Septemberbaby

One of my older Directv Tivo's finally bit the dust.
So, I took the plunge and had Directv send me one of their masterpieces.
At first I was afraid, I heard all the complaints and I thought this was going to be a total disaster. But, I knew that it wouldn't be my main DVR and so how bad could it be? And it's summer so it will give me a few weeks to work out all the kinks. It's been about 3 weeks and so far, so good. There are a couple of things on it that Tivo doesn't have that I actually like, but there are also things that it doesn't have and will miss mainly the Wishlist...but it's not my main DVR so I can live with them.
I am ticked that they sent me, a LONG time subscriber... a 'reconditioned' unit, but again, so far so good.
I do have one question: How do I turn off what we Tivo users call 'suggestions'. Tivo will randomly record shows that it thinks you will like based on your viewing habits.. This unit seems to be doing the same thing and I can't figure out how to stop it. Can any one help?

Spanky BananaPants

I have two DTV DVR's, an r15 (presumably, what you've got), and an HR20 HD DVR. I've never seen either of the DVR's record something I didn't specifically tell them to record.

If it's recording stuff you didn't set it up to record, something ain't right about it. To my knowledge, the DVR's don't record suggestions, as that's probably patented by TiVo. If it's randomly recording, I'd be calling DTV and asking them to send a replacement.

You might want to try posting over at dbstalk.com as well. There's some pretty knowledgeable people there, and they really know their stuff when it comes to the DTV DVR's.

Hope this helps!

Jadzia

That is exactly what I am going through, although I finally upgraded to HD for my living room TV so now I have the HDDVR. I figured I still have my other 2 D*Tivos as a backup and there isn't as much TV on in the summer.

I have had a few problems already. For instance, the other night my recording of Hells Kitchen had no audio, although the D*Tivo recorded it fine.

I have also noticed a problem with scheduling cable shows. I have the network shoews as a higher priority than cable shows since they only air one time a week. So if I have a conflict, I want it to record the network show and then just get the 11pm or 12pm cable repeat of the cable show (such as The Closer or Rescue Me). But it doesn't seem to be automatically scheduling the repeat from that night and maybe schedules a showing later in the week if at all. It is annoying and I am worried about missing shows. The Tivos record these flawlessly.

I have had to go in and manually record the next showing of The Closer and Rescue Me and Lil Bush because the machine wasn't going to pick them up. Anyone else have this problem?

Septemberbaby

Spanky... I was so hoping you wouldn't tell me that!!
I'm going to keep an eye on it and see if it continues to record at random. If it's only once in awhile then it's no biggie... but if it starts doing it and it's eating up a lot of hours.. I'm going to be ticked because switching out DVR's is not a easy task, it's major pain in the ass. Thanks for the info!

Jadzia, I can't say I'm having the same problem because I'm really not recording on it that much.... yet. Talk to me in the fall and I may have a different story.
I don't like when you FF and it doesn't 'jump' back like the Tivo's do... this thing does exactly what a VCR does.. it takes about 10 seconds to figure out that you clicked play and then it stops.. 15-20 seconds beyond the commercial. Then you have to RW to get it right. MPITA!!
I do like the 30 second button that you can press until it reaches 2 min. Which I use a lot because of the crappy FF button as mentioned above.

I was very close taking the HDDVR plunge... but, we need to be talked into it.
The guy at D* told me that he would send me a unit for 199$ (I think that's what he quoted) and I think it's an additional 10$ per month? Is that correct? Will that go up when they go full throttle in the fall? How many channels are you getting right now in HD? How many hours can you record on it? I read somewhere that if you record in HD you will only get 40 hrs or so? Can you tell it not to record in HD?

Jadzia

I believe it is 30 hours HD and 200 hours standard. Right now the only HD channels I get are the locals (except CW), HBO, Showtime, and a few others like Discovery and a some TNT shows. They are supposed to launch a lot more in the fall. A lot of the summer shows I am recording right now are not in HD, and there are two versions of the channels, HD or standard. So you can opt to record your show on a standard channel and watch it non-HD if you want to save space.

I am finding I watch HD shows off the DVR first. Come fall, I think I will need to hook up an external hard drive so I can get everything.

aktick

I just have HD-Tivos, but if you have been a subscriber for a long time like you mentioned, I would bitch until you could get an HD-DVR for free. I essentially did that 2x with my current HD-Tivos - credits to my account and free HD package and HBO. You might have to call a couple times to get a better CSR.

And yeah, I think it's still $10 extra per month for the HD package - which, if you looked at the thread about new HD channels coming this fall, will probably go up.

Septemberbaby

I think I was told that they will not be supporting HD Tivos come fall. I could be wrong about this.. but I think that's what he told me. I think the Tivo part will work, but you will no longer receive the HD signal. If you know different please let me know.. I'm curious.
Yeah, I may do that (call and bitch) when my main Tivo finally kicks off... I'm not ready to ditch Tivo for HD anything just yet.

BDB

The logic behind that is the mpeg-4 versus mpeg-2. although my HD Tivo picks up all the mpeg-4 stations - I think basically you need the 5 lnb dish

Jeremy517

No it doesn't. What channels are you referring to?

griz

This feature has been enabled on the HR20-700 for "Cutting Edge" testers, and will probably make it to a National Release soon.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=90815

Nuff

Here's the scoop, the old HD channels (the ones in the 70s basically) are sent in mpeg-2 which the tivo units can receive. In theory they will still receive those channels as long as they are broadcast. You need a 3lnb dish for these.

The newer HD channels (HD local, all the new ones this fall, etc) are broadcast in mpeg-4 and require the DirecTV brand units to receive. This requires the 5lnb dish. So BadlyDrawnBoy I think you're confusing the mpeg-2 and 4 stations...The only mpeg-4 stations that I am aware of currently are the local channels in HD.