DIRECTV Plus DWO2-10021 HD DVR (Lease)

ordered and installed in a week...much better than waiting for DTV to send you one....and all other retail outlets were sold out....good deal

it's all good except that it doesn't hold a tremendous amount on the recorder.

Worst box ever.. I am switching back to my old Directv TIVO HD Box. Do not waste your money..

Being a long-term TiVo user (including 2 D* HD TiVos) I kept my expectations low and I actually figured I could adjust to this DVR, given some positive aspects. I don't think the interface is as good as TiVo's, but it is adequate.

I've had it two months, and things keep getting worse. Sometimes recordings don't record, for no reason. About 3 weeks ago our HD locals started dropping out for a few days at a time. The first technician sent out was incapable of debugging this problem. We learned later that the satellite dish wasn't set up right to begin with and it took numerous calls, emails, and two tech visits before they did a simple 2-minute alignment to get us signals in the 90's on the HD locals, which got rid of the pixelation and frequent non-availability.

Another BIG problem is the reliability of the unit. Lots of lockups requiring unplugging or a red-button restart, both of which take perhaps 8-10 minutes to recover from.

1-800 Tech Support has been poor. If you can get through to a "specialist", they aren't bad. But the advice just seems to be "do a full reset" (i.e., a total reset including removing all of your series links & existing recordings). When we tell D* that this is unsat, they offer a replacement REFURBISHED unit! With no additional warranty - that is, I've already had my unit two months, so they would only give me one month on a refurbished unit. Who's to say that the replacement unit abused by someone else is any better than what I already have?

If you luck out and get a dependable unit, it's really not that bad. But the poor quality and customer support warrant only one star - maybe less, but I can't do less than 1 star.

*** Update June 16, 2007 *** Thankfully, this DVR is functioning much better now. I've only had to reset it once in the last month. While I prefer the TiVo interface, this has some different capabilities - when it works properly, I can live with it just fine. It's a bit ironic that the problems seemed to stop as soon as I started to pay $6 a month for the service plan. :-) If I were to rate it now, I might give it 3 stars.

*** Update Nov 27, 2008 *** With time, software updates with new features have made this a much better & more dependable unit. I STILL miss some of TiVo's features but I'm happy enough as long as I don't need to contact DIRECTV for any help. Most interactions, whether via email or phone, are quite frustrating. I'd give it a solid 3 stars now.

I bought and had this unit installed 2 weeks ago. We have had no lockups, and all works OK. Picture is BEAUTIFUL. The only complaint is that compared to true TIVO software, the DirectTV software is clunky and cumbersome. If TIVO feels like a 5th generation product, this product feels like a 2nd generation product. The reality is that when it comes to DVR's for HDTV there are only 2 choices if you want to record more than 10 or 15 hours of HD programming: A true TIVO product (which requires a cash outlay of $800 with which you have to go with Cable with it's limited number of HD Channels, or this product (with LOTS of HD channels), which needs a LOT of work to get it to feel as slick and smooth as a TIVO product. I have no regrets about this purchase given my options, but if something comes out that is better, I will immediately switch.