DirecTV R-15 DVR

[Alan Gordon]

Herdfan has posted over at DBSForums.com a link to the manual for DirecTV's upcoming NDS SD-DVR, the R-15.

Though it is only for SD, it will be MPEG-4 compatible.

Here is the link: R-15 Manual

~Alan

 

[charper1]

Not sure if the R15 was mentioned specifically but I think they are all getting the same info from this thread that was posted:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=75218

 

[Alan Gordon]

Not sure if the R15 was mentioned specifically but I think they are all getting the same info from this thread that was posted:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=75218

WHOOPS!! I only scanned through that thread... briefly. I did go through it, and didn't see this manual posted specifically though.

~Alan

 

[billbillw]

Herdfan has posted over at DBSForums.com a link to the manual for DirecTV's upcoming NDS SD-DVR, the R-15.

Though it is only for SD, it will be MPEG-4 compatible.

Here is the link: R-15 Manual

~Alan

I see nothing to suggest this will be MPEG4 compatible. There is no mention in the manual and since SD will remain in MPEG2 so there is no reason to make an SD box MPEG4 compatible anyway.

 

[Alan Gordon]

I see nothing to suggest this will be MPEG4 compatible. There is no mention in the manual and since SD will remain in MPEG2 so there is no reason to make an SD box MPEG4 compatible anyway.

That did not come from the manual, that came from Dan Collins.

As far as why they did made an SD-only box MPEG4... that's the question?!

Could new SD-LIL markets like those from Alaska and Hawaii be broadcast in MPEG4?! Could DirecTV be converting ALL of their channels to MPEG4 like Dish Network is doing?! Could DirecTV be doing this to get rid of TiVo?! Could DirecTV simply be future proofing itself for the time in the future when DirecTV will need to convert to all MPEG-4?!

Time will tell...

~Alan

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

I have not heard that the R-15 would be MPEG-4 compatible and I doubt it will be. DIRECTV is not planning to use MPEG-4 for any SD broadcasting, only HD and even that will take several years to complete.

We should start seeing a small soft launce of R-15's by next month.

-Robert

 

[scooby2]

Nifty, looks like it uses the D10 remote and code base. Hopefully the HD version is the same way.

 

[kbohip]

Some nice features, some better than current Directivo's are:

4 hour live buffer!!!

100 hour recording capability (though I doubt the hard drive will be upgradeable like TiVo.

Remaining disk space indicator!!! Why TiVo never did this I'll never know

Date and Time option: Gives you the option to look several days ahead in the guide without having to go page by page.

Caller ID!

These are all the major changes I can see from the Directivo. The pictures in the manual of the GUI look good. Far better than Dish Network's Fisher-Price style. It looks very TiVo like, even keeping the terms "Playlist" and "To Do List".

 

[charper1]

It has become more of a ReplayTV clone.. I never will understand the limited buffer sizes, ReplayTV offers endless live buffer and is the caller ID on a separate video section? or will it be in your recordings?.

 

[Newshawk]

Some nice features, some better than current Directivo's are:

Date and Time option: Gives you the option to look several days ahead in the guide without having to go page by page.

D* TiVo based DVRs have this feature, too. While in guide, press the info button to get to the guide options menu. You can change the date and time from here.

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

Also the language can be set to English or Spanish. ViewMarks will make it fast and easy return to a selected place. And most importantly are the Interactive features, like the MIX channels and the football interactive features are very cool.

As I understand the price will be $99 with a $100 DIRECTV mail-in rebate for new and existing customers (One $100 rebate per household).

I believe we will all love this DVR. Think we should start a forum pre-order list?

-Robert

 

[Alan Gordon]

I have not heard that the R-15 would be MPEG-4 compatible and I doubt it will be. DIRECTV is not planning to use MPEG-4 for any SD broadcasting, only HD and even that will take several years to complete.

Personally, I'm not completely sure they won't try SOME MPEG-4 SD... perhaps maybe the PPV movies that the recent article mentioned might be encoded in MPEG4 to the R15 hard drive. Anyway, I guess we will see...

~Alan

 

[Alan Gordon]

I believe we will all love this DVR. Think we should start a forum pre-order list?

I personally find it very underwhelming myself. While it certainly seems better than some DVRs, I'm just hoping that the HMC will be an improvement over this.

Not to mention that unless you care about Interactive services, the main thing this unit had going for it was the rumor that it would have no service fee connected to it, and that has since been proven untrue.

~Alan

 

[sateck01]

did you guys notice something missing from the r-15 manual?

i got out all my old manuals, sony, rca, hughes, samsung etc. they all have a last page that lists specifications, video decoder (mpeg-2 iso/iec 13818) and audio decoder (mpeg 1 layer II@ 48 Khz. )

why is this page not in the r-15 manual???

just a thought.

 

[Alan Gordon]

why is this page not in the r-15 manual???

I looked up the H10 manual on DirecTV.com, and noticed that it did not have it either. DirecTV probably stopped putting that information in the manuals whenever they started branding their receivers.

~Alan

 

[kbohip]

Also the language can be set to English or Spanish. ViewMarks will make it fast and easy return to a selected place. And most importantly are the Interactive features, like the MIX channels and the football interactive features are very cool.

As I understand the price will be $99 with a $100 DIRECTV mail-in rebate for new and existing customers (One $100 rebate per household).

I believe we will all love this DVR. Think we should start a forum pre-order list?

-Robert

It's amazing to me how much better D* treats their existing customers than how E* does. When I was an E* customer, I wanted to get one of their new dual tuner 522 DVR's when they first came out. I called E* up and asked if I could upgrade from my current 510 single tuner to the 522. They said no way, the 522's were only for new subs. I ended up buying one off Ebay for $160.

E* is now finally letting their current subs upgrade to the 522's, for a price of $150. Now if they could just get their DVR's to work everything would be great. Lol, in the last two months since I ditched E* and got Directivo, the 522 has been through 3 software updates. None of them have fixed the problems I had with it.

Sorry for going off topic, but that's what happens when I start talking about E*.

 

[cr0mag]

Hmmph... I was just getting ready this week to add another DVR to the house. Should I wait? Is there any benefit to buying a tivo style DVR now?

confused...

 

[charper1]

Right now tivo only gives you big name recognition.

 

[Alan Gordon]

Hmmph... I was just getting ready this week to add another DVR to the house. Should I wait? Is there any benefit to buying a tivo style DVR now?

TiVo gives you WishLists, something that I'd hate to lose... among the fact that most people know how well the TiVo works, but no one knows how well the R15 will work.

Plus, if you don't subscribe to Total Choice Premium, already have a TiVo and pay a TiVo fee, odds are that if you get an R15, you'll have to pay the DirecTV Plus fee, where if you'd buy another TiVo, like the R10, you won't have an additional DVR fee.

~Alan

 

[cr0mag]

TiVo gives you WishLists, something that I'd hate to lose... among the fact that most people know how well the TiVo works, but no one knows how well the R15 will work.

Plus, if you don't subscribe to Total Choice Premium, already have a TiVo and pay a TiVo fee, odds are that if you get an R15, you'll have to pay the DirecTV Plus fee, where if you'd buy another TiVo, like the R10, you won't have an additional DVR fee.

~Alan

I had pretty much made my mind up already, but I never thought about different DVR fees... I'd hate to see them stick that to us, especially once the tivo boxes are no longer available for purchase. Looks like I'll be heading out this week to pick the box up.
Thanks for the input guys.