Comments on: DirecTiVo versus DirecTV HR20 HD-DVR

By: Classified

Classified — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:51:47 +0000

I till can not move to the dark side, I love my DirecTV Tivo. My big scare is if it dies what do I do to get it replaced???

By: Douglas Goodall

Douglas Goodall — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:55:20 +0000

I finally upgraded my HR20 storage by purchasing a 1TB WD sata drive and installing it into an external drive case which came with an esata cable for about $75.00. After I attached the 1TB storage solution, I was never able to exceed about 20% of the available storage for the few shows I like to grab. Its a great upgrade

By: Slim

Slim — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:18:03 +0000

I just received mine yesterday. HR20 that is. Been Tivo for many years. Its definately gonna take a while to get used to. But all in all I think the benifits of having it will allow me to "deal" with the shortcomes.

Some of the things I really like:

1. No phone line, plug in the lan cable and you communicate to directv thru internet.

2. All the new HD channels are nice.

3. When you plug in the lan cable the on demand is an awsome feature. Seems like IPTV to me.

4. OTA antenna is a great feature.

I guess I will get used to it soon enough

By: DirecTV HD-DVR Update | NSLog();

DirecTV HD-DVR Update | NSLog(); — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:33:34 +0000

[...] in December of 2006 I wrote a little entry comparing the DirecTV DVR to the TiVo. The DirecTV HD-DVR (the "HR20" as I'll call it from now on) has improved dramatically since then. [...]

By: Erik J. Barzeski

Erik J. Barzeski — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:24:37 +0000

John said on November 17, 2007:

You say there are work-arounds, but they're hardly as elegant as the TiVo way. I would like to know what they are.

I don't think a "work-around" is ever elegant - or else it wouldn't be called a "work-around."

I don't find myself watching nearly as much live TV these days as I did with the TiVo. I have a family and, except for sports (when I usually care only about one game), I just wait to watch things later.

So, the whole "dual buffer" thing is much less important to me now than it used to be.

As for what the work-arounds are, I suggest you visit the appropriate forum at dbstalk.com.

By: John

John — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:09:41 +0000

Much like a few other people I just got the Direct TV HD DVR and had a TiVo unit with two active buffers and offers no way to "switch" between the tuners to pause one channel, switched to another, watched it to commercial break, paused, and switched back. It allowed me to watch two live programs without having to deal with recording each.

You say there are work-arounds, but they're hardly as elegant as the TiVo way. I would like to know what they are.

By: Marc Cabrera

Marc Cabrera — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:46:56 +0000

I too would like to know about the work arounds for the 2 tuner live buffers, we just received our 3rd Directv DVR from DTV (because one of our DTV Tivos wasn't working right), but after hooking it up we learned that there wasn't a live buffer for the second tuner. I was so disappointed that I really wanted to throw the thing away. The ONLY advantage that I can see over the Tivo is that you're capable of recording of a program that you wouldn't have been able to with TIVO i.e. you haven't changed the channel, a funny story comes on a talk show, so you hit record, but according to the program guide a soap opera had already started (at the time you hit the record button) so it jumps ahead and maybe records 3 to 7 minutes of the previous program, but doesn't get the part that you wanted. With the Direct TV DVR you can record whatever is in the buffer regardless of what the program guide says.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:33:07 +0000

No - no mod needed! The HR20 has a eSATA connector on the back of the unit. Just plug an eSATA drive into it and it works! Really nice, undocumented feature... So here's the deal with that:

1. HR20 will only use the internal drive OR an external drive, but it won't use both (you can't "add" the external drive space to the internal).

2. I found out the internal drive is 300GB. So it really only makes sense to do this if you can use a 750GB drive or larger.

3. Steps to connect the drive: disconnect power to HR20 - plug in and power up external drive - plug eSATA cable from external drive to HR20 - reconnect power to HR20 and power up. The first time will take a bit longer since it has to reformat the external drive, but it works very well (at least it does for me) and provides you with TONS more recording space...

Good luck!

eddie

By: ron

ron — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:41:19 +0000

you say when i connected 750gb drive, to what reciever? is there a mod for the hr20? thanks. nobody likes change but we all adapt. its give and take.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:14:39 +0000

Doug,

The internal drive is not a 750GB drive. I don't know what it is (I assume it's a 250GB drive), but I can tell you that when I connected an external 750GB drive my space increased about 3x. After doing some quick calculations based on the amount of HD content recorded and the percentage it was reporting was still available, I believe the HR20 records about 9 minutes per GB. If that's true, then the internal drive can hold about 37 hours of HD, and the 750GB drive can hold about 112 hours. I spent all day yesterday watching football games, jumping around, skipping ahead and back, and experienced NO problems with the new drive. It kept up fine and never once gave me any trouble. Football is the main reason I decided to use the external drive - 3-4 hours per game, with many games per week being recorded loads up that internal drive pretty quick...

As far as I know and have read online, the USB port does nothing and I don't think there have been any plans for it announced.