What Should This DirecTV User Do?
Just today I received the following email. Since I’m not a DirecTV user I thought it would be a good idea for me to post the question here in order to see what other people who have DirecTV think.
I am writing with what may be an easy question to answer, but I am not current on my Tivo knowledge. I know that you do not run a “Q&A” service, but I’ve seen your blog, and I thought you might be able to point me in the right direction.
A few years ago, I got Tivo and DirecTV for the first time. I got one Sony SAT-T60 DIRECTV Satellite receiver (35 hour TiVo) for the living room, plus I got non-Tivo Hughes receivers for the other rooms. My wife and I fell in love with Tivo. We love it. But we never upgraded or anything. Aside from having not enough storage capacity, we loved our Sony T60 and thought it worked seamlessly with DirecTV.
Fast-forward to today. My wife says she wants one and only one thing for her birthday: Tivo in the bedroom, to go along with the Tivo in the living room. So I call DirecTV and ask. They are sly. They do not immediately tell me that what they are selling me their own dvr, not Tivo, but I ask them directly and finally they admit it. But they also tell me their dvr “works just like Tivo.”
They install it.
Two weeks later, my wife and I are so disappointed in the product. It basically has many of the same functions as Tivo, but it is so user-unfriendly. We hate it.
So what are our options? We really think the way to go is a unified Tivo/satellite receiver, but it seems that no one makes them anymore (we assume because DirecTV is the 800-pound gorilla that caused this). We understand that DirecTV still supports old Tivo machines, like our living room one, but that we are not permitted to hook up a new one.
Should I ditch DirecTV? Should I buy a used DirecTV/Tivo machine and try to get DirecTV to provide service (somehow I doubt that would work)? Please point me in the right direction.
Mike
May 4th, 2006 at 2:39 pm |
I had two S1SAs connected to my digital cable boxes before moving 4 years ago. The new house wasn’t well served by the local cable company, so I chose DirecTV. Since I had the SA units, I just got two sat receivers and feed the TiVos with s-video/analog audio.
I’ve since gotten a third TiVo (S2SA) and a third sat receiver to feed it.
I’m able to stay out of the whole DirecTV vs. TiVo issue, keep the TiVo interface my family knows and loves and get the programming of DTV.
Since I’ve never had TiVo via a DirecTV receiver, I never had dual-tuner (but I have multiple units, so no issue), I can’t record the compressed stream then decompress when playing (but I’ve added hard drives, so no capacity issue) and I’ve always used TiVo’s program guide (not DirecTV’s, so no issue).
My advice:
Get two sat receivers and two Series2 Stand Alone units, feed the S2SAs with the receivers, connect them to your broadband LAN (assuming you have one - if not, network them together direcly) and enable multiroom viewing.
May 4th, 2006 at 3:09 pm |
The folks over at weaknees offer the DirecTV TiVo receivers that DirecTV themselves no longer provide. You should check with them for their recent experiences, but I gather if you have the unit, DirecTV will let you use it. Certainly you should feel free to return the one they convinced you to try, telling them it does not live up to their claims.
May 4th, 2006 at 3:29 pm |
Ugh, they do make it hard. I bought one off eBay (a Hughes 40-hour that I’d read was the best?) and hooked it up, but when I called to activate the Tivo service I got quite the run-around.
I eventually got them to activate the service by yelling a lot and making (admittedly empty) threats with the cancellation stick.
Couldn’t imagine getting a receiver out of them though. Good luck!
May 5th, 2006 at 2:23 am |
I just got a new SD DirecTiVo from Weaknees a couple of weeks ago to replace my old unit that died after a few years of service. Highly recommended.
Considering that DirecTV recently reupped it’s contract with TiVo to support these devices for another 2 years after Q1 2007, I suspect they’ll even activate new models and not just replacements.
May 5th, 2006 at 4:08 pm |
My local CompUSA stores have a few of the latest DirecTV Tivo model (R10) still in stock for $99. If you get desperate, send me an e-mail and we’ll work something out (I’ll pick one up and you can reimburse me for it plus shipping or something).
mtv_junkie@hotmail.com
May 7th, 2006 at 11:38 pm |
Your best bet is ebay… basically as time goes on, the *new* D*Tivos will be no more, so you’ll end up having to buy used…
BUT no matter what when you BUY a D*Tivo you also must accept the fact that you are buying a piece of hardware which will eventually become obsolete (maybe years down the line, but every month it’s getting closer / tighter) or severly limit your content because it will stop you from getting new content (channels, you may allready be paying for) because both E* and D* are launching new channels with MPEG4 compression… Tivo nor Hughes make a MPEG4 D*Tivo (and probably never will).
OR
You could always buy a SA Tivo (
May 7th, 2006 at 11:41 pm |
cutoff awesome…
and run your standard D* box into the input and you’d be immune to MPEG4 (provided you had the proper D* box)… BUT the operation (channel changing) is not fun, and you’re not recording the signal digitally off the dish, you’re recompressing and you’d have to pay Tivo full price for guide data!
May 9th, 2006 at 12:01 pm |
I have had integrated DTV Tivo units for about 4+ years. Love em! About a year and a half ago, we got on of the new R10 models with the 100GB drive. I cant tell you how awful it has been! The thing has been replaced several times, and constantly freezes up on us. Our older Hughes model has never once done anything flakey. Just fyi.
Anyhow, after reading this post, I called DirecTv. They say they are still selling Tivo-based DVR units. I am not on the pulse of this stuff, so perhaps they are phasing it out… but it does sound like you can still buy them from DTV. That’s what I would do, since they will do the install of any additional lines u need for free. But obviously make sure it is an actual TIvo-branded unit coming.