with dumb clients in the other rooms I would have told him to get to stepping unless he was coming off half price for the downgrade.

 

[Mr Tony]

I'm spoiled with the 5 tuners and like to record 5 things at a time without having to battle people in the house.

heck I battle myself in the house with the 5 tuners sometimes. Tomorrow I have like 8 things at one time I want to record...guess the race, the college football and hockey games get priority and the series stuff gets shifted to late night

 

[wallyhts]

Wonder why they went only with a 1TB drive and not the 2TB like the hopper?

 

[ZandarKoad]

Can you add an external hard drive? If yes, does it add to or replace the existing hard drive space?

 

[vegassatellite]

*Limit three remote viewings per Genie HD DVR (model HR34 Advanced Whole-Home DVR) at a time. Remote viewing requires a model C31Client, H25 HD Receiver(s) or RVU-enabled TV/device in each additional room, a SWiM network and Advanced Receiver Service ($20/mo.) To access HD programming, HD television equipment also required.

 

[Mr Tony]

Can you add an external hard drive? If yes, does it add to or replace the existing hard drive space?

yes you can add one
replaces the existing internal drive
folks have used 3 TB drives recently
programming on drive stays with receiver. If receiver dies, you lose stuff on hard drive

 

[wallyhts]

Can you add an external hard drive? If yes, does it add to or replace the existing hard drive space?

Replace. Which makes no sense.