DIRECTV H21-100 HD SATELLITE RECEIVER DIRECT TV NIB!!!!

It's been officially one year since receiving one of the first HR21 units. After about 6 months it started locking up, getting stuck on FFs or rewinds, and just acting wacky. I called DTV and complained about it and they said they were working on it and a fix was in the works. I called 2 months later - same thing. Then again, 2 months later - same thing. Finally I said this was a piece of crap and I wanted a new HR21 unit sent to me. I had it the very next day.

The new unit is 10 times worse than the previous one! It hard locks up every day at least once, and I am at the point were I just reboot it daily now and keep my fingers crossed. The good news is that (although they pushed and tried) I was able to continue on my contract from where I left off so I still only have one year left.

Good News: I really like DTV and have found there customer service to be excellent in most cases (boy have I heard stories). The picture quality is excellent, and I think the company is excellent. Plus - External Hard drives are simple now to connect to these units.

Awesome News: I just read that DTV was teaming back up with TIVO and should have units available by the end of 2009!

Bad News: The present HR21's are very very bad imitations of TIVOs and do not work at their capacity. This is disappointing because it is all WE DTV costumers have to use - we have no choice. The units have great potential if they can work out the software issues, but for now they are crap, but were stuck with them for now.

Let me start by saying that since ZERO STARS is not an option, I generously awarded this clunker ONE star.

We bought this piece of junk because we bought an HD TV and were told our beloved TiVo wouldn't work with the fancy HD channels. The differences between the TiVo and this DirecTV piece of junk are vast and numerous. This thing has frozen up on us, failed to record, canceled- yes, canceled- our recordings of entire seasons(for no good reason), dropped the second tuner entirely, etc...etc...etc... You lose a lot of the user-friendly features of TiVo with the DirecTV HD DVR.
The MO of DirecTV for service on this box WHEN it fails involves a lengthy telephone call to customer service wherein they determine that they can't fix it via phone and will have to send out a new box (because, surprise!!...we don't own it)... Well, they send the new box, charging us $20 for shipping and handling. We've had it fail so many times that the shipping and handling for the NEXT replacement is usually waived because it falls under the warranty for the last heap of junk replacement we received. I can't even count how many boxes we've replaced since our original purchase. And DirecTV will even CHARGE to send a tech to your house for the repair of their piece of ****!!! That is unless you want to sign up for their maintenance contract (aka SCAM!)

And we get to go through this whole thing again because the replacement box we just installed last Monday (exactly one week ago) has failed this morning!!!!!!

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS JUNK. LOOK FOR A BETTER PRODUCT!!!!

If there was a Zero or 1/2 star option, I would have selected it. This unit is very unreliable. It freezes on a regular basis. It becomes unresponsive and gets stuck during regular speed playback, or while fast-forwarding, or rewinding. The only way to resolve it is to reset the unit which takes nearly 10 minutes and interrupts and programs being recorded. This is a shoddy attempt by Rupert Murdoch to make more money and force an inferior product on Directv customers. Bring back HD TIVO and stop forcing this garbage on customers.

I have an older Tivo based DVR which works perfectly. Problem is, it won't pick up the new HD channels, only the original handful on channels below 200. To get the new channels, I had to order an HR20, which worked fine except the clock "drifted" so that program recordings wouldn't start on schedule. DirecTV replaced this unit with a "refurbished" HR21 which had glitches out of the box. So, DirecTV replaced this HR21 with another "refurbished" HR21. It seems to be working, though it will lose channel signals that all the other receivers in my house still pick up (I have 3 other working receivers). Customer support told me to reset the unit and this seems to work, but this is a pain. Perhaps there is another firmware upgrade in the works that will solve this issue...

I have been a HR10-250 TIVO user since they were first put on the market. In my estimation, the combination of TIVO and Directv in one unit, is still the best set top boxes ever. A match made in heaven.

Then came MPEG-4. The HR10-250 does not do it and never will. At first, I was adimate. I could live without MPEG-4...I could not live without Tivo. I even bought a second HR10-250 as a spare. God forbid my beloved TIVO box gave up the ghost, I would be prepared. As more and more channels were made available in HD, my frustration grew. Finally, Directv offered to upgrade everything for free, and promised that I could move back to my HR10-250 at any time (got that in writing). I gave it a try.

I have read so many horror stories on thees units. From what I have read, I barely expected the thing to power on. Well...after 4 months I have no real complaints. Setup was smooth (including the On Demand function) and most important, the picture is fantastic connected to a 1080p 52" TV. Any picture flaws would surely be evident. I've seen none. Maybe I just got really lucky, but, so far so good. Their are even a few cool additional features.

One word of warning to Tivo users. This is definitely not TIVO! It lacks the elegance, grace, intuitiveness, and intangibles that make TIVO so great. As a Mac user, I would say it is exactly analogous to MAC vs. Windows. the HR-21 is clunkier, and not as much fun. But given the choice of 130 HD channels as opposed to about 20...it works. Maybe one day DTV will come to its' senses and make another TIVO box. Charge a bit more. I am certain most of us TIVO fans would be happy tp pay it! Until that day this is not the worst thing in the world. Hopefully, my experience continues to be positive. Just in case my HR10-250 remains active, and ready to plug back in, at a moments notice.