Disappointed with HD-DVR

[Bear]

Rtfm

1. No Caller ID. if you have never had it on your tv you are missing something. I new it didn't have but I am working on doing something about it.

Elseed. Look into it.

2. Also I hate the layout of the remote. Who in the world puts the tv power button right about the number one key.

You are coming from the land of the 921, and you are complaining about the remote???!? Very few people in this income bracket/consumption level don't have a need for a good universal remote.

3. There is no stop button for the dvr function with the remote. I know that it comes like that from the factory but I have it where it jumps 30 seconds I like that function better.

Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select

4. I wish it had a search in your guide like other units have were you can still see what you are watching and roll through channels at the top or bottom of your screen.

If you can't see your program through the semi-transparent interface, then you need a better HDTV.

5. The remote is not a universal remote. I have to find my vcr and stereo remote now.

See #2.

6. If you want to rewind you have to go through the whole program do it.

From where to where?

7. The guide is supper supper supper slow.

Covered elsewhere, but the Tivo is a name-based recorder. I use the guide very infrequently.

8. I wish you could just have it autotune to certian channel at a certian time without having to have it record.

Have it clear the space as needed in the season pass.

9. That boinking noise gets on my wifes nerves (Don't guess you can call it a bad thing LOL)

Set-up -> Audio -> Sound Effects

You may want to read a bit more and type less:
here
dbstalk
AVSForum
TivoCommunityForum
groups.yahoo.com/hdtivo
dealdatabase

 

[ds650]

I love my TiVo, but it's true the remote blows, no on screen caller id blows & the slow & pictureless guide blows. I hope the new Direct DVR fixes all these problems. With that said, I still like my TiVo.

Sure a guy could buy an $80 remote, disassemble a brand new TiVo & attempt to make caller id work but why should he have to. Maybe I just expect more but my old RCA receivers really spoiled me. If only they had a hard drive....

Please D*, make your new DVR the best ever.

 

[zman]

Glad I read this. Was about ready to switch to DirecTV and buy an HD PVR. I have a Dish 7200, but now have an HD tv and need to upgrade. Everything I read is about how good the TIVO DVRs are, but this is the first post I have seen where features ( or lack there of) are talked about. Some of these are showstoppers:

"3. There is no stop button for the dvr function with the remote. I know that it comes like that from the factory but I have it where it jumps 30 seconds I like that function better.
4. I wish it had a search in your guide like other units have were you can still see what you are watching and roll through channels at the top or bottom of your screen.
6. If you want to rewind you have to go through the whole program do it. "

Think I have to look harder at Dish's 921 and maybe wait on the 942.
Thanks for the honest post... good info.

 

[riggscm]

Glad I read this. Was about ready to switch to DirecTV and buy an HD PVR. I have a Dish 7200, but now have an HD tv and need to upgrade. Everything I read is about how good the TIVO DVRs are, but this is the first post I have seen where features ( or lack there of) are talked about. Some of these are showstoppers:

"3. There is no stop button for the dvr function with the remote. I know that it comes like that from the factory but I have it where it jumps 30 seconds I like that function better.
4. I wish it had a search in your guide like other units have were you can still see what you are watching and roll through channels at the top or bottom of your screen.
6. If you want to rewind you have to go through the whole program do it. "

Think I have to look harder at Dish's 921 and maybe wait on the 942.
Thanks for the honest post... good info.

While I understand where you are coming from with the differences between the HD Tivo and Echostar's DVR, I think you are forgetting something. That thing is - They are not the same device!

As a 4 year E* subscriber I too became quite familiar with the features that you mention here as "show stoppers". (Well those that I was able to decipher anyway.)
As with any switch there is a bit of a learning curve when switching from one service to another. When I switched from cable to E* there was a learning curve there with that new equipment - the same is true when going from one DBS provider to another.

I would like to take issue with your "show stoppers"
Item 1 (3): What stop button are you referring to? If you want to stop recording something then from the Onscreen Tivo menu you can choose to stop recording. You also seem to be talking about a commercial skip button on E*'s DVR - this exists on Tivo with a code, it is not on by default because of some legal thing.
Item 2 (4):No there is no "window" on the guide screen. But you can hit pause! Once you've found what you are looking for you can go back to watching your TV. You also mention the channel browse bar (This was a hard one for me to get over!) No its not there - not in any way, but I wouldn't call it a show stopper
Item 3 (6): You have totally lost me here. You can rewind at any point and if you want to you can skip right to the end and/or the beginning.


Finally I feel that this thread was a whole "Look how great E* is!" thing. I've seen this a couple times with people saying how great Cable is - playing up the minor limitations (if any) to say how great cable is - seems like the same thing is going on here. Also if the 942 is anywhere near as buggy as the 921, I'll take my Tivo (with its "show stoppers") and be happy with a fully functioning DVR.

 

[dodge4322]

Well first of all I don't think that echo is so grand that is why I am at direct now but I have to say that sure what you said is true but why in the world do you want to hit pause just so you can look through your guide. Now it wouldn't matter much but that feature is on the basic of direct receivers.

The skip button once you enable it to skip 30 seconds will no longer be able to skip from the end to beginning.

As far as the stop button why do you have to go through 3 steps just to watch live tv any basic dvd player vcr and any other dvr for that matter has a stop button.

One more thing some people have said the difference is that direct works and echo doesn't well I beg to differ, I had a 508 for a couple of years and hardly ever had to reset the receiver maybe a couple times a year and just to say this I have had my tivo for 3 weeks and I had to reset one of them today.

I like my tivo but I do think that some of the basic functions that we have discussed should added to receivers capabilities.

 

[bwarning]

I don't follow what you mean with the stop button. If you are watching a recorded show and want to go to live TV there is the live TV button in the far upper right. If you are talking about stopping a recording I would not want it to be a one button push, to easy to be hit accidentally. As for skip to the end with 30 skip enabled ff once then hit skip to end as needed skips to the hash marks, also can be done to go back to beginning just use rewind instead of ff.

 

[Bear]

The stop thing really baffles me, too. What are you trying to stop, exactly, that pause or changing the channel or the buffer doesn't give you?

 

[ds650]

The insanity.

That's one more thing about the Tivo. The 30 minute buffer is too small.

 

[riggscm]

... The 30 minute buffer is too small.

I agree with you there. It was a huge pain in the ass during the super bowl.

Pause - answer the door, greet the guests - Missed 2 plays - FF through the commercials in hopes to avoid the problem - Pause - grab beer & food - missed 2 more plays!

Regardless of its shortcomings, I think it is very safe to say that Tivo is great, nay Amazingly wonderful.

Think about it like this, Tivo was the first big DVR player on the block. Sure replaytv was there, and maybe some others that I don't know about too, but the slang these days is "...Tivo it", even if you don't have a Tivo. So we know who won that battle.

Anyway you cut it Tivo changed the way we watch TV. Tivo's existence made all the content providers sit up and take notice. Tivo is the reason Echostar, Cox, Time Warner, Comcast, and others have made their own DVR. Even as good as some of those DVR's are, they are still always compared to Tivo.

As we all are probably aware D* is now moving to its own brand of DVR, I can only hope its as good as my Tivo's are. It hasn't been all that long that I've known the little guy, but I'll sure miss him when he's gone.

Tivo is great, and yes it could be even better - as with anything. Remember when standard "TP" rolls were fine, then came the double roll, and now there are even triple rolls - my god at this rate I'll have to remodel my wash room if the roll gets much bigger.