HR20 any better?

[TomC]

Based on early reports, the HR20 was bad news.

Now I see it is being carried by WeaKnees. Does that mean that DirecTV has got their act together and that the HR20 is now ready for prime time?


Tom

[TheDurk]

Yeah, it is.

I am not from WK, but I got my HR20 in March. Installation was a disaster. I had done my own Dish (1996) and DirectTV SD (2002) and no tech had ever been to my house. This installation took ten appointments, half of them missed. Company is AllStar in NJ, if you get them, tell Direct TV you want somebody else!

That said, it is improving. My last missed recording was probably in May. (It actually thinks it records them, it's just that there is nothing there). The interface is clunky, and functions like FF, RW and skip to tick are iffy. It's like driving a boat at slow speed, compared to the sports car of my SD Tivos. However, it kept me off cable--I hate Dolan--and it works. New releases are continuous--and most of the time they improve things. Check out www.dbstalk.com if you want really detailed info. I consider the machine acceptable (barely) but needs improvement on playback response, in particular.

[WK-Michael]

We do think it's getting better - and, for better or worse, if you want the new channels that DTV keeps promising, it's what you'll need to get eventually.

But it's certainly no TiVo . . .

[MiteMOm]

Did they fix the duel buffer issue in the HR20?

We always watch 2 live shows at the same time on our TIVO, alternating back and forth when each one reaches a commercial. Can this be done yet without recording the other show?

The new HD channels aren't enough to get me to switch until this issue is solved.

[WK-Jason]

"Fix" would imply that something's broken. But since they designed it with that limitation, I'd say "upgrade" is a better term to use. But in either case, sadly the answer is no. I wish they would enable that feature though. A dozen people a day ask me for it!